{"id":11578,"date":"2013-12-12T08:40:33","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T08:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beyondphilosophy.com\/?p=11578"},"modified":"2019-09-12T04:28:11","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T08:28:11","slug":"which-organizations-are-setting-the-standard-on-employee-engagement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/which-organizations-are-setting-the-standard-on-employee-engagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Which Organizations Are Setting the Standard on Employee Engagement?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julian Richer, founder of Richer Sounds, the largest independent HiFi and TV store in the UK, recently set the bar extremely for C-level suite executives on how to improve employee engagement. He has set up his company in a trust that upon his death will roll over to his employees<\/a>. He is, in fact, giving them the business after he is gone.<\/p>\n

\"Setting<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked why he did this, Richer explained that the company was his life\u2019s work. With no children to leave it to, he believes that the ones who helped make it the success it is today should be the ones to have after his death. He believes with their leadership that his life\u2019s work will survive after he is gone.<\/p>\n

Richer Sounds is already one of the models of customer service excellence in the UK as well as an example of how to create real employee engagement. Now, it is designed to become employee owned. In fact, in the latest Which? Poll, a survey of over 14,000 people in the UK that ranks the top 100 companies for customer satisfaction based on customer\u2019s experiences, Richer Sounds got five out of five stars for both customer experience and price<\/a>, a rarity for the survey.<\/p>\n

\"Which<\/p>\n

Employee owned companies are rare in the UK, unlike the US where it is growing in popularity to build organizations based on this principle.<\/p>\n

But another example of a company that is making employee owned work for their experience is the John Lewis department stores throughout England. For those of you in the US who aren\u2019t familiar with this brand, this is a lot like Dillard\u2019s or Nordstrom. In addition to this retail line, they also have a supermarket chain called Waitrose.<\/p>\n

John Spedan Lewis, founder of the company, created the Partnership by signing away his personal ownership rights, establishing a company that was both commercial and democratic \u2013 and owned by the employees, who are referred to as Partners.\u00a0 He calls his Partnership program an industrial democracy experiment. He wanted the employees to have active involvement in the company\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

Just watch this video about what the employees think of Lewis\u2019s industrial democracy experiment:<\/p>\n