As a manager at Whole Foods Market in Wheaton, Jamie Bair has multitasking down to a science. One recent day in July, she dealt with a broken blender in the juice bar, restroom plumbing on the fritz, questions about the store’s remodeling project, complaints from several customers and a seriously late worker, which put pressure on the rest of the shift. For a time, Bair was bagging groceries herself.
Between handling these mini-crises, Bair walked the aisles of the natural-foods grocery, praising and instructing 50 to 75 team members.
“I call it walking my talk,” she said. “It gives me a chance to give immediate feedback or instruction.”
Like many workers across America, a key aspect of Bair’s job is communicating. Bair appreciates Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market’s emphasis on open communications, in which the company regularly shares financial information with all workers and in turn encourages them to come forward with ideas or complaints.
“Our philosophy is everything comes from the ground up,” said Cindy Bradley, national vice president of team member services at Whole Foods Market. “Our team members are on the floor every day with our customers. They know what works and what doesn’t.”
While publicly-held Whole Foods Market has encouraged open communications for the past 20 years, experts say a growing number of companies are taking notice of the importance of it. In a difficult business environment with employee benefits under pressure, one way to restore the faith of the rank and file is through top-notch communications. But succeeding at it takes some doing.
“When you do open up an environment of communication, working with a diverse group of people can be incredibly challenging,” Bair acknowledged.Every worker at the $2.3 billion natural foods giant has a voice in the way the company operates. Team members even vote on whether to make a job candidate a member of the team. And the company has an open-wage policy, publishing what every worker was paid each year. While you might think such a policy would lead to grumbling about “why is she making more than me,” in reality the company says the policy fosters healthy dialogue about “what do I have to do to earn more.”
Indeed, open communications can be a low-cost way to boost morale, experts say. It’s a benefit that even small and mid-size companies can afford to provide for their workers, says Ken Lehman, chairman of Winning Workplaces, an Evanston-based not-for-profit dedicated to improving small and mid-size companies. Lehman, a former owner and co-chairman of Fel-Pro Inc., the Skokie-based auto parts manufacturer known for its strong workplace practices, knows firsthand how valuable open communications can be to a company.
“The people who do the work know the work the best,” he said. “If you can tap into their knowledge, you are getting the best source of how you can improve the workplace by making it safer, more economic and more productive.”
By communicating effectively, a company can improve its overall performance, notes Marc Rose, communication practice leader at Watson Wyatt Worldwide in Chicago.
“A company that improves its communications integrity can experience a 7.1 percent growth in market value,” said Rose, citing the firm’s recent Human Capital Index study.
Companies can stress the importance of communications in a variety of ways. Fel-Pro used monthly employee forums, where workers brought forth ideas, asked questions, raised issues and discussed how their teams solved problems, Lehman recalls. Bulletin boards can present monthly sales goals or post kudos for special accomplishments.
Employee surveys are another way to get feedback from a large number of workers. SC Johnson, a $5 billion consumer products manufacturer based in Racine, Wis., conducts a comprehensive survey of its 9,500 global workers every two to three years on company leadership, teamwork, job satisfaction, manager-employee relationships, innovation and competitiveness. Then employee groups scour the results to see what areas need to be addressed, says Andrea Konz, director of organizational effectiveness.
The company uses a focus-group approach with workers to test ideas or problem-solve. For example, two years ago the chief executive officer wanted ideas for improving the company’s work-life practices. Focus groups met to discuss the topic and recommended summer hours, sabbaticals and stronger maternity- and paternity-leave policies, all of which were implemented.Most communication at Whole Foods Market takes place on an informal basis, in store aisles. But each store also holds regular team and storewide meetings where the performance of each team is quantified in sales, profits and how well it meets its budget.
Not only does a sense of competition among the teams encourage productivity, but as an added incentive, the company offers a “gainsharing program,” where workers are paid a bonus based on their team’s performance. The company also has added training programs, in part because its open approach is so unusual that many new hires aren’t sure how to handle the freedom.
“Three years ago, we were getting feedback that it was stressful to come in to Whole Foods Market,” Bradley said.
Now the company offers 218 different training programs, as well as a detailed brochure on how open communications works.
The result has been a significant improvement in employee retention. Three years ago, the company’s turnover rate was 68 percent, Bradley says. Today it is 43 percent. And more of its workers are full-time.
“Turnover costs you a lot of money,” Bradley said. “Team members with experience are more productive and efficient.”
Whole Foods Market’s low turnover rate and high morale have helped it outperform many of its competitors. In May, the company–with annual sales of $2.27 billion–reported its 10th consecutive quarter of 20 percent-plus sales growth.
Bair is so committed to Whole Foods Market’s open approach that she has no plans to ever work anywhere else.
“I don’t know if I could work anywhere else now,” she said. “It would be too difficult to go back to a rigid, strict environment.”
