“You can”™t make Stew Leonard”™s a great place to shop without first making it a great place to work,” said Stew Leonard Jr. It”™s a phrase he”™s used before during the past seven years that Fortune magazine has recognized the family-owned chain of food stores as one of the 100 best places to work in the country ”“ No. 26 on the annual list this year.
“That surprised me, actually,” Leonard said of the jump to 26 from 51 a year earlier. “We”™ve been losing our rating a little bit as the listing gets more competitive.” But “we did a lot of training last year and we opened the store in Newington. A lot of people were promoted, and a lot more opportunity was created.”
That in part helps explain why Stew Leonard”™s was one of three Connecticut companies to make the tenth annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list in today”™s issue of Fortune. The other two are Griffin Hospital in Derby at No. 49 and its ninth time on the lsit, and, for the first time, FactSet Research Systems at 52 and headquartered in Norwalk, as is Stew Leonard”™s.
Stew Leonard”™s also ranked 7th on the short list of 21 companies that pay 100 percent of health benefits for its employees; 10th for its employment of minorities (tied at 45 percent of its workforce with Whole Foods Market); No. 54 for its population of women employees; 62nd of the 100 for its average annual cash bonus of $4,500; and 66th for its pay scales ”“ $63,842 for store manager.
Leonard said that two-thirds of the ranking score is based on confidential surveys Fortune sends to employees. “They ask 57 questions about what you think about working at the company,” he said.
The anonymous responses are tabulated and sent to the employer. “From those results,” said Jill Leonard Tavello, Stew”™s sister and vice president of culture and communication, “we look at our company and see how we rated in comparison with the other 99 companies on the list.” More than that, the results provide insight about where improvements in management can be made.
This survey, for example, included a chunk of younger employees at Stew Leonard”™s four stores ”“ in Norwalk, Danbury and Newington and Yonkers, N.Y. “What we”™re looking at is a new generation of workers starting at the store, the Millenniums, they call them,” Leonard said. That group is technologically savvy, cell phone and text messaging focused, and “want the antithesis of the 1950s and 60s IBM corporate-structured work environment,” he said. “They have more fun at work, are just more casual, looser. It”™s blue jeans, have a coffee and let”™s discuss an idea. And they all want to be the CEO by next week.”
Instead of trying to force this new generation of workers to conform to the existing management style, management is studying ways to help the newcomers fit into an adjusted management ”“ one of the results of the Fortune survey. “We”™re evaluating our management style to make sure it”™s more compatible with the Millenniums,” he said.
A flexible management style is just one aspect why Stew Leonard”™s has been bouncing around the top 100 list of great places to work for the past seven years. “I think it all starts with the hiring process,” Leonard said. “The people doing the interviewing all have 10 to 20 years experience at Stew Leonard”™s. They all started out on the floor working in the bakeries, the meat department, as cashiers. So what they”™re looking for is a good attitude. Some people, when you ask them about the weather, will say ”˜Isn”™t that a beautiful snow that came down last night.”™ Others will tell you all about the problems it caused them. We”™re looking for people with good attitudes and a perspective on things.”
In-house surveys
Fifteen years ago the family business started in-house surveys to help improve operations and working conditions, said Tavello. “When we summarized the report, five things popped out as us as the most important,” she said. “We concentrate on these five things every year because we know we can create a great place to work if we do this.”
The five are:
1. Appreciating the employees:
Stew Leonard”™s corporate culture is one of constant, ongoing and positive recognition of employees and their efforts. “We have a lot of programs like Super Star of the Month and appreciation dinners at restaurants happening on a regular basis,” Tavello said. For example, “the meat department manager will take out the whole department to a restaurant like The Cookhouse in Darien or Brew House in South Norwalk; nice restaurants.” During the dinner “the manager will speak about each person and say what he appreciates about them.”
“If we get a note from a customer, we read the note at our regular monthly meeting called Low Downs where we take everybody out of the store for 15 minutes ”“ except the cashiers ”“ and update everybody on what”™s happening.”
In short, “we have a lot of recognition,” Tavello said. And just about anything good or noteworthy about an employee is fodder for recognition ”“ anniversaries, birthdays, promotions. The bimonthly company newsletter, Stew”™s News ”“ Inc Magazine called it “the ultimate company newsletter” ”“ has more than 500 photographs and stories and anecdotes about employees jammed into its 60-plus pages. “We fill it with stories and appreciation for our people,” she said.
2. Good pay and benefits:
Fortune made special note of the 21 companies on the list of 100 that pay 100 percent of its full-time employees’ health benefits, ranking Stew Leonard”™s 7 of the 21, while the chain ranked 66 on the list for its pay scales. “We do compensation surveys to see what the position is paying out in the market, then we try to do better than that,” Tavello said. The higher wages and better benefits “help us to hire the best people.”
3. Creating job opportunities and growth:
“If somebody comes into the business, they don”™t want to be a cashier for the rest of their lives.” Tavello said. “We have a lot of training programs in place to allow people to see how they can grow ”“ from pushing carts outside to inside in the grocery department to team leader to assistant manager to manager. We have training happening throughout the year so we can continually train people so they have the best skills to move up.”
In fact, 85 percent of Stew Leonard”™s management has been promoted from within. “Fortune always grabs that number because it is so high,” she said.
4. Communication, communication, communication:
“People want to know what”™s going on, what”™s happening in the business,” Tavello said. To help keep employees up to date, the business distributes a daily newspaper with the latest company news and information like birthdays, conducts monthly communication meetings within departments, and has an in-house Internet with the latest news. “They don”™t want to hear it from somebody else, so day by day by day you cannot do enough ”“ even if you”™re only thinking about it.”
The Yonkers store, for example, recently did away with its smoking cafeteria ”“ it also had a separate, nonsmoking cafeteria ”“ creating a place outdoors for employees who need to smoke. The Newington store opened as nonsmoking to conform with state law for new buildings, but “we don”™t know about Danbury and Norwalk,” she said. “People want to know what we”™re thinking and they can flip out about something like that.”
5. Creating pride and fun:
“People don”™t want to just come to work that”™s boring and the same every day,” Tavello said, “so we put a lot of emphasis into celebrations, like a quick pizza party and a big summer picnic for each store.”
And because “pride comes from what you do in the community, people want to know that you”™re active in the community, giving back.” Store employees bring food to homeless shelters, collect clothes for clothing drives and find other ways to give while the store works with organizations and schools to create a bridge into the community, she said. “Even being on the Fortune 100 list creates pride.”
 In short, “I think everyone knows we want to create a company that people want to come work at,” Leonard said. “You”™re not going to get good customer service if you have a bunch of grumpy people walking around.”
