Good company, poor management - Acquisitions Editor Human Kinetics Employee Review

I’m writing to offer some information that may help balance the perspective shared here. I’ve provided a lot of numbers, because I want to give people who are interested in HK an objective and factual response to the main points in this review. Layoffs: HK has had two layoffs since its founding in 1974. The first layoff was 10 years ago, in 2009, in response to the overall economic crisis experienced in the U.S. at that time. The second layoff was in 2016 and resulted primarily from an industry-wide reduction in average student spending on college course materials, which is a significant market for HK. These factors took a toll on U.S. business in general and on the overall publishing industry in particular. It was extremely painful to release valued employees, but it was necessary for HK’s long-term health to establish a cost structure that could be maintained by our sales in changing economic circumstances. Value of staff: We don’t see our staff as expendable, and we actively work to develop a culture that encourages people to stay with us. The average length of service of HK staff is 13.9 years, compared with 4.2 years for all U.S. workers in 2018, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In our most recent fiscal year, HK’s voluntary turnover rate was 6.8%, compared with 14.2% nationally, according to salary.com’s 2018 turnover report. Our involuntary turnover was 1.2%. Management team: Including the CEO, HK’s management team has 10 people. Each of the management team members is the leader of one of HK’s 3 divisions or 6 departments. Reducing the number of people on the management team would leave an important part of our business without representation. The average length of service of the HK management team is 13.6 years, which is just slightly less than the average length of service of our workforce. Compensation: HK is committed to paying our staff a fair wage for their work, with salaries based as much as possible on market conditions, local cost of living, and internal equity. We invest significant resources in employee benefits. At present, HK pays 90% of an individual’s health insurance premium and 75% of the premium for eligible dependents for a zero-deductible policy. We provide short-term and long-term disability insurance, have an onsite fitness center, offer a wellness program and reward participation. We support flexible work arrangements, provide paid school visitation leave and paid time off for volunteer work, offer generous PTO, vacation, and holiday benefits, and provide tuition assistance, parental leave, and a subsidized cafeteria. Information exchange: Notes from biweekly management team meetings and monthly technology planning meetings are posted on the company Intranet. We publish our balanced scorecard annually, and our CEO provides a written report each month on how the business is doing meeting our strategic goals. We have a bimonthly all-hands meeting, where our financial results are shared and explained. Our CEO hosts an informal breakfast gathering about every 6 weeks where any staff person can join him to ask questions or provide suggestions. Our Employee Ownership Committee has held two think-tank sessions in the past six months, during which employees have offered ideas about new product development and cost-saving measures. Our CEO has evaluated each idea and has responded in person to the think tank participants to explain what suggestions we’ll implement and which ones we won’t (and why). Employee engagement: HK has done an employee engagement survey each of the last two years. The survey is developed and scored by the Gallup organization, which has been researching employee engagement for more than 25 years. We had a 94% participation rate in the 2019 survey. According to Gallup, the average participation rate for organizations our size is 82%. The results of our survey indicate that the level of engagement of HK staff is significantly better than the U.S. as a whole. Specifically, the number of HK staff who are engaged at work is 17% higher than the national average, and the number of disengaged employees is just 4%, which is 13% lower than the national average.