bake - September/October 2024 - 32

bread in house for the deli. Today, the artisanal retail
and wholesale bakery and baking school is co-managed
by Amy Emberling and Jaison Restrick.
At the RBA Roadshow, Emberling shared how you
can really make a difference with staff engagement. The
key to this is servant leadership, which prioritizes the
well-being and growth of employees and the community,
rather than simply money. Instead of thinking of
the organization as a top-down approach starting with
CEOs and managers, the servant leadership model starts
with customers, then front line staff and supervisors,
with managers and CEOs at the bottom.
According to Emberling, there are six responsibilities
of an effective servant leader: provide vision, give great
service to staff, manage in an ethical manner, learn and
teach, help staff succeed and say thanks. Zingerman's
founders wanted to invite everyone to help run the
business and convey that every person was responsible
for its success. Their goal was to build an organization
where decisions would not be based on who had the
most authority but on whoever had the most relevant
information.
Training is a critical step in this process, putting staff
on the right path to success. As part of the Training
Compact, a trainer agrees to document clear performance
expectations, provide training resources, recognize and
reward performance, while the trainee agrees to take
responsibility for the effectiveness of their training.
Communication is also important. The company regularly
conducts open meetings and staff surveys to gauge
how things are going and if there's anything that can be
done more effectively. Benefits of great staff engagement
include better work and decisions, improved bottom
line, reduced turnover, increased average tenure, higher
morale, more fun and less stress for managers.
Zingerman's Community of Businesses has an extra
Above: Sweet Heather
Anne specializes in
artistic wedding and
milestone event cakes.
Staff engagement
Zingerman's Delicatessen opened on March 15, 1982.
Since that time, it has become an Ann Arbor institution
and one of the country's leading specialty food stores.
This success has helped it to grow into the Zingerman's
Community of Businesses, which employs over 700
full-time and part-time people. Around the December
holidays, that number can swell to nearly 1,000.
One significant piece of the Zingerman's puzzle is the
Bakehouse. It was founded in 1992 by Frank Carollo and
Zingerman's Delicatessen founders Ari Weinzweig and
Paul Saginaw, with the intention of baking their own
32 < SEP-OCT 2024 | bakemag.com
level of incentive, as it has been employee-owned since
2017. This fosters the emotional and spiritual benefit of
actual ownership. It allows employees to share in the
reward, risk, responsibility and opportunity of an owner.
Ultimately, it creates more opportunity for cross-business
inspiration and innovation.
Zingerman's overall model of staff engagement may
not be the best fit for every organization. Implementation
can be a big cultural shift for employees. It also requires
learning, development, time and effort, which can be a
significant opportunity cost. It also creates high culture
expectations from staff, which can be difficult to maintain.
BRIAN AMICK
http://www.bakemag.com
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