Quarterly Meetings at MacFarlane Pheasants are typically held the week following the end of the quarter. Sarah Pope, General Manager, and Brad Lillie, Chief Operating Officer organize and run the meetings. This meeting is not mandatory, but all employees are invited to attend and have lunch while receiving important updates about the farm operation.
The farm has a management theory of open-book transparency so employees get a chance to hear about all components of the business that are doing well and all areas of concern, during the last quarter.
There is a pay-for-performance bonus program in place so if the company does well during a quarter, the employees may get a bonus, depending on the profitability of the company. When crew members achieve extraordinary successes, we want them to know that hard work and dedication are valued.
Employees are encouraged to ask questions at these meetings. MacFarlane Pheasants recognizes that information is the key to success. Employee question and answer periods benefit managers, also, because they find out what concerns the crews have about every aspect of the wild bird business. The hard work of MacFarlane Pheasants’ employees has been the key to our growth and achievements since 1929 when the business was started by Ken MacFarlane.
Brad Lillie, in addition to talking about successes and areas for improvement, at these meetings, gets right to a critical part of running the business: What are the year-to-date income and expenses? He provides a handout to show how each part of the business is doing. Information about how sales are going in each division and the costs of doing business will guide our business decisions for the next quarter. We want our employees to be informed.
Sarah Pope summed up an important component of quarterly meetings with this statement: “At MacFarlane Pheasants we have an open book management style, we want our employees to know what it is going on financially in our company; quarterly meetings show employees all of our revenues and expenses. They can see if we did well the previous quarter or if there are areas we need to improve on.”
