Best Practices in Employee Relations: Wegmans

Wegmans Food Markets – Fast Facts!

• Regional northeast supermarket
• Corporate headquarters located in Rochester, NY
• Currently have stores in 7 states – opened first store in North Carolina in 2019!

What Is It About Wegmans That Causes Such Employee Loyalty?

• Wegmans is a family company, mission-driven and values-based.
• Most importantly, employees feel they are treated well, and they have the opportunity to grow their careers with Wegmans.
• Having those opportunities makes employees feel like they are part of something bigger.
• Employees feel appreciated and respected for the work they do.
• Wegmans provides competitive total rewards package for its people:
• Do analysis within industry to make sure wages stay competitive
• Focus on employee wellness (physical AND financial wellness)
• Wegmans environment encourages longevity
• Flexibility (appealing to student employees)
• Wegmans Scholarship Program
• Personal interactions with Wegmans family members throughout the year. 

Wegmans “Who We Are” Values

• We care about the well-being and success of every person.
• High standards are a way of life. We pursue excellence in everything we do.
• We make a difference in every community we serve.
• We respect and listen to our people.
• We empower our people to make decisions that improve their work and benefit our customers and our company.

Values-Fit

• These values aren’t just words on a wall -- Wegmans lives by its values, and communicates them to employees from Day One.
• During recruitment they look for employees that are a values-fit.
• Employees hold themselves accountable to modeling the “Who We Are” values.
• Values are even a part of Wegmans Employee Recognition program – where employees can recognize one another for living those values.
• Employee Communications team makes an effort to explain and demonstrate what those values mean and look like in action.

Employees Are Wegmans’ Best Brand Ambassadors

• Recruitment tagline is “Love What You Do at Wegmans” and they try to live up to that.
• As such, Wegmans leverages employees to tell their story to candidates and communities.
• Best compliment is when employees recommend Wegmans as a great place to work to friends and family members!

Wegmans Recruitment Strategies

• Wegmans’ team is focused on hiring the very best employees
• Candidate experience is important, as is onboarding, post-hire.
• With such a tight labor market, even a company with as great a word-of-mouth reputation as Wegmans must engage in recruitment marketing
• Wegmans usually starts the recruitment process for a new store, 12-15 months out, in order to find the right people.
• The process begins with internal job postings, so folks who are interested in transferring or relocating to a new store can get the first shot. This core group of experiences Wegmans employees helps keep the company’s values and job practices alive and consistent, even in a new store.

Employee Retention

• Wegmans works really hard to keep their people
• To that end, they invest a significant amount of training in new employees – because Wegmans wants to set them up for success!
• Company philosophy is to promote from within, across all areas of the company so that they can see all the different ways they can grow their career.
• Leadership is tasked with creating that kind of opportunity-friendly environment in their store.
• Wegmans wants people to enjoy coming to work and to be passionate about customer service and food!

Happy Employees, Happy Customers

• “Our late Chairman of the Board, Robert Wegman, used to say ‘We can only take care of our customers if we first take care of the needs of our people’ – and that continues to be a key to our success.”
• Wegmans employees are passionate about providing incredible service to customers – and they build relationships with customers.
• Not everyone loves to grocery shop, so Wegmans employees aim to make that shopping experience more enjoyable.

Tips to Maintaining Wegmans’ Positive Culture

• Be humble – there is no perfect company out there!
• Try to focus on improving every day.
• One of Wegmans’ core values is respecting and listening to people, so listen when employees talk and problem-solve together – they are the experts, they’re the ones talking with the customers, so keep that two-way communication going.
• Make sure everyone understands company values and priorities.
• Keep leaders accountable for business measures and people measures. Culture maintenance starts with them.
• That said, it’s absolutely a team effort!

Karen Loughlin: Backstory

• B.S. in Human Resources from Ithaca College
• MBA in Marketing from University of Scranton
• Began career at Wegmans Food Markets as an Assistant Store Manager
• Ms. Loughlin is still with Wegmans and currently serves as Talent Sourcing and Diversity Manager for the organization.

Contact 

• Karen Loughlin: karen.loughlin@wegmans.com
• Wegmans Food Markets