THE TIMES 100 : The Best Performing Companies in California : THE HUMAN FACTOR : Flexibility Cranks Up Productivity at Wells Fargo

When Wells Fargo directed its bank offices to remain open longer, branch manager Elizabeth Mayfield accomplished the task without adding employees. How did she do it?

Like most Wells Fargo branches, the Hawthorne-Artesia office depends primarily on a pool of part-time workers, whose size can be increased during peak hours and reduced during slack times.

So, instead of hiring more workers to cover the additional hours, Mayfield shuffled the schedules of her 24 part-time and hourly employees to cover the additional weekday workload, including new Saturday hours.

With flexible schedules for managers and part-time workers, “you can do more for less,” Mayfield said.

Using part-timers is one way Wells Fargo & Co. gets more out of its staff. In fact, the San Francisco-based bank’s 21,800-member work force is one of the most productive around in an era when white-collar productivity has been sagging.

Although Wells Fargo ranked No. 4 among California banks with the most productive employees in The Times 100 survey--measured by revenue per employee--it was ahead of its big rivals in the state, Security Pacific, BankAmerica and First Interstate Bancorp.

Many banks, insurance firms, brokerages and other service firms have managed to boost the productivity of white-collars workers through massive and painful layoffs. But the gains are often only short term.

“That’s an immediate way to get results by having employees work harder, not smarter,” said Carla Carter, a quality and productivity consultant at the American Productivity & Quality Center in Houston. “What they don’t do is get rid of the uneccessary work. What organizations need to do is work smarter.”

Still, in last year’s tough recessionary environment, some companies that made productivity gains last year had to do it the hard way by trimming staffs. For others, staff cutbacks and stronger revenues worked together to increase output.

For example, Northrop Corp. had the most productive work force in aerospace and defense on a revenue gain of 5% as it trimmed 2,800 employees. Chevron was No. 1 among energy companies as it posted a 41% revenue increase and and a decrease of 618 employees to 54,208.

Quantam Corp. managed to retain its top spot among computer product makers as it nearly doubled sales and increased its staff to 1,355 from 501 last year.

Though its sales dipped slightly, Armor All Products Corp. held the line on employment and not only topped the consumer products category again, it also had the highest figure of any firm in all categories.

Overall, 11 of 18 industry sectors improved their averages over last year. Six of those advanced by about 6% or less: aerospace and defense (4.2%), computer products (5.8%), computer services (5.8%), financial services (6.1%), retail (5%) and utilities (5.5%).

The biggest group average gain was in health services, whose 78.8% increase was spearheaded by Rancho Cordova-based Foundation Health Corp.’s $813,900 per employee. The food and beverage group managed a 35.2% rise.

The biggest decline was in the leasing group, 93.6%, as perennial leader International Lease Finance Corp.--which had $12.6 million per employee last year--was acquired and could no longer be considered for the list. Leasing aside, it’s not surprising that real estate fared poorly, losing 51.4% in its group average. The energy sector average slipped 29.4%, consumer products dipped 6.4% and insurance was off 6.1%.

TOP 100 EMPLOYERS

Companies ranked by total employees worldwide.

