Company Culture

8 Key Elements of Company Culture with Inspiring Examples

2025-02-26T04:31:06-05:00

The secret to attracting and holding onto the world’s best talent isn’t about the work perks — it’s about relationships.

It can be hard to define, but you know it when you see it: a great company culture. One where employees feel seen and heard, where management is transparent, and where teams are proud and excited to work together.

Too often, company culture is presented as flashy perks: free lunches, unlimited time off, and dog-friendly offices, but the substance of a strong culture lies not in these amenities, but rather in how employees are valued, trusted, and encouraged to develop both professionally and personally.

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While perks and benefits are certainly great to have, and can help employees to feel supported and appreciated, they merely sit on the surface.

A great corporate culture goes much deeper: It involves open communication, mutual respect, shared goals, and a commitment to employee growth and development.

Why does a good company culture matter?

A great company culture makes for a stronger company overall.

In fact, when we compared the annual returns of the Fortune 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 to Work For® against the Russell 3000 Index® (the broadest benchmark index for U.S. stocks), we found that these companies had a cumulative return of 1,709% since 1998 — compared to a 526% return for the Russell index alone during the same time period.

Strong organizational culture is also closely correlated with employee engagement, retention, innovation, and even customer service. For example, our research has found that employees at Great Place To Work Certified™ workplaces (where company culture is prioritized) are 34% more likely to believe their company’s customer service is excellent.

Achieving Great Place To Work 카지노커뮤니티™ shows that your company values its people and is committed to building a high-performing company culture that drives business success.

By thoughtfully investing time and effort into these eight areas, and drawing inspiration from successful company culture examples, you can show your people that you care about them, improve employee experience, and put your company on a path to creating a great culture.

An example of great workplace culture

At technology company UKG, culture begins on day one, with a warm welcome that shows new employees they’re joining an organization that cares. Pat Wadors, UKG’s chief people officer, describes it as “getting human” — showing employees that you’re ready to support their workplace journey with a positive first impression and helping them to feel connected with their new colleagues.

Other ways that UKG creates a positive company culture is by being adaptable and transparent and by prioritizing “who you are” over titles.

“카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 titles will change over time, but what an individual brings to the table every day matters,” says Wadors.

Employee recognition, mentorship programs, mental health support, and social justice initiatives are all ways that the Best Workplaces™ demonstrate their company cultures. Check out these company culture examples for inspiration.

The 8 elements of great company culture

There are numerous things you can do to improve your organization’s culture. 카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 data shows that great workplaces focus on these eight elements of company culture:

1. Credibility

Employees at great workplaces find their people managers and leaders to be more credible: According to our research, 83% of employees at the 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 said management’s actions match its words, versus 42% of employees at the average workplace.

Trustworthy, credible, and personable managers have a significant positive impact on:

Employee retention
Overall workplace satisfaction
Employees’ willingness to recommend their company
Motivation to give extra effort at work

When employees say managers are honest and ethical, they’re five times more likely to want to work there for a long time, and 11 times more likely to think the workplace is great.

2. Respect

We all know this: You need to show people respect to earn respect in return. Respect can take many forms, but the best workplaces regularly show respect by recognizing employees’ efforts, seeking employees’ input, and caring for employees as people with lives outside of work.

For example, many of the 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 trust their employees to work flexible hours and from remote places. This workplace flexibility makes employees more dedicated and engaged because they feel respected and trusted to meet their business goals in a way that works for their life.

Many companies today even offer unlimited paid vacation and let employees work from anywhere; strong employee relationships prevent people from abusing the policy.

3. Fairness

Humans place a high value on fairness. 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 where employees feel like everyone is getting a fair opportunity consistently report more positive employee experiences.

Fairness is an area that great workplaces excel at, as our workplace study revealed. When rating equal compensation and recognition, employees score these companies 37 to 42 percentage points higher than the national average.

Employees at these companies also report issues with favoritism and politicking far less often. On employee surveys, these companies score 38 percentage points higher when asking their people about these experiences.

Surprisingly, fair pay isn’t the factor that most impacts employees’ overall workplace satisfaction and intent to stay. Other, less tangible aspects of the workplace, such as pride and strong leadership, play a much larger role.

Employees say that being paid fairly for their work makes them twice as likely to think their workplace is great. But when employees are proud of their work, they are 20 times more likely to say it’s a great workplace.

4. Pride

Employees who have pride in their workplace believe in the company and what it stands for, from what it produces, to how it operates, to how it engages with the local community.

There are three levels of workplace pride:

Pride in your job and the work
Pride in the team
Pride in the company and its reputation

Pride is much more than a pat on the back. When employees feel proud of their workplace, they are more engaged: According to our data, they are 2 times more likely to want to stay with the organization for a long time and 6 times more likely to endorse their workplace to others.

Ideally, employees feel pride in all three areas, but this isn’t always the case — and that could be a problem. That’s because workplace pride needs to be reinforced over time, through consistent actions, no matter the circumstances.

For example, at the 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 employees express a sense of winning together when times are good — and sticking together even when times are tough.

5. Belonging

Belonging in the workplace is an employee’s sense that they are accepted and valued by the organization. This goes beyond feeling appreciated for what they do, and into feeling appreciated for who they are.

Every company says it values employees. The 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 don’t just say it; they show it. They celebrate employee accomplishments, they ensure new employees feel welcomed from day one, and they embrace the diversity and individualism of their employees.

For example, at the Best Workplaces, we’ve see things like parental leave practices becoming more inclusive, and employee resource groups being empowered to guide business decisions.

The result? Employees who feel a sense of belonging are 3 times more likely to look forward to coming to work and 5 times more likely to want to stay at the company for a long time.

카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 research also shows that workplaces that are consistently great for all employees grow revenue 3 times faster than less-inclusive organizations.

6. Effective leadership

Leadership can make or break a team. A great leader will inspire, motivate, and drive innovation. A bad one will demoralize, kill productivity, and push employees to walk out the door.

The Great Place To Work leadership effectiveness index measures business leaders in four areas. How much management:

aligns their words and actions
avoids favoritism
demonstrates competency, honesty, and approachability
shows genuine interest in employees as people

Effective leadership is more than hitting company targets. It is fostering a team mentality that ensures everyone is working together and to their best of abilities. That environment will then help to hit those necessary targets.

카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 research on effective leaders has found that they:

Seek out ideas from team members and involve them in decision-making
Recognize and celebrate employees and support their professional development
Demonstrate competence and honesty so that they can earn employees’ trust

The good thing is that people don’t need to be born as great leaders. A great leader can be created. The Best Workplaces invest in leadership development, identifying employees with leadership potential, and helping them to learn the skills and qualities needed to succeed — and thereby creating a pipeline of future leaders.

7. Values

Your company’s core values are your guiding star: the beliefs and principles that shape who you are, what you do, and why you do it.

The best workplaces lead with shared values rather than rules and policies. That’s because when rules are the guiding force, rather than an organization’s values, trust isn’t at the core of the employer-employee relationship. Shared values can engage and empower, which in turn boosts innovation, creativity, and productivity.

8. Innovation

When managers create a safe environment to express ideas and make suggestions, employees are 31 times (!) more likely to think their workplace is a breeding ground for innovation. Workplaces that have innovative cultures inspire employee loyalty, confidence, and willingness to give extra.

