Listening is important for engagement, too. We want to be famous for exceptional service, so employees need to understand that our customers develop their opinions of great service from all the companies they interact with, not just companies like ours. That customer is comparing us to the ease of doing business with Amazon or the responsiveness and efficiency of an Apple store. We also make sure our employees understand that when a customer comes to Pioneer, he or she isn’t just comparing us to another landscape materials supplier. Our customers are busy, and they need to rely on us to help get the job done. That perspective helps to foster a service-centric culture, with high availability of quality products, rapid in-store order fulfillment, and on-time delivery at the core. Instead, we see ourselves as a distribution company that just happens to sell landscaping materials. If they understand the “why” – the reasons behind a decision – they’re more likely to engage in the “what” – the change at hand.įor example, we don’t see ourselves as a landscape materials retailer. We strive to provide context and to make sure our employees understand our company and our strategy. On the communications front, when I came on board, we started bi-weekly emails from the president and more formal meetings. That’s why we’ve made employee communication and rewards a priority. Paul: To get people to care about your company, you need to demonstrate that you care about them. CB: How did you encourage employee engagement? Then, when we listen to their suggestions or implement employees’ ideas, everyone knows the Senior Leadership Team is committed to making Pioneer better for our people and our customers. This helps to create a culture of change across all parts of the business. We tell people it’s OK to be wrong from time to time as long as we are still headed in the right direction. Our company averages six to 10 days of training per employee per year, so our people know how to succeed in their jobs.įinally, we model behavior that lets employees know it’s OK to challenge the way things are done, recommend new ideas, and even make mistakes. We also give our employees ample training. Pioneer is an exclusive club, and that is how we behave. When it comes to capability, we’re now more diligent in creating detailed job descriptions, and we are far more discerning in our recruitment efforts. Own your 50% and tell us what else, or who else, is needed. It’s not enough to point and say, “That is an issue.” At Pioneer, we expect people to point out issues and to do their part to fix them. On the accountability front, we ask each person in the company to own their 50%. We’ve also socialized the idea of an ACE culture, where ACE stands for “ accountability, capability, and engagement.” We want them to tell us what’s working and what needs to change. They’re the ones face-to-face with our customers, so what they say and do matters most. And we listen to our people in the field. Their role is to support their employees, and so on. The first change we had to implement was the understanding that Pioneer is no longer a top-down organization. We also began changing Pioneer’s culture to one where people were invited to continuously question the status quo before asking employees to embrace new systems or implement processes they’d never done before. That’s why my team and I worked hard to explain the “why” behind our decisions. Paul Tudor: I believe that context at all levels provides clarity, focus, and commitment. CIO Bulletin: You’ve rolled out a lot of technology that changed people’s jobs. We asked Tudor how he brought those qualities out among his team. It had to be done through inspiration that fosters engagement, enthusiasm, and empowerment. It was also something Tudor knew he couldn’t achieve through company directives and rewards alone. The transformation that Tudor initiated at Pioneer required significant shifts in employee attitudes and actions. What’s more, he refocused the company on its core customer: the small-to-medium landscaping professional who visits a Pioneer store several times a week. Tudor targeted IT investments to achieve one primary goal: Make it easier for employees to deliver an exceptional customer experience. And the word customer was rarely part of the leadership’s conversations. The IT systems that did exist were not integrated, leaving employees in stores unable to see nearby inventory or fleet availability for deliveries. These folks really invest in IT and customer service.” But they do because of company president Paul Tudor, who took the helm in mid-2019.Īt that time, the company was transitioning from being a family-owned business with mostly manual processes that hadn’t changed much over the years. Pioneer Landscape Centers mostly sell rock, much of it extracted from the company’s own quarries across Arizona and Colorado, so most people wouldn’t look at this retailer and think, “Wow.
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