Employees first?

I thought this comment by "Kundalini" to an earlier post deserved more prominence:

My understanding is that Sainsbury have effectively lost their staff.

Recent staff surveys suggest that morale has collapsed, at least in part due to the mismanagement of recent years.

Huge wage packets for board members including those who have clearly underperformed, fancy adverts with Jamie Oliver, combined with uncompetitive salaries and incentives for employees, is a losing combination if ever I saw one.

The service profit chain theory suggests that Sainsbury are in deep trouble.

Tesco, in comparison, have done a great deal of work in the area of employee insight, creating an employee value proposition that is flexible enough to appeal to the different segments of their workforce.

Something that Sainsbury might like to investigate.

Get your employees to believe first, then you may get the opportunity to implement the changes required to improve the stores, which should in time lead to a better atmosphere and increased sales.

Any attempts to make changes while the staff detest the leadership are unlikely to be a success as anyone accustomed to the world of change management would know.

I'm afraid the advertising side of things probably needs to wait until the basics have been sorted out.

If staff turnover is high relative to competitors Sainsbury will simply not be able to put in place the sort of changes in the timescale demanded.

It would be interesting to hear of other people's experiences.  I know that I believe it's vital to give priority to staff.  Look after the staff and the staff will look after the customers.  My own sense visiting my local Sainsbury's is that many of the workers are a bit demoralised.  And I agree with Kundalini, advertising should be a lower priority.