Employees at innovative companies are:

4 times more likely to say they’re proud to tell others they work there
9 times more likely to think their company is a great place to work
4 times more likely to give extra to get the job done

What is a toxic company culture?

If your current culture isn’t strong, you’re on a slippery slope into toxicity.

A toxic company culture is one plagued by negativity, where employees don’t feel engaged at best, or don’t feel safe at worst. There could be gossiping, backstabbing, bad habits and a general feeling of mistrust.

And while that may sound like a big jump, it’s not really — a mediocre corporate culture, where employees and leaders are merely going through the motions, can easily descend into something far more sinister. Things like a lack of values, ineffective leadership, and no sense of belonging can kill employee trust and morale.

On the other hand, employees that experience a healthy culture are more likely to give significantly higher levels of discretionary effort, reports Workhuman.

How to use employee surveys to improve company culture

By thoughtfully investing time and effort into these eight areas, you can show your people that you care about them, improve employee experience, and put your company on a path to creating a great culture.

To ensure you’re on the right track, conduct regular pulse surveys to get employee feedback on how they are feeling about their work, their workplace overall, and their place within it.

Defining and Living Your Company Core Values: A Roadmap to Building a Purpose-Driven Culture

2025-02-24T09:11:12-05:00

Want a company culture people actually care about? It starts with living your core values—not just framing them on the wall. Let’s talk about why relevance, resonance, and leading by example turn good cultures into great ones.

We all have our own personal core values — those unspoken rules that guide how we treat others and tackle problems. Maybe it’s honesty, creativity, or putting family first. These principles shape who we are and how we move through the world.

It’s the same thing for companies. Just as your core values influence how you treat others and approach challenges, a company’s core values serve as its moral compass, guiding everything from strategic decisions to everyday interactions.

Core values are the DNA that shapes how an organization thinks, acts, and grows. When done right, they’re the invisible force behind every decision, from the boardroom to the breakroom.

What are company core values, and why do they matter?

Company core values are fundamental beliefs and guiding principles that shape a company’s culture, decision-making, and behaviors.

These values influence how employees interact with one another, how leaders make decisions, and how the company engages with customers, stakeholders, and the community.

When values are clear, your employees and leaders are able to rally around a shared purpose. And when a company has a shared purpose, it fosters trust, improves retention, and drives long-term success.

Some examples of core values your company could consider are integrity, accountability, belonging, creativity, innovation, and teamwork. But there’s no limit to what can and can’t be a core value — think beyond platitudes and into what really defines your organization.

The benefits of strong core values in the workplace

By defining your company’s core values, you ensure that employee behaviors, leadership decisions, and your overall business strategy are aligned.

Strong core values benefit organizations by:

Creating a strong, consistent culture: Clearly defined values ensure alignment across the organization, fostering a sense of shared purpose.
Attracting and retaining top talent: Employees want to work for companies whose values align with their own.
Building trust and engagement: Employees are more likely to trust leadership and feel engaged when they see company values lived out daily.
Driving better business performance: Great Place To Work® research shows that values-driven companies outperform their competitors in revenue growth, customer satisfaction, and innovation.
Enhancing decision-making and accountability: A well-defined value system helps leaders and employees make ethical and strategic decisions, ensuring consistency in actions.
Empowering autonomy and agility: When core values are clear and resonate, employees feel empowered to make decisions on their own, without needing constant oversight. This agility allows companies to be more responsive and customer-centric.

Take Trek Bicycle, for example. Their core value of “Do the right thing” isn’t just a slogan—it’s a principle that guides every decision. Employees are trusted to make goodwill calls, even if it means a short-term financial cost.

This company core value grows out of Trek’s broader commitment to hospitality and is reinforced daily through company communications and the environment itself—if you visit Trek Headquarters, you’ll see “Do the right thing” printed boldly on the walls. Trek employees know they’re empowered to act in the best interest of customers.

One notable example came from a Trek store in Houston. A technician learned that a customer was repairing a broken-down bike for a neighbor’s son who had recently had his bike stolen.

Recognizing the opportunity to make a real impact, the technician and store manager located a like-new trade-in bike and gifted it to the customer—complete with a new lock to prevent future theft. No one asked for permission; they just did what they felt was right.

These stories aren’t anomalies—they’re part of Trek’s DNA. The company tracks these moments of goodwill through its Net Promoter Score (NPS), analyzing customer feedback for examples of exceptional hospitality. Positive reviews highlighting employees “doing the right thing” are celebrated company-wide, while areas for improvement are used as learning moments.

Trek’s example shows how empowering employees through clear, resonant values doesn’t just improve customer satisfaction—it builds loyalty, trust, and long-term business success.

Steps to define your company’s core values

For core values to really stick, you need to be strategic about defining them. It’s more than just coming up with nice-sounding cliches — your values should speak to what your company and who your employees want to be.

If you’re just starting to define your own organization’s values, take these first steps:

Gather employee and leadership input. Conduct listening sessions, employee surveys, or focus groups to understand what employees believe the company stands for. Engage leadership to align on the company’s long-term vision and purpose.
Identify key themes and priorities. Analyze feedback and look for common themes that reflect the company’s culture. What behaviors already drive success in the company?
Draft and refine goals. Develop a short, memorable list of values (typically three to six) that reflect the company’s mission, purpose, and culture.
Ensure they are actionable and specific. You want values that are unique to you, not generic terms.
Test and gather feedback. Share the values with employees and stakeholders to refine the language. Make sure language is inclusive and resonates across all levels of the organization.
Embed values into company culture. Integrate values into every aspect of your business, including recruitment, hiring, onboarding, leadership training, performance reviews, and recognition programs. Encourage leaders to model and emphasize values whenever possible.
Communicate, communicate, communicate! Create ongoing storytelling around core values, whether it’s with employee spotlights, newsletters, or company events.

Get more tips on how to build a great company culture.

Examples of meaningful core values

To see how strong core values can play out in the real world, check out the initiatives of these Certified companies.

Brains

The first step to defining your core values is to get input from those who matter most: the people within the company.

Creative agency Brains did this through a “listening tour” in which leadership directly asked employees questions such as, “What’s something great you want to maintain?” or “What’s the worst thing that could happen with new leadership?”

The answers they received helped them to identify key cultural priorities, such as improving collaboration and transparency. One way Brains responded to this feedback was by introducing a salary guide with defined pay ranges for roles, removing ambiguity around raises and promotions.

Brains also implemented a feedback loop to ensure they were constantly in sync with their values. For example, when employees identified issues like “management has a clear vision” as an area for improvement based on their Trust Index™ Survey responses, leadership enacted a three-year plan with transparent progress

updates.

Wegmans

Grocer Wegmans Food Markets has set out five core values:

1. We care about the well-being and success of every person.

2. High standards are a way of life. We pursue excellence in everything we do.

3. We make a difference in every community we serve.

4. We respect and listen to our people.

5. We empower our people to make decisions that improve their work and benefit our customers and our company.

That fifth value is a great example of how Wegmans supports frontline workers. These employees are the immediate face of a company, interacting with customers on a daily basis. But because they’re so focused on the day-to-day, they can often forget about purpose.

By empowering frontline workers to adapt in the moment, Wegmans not only leaves space for better customer service, it reminds the team that they have a shared mission.

American Express

Teamwork is one of those core values that, on the surface, can seem easy to implement — after all, teams work together every day, don’t they?

