Best Buy has twelve hundred stores and the employees with the Blue Shirts are sales associates. Ashley Hemsath, a Blue Shirt at Best Buy along with many others is part of blueshirtnation.com which is an internal community site for Best Buy's employees. Ashley, one of the sites leading contributors wrote,
"I work retail. I inspire creativity and fun with my employees. I grand open stores, as many as possible, really. And I have never before loved a job and company the way I love this one. My name is Ashley Hemsath, and I am Best Buy."
Ashley has passion for her company and is able to share her thoughts (negative or positive) about the company on this website. Li and Bernoff would refer to this as energizing your employees and allowing them to participate in the groundswell.
"Blue Shirt Nation" was started by two guys from the marketing department, Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling, who wanted to gather consumer insight. Steve and Gary believe, "Best Buy's Blue Shirts are on the front lines and have, collectively, a lot of insight into what's really working at the stores." For this reason Steve and Gary decided to give them a voice through this online community.
Li and Bernoff believe internal sites such as Blue Shirt Nation can build relationships with employees and managers and vice-versa, leading to a more open-minded and goal oriented work place. Back in Chapter 4, Li and Bernoff explain the importance of listening, talking, energizing, and embracing your customers, the same goes for employees.
Starting a strong groundswell from within can expand relationships with employees from top to bottom and can have a huge impact on your company. Start from within and expand with the knowledge Li and Bernoff have provided. With the information from Groundswell and the desire for success... you are well on your way of grasping you or your companies full potential.
What are you waiting for?
~ Heidi
~ Heidi
What I'd be interested to know is what else Best Buy has to offer. Although I'm sure being a Blue Shirt is a good and often times fun job, I feel that there must be more to Best Buy that allows their employees like Ashley to leave such strong, positive comments. Energizing the groundswell is good, but it is unlikely that it is the only thing that is encouraging such positive responses.
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