Whole Food, Whole People, Whole Planet: How does Whole Food’s HR practices enhance their ability to attract and retain employees and set the precedent for the supermarket industry? Whole Foods Market has a reputable history as a desired place to work. It has been placed in prestigious lists such as Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For”, Ethisphere “World’s Most Ethical Companies” and the “Top 150 National Workplaces” (Whole Food Market, 2015) Which web page?. Such accomplishments endorse Whole Foods as a key player in the supermarket industry and an excellent model for competitors. Furthermore, as businesses continue to evolve so do their primary functions. Like Whole Foods, many companies today are expanding the use of strategic human resource management. In fact, now more than ever, executives are working closely and strategically with their human resources divisions in developing creative ways to implement proper policies, practices, and systems that can successfully influence employees’ attitude and performance” (Noe, Hollenback, Gerhart, & Wright, 2015, p. 5). Consequently, Whole Foods considers various aspects of its strategic and distinctive HR practices. In its benefits package, the company offers different levels of compensation, wage transparency, employee incentives, and opportunities for retention and growth. When recruiting and selecting candidates, it utilizes talent management systems, allocates store-specific employment personnel, and implements
Whole Foods Market, Inc. (WFM) lives through their motto of “Whole Food, Whole People, Whole Planet.” WFM opened their first store in Austin, Texas with 19 employees in 1980. Today, WFM has 311 stores in the US, Canada and the UK, and employs more than 72,700 employees. Whole Foods Market is one of the largest natural and organic food retailers in North America. WFM has grown to its size today mostly through mergers and acquisitions of such brands as Bread and Circus and Natures Heartland. In 2011 and 2012 Whole Foods Market was added to the Fortune 100 “Best Places to Work” list. Fortune Magazine (2012)
Whole Food’s belief is treat an employee well and watch your profits soar. Whole Food’s belief
Whole Food goes by a management philosophy called conscious capitalism meaning "the ethical treatment of customers, employees, and the environment is the main mission and basis for organizational culture (Cheretis& Mujtaba 2014,p.7)." This is a management philosophy that was created by the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey. The philosophy was made to empower people, which is the customer, employer and investors. The three aspects will improve socialism as a whole. It's a win-win for the entire system and he value that is shown to employees in this system ignites enthusiasm to work. It’s just a trickle-down effect for the customer to feel valued and profit begins for the shareholder. People is what makes a successful business and Mackey shows
Average wage is $18.89, which is significantly higher than the retail store national average. Workers always earn a 20% discount from store items, with a potential of a 30% discount given that their cholesterol, blood pressure, and body-mass-index (BMI) are within a healthy range. Whole Foods provides their workers with a company website where they can monitor their eating patterns. Employees are able to access wages of anyone working for the corporation, from hourly workers to CEO’s. Voices are not left unheard as Whole Food’s encourages workers to present ideas, hence they have became known for taking the good ones. Their bestselling bread recipe came from a worker in Santa Fe, and their model of a bicycle delivery was written by a cyclist from Austin, Texas. Employee “perks” include language classes, massage therapy, and yoga. They have created alluring and joyful environments which reflect their intentions. The motto goes: “We celebrate success and see failures as opportunities for growth.” Thus, the company progresses through using the judgement and imagination of their workers.
Whole Foods is a great example of democratic approach to store operation. In this organizational environment all team members have the ability to insert their input in decision making that affects their product/service area in addition to having input in store matters as well. Whole Foods has a stringent screening process potential employees are put through to ensure that the applicant is a good fit for the organization. Once an applicant is hired, they are assigned to a team and team leader, who then train the new team member to be knowledgeable on the product/service they are assigned to. Additionally, they are also trained on providing friendly customer service. Due to Whole Foods approach to using workplace democracy, it has created a positive
Whole Foods definitely uses human capital as a competitive advantage in multiple aspects of the company business model. Whole Foods built the foundation of their business model around quality, empowered employees. These employees are the key to the unique experience that defines the company and the source of their primary competitive advantage in the marketplace. This competitive advantage is framed around the concepts of human capital value, human capital rareness, and human capital imitability (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015). Whole Foods human capital value is represented by knowledgeable, capable employees empowered to champion the overall strategy of the company and make decisions at the lowest level to ensure a great product and customer experience (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015). Human capital rareness is demonstrated by the emphasis placed on sourcing, interviewing, and hiring practices. This ensures Whole Foods hires the unique employee that will champion the quality of their product line as well as the front-line face of the company to customers. Regarding human capital imitability, Whole Foods overall human capital focus and packaging makes a formidable task for competitors to replicate. From the overall compensation package, degree of employee input and interaction, benefits structure, bonus program, and overall company environment, Whole Foods ensures that sourcing and retention of employees provides a definite advantage (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015).