But true teamwork takes effort. At American Express, the company encourages teams to collaborate and celebrates innovation through events like its two-day “GrowthHack,” in which technology and product teams come together to brainstorm new ideas.

Similarly, other business units at American Express host “Shark Tank”-style pitch competitions, that not only help employees to develop their business acumen but can also identify new projects worth pursuing.

NVIDIA

For IT company NVIDIA, the core value of “One Team” was on display when the company supported the well-being of employees in Russia amid the war with Ukraine.

The company covered the costs for hundreds of employees and their families to leave Russia and relocate to Armenia. And with looming banking restrictions due to international sanctions, the company quickly advanced salaries to its employees located there.

Deloitte

Tax consulting firm Deloitte says its core values are:

1. Lead the way

2. Serve with integrity

3. Take care of each other

4. Foster inclusion

5. Collaborate for measurable impact

Several of these values can be seen in Deloitte’s environment, social, and governance (ESG) efforts. For example, the company serves with integrity by reviewing its global supply chains to minimize its carbon footprint. It fosters inclusion by offering a generous parental leave policy that supports both mothers and fathers.

Trek Bicycle

Trek Bicycle is a prime example of a company that successfully implemented core values to enhance its workplace culture.

With a dispersed global workforce of approximately 6,500 employees in 27 countries, Trek needed a way to measure employee satisfaction. Using the Trust Index survey feedback from Great Place To Work, Trek identified areas for improvement and took steps to foster a more inclusive and engaging work environment.

One of those areas for improvement was transparency. By breaking down employee survey data, Trek fostered a sense of ownership among its leaders and encouraged managers to take accountability for their teams’ satisfaction and performance.

The result? Trek saw a 24% increase in positive responses to the statement, “My manager keeps me informed about important issues and changes.”

Living your core values

It’s not enough to just name your core values — for them to become truly ingrained in the business, you need to embed them into your daily operations. Your values should be visible in everything from your job postings to how managers lead meetings.

Here are some concrete ways you can incorporate your core values into your company’s everyday operations:

Hiring: Integrate your core values into the full recruitment process, including job descriptions, interview questions, and onboarding.
Recognition: Recognize employees for ways in which they demonstrate your values. Tie performance review conversations with values.
Leadership and management practices: Train managers to model and reinforce core values in their communication. Ensure executives consistently demonstrate values through actions, not just words.
Decision-making: Use core values as a guiding framework for business decisions and ethical dilemmas. Even behind closed doors, this will help executives communicate how a particular decision was made.
Training and development: Integrate values into ongoing training programs, leadership development, and mentoring or coaching.
Community contributions: Encourage employees to participate in community service or initiatives that are aligned with company values. For example, Deloitte has a core value of “Making an Impact that Matters” and hosts initiatives like Deloitte Impact Day, when employees dedicate a full day to community service.
Regularly assess and evolve: Conduct surveys and focus groups to measure how well values are being lived. If values are no longer resonant, consider making changes. You can use tools like Great Place To Work’s employee engagement survey tool to measure how well your company is aligned with its core values.

Challenges in living core values and how to overcome them

Sometimes, a company may struggle to maintain its core values, especially if there hasn’t been sufficient buy-in from leadership. And when how a company’s words don’t match its actions, you risk alienating your employees.

For example, let’s say your company has decided on integrity and prioritizing ethics over personal gain as one of your core values. But one of your sales teams consistently overpromises to close deals with clients. Despite employee complaints, management turns a blind eye because the team brings in significant revenue — eroding employees’ trust in leadership.

The impact of this kind of disconnect is more than just poor morale. Great Place To Work research shows that when employees trust their leaders and find meaning in their work, the business sees higher employee retention and even better stock market performance.

If your workplace seems to be saying one thing but doing another, it’s time to step back and find the why.

Is it that the values you identified don’t feel relevant to employees’ daily work or the company mission?
Do your values resonate emotionally with employees, leaders, and customers?
Have your values been communicated clearly and regularly throughout the entire organization?
Are you reminding leadership of their role modeling these values and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability?

Once you identify where the breakdown in values is originating, you can work on righting the course.

Leadership’s role in exemplifying core values

As mentioned, no matter how strongly you define your core values, if your leadership isn’t living them, those values might as well have been written in invisible ink.

Great leaders help employees by putting transparency and accountability at the heart of the workplace. To truly embody your company’s core values, leaders should:

Make values part of the conversation. Don’t just mention values during onboarding or annual meetings. Reference them in decision-making discussions, highlight them in team successes, and acknowledge when tough choices were made to uphold them. For instance, praise a manager who pushed back on an unrealistic deadline to maintain quality standards.
Own your mistakes publicly. When leaders miss the mark on company values, they should acknowledge it openly. If you’ve fallen short of your “respect for all” value by interrupting junior team members in meetings, address it directly: “I realize I haven’t been living up to our value of respect, and here’s how I’m working to improve.”
Create systems that reinforce values. If innovation is a core value, set aside dedicated time for experimentation and ensure performance reviews reward creative thinking — not just quick wins. If work-life balance is crucial, implement clear boundaries around after-hours communications.
Consider values in promotion decisions. If collaboration is a core value, don’t promote the brilliant but difficult manager who creates silos. Make it clear that living the values is just as important as hitting performance targets.

Measuring the impact of core values

Whether employees feel a sense of purpose at work is one of the strongest predictors of whether they’ll stay — or walk out the door.

To get data-driven insights on whether your employees connect with your core values, conduct regular employee experience surveys.

The key is to track these metrics over time and across different teams. Look for patterns: Are certain departments consistently scoring lower on values-related questions? Are there specific values that employees feel are more aspirational than real?

This granular data helps you identify where your values are taking root and where they need more nurturing. Most importantly, share these results transparently with your team and outline specific actions you’ll take to address any gaps — remember, measuring without acting is just as damaging as not measuring at all.

Inspiring a purpose-driven workplace culture

Well-defined core values can transform workplace culture, making it more purpose-driven and aligned with the company’s mission.

If your organization is struggling to define its core values or wants to measure the impact of those values, Great Place To Work offers employee survey software that can help you assess employee engagement and create a more positive workplace culture.

The Wonderful Company’s Stephen Howe on Creating a Great Place to Live and Work

2025-01-07T04:00:32-05:00

We dive into how The Wonderful Company, one of the Fortune 100 Best Workplaces to Work For®, has transformed the rural community of Lost Hills, California, into a thriving place to work and live on this episode of the Better podcast.

Stephen Howe, EVP of human resources and chief financial officer, discusses how the company is making a positive impact on employees' lives and their communities through innovative programs and a commitment to sustainability. This includes providing free healthcare, healthy meals, and making significant investments in community infrastructure.

On supporting employee wellness:

Through all of our extensive wellness efforts since 2015, we have decreased pre-diabetes amongst our employee population by more than 50%. We've got more work to do, but it’s had a major transformative impact:

카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 chief medical officer, Dr. Larry Wolk, oversees five wellness clinics in each of the areas in the Central Valley where we have major operations, and a mobile health clinic to cover areas where we don't have a high concentration of people.
We staff bilingual doctors and nurses who provide primary healthcare, mental health support, and other wellness services to our employees and their families, and we don’t charge them for those services.
We have healthy onsite cafeterias in each of our major locations and provide healthy subsidized meals for our staff when they're at work. We also offer healthy meal kits that they can take home. We have fruit and vegetable stands for our employees as well because some parts of the Central Valley are food deserts, and that allows them to buy fresh fruits and vegetables that are subsidized so they can take them home and share with their family,
Each of our major locations has onsite gyms so people can work out before work, during a break, or after work.

