Listen to everyone in your company is one of Sam Walton’s 10 Rules for building a great business. One way we continue to build on his legacy of listening to our associates is through our global Associate Engagement Survey (AES). While this aspect of the Grass Roots process has evolved and improved over time, what has remained constant is its purpose: listening to our associates and continually finding ways to improve.
For more than five decades, our associates have served as the core ingredient to our success and growth. From our associates in the field to those working in our Home Offices, we use information gathered from the global AES and Grass Roots process to build highly engaged teams and foster a work environment that helps serve our customers.
In 2013, the survey was made available to all associates around the globe. More than 2 million participated in the survey, with a global participation rate of 88 percent. Even in challenging economic times, most business units and markets experienced notable improvements in engagement scores. Only a few experienced slight declines. However, most compared favorably to external benchmark results. Approximately four of five associates said they are proud to work for Walmart.
In addition to measuring associate engagement, the results represent the starting point for Grass Roots feedback sessions. In these sessions, managers and associates collaborate to create detailed action plans to address opportunities for improvement and identify strategies to raise and maintain engagement in their areas. In the U.S. alone, management implemented more than 16,000 action plans within three months of the results being made available. As a result of increases in action planning activity, we’ve seen a renewed focus on improving all factors that drive engagement.
Our management believes open communication is critical to understanding and meeting our associates’ and our customers’ needs. Associates can trust and rely on the Open Door, as it’s a cornerstone of our Walmart Culture.
From the beginning, Walmart has maintained an Open Door policy to provide our associates an avenue to express their ideas and concerns without fear of retaliation. As we’ve grown as a company, we’ve continued to evolve our Open Door to meet the needs of our associates.
In April 2011, we implemented the following three-step enhancement to our existing Open Door policy for all Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club, Logistics and Transportation associates:
This enhancement of the Open Door policy has been well-received, with the Open Door Helpline taking more than 28,000 calls from February 2013 through January 2014. This process continues to help us improve our business and bring closure to concerns in a timely manner, reinforcing our corporate culture and instilling Respect for the Individual.