Total California % of total Rank Company employ. employ. employ. 1 Safeway Inc. 114,514 29,000 25.3 2 Rockwell Intl. Corp. 101,923 34,000 33.4 3 Hewlett-Packard Co. 92,000 24,000 26.1 4 Lockheed Corp. 73,000 41,100 56.3 5 Pacific Telesis Group 65,829 63,657 96.7 6 BankAmerica Corp. 56,349 39,083 69.4 7 Occidental Petrol. 55,000 930 1.7 8 Chevron Corp. 54,208 18,780 34.6 9 Walt Disney Co. 52,000 15,500 29.9 10 Castle & Cooke Inc. 51,000 8,680 17.0 11 Litton Industries Inc. 50,600 7,713 15.2 12 Pinkertons Inc. 50,000 9,000 18.0 13 National Med. Enter. 47,631 8,067 16.9 14 Pacific Enterprises 42,370 27,525 65.0 15 Security Pacific 41,419 20,000 48.3 16 Consol. Freightways 41,300 5,500 13.3 17 Seagate Technology 40,019 4,106 10.3 18 Northrop Corp. 38,200 30,900 80.9 19 Am. Building Maint. 37,087 11,682 31.5 20 First Interstate 35,471 11,648 32.8 21 Hilton Hotels Corp. 35,000 NA NA 22 Vons Cos. 34,000 32,600 95.9 23 Teledyne Inc. 33,200 8,000 24.1 24 Ntnl. Semiconductor 30,700 6,000 19.5 25 Times Mirror Co. 29,121 13,600 46.7 26 Carter Hawley Hale 29,000 26,000 89.7 27 Atlantic Richfield Co. 27,300 5,500 20.1 28 PG&E; 26,200 26,200 100.0 29 Intel Corp. 24,000 5,103 21.3 30 Gap Inc. 23,000 5,000 21.7 31 Intermark Inc. 22,600 3,250 14.4 32 Fluor Corp. 22,188 2,500 11.3 33 Wells Fargo & Co. 21,800 16,063 73.7 34 Computer Sciences 21,127 3,350 15.9 35 Avery Dennison Corp. 19,000 2,349 12.4 36 Unocal Corp. 17,518 6,727 38.4 37 SCEcorp 16,925 16,256 96.0 38 Transamerica Corp. 16,100 7,700 47.8 39 Carl Karcher Enter. 16,000 16,000 100.0 40 Magnetek Inc. 15,000 600 4.0 41 Collins Foods Intl. 14,804 7,420 50.1 42 Apple Computer Inc. 14,528 7,100 48.9 43 Longs Drug Stores 14,200 12,339 86.9 44 McKesson Corp. 14,087 3,785 26.9 45 Great Western Fin. 14,057 8,841 62.9 46 Price Co. 13,336 9,158 68.7 47 Mattel Inc. 12,500 1,600 12.8 48 Sun Microsystems 12,390 6,836 55.2 49 Fleetwood Enterpr. 12,000 3,132 26.1 50 Advanced Micro Dev. 11,997 4,000 33.3 51 Rohr Industries 11,500 9,200 80.0 52 Raychem Corp. 11,156 4,159 37.3 53 Applied Magnetics 11,000 1,200 10.9 54 Tandem Computers 10,894 5,346 49.1 55 H.F. Ahmanson 10,879 7,093 65.2 56 Sizzler Restaurants 10,705 4,646 43.4 57 Caesars World 10,500 200 1.9 58 House of Fabrics Inc. 10,384 2,872 27.7 59 Syntex Corp. 10,300 4,146 40.3 60 Varian Associates 10,200 6,000 58.8 61 Maxtor Corp. 9,000 788 8.8 62 Amdahl Corp. 8,700 5,000 57.5 63 Potlatch Corp. 7,695 180 2.3 64 Western Digital 7,607 2,157 28.4 65 Conner Peripherals 7,500 1,400 18.7 66 First Amer. Finl. 7,454 3,466 46.5 67 FHP International 7,407 5,158 69.6 68 Union Bank 7,313 7,226 98.8 69 Ross Stores Inc. 7,146 2,650 37.1 70 Beckman Instruments 7,100 3,993 56.2 71 Oracle Systems 6,811 2,069 30.4 72 Grubb & Ellis Co. 6,737 1,000 14.8 73 Chart House Enter. 6,400 2,389 37.3 74 Community Psych. 6,374 1,847 29.0 75 Ntnl. Health Lab. 6,350 465 7.3 76 Allergan Inc. 6,344 2,074 32.7 77 Glenfed Inc. 6,343 3,574 56.3 78 McClatchy Newsp. 6,318 4,300 68.1 79 Pic ‘N’ Save Corp. 6,000 NA NA 80 Rykoff-Sexton Inc. 5,600 2,200 39.3 81 Clorox Co. 5,500 2,610 47.5 82 Care Enterprises 5,200 3,900 75.0 83 American President 5,000 1,500 30.0 84 Summit Health Ltd. 4,900 4,650 94.9 85 Guy F. Atkinson Co. 4,895 473 9.7 86 Calfed Inc. 4,850 4,049 83.5 87 Landmark Land Co. 4,800 2,000 41.7 88 Homefed Corp. 4,500 4,433 98.5 89 Jacobs Engineering 4,420 800 18.1 90 LSI Logic Corp. 4,401 2,432 55.3 91 National Education 4,200 590 14.0 92 SDG&E; 4,200 4,200 100.0 93 Gottschalks Inc. 3,800 3,800 100.0 94 Intl. Technology 3,796 1,000 26.3 95 Bergen Brunswig 3,700 1,480 40.0 96 Hexcel Corp. 3,565 754 21.2 97 Cubic Corp. 3,500 1,200 34.3 98 Williams-Sonoma 3,500 1,540 44.0 99 Harper Group Inc. 3,435 465 13.5 100 MAI Systems Corp. 3,400 727 21.4