[Learn to support your entire workforce at the For All Summit™ April 8-10 in Las Vegas. Better listeners save $200!]

On the turnaround story of Lost Hills, California:

This effort was really the brainchild of our co-owner, Lynda Resnick, and she wanted to find a way to meaningfully give back, given all the success that she has had, and she decided to start with Lost Hills because over 50% of households have a Wonderful employee, and she recognized that this was a town that really was lost.

Nobody cared about Lost Hills. It was a working class, largely Spanish-speaking, dusty, small, rural town. It was rundown, but it was filled with amazing people who just needed to be given a chance and an opportunity, and Lynda wanted to help. She started by listening. She didn't go in and say, "Hey, I've got all the answers."

And that's where our research team came in, led by one of our key executives, Amy Snow. They got involved and together with Lynda, they interviewed the residents to understand what they needed, what they wanted, and what the problems were. And over the past decade, through many people's hard work, and Lynda's leadership, we have transformed that town. If you went and saw it today versus 10 years ago, it looks very different. We've invested over $90 million into Lost Hills.

On making work meaningful for hourly workers:

We have a program called WOW, our Wonderful Way of Work, and the idea is to give all employees, especially frontline employees, training and tools to solve the problems that they see and encounter at work. Senior executives like me, we only see some of the problems a company faces. They tend to be big ones. They may be cross-cutting ones across multiple groups, but we don't really see any problems within a team where candidly, most of the value is being added.

What this does is it allows everyone to solve the problems that they find at work, and it allows us a standard way to do that and to communicate that across the company.

So we have a WOW Global Competition where all the WOW teams throughout the globe get together, and we pick the best couple of projects. Last time, we gave them a trip to Hawaii. A team from the Central Valley won, and a team from Mexico won, and they then went to Hawaii and had a great time.

A second area that gives a sense of meaning for employees is our Wonderful Giving program. As part of our place-based giving approach, Lynda and Stuart Resnick grant every full-time Wonderful employee up to $1,000 to give to a nonprofit of their choice, and they'll match an additional $1,000 if someone wants to give their own money.

On the importance of listening:

One of the things I think I've been working on in my career is focusing on listening. I'll listen to WOW presentations once a month and I'll spend an hour or so with my teams listening to their finished WOW presentations.

But if it's even better if you can just have the other person do it, and you can watch and cheer them on. If you do that successfully, you'll find that people over time will take more initiative and they'll do more on their own, and that's the way you want it as a leader.

CarMax’s Diane Cafritz on Empowering Hourly Workers

2024-11-19T04:00:03-05:00

"Recognition is such a powerful way to make people feel valued."

Hourly workers often miss out on meaningful work, mental health support, and training opportunities compared to salaried employees at typical workplaces. At CarMax, where most employees are hourly, Diane Cafritz, EVP, chief innovation and people officer, explains how they bridge those gaps.

Listen to this episode of the Better podcast to learn how CarMax boosts engagement by supporting its frontline workers, and get practical tips for empowering hourly employees at your organization.

On creating a sense of meaning and purpose for hourly workers:

You might not intuitively think that working at a used car dealership will give you purpose and meaning, so we know that we have to be intentional about providing that for our associates.

Everything we do is based on our four values — do the right thing, put people first, win together and go for greatness. And we weave those values into every program and all our communication so our associates know that we walk our talk.

카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 vision is to ensure an iconic experience for everyone everywhere. An iconic experience is going above and beyond, and the great thing about trying to achieve an iconic experience is everybody can contribute. So we link our associates’ work through their business objectives, through our recognition programs, and how they are contributing to an iconic experience for our customers. We celebrate when they go above and beyond for customers or associates.

We have quarterly communications meetings at all of our stores, and in those meetings, we recognize above and beyond iconic experiences. Recognition is such a powerful way to make people feel valued.

On the connection between customer service scores and employee engagement:

We ask our customers about their satisfaction with the associates they worked with. And whatever that score is so to speak, the NPS score for associate satisfaction, we bring that back to the associate and we celebrate their wins and help them improve when they are not meeting the expectations of our customers.

And it's just this lovely cycle. If we only worked on the things that were opportunities for them, meaning when they didn't meet the customer's needs, then it would be somewhat of a beat down, to be perfectly honest. So, we really focus on what you’re doing well and work on continuing those strengths.

When people are getting recognition and that one-on-one manager conversation about their performance, we think that they're more engaged because they feel more valued. And more engaged associates overall provide a much better experience for our customers.

[Learn to support your entire workforce at the For All Summit™ April 8-10 in Las Vegas. Better listeners save $200!]

On well-being support for hourly workers:

We dedicate a whole month to mental health, and one of the things we do is we take leaders who have struggled with alcoholism or depression or anxiety, and we have them tell their stories, and we videotape them. These are leaders, these are vice presidents of the company, these are people who you wouldn't necessarily assume had mental health struggles.

We showcase them in ways that they’re comfortable telling their story. They talk about how they were supported by friends, family, the company, and their colleagues. That has been wildly successful and incredibly important.

We also provide access to Headspace for all our associates and their family. And we’re piloting a program called Empathy, which is a virtual-based app that helps you go through grief. What we wanted to do was say, what's the common incredibly stressful event in people's lives and what can we do? And we believe that’s if you have a loss in your life.

Financial well-being is very critical to health, and we have tried to make it more accessible and more affordable. Those are the two things, particularly that our hourly workers tell us when we survey them: affordability and accessibility. And so for both, for instance, we have done every sort of virtual service that you can provide. Physical therapy and primary care can be virtual. We are in small and large markets, and in some of the small markets, there is no access to even basic primary care.

On supporting hourly workers with training and development:

One thing that's core to our training and development is individual development plans (IDPs). Everybody at every level of the company has an individual development plan. It takes away the stigma of an individual development plan. I know other companies use that as, “This is how to get you back on track if you've sort of fallen off of your performance.” For us, it's for our most successful and our least successful.

We also offer 10 minutes or less of video, bite-sized learnings for anybody to take advantage of depending on what they want to work on. 카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 hourly workers are incredibly busy. For them to be able to find time for development, we have to make that time for them.

And if it were classrooms where we had to fly them, it's just not practical. To get them to watch something that's entertaining, educational, and easy to digest and then work with their managers on practicing, is the best way to train and develop our associates right now.

On providing flexibility for workers:

The top two things that are important to our hourly workers are pay and flexibility. 카지노 커뮤니티 랭킹 frontline associates love engaging with people. They wouldn't be working for us if they didn't. So their ask isn't to work at home, or wherever they want. Their ask is, I want to get my child off the bus. Can my hours be adjusted so I can get my child off the bus every day? Hey, right now I need to go part-time. Can I go part-time? How many hours do I need to work in order to get my full benefits? Can I go to that level?

They need to be able to switch shifts with people on a dime if they can, based on what's going on in their lives. That's what they need. So as we think about flexibility, it’s not just salaried versus hourly, but what does each individual population need.

Dow's Alveda Williams on How Employee Resource Groups Drive Business Success

2024-11-04T04:00:08-05:00

"ERGs are fully empowered. There are things happening around the world through our ERGs that I, as the chief inclusion officer, did not dictate, and did not play a part in."

