As The Association enters its 70^th year of serving the community - of sharing both our member's gains and their pains, of helping members grow and contract, of providing compliance information within both an employer- and a labor-friendly environment - we want to thank you for your continued support.  Through the years The Employers' Association has evolved from a manufacturing co-op to an Association providing information, training and purchasing assistance to a not-for-profit information resource providing practical advice and consultation support to a diverse membership base whose common sustainable goal is to make West Michigan a better place to do business.  As with many of your businesses, The Employers' Association is once again re-inventing itself in order to better serve our customers.

Businesses sometimes become so busy doing what they do well they don't take the time to see what else could be done.  IBM lost out on the move to personal computers because the company was so entrenched in the computing business that it failed to recognize the inroads personal computers were making.  Newspapers are losing market share because they have lost touch with an emerging market of on-line readers.  Teachers are finding it difficult to educate a workforce that seeks entertainment more than information - that chooses entitlement over accountability.  Employers find themselves providing "life-skills training" to new workers, touching upon such basic things as personal hygiene, waking up on time to get to work, and simple math/reading comprehension skills.  Simply meeting a customer's needs no longer guarantees business success - success is often based on how effectively employees are able to assimilate and express the Organization's goals and objectives.

Many of our members are facing challenges during these tough economic times.  Those able to identify market niches then respond to consumer needs quickly and seamlessly are thriving.  Organizations holding onto what "has always been" are finding that it may not always be.  While most of our members are tracking positively within an environment weighted heavily towards labor, employee-rights, and a strong social agenda, business will probably never be the same as it was in the past.  Organizations forced to reduce their workforces by 10 - 20% today will probably return 8 - 15% when the economy turns around, counting on efficiencies of scale and technology to make them more productive with less production costs.  Investments made on systems, infrastructure, customer service (both internally and externally), communications and the efficient delivery of core competencies now will pay off in the future. 

We often hear of companies looking to project current practices, policies and cultural norms into a global economy that allows little waste or redundancy.  These groups will find themselves picking up the pieces left behind by more progressive, insightful peers.  Companies wallowing in their bad luck, struggling to compete within a diminishing market (without taking intentional steps to establish and define new markets) or closing their eyes to the social and legislative changes taking place today ("EFCA won't impact me," or "FMLA is simply a town in Wisconsin!") will not be here to usher in a new, robust economy.

The Employers' Association has helped members overcome tough times in the past (as evidenced by our 70 years in business) and intends to help members as they face the challenges presented by the unknown during 2009.  We encourage you to identify real concerns and act on them rather than feeding the fear that we see within our current markets.  Feel free to call us at anytime to validate your assumptions, to verify your position, or just to talk as we face the future together.  We are YOUR Employers' Association and seek to leverage our internal expertise to make you an even stronger member as our economy continues to change.  Let us know what we can do to help you weather the storm (which seems always to show us its darkest before giving way to the dawn!).  Join us in refusing to participate in this recession, seeking to find positives within the negatives that constantly bombard us!  Tell us what WE can do for YOU as we both continue to change and evolve!