They're not making this stuff up. Just last January, which is typically a slow month in the fish business, Yokoyama suggested cutting back on workers' hours in order to cut costs. Pike Place's January sales hit a record high this year. But the market's employee philosophy is not just about dreaming big. Yokoyama believes that if you want to keep a lid on employee defections, you have to give people a good reason to come to work.
Work ought to be fun, especially if individual tasks are less than inspirational.
At Pike Place, that translates into fish flinging. Of course, that probably wouldn't work at Marriott. Inspired by a Yokoyama seminar, employees at a Sprint call center in Lenexa, Kansas turned their office maze of cubicles into an in-line skating obstacle course. It did a lot for call-center morale, according to Sprint employees and managers. Creating a workplace in which the staff is valued and respected is what it takes to win in the war for talent.