Whole Foods grocery retailer maintains over 175 stores in North America and Europe and has been consistently nominated as “100 Best Companies to Work For” (Hill, 2006). Furthermore, this type of quality should be considered when reviewing a company because this involves much teamwork and ethical responsibilities.
Whole Foods builds both human and social capital. Human capital is built initially upon hire. The company sets out to hire good people and train them well so they are capable of becoming high performers (Kreitner and Kinicki, 1998, p. 30).Educating the new hire not only on the specific job description, but on the mission of the company will secure the “buy in” to the vision of the company.
Whole Foods build human and social capital by putting value in training their staff and properly training management, moreover, they understand the snowball effect that management has on the company as a whole. Human capital is fertile probabilities in people (Kinicki & Kreitner, (2013). Whole Foods comprehends that effectively educating the workers to do an outstanding job at assisting customers with purchases can help build the company, and that builds human capital by optimizing the potential in that worker via training.
An appeal to working at Whole Foods is the concern they manifest for the business. Gaining profits appears to be the least or their concerns. Most companies are just out to make money, they do not care who they hurt, or what unethical behaviors they must do to make a profit. The company appears to be of equal opportunity and desires to see their employees excel within the organization. Working for Whole Foods would make and individual feel as if they are a part of a team. Whole Foods desires what is best for the organization, they are determined to hire and train employees they deem valuable. I have worked for an employer who felt that experience is the best trainer. Consequently, training was non-existent, so I spent most of my time learning
Whether an organization consists of five or 25,000 employees, human resources management is vital to the success of the organization. HR is important to all managers because it provides managers with the resources – the employees – necessary to produce the work for the managers and the organization. Beyond this role, HR is capable of becoming a strong strategic partner when it comes to “establishing the overall direction and objectives of key areas of human resource management in order to ensure that they not only are consistent with but also support the achievement of business goals.” (Massey, 1994, p. 27)
Schuler (1997) summarises Strategic Human Resource Management as expressing how people are to be treated and valued in the workforce as well human resource management's responsibility for articulating the processes which encourage behaviour which is consistent with the organisation's business. In this context strategic human resource management also includes the development of guidelines for the implementation of people-related programs and, the more complex area of co-ordinating and facilitating change.
As the world is turning out to be more aggressive and unstable than any other time in recent memory, producing based enterprises are looking to increase upper hand at all cost and are swinging to more inventive sources through HRM practices (Sparrow, Schuler, & Jackson, 1994). HR practices has been defined by (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2016) as “the means through which your human resources personnel can develop the leadership of your staff.”
Netcare participates in employer surveys, internal surveys gets feedback from patients with patient feedback forms. These results help identify employment issues and are also used to reward and recognise individuals. Managers are even required to wear their name badges, thus enforcing them to lead by example.
Within this essay an in depth analysis will be conducted on the difference between Human Resource Management and Strategic Human Resource Management using contemporary perspectives. Human Resource Management (HRM) is the process of managing human resources in a systematic way. It is a practice devised to maximise the performance of employees and is concerned with the application of management principles to manage organisational personnel while paying attention to the policies and systems of the entity (Delaney & Huselid, 1996). Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is a function of management which entails development of policies, programmes and practices related to human resources, which are aligned with business strategy so as to achieve the strategic objectives of the organisation (Patrick M. Wright, 1992). Its primary purpose is to improve the performance of the business and maintain a culture that encourages innovation and works continuously to gain competitive advantage. In this essay the Resource-Based View, High Performance Management and High Commitment Management perspectives of Strategic Human Resource Management and Traditional and Collaborative