When our Board of Directors approved our most recent strategic plan in the Fall of 2015, the second most important priority to address was Employee Relations. Our progress on this priority has ebbed and flowed over the last three years, but we have recently seen a positive shift in our employee retention rate. This was due mostly to addressing employees’ concerns with wages and benefits. In 2017 we made the decision to pay 100% of our employees a livable wage for a single individual living in Winneshiek county according to the M.I.T. Livable Wage Calculator. Currently, our entry-level wage is $10.00/hour and our average wage for all employees is $13.31/hour. This was necessary, especially with rising housing costs in our area, but this isn’t the only solution to increasing staff engagement.
This year the management team and I are focusing our efforts on better training programs that will increase an employee’s interest in the Co-op and our unique business model. Employees who have a basic understanding of our finances, mission and departmental goals will be more engaged in their work and ultimately raise our customer service standards. Whether we are hiring a new dishwasher or department manager, all employees need to know how we are doing financially and how their role is crucial to the store’s success.
Led by our Front End Manager, Kristin Evenrud, we are implementing a new staff training program that will include one-on-one conversations with me about the cooperative business model, some history about our Co-op and how our mission and organizational Ends direct our work every day. Kristin will be our new employee trainer and will be introducing the new employee to our customer service standards and how their department interacts with the whole store. We are also working on creating new videos that will also help teach our expectations of customer service. The ultimate goal in better training is to offer better customer and member service. It would be really powerful if a new part-time grocery stocker could answer more detailed questions for a customer who is wanting to know what their options are for a new gluten-free regimen they are trying. This level of training takes time, but if we can empower staff to tell our story about the products we sell and why they matter, the community we live in becomes a better place.
One of the many ways we try to achieve our mission is by playing monthly “games” that are tracked by department on a big dry-erase board in our staff break room. These games include a goal and actual data next to the goal to show if those goals were met or not. Some of the games that our departments play are: mystery shopper score, sales growth, # of new members, # of customer transactions and more. This creates conversation and goal setting within each department. Meeting these goals can result in rewards for each team member at the end of a six-month period.
These are just a few ways we are trying to increase staff engagement in 2018. As our customer, your feedback, positive or negative, is crucial for us to become better cooperative grocers. Please take the time to let us know how we are doing by filling out a customer comment card at our customer service desk or send us a message digitally through our website. You vote with your dollars and those dollars stay in the Co-op and our community. Thanks for shopping with us. We look forward seeing you in the store this summer.
