creating a great place to work - OC Tanner

?What makes The Container Store extraordinary? Our employees.?? Kip Tindell

I recently wrote about the importance of authentic leaders in building a trust-based environment. I?m live-blogging this week from the Great Place to Work Annual Conference?and yesterday, as I listened to Kip Tindell, CEO of The Container Store, it was affirming to truly see these principles in action.

Kip leads one of the nation?s most successful retail organizations, the ?original storage and organizational store.? He made it very clear that the differentiator for The Container Store is 100 percent its people. His philosophy since he started the company in 1978 holds true: create an organization where everyone thrives and you win. That means treating your employees, the community, vendors, and your customers with respect and dignity. [Here?s a fun fact: Kip was college roommates with John Mackey, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market and author of Conscious Capitalism?what did they talk about?].

So what?s Kip?s formula for success? It?s simple, empowering, and very human. Love (yes, love) your people and run the business on the basis of 7 foundational principles. Agree where you want to end up, but empower employees or, as he says, ?unleash the creative genius of each individual to figure out the best means to the end.? Here are three of the seven principles that contribute to making The Container Store a Great Place to Work:

• One great person is equal to three good people in terms of business productivity. ?Not surprisingly, turnover at The Container Store is in the single digits. Hiring is one of the most important things done because it?s all about building teams of excellence, choosing the right people to work together every day. This is supported by a payroll philosophy of compensating great people well. ?If you truly take better care of the employee, they?ll take care of the customer better than anyone else.? That translates into paying 50-100 percent above industry average for those who work directly with the customer. It also means that they only hire about 2-3 percent of people that apply because they believe so strongly in the need to find the very best. Once that great employee is found, they are continually nurtured, developed, and trained.

• Communication is leadership. ?We believe in practicing consistent, reliable, predictable, effective, thoughtful, compassionate, and courteous communication every single day,? said Kip. The more you communicate, the more people feel a part of something. Transparency, as never before, is essential for companies looking to lead out.

• Air of excitement. Have you ever been to The Container Store? There is something different you can sense when you walk in, even if you can?t put your finger on it. ?Employees want to be there, customers want to be there. It feels fun and inviting. Kip shared the story of Cale, an employee in the distribution center. He was working on a line, packing boxes with his team and having fun. Cale remarked that ?Every day is a joy to come into work.? It was fun to watch the video as you got a sense of what Cale and all employees feel: cared for, respected, and celebrated.

What about employee celebrations? Every Valentine?s Day the company celebrates with ?We Love Our Employees Day.? Last year, their ?Share a Hug? contest resulted in 2,500 love notes sent to employees around the country. And, every year a gala event celebrates employees who have been with the company for 10 years or more. Connections to the organization are deepened further as each honoree and their family members talk about what The Container Store means to all of them.

Here?s an organization that treats?employees?like family, encourages hiring family, and during the past recession was able to avoid layoffs.

?The result,? Kip concluded, ?is that trust in the company and leadership is high. We have low turnover, customers receiving great service, there is an emotional connection with our brand, and people voting with their pocketbooks.? When everyone thrives, you know you have a model for success.

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Source: http://www.octanner.com/blog/2013/04/creating-a-great-place-to-work/

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