Alveda Williams, chief inclusion officer at Dow, talked about the enormous difference Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) have on policies, practices innovation, and overall business success at Dow. With 600 chapters globally, these groups have influenced policies and contributed to product innovations, such as the Pride collection sneaker with Under Armour.

She also shared why influencers and non-people managers are part of leadership, and how that fosters a culture of collaboration and inclusion. Her insights remind us that inclusion is not just a policy, but a practice requiring intentional effort and leadership at all levels.

On the benefits of employee resource groups:

So often we get stuck on the first letter. Is the focus on the” E”? My tendency is to say we're focusing on the wrong thing. We really should be focusing on that “R,” because these groups are a resource for the employees and they're a resource for companies.

It's why we've spent so much energy around them. Over the last seven years, we have quadrupled participation in our ERGs. In 2017, 15% of our employees were engaged in one of our ERGs, to today, 60% of our employees are engaged in one of the 10 ERGs. We believe in the power of ERGs to move the needle for our people and for our company.

[Learn how ERGs drive business success at the For All Summit™ April 8-10 in Las Vegas. Better listeners save $200!]

On how ERGs influence business decisions:

In terms of business outcomes, I tend to think of that really broadly. I think about policy changes, changes in our practices, and of course changes in innovation and in terms of our overall results.

We recently expanded our global parental leave policy, and we went from six weeks of parental leave to now 16 weeks of parental leave, time off for all birthing and non-birthing parents, regardless of gender. And that policy came out of our women's inclusion network.

I think about the work that we've done around expanding benefit coverage for same-sex couples, born out of our GLAD ERG.

And then there are examples around innovation. One of our key customers is Under Armour. Every June, Under Armor puts out a Pride collection sneaker and in the mid-sole of that sneaker is Dow technology. And so you take the innovation that we bring in terms of delivering the technology into the shoe, partner that up with our global GLAD LGBTQ+ ERG, and you've got a powerful product that is on display, and the proceeds of that go to an organization called Athlete Ally in support of LGBTQ athletes.

ERGs are fully empowered. There are things happening around the world through our ERGs that I, as the chief inclusion officer, did not dictate, and did not play a part in.

When they speak, we absolutely listen. When they bring the ideas, we absolutely vet them. The highest level of leadership in our company serves as the executive sponsors for these ERGs, and it speaks to the level of importance that we place on them. They are not just there waiting to be called up. They are fully empowered and activated to bring their best ideas forward.

On how ERG goals are connected to the company’s goals:

We've said ERGs have long been a place of connection and community in our company, but what are the things that we can do to help them better serve the company's direct needs?

Three years ago, we developed this concept that we call an ERG agenda each year, and it speaks to the things that are critically important for the company. ERGs are going to do the work of providing a place of connection and courage and community for their group and the allies that support them. But if you want to be a resource for the company, here are the things that we are asking you to focus on.

We don't dictate the programming, but we will say that in 2024, for example, well-being is important. And we watch what they do with that, and it can be powerful. What well-being or mental health means to somebody in the Veteran's group may look very different than what it means in the women's group.

We give them five or six sort of anchors, if you will, every year. And then we just let them go and have fun with it, and it's great to see what they can come back with.

When they speak, we absolutely listen. When they bring the ideas, we absolutely vet them. The highest level of leadership in our company serves as the executive sponsors for these ERGs, and it speaks to the level of importance that we place on them. They are not just there waiting to be called up. They are fully empowered and activated to bring their best ideas forward.

On the impact of ERGs on the employee experience:

Seven years ago, when we had 15% of our people in ERGs, we looked behind the curtains of our employee survey and what we saw is that people who were participating in our ERGs were having a significantly different and positive experience relative to those who are not.

We could see it in the data. We were literally proving out the business case around ERGs ourselves, and I mean significant — 11, 12 basis points. This year, it's about 14 basis points. That was with 15% of the people in our ERGs. We knew that if that were true, what we were seeing is higher overall employee satisfaction. That satisfaction translates to engagement, engagement translates to productivity, and productivity translates to bottom-line value.

On how Dow defines leaders:

We have a community that we call Lead, and includes everyone who is a leader of people, in addition to those leaders who are a certain career grade in our organization who do not have people. At Dow, we believe that leadership is a privilege, not a right, and so we want to make sure that we're setting up our leaders to be able to serve the community of employees that we have.

At the center of the employee experience, the data that you at Great Place To Work has shared with us, and the data that so many of our partners have shared with us, is that leaders make the difference. The data will show you that more than 70% of an employee's experience is based on their experience with leaders. And so we are tapping into that unapologetically and making sure that we start at the heart of the house, which is our leadership community, 3,000 or so of our 36,000 employees.

PwC's Kim Jones on Improving Workplace Trust

2024-10-22T04:00:54-04:00

"Leaders forget that you can't just tell people what they should do, you also have to model it yourself. There's a little bit of, 'Do as I say, and not what I do.' It's so important to model that behavior, and show that you believe in it."

Kim Jones, managing director of talent strategy and people experience at PwC, shares insights on the importance of trust in the workplace, the role of middle managers in building a positive culture, and how PwC is using AI to create an equitable workplace on this episode of the Better podcast.

She also opens up about her personal journey to better well-being — a powerful reminder of the importance of self-care, especially in high-pressure environments.

On why leaders often overestimate the trust their employees have in them:

Sometimes leaders forget that you can't just tell people what they should do. You have to model it yourself, so there's a little bit of, "Do as I say and not what I do." It's so important to model that behavior, and show that you believe in it.

Another thing I've seen is there's lots of good listening going on across organizations — at PwC, we have a listening program and platform. But sometimes we fall into a trap of getting a lot of feedback from our employees, but then not acting on it, not showing them what we're doing with what they're telling us, and how we're using that feedback to make things better.

On mistakes leaders make when building workplace trust:

One might be that you say you want your team to come up with a recommendation, a solution for something. But yet, all along that process of them coming to that recommendation, you're micromanaging. You're inserting your own opinion when it might be best to let them do their thing.

Micromanaging can be a bad habit that undermines feeling trusted. You need to trust people to do their work, and to do good work. Not just say that you do, but show that you do.

On how middle managers can build trust with their teams:

One of the things that we try to do at PwC is help our managers see that they are part of driving the strategy. This is not, "Sit back and let's see what the leaders do for us." You are a leader, too, and it's part of your role to create the environment that we want.

On how My Marketplace, PwC’s internal AI platform, works:

One of the first big AI technologies that we built and rolled out is called My Marketplace, and it's similar to a talent marketplace. It matches individuals who have a profile that describes their skills with job opportunities. The platform uses AI to more efficiently and effectively do those match-ups and in a more fun, consumer oriented way,

We've had some successes already, in terms of it being easier for people to understand other things they could do within PwC. They can go into My Marketplace and see the different opportunities that are available, and express interest in those opportunities. And the system can match them up with the skills that they already possess and what a particular opportunity needs, and offer it up to them.

Learn how the best workplaces are using AI to build stronger companies and healthier workers at the For All Summit™ in Las Vegas April 8-10.

On how AI technology makes PwC more equitable:

We have 75,000 people, and what tends to happen is, you know who you've worked with in the past and you tend to want to go back to those people bcause that's who you know. But there might be 74,500 other people that you don't know who might also be really great to work with.

