Connecting With Respect is Thriving at Johnsonville
Introduction
Respect has always been a key value within Johnsonville Sausage, a Wisconsin-headquartered company committed to excellence in every facet of sausage making. Respect is a key component of their Guiding Principles and one of their Supporting Values, which Johnsonville defines as: Respect, to show consideration for someone else as a person and to treat him or her as you would want to be treated, at all times.
Goals
Legacy Business Cultures started the Connecting with Respect workshops with Johnsonville in May 2013, after a pilot project. The pilot, along with internal discussions, led to launching the training company-wide. Johnsonville set an aggressive goal of having 80 percent of their 1,400 members (i.e. employees) participate during the first year. With the final classes scheduled for December, they will have exceeded their goal, with 85 percent of the members from locations in Kansas, Wisconsin, regional sales members throughout the United States, as well as members from Japan, France and China completing the respect curriculum.
Legacy Business Cultures started the Connecting with Respect® workshops with Johnsonville in May 2013, after a pilot project. The pilot, along with internal discussions, led to launching the training company-wide. Johnsonville set an aggressive goal of having 80 percent of their 1,400 members (i.e. employees) participate during the first year. With the final classes scheduled for December, they will have exceeded their goal, with 85 percent of the members from locations in Kansas, Wisconsin, regional sales members throughout the United States, as well as members from Japan, France and China completing the respect curriculum.
About Johnsonville Sausage
Wisconsin-based Johnsonville Sausage is the No. 1 national brand of brats, Italian sausage, smoked-cooked links and fresh breakfast sausage links. Johnsonville employs approximately 1,400 members. Each member takes ownership of product quality to ensure the excellence and “Big Flavor” of Johnsonville Sausage. Founded in 1945 by the late Ralph F. and Alice Stayer, the company remains privately owned today.
Our Approach
According to Deron Poisson, learning management system administrator and facilitator at Johnsonville, “We have had members from our global headquarters, manufacturing, sales and international locations participate in Connecting With Respect and the interaction has been amazing. “Many of our teams have taken their Codes of Cooperation (a written commitment to actively engage in respectful behaviors) and posted them in common areas as a reminder of what they committed to during class. This workshop, like no other we have experienced, has made a very positive impact on our members.” Poisson also noted that respect has its own universal language and the road to respect module from the workshop really defines how each of us learned about respect and the behaviors we take as life lessons. “We have a very diverse workforce at Johnsonville, and we were focused on not making our workshop about diversity, but about treating everyone with respect to achieve a much higher level of understanding and acceptance.”
Results
Johnsonville members represent many cultures and ethnicities, and everyone throughout the organization participated in the workshops together. The workshops were offered in both English and Spanish, and some members were paired with multilingual associates during the training. In the future, Johnsonville plans to have additional workshops with simultaneous translation during the facilitation.
“Connecting with Respect has been a tremendous success with our organization,” said Poisson. “One of our members said that before the workshop he had not received any positive feedback and then one of his colleagues candidly said to him: ‘I really respect and admire your work and what you are doing with the rest of the team.’ (This was after that colleague attended the workshop and it seems like this is happening more and more in every area of Johnsonville.) We are seeing throughout the company that Connecting with Respect has made what was already an excellent Johnsonville culture even better!”
