I’m always inspired when I see how companies introduce employee experience in their routines. One of the most evident impacts is the adaptation of the workplace (we have all seen and/or used the same images in our conferences or lectures). However, beyond cool designed workplaces, what really touches me are the organizations who really BELIEVE in employee experience and integrate it in their DNA.
Some weeks ago, I was honoured to lecture in the Yucatan Fashion Summit “Desvestidos” (Undressed) which took place in Merida (Mexico). In the event, several retail professionals coming from both sides of the Atlantic exchanged perspectives in a fruitful experience. The day after, we visited a local maquila (factory) where the Lean system was sucessfully implemented. The name of the maquila was Ganso Azul (Blue Goose) and it had a team of 650 coworkers. Yes, the Lean system was impeccably implemented but, in fact, I was more fascinated by the human centric approach I discovered in every corner of the organization. The core business of Ganso Azul is the production of first quality uniforms for security teams which are distributed by its commercial alter ego, Blauer. Some years ago, before concepts as “employee experience” or “human centric organization” existed, Ganso Azul’s alma mater, Claudia Martinez, together with her super team and her partners, the Blauer family, decided that the company priorities would be the wellbeing of its co-workers and the positive impact that the organization could make on the community. And results would come afterwards.
At every step I took during my visit, I could find all the elements of the perfect employee experience explained with spontaneous easiness: free transportation, nursing room with equipment to pump and keep breast milk, free medical service (also offering routine tests to improve work-life balance), cafeteria with TV (where more than 250 kgs of tortillas are served daily), individual lockers, grown-ups literacy sessions, birthday gift, recognition programme, on boarding sessions (at the “escuelita” –little school-), celebration of every single holiday (when we visited the premises they were busy preparing heart-shaped lollipops for Valentine’s Day to be given to each coworker), team empowerment to keep the daily goals tracking, no-walls HR area with a team always available (even via Whatsapp), background music made upon coworkers requests, etc.
The fact of visualizing a real example of an organization honestly commited with its community (beginning with the commitment towards its coworkers) made me wow ten times more than all the workplace examples we post in Linkedin. It’s the power of the honest employee experience.
