There aren't many jobs where you get to present your concept to Dragons' Den star Peter Jones after making a suggestion to your boss. Employees' opinions and ideas are greatly recognized and actively promoted at grocery chain Asda Stores, so it's not all about putting the cash in your pocket in TV commercials.
Since former CEO Archie Norman helped turn around the faltering Asda firm in the early 1990s, the company has worked hard to involve its employees in its success. Norman founded Tell Archie (now known as Tell Andy), a forum for employees to make their voices heard at the top of the organization. Norman later became a front-bench Tory MP.
Fast forward nearly two decades, and Asda employees are being encouraged to submit their ideas for improving the company in a Dragons' Den-style competition, with the six finalists making presentations to a panel that includes current CEO Andy Bond and top entrepreneur Peter Jones.
Industry-leading
Schemes like these, according to Asda's incentive manager Jayne Tory, are a significant component of the company's complete compensation program. Asda is owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. “The things that aren't necessarily about salary are where I think we're industry-leading and ahead of the pack,” she says. “Having a platform to make employees feel like they're contributing to the company is critical. We're always looking for new methods to truly engage our employees in helping us reach our goals, not by giving them an additional ten pence in their paycheck, but by simply saying "thank you."
Tory considers an instant reward plan, which replaced Asda's old performance incentive, to be her most significant career achievement to date. Instead of a burdensome approach in which employees were given points to save up for prizes, the new scheme allows managers and employees to recognize their coworkers for a job well done. At this year's Employee Benefits Awards, the project was also named runner-up for outstanding motivation or incentive plan.
“With the previous arrangement, employees did not receive immediate appreciation for a job well done because it may take weeks before they received anything, especially given it was up to the individual to claim their reward,” Tory explains. “Now, cards with scratch-off reveal panels can be found in retailers all around the company. So, if a coworker or a manager wishes to recognize something a coworker has done, they may get one of these cards and offer it to the person in the huddle, making it a group acknowledgment. A DVD, a CD, a bouquet of flowers, a box of chocolates, or even permission to leave one hour early could be the prize. It's a heartfelt ‘thank you.'”
Employee involvement has improved.
Employee engagement at Asda has already risen as a result of the scheme's speed and efficiency. ‘I get thanked for a job well done,' says one of the questions in its employee engagement survey. This question was answered yes by 86 percent of respondents last year, and the proportion has risen to 90 percent this year.
However, thanking Asda's employees is a difficult task. Asda has a fairly diversified workforce, with 165,000 employees referred to as "colleagues" and based in places ranging from the south coast of England to Scotland and Northern Ireland. The issue of understanding the make-up of a normal store, which can differ from massive Asda Wal-Mart Supercentres to standard Asda stores, to smaller stores to Asda Living (non-food) stores, rests inside that fact. Visit more information here https://myassociatelogin.org/asda-walmartone-uk-asda-total-package-payslip-login.
Tory believes that understanding why employees come to work is critical for a company of Asda's scale. “Some are the primary breadwinners in their families, so having regular work and feeling like they're in a reliable business is quite essential to them. For a second income, it takes a lot of effort. This is most likely a group of women who contribute to the family's income. There are a lot of young people, but there are also a lot of senior people that are very vital to the company.”
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