I am so grateful to work with owners of a company who truly value their employees and really do walk the talk of trust, respect and offering a path of empowerment and responsibility for each of us.
Hassett Hardware now has approximately 150 employees, all of whom are considered family from the moment they start. There is really only one rule at the company: Follow the Core Values.
Four members of the Hassett team just attended a culture event based around best practices for ACE Hardware store managers. Two of us, myself included, presented to the group on Telling Your Story - The Importance of Meaningful Content and Interviewing, Hiring and Training. Both of these presentations focused on the importance we place at Hassett on basing all of our decisions on culture and our core values.
We got some pushback from the managers in the room, wondering how we give so much freedom and responsibility to our front-line staff (cashiers, sales associates) right from the day they start. We pointed out that that was part of our culture. We need to trust others in order to gain their trust. It's a neat little circle that pays off wonders when entered into with clear intentions and a system to back it up.
We were surprised to learn that most other owners don't offer up that same trust or freedom, much less support of our individuality (some of us have brightly-colored hair, others of us dress a bit like a hippie) and creative ideas.
I had a great conversation with one of the owners last week about the importance of failing. For if we don't fail at all, that means we also haven't tried at all. And at Hassett, we believe in all of it: trying, failing, succeeding, supporting, trusting and working towards a larger goal, a larger purpose of making the world a better place by offering kindness and genuine respect to each other and to those who come into our stores.
Thank you Eric and Richard for your vision and your support!
- Jocelyn Lovelle
One of the things I love about this question is the managers always have something to say, and they often have more than one story they want to share. It's one thing to talk about core values and creating intentional company culture. It's another thing entirely to live and breathe it, day in and day out, and each week have something tangible to share with others that walks the talk of integrity, or great customer awareness or being results driven (just a few of our core values).
