leadingtoday.org
Copyright 2004ã weLEAD, Inc.

Recently Fortune Magazine announced its
annual ranking of the best
How does an organization achieve this prestigious
award? It starts with a survey of more than 46,000 randomly selected employees
from 304 candidate companies. Additionally, the companies are also asked to
fill out questionnaires on their people
practices, philosophies, and policies. Yet, employee opinions are given
two-thirds of the weight in the scoring. This award for the J. M. Smucker
Company was not totally unexpected since it has been on Fortune’s rating of the
100 Best Companies to Work For since
the list first began in 1998. In 2002 the organization rated eighth in the
nation. What qualities were mentioned by employees and others that set apart
this fine organization to earn this distinction? Here are a few…
There are extensive employee training programs and appreciation. The J. M. Smucker Company believes in continuous employee training averaging 70 hours a year per
employee! On top of this, a strong effort is made to show genuine appreciation
to all employees including holiday gifts, thank-you luncheons, celebratory
barbecues for hitting production targets, summer picnics and an annual catered
lunch. To smooth the recent acquisitions, the company held picnics for the
employees at Jif and Crisco to make them feel welcome and part of the Smucker
family. Spokeswoman Brenda Dempsey commented, “We can point to a lot of the
specifics, but when we come right down to it, it’s more the feeling and culture
of the company and the great camaraderie that we have that make this a great
place to work”.
Benefits are not lavish – but competitive. J.M. Smucker offers competitive wages and benefits. These include health,
disability, and life insurance, a 401 (k) plan and pensions. However, they
don’t offer avant-garde perks offered by some of the newer high technology
companies. Richard Smucker stated, “We don’t have pet sitting. We don’t have
massages. We believe that people come to work for a company because of their
fellow employees and because of the atmosphere it provides”. The company has
never had layoffs!
Kindness and respect are company priorities. Richard Smucker, president and co-CEO attributed the recognition to his
great grandfather who founded the company. It’s “the concept of treating people
the way you want to be treated…the golden rule”. The J. M. Smucker Company
maintains a team-based attitude and structure about management. Employees are
not simply responsible for their own area but must share responsibility for
everything around them.
It is interesting to note that many of these
organizational traits have been discussed in past issues of weLEAD Online Magazine and our “Leadership Tip
of the Month” section. How many of these qualities do you find in your present
organization?
For weLEAD,
this is Greg Thomas reminding you that it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote, “Activity is contagious”.
To learn more about leadership go to the weLEAD
Home Page!