Building a Winning Team
Last year, an eight-person core employee group at Plymouth, Wis.-based Sargento Foods, Inc. set out to answer a burning company question: "What to do about that pesky cheese trim?"
While ruminating on uses for excess cheese might sound like an odd special interest, it was actually the charge of one of Sargento's Persnickety Action Teams – a core group of employees who are given the responsibility of solving many of the company's operational issues. Each action team is task-based (be it cheese falloff, hiring practices, plant layout or other manufacturing concerns) and culls employees from various interested departments.
The program, says Barbara Gannon, vice president of corporate marketing communications, was created nearly 11 years ago at Sargento borne from the premise that a huge decision-making power rests in the minds and hands of company employees.
"People who are doing a specific job, for example, working on a production line, are better equipped to deal with problems that come up than those of us who sit in offices all day," Gannon says. "The program gives employees leadership and team training. It allows them to approach problems themselves as a work group and make recommendations to management."
In the case of the cheese trim, the excess product thrown off in the shredding process, the Persnickety Action Team did more than make a recommendation. Ideas generated from the trim team allowed the company to use more than 90 percent of the excess as an essential ingredient in Sargento Cheese Sauce. The solution resulted in more than $100,000 in cost savings to the company.
In addition, the savings could be dwarfed by sales of the company's new cheese sauce. The product began its test market in Wisconsin in January. The excess cheese trim is the sauce's main ingredient.
"If the sauce is received well, we'll distribute [it] in other parts of the country," Gannon says.
Sargento has developed a forward-thinking corporate tradition since Leonard Gentine Sr. founded the company in 1953. When Gentine identified an unmet demand for specialty cheese (he owned and operated a cheese shop prior to starting Sargento), his experience as a machinist allowed him to adjust a pasta machine so he could produce and package shredded cheese for the public, and he became the first cheese marketer to do so. In 1986, the company pioneered the manufacturing of re-sealable cheese packaging.
"We have an innovative spirit," Gannon says. "We believe that's what sets us apart from other cheese companies." She adds that Sargento's worldwide net sales totaled $484 million in 2001.
Employee involvement is not only limited to operational improvements at Sargento. When the 1,300-employee company set out to design a new plant in Kiel, Wis., Sargento turned to its existing plant workers to get the job done. Company employees worked with an architecture firm to make the plant more efficient, while production lines were also restructured and employees reorganized. The state-of-the-art plant opened in 1993.
Sargento has a number of other wide-reaching employee practices. Workers can use "praise cards" to thank another employee who, for example, helped them solve a technical problem in production. The company holds semi-annual company retreats and an annual holiday party, all planned and executed by employees. Sargento also provides between one and five days of paid time away from work to volunteer for causes like Habitat for Humanity, March of Dimes and breast cancer research.
Last month, the company recently held a "jeans day" event where anyone who wanted to wear jeans in the office could bring a $5 donation for the March of Dimes. Gannon estimates the program amassed between $600 and $800, and raised a lot more than just funds.
"That type of event is something fun for employees to do and it also benefits a charity at the same time," she says.
Gannon admits there is some upfront cost to such an extensive employee-involvement philosophy (the company is privately held, and she declined to offer specific figures). But she says the company's focus on team building and involvement will always be a core corporate value that will continue to produce tangible results.
"The savings that are generated by our action teams, if you add them all up, that amount far exceeds what we're spending on training."
Company: Sargento Foods, Inc.
Website: www.sargento.com
Industry: Food
Location: Keil, Wis.
Number of employees: 1,300
Sales: N/A
