Best Practices from Best Buy

By Joan Leotta

Where do a company's best ideas for inclusion come from? At Best Buy, one of the nation's leading technology retailers, innovations sprout from any source with ties to the company, be they managers, employees, or even customers. Despite its great size—the chain employees over 140,000 people, operates more than 1,200 retail stores, and does $36 billion dollars in sales annually—Best Buy leaders insure that inclusion ideas are quickly put into practice, giving this gadget giant the agility of a small startup.

How Best Buy Includes Everyone

When Jodi Julseth, Best Buy Human Resources Manager, first started with the company, in 2004, an individual on her team disclosed a learning disability. As Julseth got to know this employee and her performance goals, Julseth realized that the employee had been using skills that did not take advantages of her personal strengths, and was duplicating a service provided by a cleaning service. Three words spoken in their weekly status meeting became pivotal—“No man's land.” These words described past work experiences where the employee felt isolated from her team and peers. Julseth became inspired at that moment to focus on the woman's abilities and find tasks that would energize the individual. The employee then performed above and beyond expectations. Once that employee's job was reshaped, the strategic vision of Include took hold.

In June 2006, Julseth created and founded an Employee Resource Group (an affinity group) called Include. Best Buy's seven affinity groups attempt to further the interests of both employees and the company as a whole by effecting change in the company. Include's mission is to foster a more inclusive work environment where all employees feel a level of confidence, support, and belonging that allows them to maximize their full potential by focusing on their abilities. Include is an initiative that aims to bring everyone involved with Best Buy, from customers to employees, family and the community into the process of shaping inclusion practices.

Julseth continues to champion the program, which turns grassroots ideas into company policy and innovation. Says Julseth, “Within three months of Include's launch, store employees were actively writing to this group's email address to share ideas and observations.”

In the beginning stages, ideas weren't enough; action made the difference. Include prides itself on quick action. When emails detailing particular issues came in, the group would quickly share and network the proposed suggested solutions to both retail and corporate business teams.

“We are a strength-based organization,” says Julseth. “We look at [employees' and customers'] abilities and experience. This translates into a huge advantage for the company.”

Include Successes

“This type of collaboration between corporate and retail became commonplace for this disability network group,” Julseth continues. Word of the group's quick solutions spread throughout the company and leadership realized the impact these solutions could have on increasing the company's market share. Says Julseth, “Executives took notice. They began to tell the(success) stories at large venues and weaved (the stories) in our corporate philosophies, business strategies, and even the company's mission statement.”

In the short life of the program, Best Buy has implemented over thirty Include solutions. These include a policy to cover hearing aids in the company health program and increasing the number of ergonomic assessments in the workplace. Julseth reports that the new year already has forty projects “in the hopper”, with eleven of those focusing on the customer.

An early Include idea originated from a customer interaction. A customer asked to view the closed captioning option from the store's pre-recorded video. Julseth says, “All the stores are required to use a certain pre-recorded program for viewing in the home theater. Within thirty days a closed captioning solution was in all of stores with no additional cost to the company's bottom-line. The enhancement “fix” was communicated in the store newsletter. This informed the stores about the specific change and let them know that we had launched a new way for them to help us serve our customer and employee communities.” Include made sure to give credit to the person who brought forward the idea. “That became the inspiration for other stores to bring ideas to us,” Julseth relates.

Another change, one that involved more complex action, took place at the Frederick, Maryland store. Because that location is situated near the Maryland School for the Deaf, the store employees and management aspired to become more involved in the Deaf community and support the school. Six of the store's employees know how to sign. Deaf awareness education and sign language instruction are now part of that location's New Employee Training Program. The store also created a website, www.bestbuyfrederick.com, to inform customers about the coverage by ASL-trained associates.

This training at the Frederick store also demonstrates the company's commitment to community involvement. The retailer actively solicits ideas from local schools and community groups on how to improve the technology shopping experience for customers with disabilities. A similar community partnership exists near Best Buy headquarters in Richfield, Minnesota. Relates Julseth, “ Minnesota Life College is a vocational program that teaches life skills for young adults with learning disabilities. We are working on internships for students from that school at Best Buy's corporate office. We have already successfully hired one student in what he describes as his ‘dream job.'”

Why Include

Why implement a program like Include? Such a welcoming approach may seem anathema to the typical bottom-line mentality of big businesses. But, notes Julseth, “Our work to introduce innovations to help customers and employees with disabilities is not totally altruistic. We know that the business that is first to bring any innovation to market gains the most from it, often through the loyalty of the customers most grateful for the change. In addition, when employees are valued for their talents, ideas and innovative approaches, they will come to work more authentic, as their whole selves.”

Include the Future

Now that Include has enjoyed some early successes, the affinity group must look to the future. Julseth's goals for Include are threefold:

• to create a Diversity Business Council, anchored in business, that brings together diverse experiences and strategies to affect change and inclusiveness;
• to use disability resources and innovations to close gaps in the workforce and marketplace, resulting in growth, profitability and a competitive advantage; and
• to realize a vision in which every employee and customer benefits from inclusion.

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner.