Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Grocery Buzz - Whole Foods
An article in Fast Company goes over how Whole Foods, the largest organic- and natural-foods grocer in the country, came about but more important how it is run.
"Every store was divided into about eight functional teams: You were hired to the seafood team, or the prepared-foods team, or the cashier/front-end team. But you didn't just get hired. You got hired provisionally. After four weeks of work, the team you had joined voted whether to keep you; you needed a two-thirds yes vote to join the staff permanently.
Additional pay (beyond base wages) was linked to the teams, so people were careful about who got their votes. Thirteen times a year, Whole Foods calculated the performance of the people on each team in every store. How productive had the team been against goals? Teams that did well shared in the profits -- up to $1.50 or $2.00 extra an hour was paid right back to team members, every other paycheck. So people didn't want buddies on their teams; they wanted workers -- people who were going to make them some money."
Others things Whole Foods does is provide each store with a salary book where every employee can see how much everyone else makes. A very honest approach. They also take employees from current stores and place them in newly opened stores to help create the Whole Foods atmosphere.
The artilce is a good read and to show Whole Foods is a buzz "Whole Foods beat Wal-Mart in both overall and comparable-store sales growth".
"Every store was divided into about eight functional teams: You were hired to the seafood team, or the prepared-foods team, or the cashier/front-end team. But you didn't just get hired. You got hired provisionally. After four weeks of work, the team you had joined voted whether to keep you; you needed a two-thirds yes vote to join the staff permanently.
Additional pay (beyond base wages) was linked to the teams, so people were careful about who got their votes. Thirteen times a year, Whole Foods calculated the performance of the people on each team in every store. How productive had the team been against goals? Teams that did well shared in the profits -- up to $1.50 or $2.00 extra an hour was paid right back to team members, every other paycheck. So people didn't want buddies on their teams; they wanted workers -- people who were going to make them some money."
Others things Whole Foods does is provide each store with a salary book where every employee can see how much everyone else makes. A very honest approach. They also take employees from current stores and place them in newly opened stores to help create the Whole Foods atmosphere.
The artilce is a good read and to show Whole Foods is a buzz "Whole Foods beat Wal-Mart in both overall and comparable-store sales growth".
Link posted by Greg : 4:05 PM
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