Team players help make workplace safe, productive
Giving workers more input keeps morale high
Supermarket employees who rank as having a high level of teamwork are less likely to practice unsafe work behavior, miss work without an excuse or call in sick, according to the "Seventh Annual Report of Supermarket Employees."
The survey, which was conducted by Purdue University for the Washington, DC-based Food Marketing Institute and McGraw-Hill/London House in Rosemont, IL, questioned 874 supermarket employees, each chosen at random and each representing a separate store.
Based on their responses to team-oriented questions, 72% of the respondents received average to above-average teamwork orientation for:
• going out of their way to help co-workers and customers;
• making suggestions to improve work processes;
• helping to make decisions on the job;
• developing relationships with co-workers.
However, based on their own admissions, employees classified as poor team players were:
• five times more likely to help a co-worker take company merchandise;
• 57% less likely to go out of the way to help a customer;
• 33% less likely to believe they could achieve career goals within the company;
• 38% less likely to spend the rest of their career with the company.
"These findings highlight the impact of employee behavior on company productivity," says Scott Martin, PhD, senior director of research and development at McGraw-Hill/London House. "Employees who tend to be more satis-fied with their jobs also tend to be highly team oriented, customer oriented, and committed to their employer. Our results indicate that team oriented employees have different attitudes toward their employer and co-workers that can significantly impact how productive they are on the job."
The fact that these finding were self-reported does not diminish their significance, notes Charles I. Miller, CPP, CSP, vice president of loss prevention services at the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). "It was employee-reported, but the identity of the respondents was kept anonymous, so there was no reason for participants to say something that was untrue," he says. In addition, Miller says, it had been demonstrated in past FMI surveys that when respondents were told the survey was created by Purdue University, they tended to give more candid responses.
Creating a winning culture
Another key finding of the survey was that organizational culture can have a significant impact on employee behavior. These eight values were found to be highly related to employee attitudes and behavior:
• fairness with employees;
• caring and empathy;
• employee empowerment;
• career-enriching opportunities;
• equitable pay and benefits;
• accurate job-person matching;
• honesty and ethics;
• safe working conditions.
Of all of these values, employee empowerment may be the most important, Miller suggests. "I think that a person who is asked his or her opinion on problem-solving, who is asked to be involved with the objectives of the business, a company associate who plays a part in setting policies is going to be much more aware and observant of those policies and will just have a better feeling for themselves as well as the company," he says.
This is particularly important in the area of safety, Miller adds. "An employee will simply be more likely to follow the rules if they have a role in establishing what those rules are," he asserts.
Those companies that successfully engender a spirit of teamwork meet with employees on a regular basis and often have employees choose "team leaders" in stores and warehouses, says Miller. "They ask employees to identify their objectives, what they need in terms of quality, customer service, and cleanliness not only to meet health regulations but for an attractive store appearance. And they give employees continuous feedback on how well they are doing maybe even on a monthly basis."
That’s all well and good, says Martin, but that only addresses one half of the "Nature vs. Nurture" conundrum. "You’re looking at both [in employee behavior]," he argues. "There are some situational issues going on, and I’m not trying to minimize that, but it’s also true that there are people coming in to the work place with an awful lot of baggage."
In that case, what can an employer do to ensure he is hiring a team-oriented employee? Martin recommends that employers implement a selection process that screens for positive work-related attitudes.
[Editor’s note: For a free copy of "The Seventh Annual Report of Supermarket Employees," contact: McGraw-Hill London House, 9701 W. Higgins Road, Rosemont, IL 60018. Telephone: (800) 221-8378. Fax: (847) 292-3400. You can contact Charles I. Miller at: The Food Marketing Institute, 800 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20006. Telephone: (202) 429-8354. Fax: (202) 429-4554.]
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