Less than a month after being targeted by limited strike action, Bahamas Supermarkets has unveiled plans aimed at building bridges and reinforcing its relationships with employees, customers and shareholders.
Among its first steps – hiring a team of skilled local professionals to help assess present policy, pinpoint potential problem areas and map out a marketing, human resources and business strategy.
“We have taken a good, long hard look at what we have at stake,” said Bruce Souder, Managing Director of Bahamas Supermarkets, with its 12 stores and 700 employees, the largest employer of any publicly-held Bahamian company.
“We know that we have some of the best employees in the country. We also know that we have one of the best employee benefit packages, certainly the best in our industry, but if there is a problem, we are going to get to the bottom of it and resolve it. So, yes, we are looking for new ideas and we are entering a new and, I believe, very productive and exciting era.”
Souder expressed optimism Wednesday telling managers from all the company’s stores, including Freeport, “You are here to help” and then leaving a meeting room at City Market headquarters on Independence Drive to let them discuss employee relations freely and openly. The managers had been invited to Nassau to meet with one of the new team of outside professionals, MDR Associates, who had been given free rein for 10 days to interview employees at all levels on the guarantee of anonymity. Meeting with managers was MDR’s final step before presenting findings, analysis, and recommendations to executives Thursday. Souder was not immune to the significance of the date: the meeting began with a moment of silence for the victims of 9/11. The meeting and its theme reflected feelings everywhere, a time to rebuild and renew.
“We will take this one step at a time,” Souder said. “But each step is moving in the right direction – searching for solutions, creating building blocks and taking care of business by taking care of one another.”