And so you're using technology that is not based on who you know, but on skills needed for an opportunity. You are served up new names, new people that maybe you didn't know existed in the firm before that moment. In that way, opportunity feels very democratized, and we're thrilled about that.

On why leaders should prioritize AI:

When you say, "My current system works just fine, I don't have anything like a My Marketplace." Perhaps, but for how long will it work just fine? Next year, will you still be saying that? Five years from now, will you still be saying that? And on the day when you stop saying that, how far behind are you in now getting yourself ready for whatever the current environment is?

I would also challenge, "It feels like it's working fine," because it's all you know. What if it could work 10 times better? Just, what if? Go through the mental exercise of reimagining the way that you do things to see if you could perhaps do it much, much better. I think there's almost always an opportunity to do something better.

On the importance of work-life balance:

I learned that your body keeps the score, and your body will tell you. Even if your brain thinks you are doing fine, there can come a point where it'll be a huge surprise, but it will happen — you will stop. That happened with me and it was scary.

And after that, I thought that was very important to be in tune with my body, and to practice self-care, well-being, much more intentionally and much more deliberately.

Ellen McGirt on Supporting Caregivers at Work

2024-10-08T02:01:11-04:00

“You want to be able to know that you're plugging into a workplace ecosystem that is prepared to support you in at least talking through the human side of caregiving.”

This episode of Better features journalist, speaker, and podcast host Ellen McGirt. In this deeply personal conversation, we dive into the challenges of caregiving while balancing a career. She opens up about her experience as part of the sandwich generation, caring for both her family and three vulnerable adults, and the struggles caregivers face in the workplace.

We discuss practical solutions and the importance of normalizing conversations around caregiving and grief at work. This is an issue every employer will face, as caregivers are the fastest growing employee identity group in the U.S.

On how managers can better support caregivers at work:

Flexible time off, no questions asked. A flexible schedule can change everything for people. You need a leader, manager, assigner, or someone who will help you cobble together a schedule that doesn't derail your colleagues, which of course is a burden, but gives you the flexibility to think, to schedule, to understand what your vulnerable adult needs, and of course, just pull yourself together.

I think hospice-style training would be useful for certain types of managers. You put your hand up for it and you can identify yourself as someone who has that wisdom because you’ve had the kind of training and preparation that a hospice volunteer would have. If you could self-identify, "I'm hospice trained. I'm a volunteer. If this is happening for you, let me be part of your support team," that would be really nice.

And being willing to revisit in 1:1's or regular meetings, how everybody is doing and if there's anything going in their lives where they need a little extra flexibility. The question then becomes one for the team and not just for the individual. I would've been much more likely to say, "I need a little support here," if it was a characteristic of the entire team, that we are all caring about each other.

You want to be able to know that you're plugging into a workplace ecosystem that is prepared to support you in at least talking through the human side of caregiving.

On the impact a senior leader can have by talking about caregiving and grief:

If a very senior person triggers this conversation in the workplace with a disclosure or concern, you're going to see new training, new conversations, new talking points, and new volunteers, and maybe even new staff positions around this.

Remember a couple of years ago when Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, was moved by the news of the deaths by suicide of Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade in a row? He asked his senior team, "Could people be suffering, and I not know it?" And he wrote a letter to the organization flagging this and asking people to reach out if they needed help.

He got flooded, and it changed the way the organization dealt with mental health.

Senior leaders should also do an audit of their employee assistance program packages and ask: "Are we providing the proper support with the proper tone that reflects our spirit in this organization?" That would be a wonderful way to get ahead of this.

On how colleagues can support coworkers who are caretakers, or members of the sandwich generation:

Kindness and compassion go a long way. If I was scrambling on something or if I was late to something, just that kind of emotional flexibility that I just was not going to be able to stick to the kinds of structures that I did before.

And if you don't have a good relationship with someone, a card is probably better. This is not the time for a person that you've had conflict with or you're not aligned with or you've had some sort of issue with to try to establish rapport. A card is good. Love that person from a distance.

Equity of Opportunity Fuels Business Success at the Best Workplaces

2024-09-12T00:07:31-04:00

Across all industries, leaders who create equitable workplaces — where employees have equal opportunities for growth, recognition, and time with leaders — experience higher levels of productivity, agility, and retention.

Equity at work goes beyond fair pay.

Fair compensation is important, but it alone doesn’t make a workplace equitable or motivate people to work hard.

Employees are 60% more likely to give extra if they believe their employer offers equitable opportunities for special recognition and 30% more likely if they feel they’re paid fairly, according to research from Great Place To Work®.

“It’s important to pay people what they’re worth, but it’s not enough,” says Michael C. Bush, CEO of Great Place To Work. “Special recognition makes you feel like a person who is needed, not just an employee. It’s motivating to be recognized for a job well done, whether you punch a timecard on the frontlines, or log into your laptop from home. For that to happen, everyone needs an opportunity to contribute and be seen for their accomplishments.”

That responsibility falls to leaders. It’s on them to make time for their people, provide growth opportunities, and recognize hard work — not for some, but for all. That’s what equity of opportunity looks like.

With near-record low employee engagement levels, and workers looking to jump ship or “quit and stay,” executives can’t afford not to create equitable workplaces, which are more innovative, agile, and productive — business metrics essential to AI success.

In today’s challenging environment, the 2024 Fortune Best Workplaces™ across 10 industries stand out.

Over 90% of employees at these workplaces feel like full team members; 80% believe promotions are fair, special recognition is equitable, and they’re offered training and development opportunities equally.

That results in dividends for executives across all industries: 90% of employees are willing to give extra effort — a 53% increase over typical workplaces, nearly 90% believe their workplace adapts well to change — a 42% increase, and 88% want to stay at their company long-term — a 44% increase.

“Those returns are what every executive wants, but that can’t happen without trust,” Bush says. “If your people don’t believe your processes for promotions, development, or recognition are fair, you won’t create the type of workplace you need to compete in business today. That trust is earned. And once you have it, you have to work hard to keep it. Do that, and you’ll be unstoppable.”

Workplaces with high-trust cultures significantly outperform typical workplaces across all measures of the employee experience, according to Great Place To Work research.

It’s why manufacturing workers at great workplaces have higher levels of satisfaction in pay and promotions than their technology peers at average companies. Or why health care workers at great companies experience better well-being compared to construction workers at typical companies.

You might be surprised to hear that the Fortune Best Workplaces in Construction™ offer more opportunities for career growth than typical workplaces in any industry. At companies on the construction list, nearly 90% of employees feel they have professional development opportunities – among the highest at the Best Workplaces in any industry.

Similarly, in retail, an industry that may not seem to offer many opportunities for special recognition, a staggering 97% more employees at the Best Workplaces in Retail™ feel managers avoid playing favorites compared to typical retail companies.

Great Place To Work determined the 2024 industry lists by analyzing data from 1 million employees in manufacturing and production, health care, consulting, and professional services, financial services and insurance, advertising and marketing, retail, real estate, construction, biopharma, and technology.  

Equity of growth and development boosts retention

Industries don’t determine our work experience; companies do. More to the point, leaders at those companies do.

At the Best Workplaces in Construction, 91% of employees feel their managers show genuine interest in them compared with 58% at typical workplaces.

