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Best Buy
Overview
Best Buy was found in 1966 as the sound of Music Store and by 1970, it had reached the $1 million dollar mark in its annual revenues. By 1995, this incredible company had made its way amongst the Fortune 500 companies. As if this was not enough, it was named by Forbes magazine as a company of the year, nine years later. Currently, Best Buy operates over 1000 retail stores that account for over 70% of its revenues. The rest of the companies over $49 billion in annual sales stems from an additional nine divisions. This one of a kind company has more than 100,000 employees in its various branches in Mexico, USA, China and Europe. Its corporate headquarters are located in Richfield, Minnesota. 1.5% of the company’s pre-taxed profits are usually donated to nonprofit organizations. In 2009 alone, it invested over $39 million for this cause.
How Best Buy can create Hands-On Experience to train its Employees on the Inclusion Of People with Disabilities
Best Buy could create a hands-on experience to train its employees on the inclusion of people with disabilities. This can be implemented by using its three pillars of the community, employees, and customers to enhance its strong commitment to inclusion and diversity. Best Buy can also apply Edgar Schein’s framework that analyzes organizational culture. This would be critical in gaining insight into the factors that can influence its employees to include people with disabilities. This is because a previous application of Schein’s framework in Best Buy indicates that diversity is deeply ingrained in the company’s culture right, from the top executive level to the bottom level employees.
The company should provide more resources to build a diverse culture from the top down and bottom up. This will ensure the attainment of hands-on experience to train its employees on the inclusion of persons with disabilities. Apart from that, the decisions of both the employees and top managers of Best Buy should be founded on the company’s four corporate values, which are: Unleash the power of our people, have fun while being the best, Show respect, integrity and humility, as well as learn from challenges and change.
Best Buy should also ensure that it provides published samples of the fact that it can be exempted from paying taxes in excess of $20,000 if it employs persons with disabilities. Apart from that, it should ensure that it avails published reports of the research findings that indicate that 87% of the American people have a preference of companies that hire persons with disabilities when it comes to doing business. In addition, the company should provide evidence, to its managers and employees, about some of the persons with disabilities employed in its premises and their performance their respective areas. The basic legal obligations of the business to bring on board persons with disabilities should also be explained to its managers and employees. Finally, Best Buy should issue each manager and employees published findings indicating that persons with disabilities earn in excess of $ 1 trillion per annum and use over $200 billion in unrestricted spending.
Evaluation of Best Buy Performance against the Three Focus Areas for INCLUDE
INCLUDE group for persons with disabilities has three areas of focus to utilize disability recruitment. These include resources and innovations to close gaps in the workforce and market place while providing growth, profitability, and competitive advantage. The second part is for it to serve a diverse market by providing products and services expected by its customers. Finally, to communicate and educate information to the community that does not often get into the mainstream papers or news programs. The following is an evaluation of Best Buy performance against the three focus areas for INCLUDE as well as how Best Buy can improve its performance in each area.
In a bid to best utilize disability recruitment, resources, and innovations that will help close gaps in the workforce and market place, Best Buy can let its employees volunteer with communities. By doing so, they are likely to identify the kind of products that can benefit persons with disabilities while providing growth, profitability, and competitive advantage. The managers could also attend Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) educational coalition conferences in order to learn how they can inculcate diversity in the recruitment of new employees.
Apart from that, company employees can be made to reach out to schools that serve students with disabilities. This should be done to develop a fruitful long-term relationship with the parents/guardians and teachers. By using this platform, they can educate them on their technical support products. This would enable the company to serve a diverse market by providing products and services expected by its customers.
Finally, for the company to communicate and educate information to the community that does not often get into the mainstream papers or news programs, it has to come up with employee training programs about certain disability conditions, for instance, Autism. Such educational materials should focus on how employees can interact with persons with these kinds of disabilities in order to serve them better.
Examples of Low-Cost Initiatives for Inclusion and Diversity
Best Buy offers financial support for local store employees to be able to test new ways to reach out to customers with disabilities. Three additional examples of low-cost initiatives that could be developed by any retail store to strengthen relationships with customers with a disability include:
The retail stores could come up with a program that focuses on involving persons with disabilities both as customers and as employees. For instance, stores can come up with disability and diversity programs as part of their larger global company events. This could be in the form of community events hosted by these stores. Secondly, a Kids Day Program could also be developed where employees and customers could bring their children with disabilities to the store’s playgrounds for games. Finally, the stores could also offer employee training for its members of staff with disabilities. This can be enhanced through the promotion of the store’s disability employee resource groups.
Factors Leading Best Buy Industry to Provide Companies with Incentives to Create a Strong Culture of Inclusion for People with Disabilities
Best Buy Industry provides companies with incentives to create a strong culture of inclusion, especially for persons with disabilities because it has learned from change and challenges. The Best Buy Industry believes that by empowering employees, a stronger educational perception is created for employees that do not have disabilities. After being armed with rapid experience and knowledge, employees who do not have disabilities are in a better position to serve the community and customers.
Best Buy Industry also acknowledges that the talent pool perspective is the best way of addressing certain disabilities such as Autism. Therefore, Best Buy Industry provides companies with incentives to create a strong culture of people with disabilities. This is because customers, employees, and parents with disabled children are able to come on board and share their stories on how people can live fulfilling lives in spite of living with disabilities.
In addition to this, Best Buy Industry believes that everyone has unique and amazing perspectives, gifts, and talents. It is therefore committed to ensuring that companies have the right environment that not only celebrates individuals but also respects them for their unique contributions. Best Buy Industry believes that the cost of hiring a new employee is higher than that of accommodating an employee with a disability, who may have been injured while working for a company. This is because statistics indicate that accommodations do not cost anything. Secondly, the cost incurred through employee turnover is equal to double the employee’s former salary. Therefore, accommodation costs are in the end offset through retaining the services of an injured but qualified employee. Best Buy Industry also has statistics, which indicate that the production of employees with disabilities is almost as equal as those without disabilities.
References
Havey David, P. (2013). The Best Buy Case: Committed to the inclusion of people with Disabilities: University of Minnesota: Minnesota.175-184
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