MOST PRODUCTIVE EMPLOYEES

Top companies in each industry ranked by revenue per employee.

Industry/Company: Revenue/Employee($000s)

Aerospace & Defense Northrop Corp.: 143.7 TCI International: 139.7 Lockheed Corp.: 136.4 1990/89 group avg.: 111.38/106.82

Banking Silicon Valley Bancshares: 375.2 Sumitomo: 300.2 Imperial Bancorp: 297.9 Wells Fargo & Co.: 273.4 1990/89 group avg.: 235.91/202.97

Computer Products Quantum Corp.: 528.6 Adv. Logic Research: 426.8 Apple Computer Inc.: 382.6 1990/89 group avg.: 214.10/202.33

Computer Services Amplicon Inc.: 1,027.9 Logicon Inc.: 86.6 Computer Sciences Corp.: 77.7 1990/89 group avg.: 397.39/375.83

Computer Software Software Toolworks Inc.: 391.1 Adobe Systems Inc.: 332.1 Electronic Arts: 316.3 1990/89 group avg.: 186.90/167.15

Consumer Products Armor All Products Corp.: 1,266.9 Wd-40 Co.: 669.0 Herbalife International Inc.: 544.8 1990/89 group avg.: 343.12/366.76

Drugs & Pharmaceuticals Amgen Inc.: 253.3 Genentech Inc.: 247.6 Alza Corp.: 147.7 1990/89 group avg.: 152.16/156.54

Energy Chevron Corp.: 766.3 Atlantic Richfield Co.: 659.6 Unocal Corp.: 607.7 1990/89 group avg.: 525.85/744.59

Financial Services Broad Inc.: 681.3 Transamerica Corp.: 416.3 Foothill Group Inc.: 396.7 1990/89 group avg.: 391.81/369.28

Food & Beverages Erly Industries: 388.6 Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream: 267.6 Farmer Bros.: 161.2 1990/89 group avg.: 227.13/168.04

Health Services Foundation Health Corp.: 813.9 Medical Imaging Centers: 234.3 Safeguard Health Enterp.: 167.8 FHP International Corp.: 136.2 1990/89 group avg.: 142.90/78.8

Insurance First Capital Holdings: 1,225.8 First Executive Corp.: 1,211.7 Argonaut Group: 774.4 1990/89 group avg.: 503.80/536.78

Leasing PLM International Inc.: 455.3 McGrath Rent Corp.: 316.8 Electro Rent Corp.: 214.9 ‘90/’89 group avg.: 329.02/4,471.0

Real Estate Centennial Group: 598.8 Grubb & Ellis Co.: 47.7 1990/89 group avg.: 323.25/664.67

Retail Businessland Inc.: 415.2 Price Co.: 405.8 Viking Office Products: 263.2 Newport Pharmaceuticals: 213.5 1990/89 group avg.: 146.05/139.0

Services Centex Telemanagement: 332.6 Adia Services Inc.: 317.3 Robert Half International: 232.1 1990/89 group avg.: 120.19/132.96

Transportation Services American President Cos.: 454.0 Harper Group Inc.: 126.9 Westair Holding Inc.: 102.9 1990/89 group avg.: 171.80/151.01

Utilities SCEcorp: 425.3 San Diego Gas & Electric: 421.9 Pacific Gas & Electric: 361.5 1990/89 group avg.: 298.74/283.06