We see the virtuous circle of care that happens when people trust their leader. If employees feel management cares, they are 1.5 times more likely to stay with their company. At the top-performing workplaces in construction, 93% of people want to work there for a long time.

In addition to regular 1:1 meetings, managers at David Weekley Homes (No. 3 among large companies in construction) hold quarterly growth reviews to connect with employees on personal, professional, and team goals. Employees and managers complete growth review forms prior to meetings, and they discuss not only the previous quarter, but look ahead to the growth and development needed to achieve those goals.

Equitable time with leaders drives adaptability

It’s not easy for workers to approach management, ask questions and get straight answers, or be included in decision-making — a missed opportunity at many workplaces.

When employees feel they are involved in decisions that impact their work, their workplace is 1.3 times more likely to be agile. At typical workplaces, about half of employees say management includes them in decisions that affect them. That jumps to 79% — a 55% increase— at the Best Workplaces.

If your people don’t believe your processes for promotions, development, or recognition are fair, you won’t create the type of workplace you need to compete in business today. That trust is earned. - Michael C. Bush

The Fortune Best Workplaces in Manufacturing and Production shine with 87% who feel leaders are approachable, 80% who believe leaders seek and respond to suggestions and ideas, and 73% who say they’re included in decision-making.

Ranked as the No. 1 Best Workplace in Manufacturing and Production, Dow relies on employee resource groups (ERGs) as an essential way to involve employees in business decisions, and serves as a vital listening tool. With support from the top, nearly every people leader (98%) participates in ERGs. Senior executives, including CEO and Chair Jim Fitterling, serve as executive sponsors and allies, committed to advancing ERGs’ goals.

Equity of recognition increases productivity

Equity of opportunity relies heavily on trust in leadership. Without trust, employees are more likely to believe leaders have favorites.

Leaders at winning retail workplaces make sure employees feel workplaces are fair: 78% of workers feel managers avoid playing favorites, a 97% increase over typical retail companies. The result: 82% of employees at winning retail workplaces say people are willing to give extra to get the job done, a 71% increase over typical retail workplaces.

Special recognition makes you feel like a person who is needed, not just an employee. It’s motivating to be recognized for a job well done, whether you punch a timecard on the frontlines, or log into your laptop from home. - Michael C. Bush

Executives at The Spinx Company, No. 9 among the large companies in retail, make time to give face-to-face recognition to frontline workers by visiting stores to celebrate employees who’ve gone above and beyond and by holding lunches to acknowledge support center workers.

Despite their differences, the companies on the Best Workplaces by industry lists have created equitable cultures rooted in leadership trust. In return, they outperform organizations in both the employee experience and business performance across all industries.

How Walmart Became One of the Fortune 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 to Work For

2024-04-04T07:03:35-04:00

The retail giant has been investing in its employees, with more workers reporting a positive experience.

Walmart has made the Fortune 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 to Work For® List this year, an achievement that caps a remarkable journey to transform its employee experience.

No. 1 on the Fortune 500, Walmart is a financial juggernaut. What started as a regional discount chain in Arkansas has become the largest company in the world by revenue.

At the heart of its success are the 2.1 million associates around the world (1.6 million in the U.S.) who enable the company to live its purpose: “Live better.”

“Good jobs, opportunity, and ensuring associates feel a sense of belonging are key drivers of our long-term success,” says Donna Morris, chief people officer at Walmart. “We strive to make Walmart a place where everyone knows they are listened to, valued, engaged, and supported.”

With a company of Walmart’s size and scale, creating a consistently great experience for every employee is no small task. “There is no one-size-fits-all employee experience, especially in today’s workforce that is diverse and multigenerational,” Morris says.

Walmart’s leaders started to realize the full magnitude of the impact their organization could have in 2005, when Lee Scott, former president and CEO of Walmart, delivered a speech called “Twenty-First Century Leadership.” Hurricane Katrina had just devastated Louisiana and coastal areas in the Southern U.S. In responding to the crisis, Scott and Walmart saw an opportunity to have an impact beyond running an exemplary retail business.

“Good jobs, opportunity, and ensuring associates feel a sense of belonging are key drivers of our long-term success.” - Donna Morris, chief people officer, Walmart

“What would it take for Walmart to be that company, at our best, all the time?” Scott asked. “What if we used our size and resources to make this country and this Earth an even better place for all of us: customers, associates, our children, and generations unborn? What would that mean?”

Walmart set out to answer that question — and Scott’s speech laid out commitments to increase diversity, reevaluate supply chains, and commit to raising wages over time. The result: The number of employees who said Walmart is a great place to work went up nearly 60% between 2017 and 2023.

Raising wages increases well-being

Walmart has made headlines with its wage hikes in recent years.

“Investing in wages, benefits, and learning that support all forms of well-being — physical, emotional, and financial — is key to helping our associates live healthier lives, develop fulfilling careers, and ultimately strengthen their impact on all those they serve,” Morris says.

Wages were raised again in 2024, with the average frontline employee making $18 an hour, and store managers receiving between $90,000 to $170,000 a year, up from a base salary of $65,000. Walmart also offers financial tools like a 401(k) and an associate stock purchase program, and training tools through the digital app called Me@Walmart.

These investments in wages and financial tools have been deeply meaningful to Walmart workers, with the number of hourly workers reporting fair pay in 2023 going up 61% from 2017 to 2023 in its Trust Index™ Survey. The number of hourly employees who said they receive a fair share of company profits went up 70%.

“There is a very positive supportive culture here at Walmart. The pay is above par, and excellence is recognized,” shared one employee in their survey.

How Walmart made the 100 Best

카지노 커뮤니티 추천 make the Fortune 100 Best list based on the employee feedback collected in confidential surveys. Employees report their experience on 60 statements that measure trust — the key ingredient in high-performing cultures where employees thrive.

카지노 커뮤니티 추천 only make the list by having competitive results, and Walmart is no exception. The retailer’s survey scores are even more impressive when you consider its size. For a company with over 1 million employees, offering a consistently positive experience for a global workforce is a dazzling achievement.

Despite its size, Walmart employees report having a more consistently positive experience than the typical U.S. workplace in retail. At Walmart, 72% of employees said they had a great workplace compared to just 57% of employees who said the same at a typical U.S. retail company.

“I would not get these opportunities if I worked for many other companies.” - Walmart employee

One example: Walmart employees are more likely than a typical U.S. retail employee to report receiving training and development support. At a typical retail company, only half (53%) of employees feel they receive training and development to further their careers. At Walmart, more than two-thirds report having development and training support.

Walmart’s leaders closely measure the employee experience. “We track internal engagement, growth and job satisfaction metrics, [and] retention, and regularly report on our progress in creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace,” Morris says.

Here are some of the things Walmart does to create a winning workplace culture:

1. Tearing the “paper ceiling”

Unnecessary credentials or education requirements can be detrimental for equity of opportunity for employees.

“We’ve always been focused on eliminating unnecessary barriers for associates to advance in their careers,” says Morris. “For example, 75% of salaried managers in U.S. stores, clubs, and supply chain facilities started in hourly roles with us and we’ve never required degrees to hold these roles, which earn $113,000 on average.”

Walmart has also removed degree requirements for the majority of office jobs to support career advancement opportunities for all employees.

“The opportunities I have been provided for promotion without a college degree are unmatched,” said one employee. “I would not get these opportunities if I worked for many other companies.”

The retailer also carefully tracks who gets promoted from frontline roles into management. In its 2023 Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Report, Walmart reported that, 44% of promotions from hourly worker into management were women and 43% were people of color.

2. Opportunities to grow a career

Walmart invests in training frontline associates and managers with its Walmart Academy, its Associate to Driver program, and additional educational resources. These investments translate into an impressive amount of internal mobility for employees, with 88% of U.S. roles above entry-level being filled internally in the 2023 fiscal year.

The Associate to Driver program offers an example of how Walmart offers unique opportunities to associates. The 12-week program allows associates working in stores, fulfillment centers, and transportation offices to earn their commercial driver’s license, and become drivers, making up to $110,000 in their first year.

“Associates are increasingly viewing continuous learning as a key part of their career — often fueled by technological change,” Morris says. “As a result, we’re equipping associates with skills training that allows them to gain the skills needed to advance even faster.”

More than 2,000 store and club managers per year attend Walmart’s Manager Academy, and the chain’s Global Walmart Academy is available to all associates, offering a mix of virtual and in-person training.

3. Making a community impact

Nearly eight in 10 Walmart employees feel good about the way the company contributes to their community. Because of its size and reach, the retailer often plays a vital role in delivering services to rural communities.

As one example, Walmart has 4,000 stores operating in areas designated as underserved by the federal Health Resources and Service Administration. To support these communities, Walmart is expanding services, as well as training associates to become pharmacy technicians, opticians, and medical assistants.

These efforts have led to nearly three in four Walmart employees reporting that their work has special meaning, a crucial driver of employee retention.

“Technology is also enabling us to give associates visibility into the impact of their work,” Morris says. “We share data with associates about how their area of the store is performing so they can see where they’re doing well, where they can improve, and how they compare to their peers.”

The result? Employees take more ownership over their work, and the value they provide in their community. Today, Walmart associates are proud of their organization, and much more likely to recommend their workplace to friends and family.

Join the movement

Hear from leaders at companies that made the Fortune 100 Best 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 to Work For list at our For All™ Summit, May 7-9 in New Orleans.

Amy Edmondson on How Failing Well Can Help 카지노 커뮤니티 추천 Thrive

2024-03-19T00:01:08-04:00

“If you don't like taking a risk, you are taking a risk. You're taking the risk of stagnation, or the risk that your company or team will seize to be relevant over time … We need to continue to help people shift their mindsets from, 'I got this' to, 'I wonder what would happen if …'“

Amy Edmondson, Novartis professor of leadership and management at Harvard Business School, and renowned for her research on psychological safety, joins the Better podcast to talk about her new book, “The Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well”— the 2023 Business Book of the Year.

Her research-backed guidance on failing well, what types of failures to avoid, and why high performing teams report more errors than lower performing teams will help your companies thrive. Teams thrive when people feel safe to speak up and take risks (even if they fail), and leaders play a crucial role in creating this culture.

On what happened when you were a PhD student at Harvard and you had a hypothesis about medical errors and teamwork:

My hypothesis was that better teams would have fewer error rates, which was a sensible hypothesis. It was a hypothesis that mirrored prior work that had been done in the aviation context.

To my great chagrin, the data seemed to be saying that better teams had higher, not lower error rates. I began to wonder that maybe the better teams aren't making more mistakes. Maybe they're more willing and able to report the mistakes they're making, or maybe they're just more able to speak up about it.

On how to encourage leaders to create an environment of psychological safety when they don't like taking risks:

If you don't like taking a risk, you are taking a risk. You're taking the risk of stagnation or the risk that your company or team will seize to be relevant over time. It won't catch up with you today or next week, but soon enough, it will.

The way I approach this is by first calling attention to the context that everybody's aware of already: your company or your team is operating in a volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous world.

They know that already, but they may not be calling attention to it enough to let other people know that they know that things could go wrong. In fact, things will go wrong.

First and foremost is to paint reality in a way that makes it explicit that you need people to speak up, that you know things will go wrong, and the more transparent and the quicker we are, the better off we are.

And two, distinguish between good failures and not-so-good failures. The good failures are the ones that bring us new information in new territory. They're the necessary failures that lead to innovation.

If you can be clear about the fact that we know and expect, and even value what I call intelligent failures, then you make it easier for people to speak up about them, but also easier for people to do their best to avoid preventable failures.

To err is human, we will all make mistakes. But when we're at our best, when we're vigilant and mindful, we can prevent most of them and catch and correct the rest.

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On the three types of failures: intelligent, basic, and complex:

An intelligent failure is an undesired result in new territory where you couldn't have known in advance what would happen without experimenting. So they are in pursuit of a goal. You've taken the time to come up with a good hypothesis that you have good reason to believe it might work. And an intelligent failure is no bigger than necessary. You haven't made it larger than it needed to be.

Basic failures are single cause. Sometimes they're people not paying close enough attention. Sometimes they're overtired. Some of those basic failures are large, like when an employee accidentally checked the wrong box and wired the principal rather than the interest of a loan. That was a $900 million mistake at Citibank a couple of years back.

The third kind of failure is complex failures, and those are perfect storms. Those are failures caused not by one mistake or one factor, but by a handful of factors that come together in the wrong way or at the wrong time to lead to a failure. Any one of the factors on its own would not cause a failure. It's the unfortunate way they came together that leads to the failure.

There are many historically famous, but also every day accidents that qualify as complex failures.

On an example of a preventable failure where everyday fear, or lack of psychological safety, prevented someone from speaking up:

The Columbia shuttle tragedy of 2003 is complex failure. The shuttle reentered the earth's atmosphere and combusted, killing all of the astronauts, and of course, destroying the shuttle itself.

This was a complex failure that was a combination of some technical anomalies happening, some cultural factors coming together that made it not possible to end up catching and correcting in a timely way.

And there is an engineer at the very heart of this story who has doubts, has concerns, makes some tentative attempts to bring them up to his boss. He's kind of shut down, and then in a crucial mission management team meeting, he is present but feels unable to speak up when they start talking about this foam strike issue.

His explanation was he is just too low in the hierarchy to feel it was possible to speak up, and yet he's the one who had the most expertise. The accident investigation board concluded that it would not have been easy, but it was at least possible that a rescue attempt could have succeeded. This is a complex failure that was very much allowed by a strong sense of inability to speak up. That's the very reality of low psychological safety.

On the correlation between higher rates of agility and innovation, and trying new things, even if they fail:

If you only welcome trying new things when they work out, then they're not very new. They're kind of safe bets. And again, over the long term, that's not an innovative company. That's not a company that will likely thrive over the long term.

I think leadership is an educational activity, and this is an ongoing educational journey.

We need to continue to help people shift their mindsets from, "I got this" to "I wonder what would happen if," and shift their mindsets from the idea that we're supposed to have the answers and execute, hit our targets, and everything's supposed to be like a well-oiled machine to a mindset where it's, "Wow, we live in a volatile, uncertain world and we've got to be doing all sorts of things at all times to stay ahead of it."

It's just as important to do our part to minimize and prevent as many as preventable failures, but also to welcome the thoughtful experiments that end in failure.

Part of the answer is making those distinctions, because I think it's very hard for people to sign up for, “Let's fail all day!”

The only reason we're willing to sign up to try new things is when we are all on the same page about the kinds of experiments that might end in failure that are worth doing, and then the ones that we should try to avoid.

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