By Candace Coakley, Northeast Human Resources Association

Wegmans Food Markets, a 72-store regional supermarket chain headquartered in Rochester, New York, has been named one of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" by Fortune magazine for nine consecutive years. Ranked #1 in 2005 and #2 in 2006, Wegmans embraces a simple yet highly unorthodox corporate mantra: "Employees first, customers second." It's a philosophy that's served the 90-year old company well.

In their keynote speech "Employees First, Customers Second - The Journey to Becoming a Great Place to Work" to be delivered at the Northeast Human Resources Association's Annual HR Invention Convention on Friday, November 3 at the Rhode Island Convention Center, Gerard Q. Pierce, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Karen Shadders, Vice President of People for Wegmans will discuss the award winning tactics the company uses to cultivate its 35,000 employees.

In an exclusive preview, presented below, these two HR leaders sat down and shared highlights of the company's success strategies with NEHRA.

At Wegmans, it's all about the people. As Vice President of People, Karen Shadders is responsible for bringing great people into the organization, training and development, and ensuring that Wegmans is a culture and company where people want to work. Shadders reports to Gerry Pierce, who, as Senior Vice President of Human Resources oversees multiple disciplines in the HR function, including staffing, training and development, compliance, payroll, and benefits administration.

Both HR executives, along with all company leadership, make frequent store visits, coming face to face and shaking hands with thousands of employees. They share in countless personal stories, both happy and heartbreaking, offering supervisors encouragement and accolades. During the holidays this tradition intensifies, employees and executives sometimes caroling together in Wegmans' unusually spacious aisles.

What makes for happy employees?

In an industry racked by sky-high turnover, Wegmans enjoys a turnover rate of just eight percent, less than half the industry average according to Food Marketing Institute. Even while building new stores and hiring in new markets, the average tenure of a full-time Wegmans employee is over ten years. Wegmans career part-time employees' average tenure is more than five years. Employees are attracted to Wegmans because they know in advance they will be treated like gold. Retention rates are sky high because at the core is an intense job satisfaction achieved by meaningful interaction with both customers and management.

"Employee engagement is critical," explains Shadders. Employees have to know what they are doing makes a difference. It's more than just a job. They are not just displaying produce or setting up the fish market, they are helping customers live healthier lives, cook healthier meals or come up with creative ways to get children to try veggies. Employees see that by raising their level of food knowledge, customers truly live healthier and more productive lives.

Wegmans prides itself on a strong value set as its corporate foundation. "Caring, respect, high standards, making a difference in every customer's life, and empowering people to bring their best to work are the five most important tenets in our company," explains Shadders. "These values are not just hanging on the wall; employees live them every day."

Role modeling is one way Wegmans encourages all employees to be leaders. Shadders illustrates this point through the story of Bess, an employee of 12 years in the delicatessen of a Rochester store. Bess lived in a trailer in rural Rochester and had recently had her daughter and grandchildren move in with her, creating more bills than she could handle. Her coworkers noticed her lights were never on when they drove by, and Bess admitted she had fallen on hard times. A coworker went to the store manager and suggested they use the "Spirit of Giving Fund" (originally established by Robert Wegman with his personal funds) to pay Bess's bills and have her heat and lights restored. Beth was ecstatic. However, the corporate payback to business happened two years later. On countless store visits, Robert Wegman was perplexed that no one could achieve the deli he envisioned. Bess heard his dilemma and as a labor of love, produced a deli case that he was blown away by. This became the new standard for delis in all stores.

With 35,000 employees, this is one of many stories about its people that prove Wegmans in not a typical retailer. "People give back in ways you could never ask for, ways impossible to facilitate in a performance review," explains Shadders.

Wegmans is known for its strong employee benefits program, especially their employee scholarship program. Since the company inaugurated the Wegman's Scholarship Program in 1984, Wegmans has awarded $56 million in scholarships to more than 18,000 employees.

Fulfilled employees produce unparalleled customer service

"As a business strategy, when you invest in people, they want to make a difference in the work they do," explains Pierce. "Our employees have a higher sense of purpose."

At other supermarkets, employees often have their backs to customers while stocking the shelves. This would never happen at Wegmans where employees are renowned for their nearly telepathic level of customer service. They understand customers' needs and constantly strive to meet them by engaging directly with the customer.

Wegmans pays close attention to its people. Pierce shares a story about a new employee in the bakery at a New York store who was having performance issues during her first six months on the job. She was apprehensive about interacting with customers. Her supervisor realized it was because she could not hear the customers. The employee admitted that she had been partially deaf since the age of four. Thanks to Wegmans, this employee got a hearing aid and is now a top employee.

Chairman of the company (until his death in April 2006) Robert Wegman's philosophy was, "If you take good care of employees, then they will take good care of your customers." Bob Wegman's presence remains strong - his son Danny Wegman is CEO and granddaughter Colleen Wegman is company president.

Wegmans unparalleled customer service breeds an almost cult-like devotion by shoppers as expressed through 8,455 pieces of fan mail last year written by customers and people from across the country begging Wegmans to open a store in their communities.

Without exception, Wegmans takes the time to train new employees to meet the company's high standards. In one case, the Sterling store grand opening slated for fall 2003 was delayed until February (missing the profitable holiday season) in favor of extended training for the store's new employees.

This meticulous attention to detail benefits the bottom line. Wegmans is one of the largest privately owned companies in the U.S. The company took in $3.8 billion in gross revenue in 2005, up 69 percent since 1996.

A unique value proposition

Wegmans isn't worried that a Wal-Mart big box store goes up seven times faster than they open one new store because of their secret weapon - people. Bob Wegman focused on a unique marketing and merchandising strategy that is difficult for competitors to emulate. He was convinced that Wegmans would accomplish this strategy through its people and a unique blend of incredible service and affordable prices.

The difference between Wegmans and other supermarkets is that when people come to work at Wegmans, they are not looking for a job; they are looking for a career. And because Wegmans has high volume locations, there is an extensive menu of opportunities for employees to advance their careers through a clear and defined career path. Shadders outlines a typical career path through the "bubble chart," Wegmans' version of a competency chart. Wegmans makes it simple for employees to move forward through this path - customer service, team leader, department head, area manager, store director. Plus, the opportunity to advance is expansive because many stores employ 700-900 people. This is the value proposition to prospective employees.

Wegmans has raised the bar on the shopping experience, offering customers the opportunity to purchase the finest food and talk to employees who know about that food and are willing to share that knowledge. This experience is created by Wegmans well-trained, satisfied employees. Many competitors have tried to duplicate the Wegmans experience but miss the critical "people" piece.

The proof is in the awards

Literally hundreds of honors have been bestowed on Wegmans for all aspects of operations - excellence as an employer, excellence as a retailer, and excellence in community service.

In addition to attracting employees and ensuring high retention rates, Shadders and Pierce highlight other benefits of topping Fortune's list of 100 Best Companies to Work for. "Fortune's list of best companies has been a fabulous discipline to improve how we operate with our people. It enables us to target what things we need to improve and provides a process," says Shadders. "Fortune has done business a tremendous service by providing this opportunity," echoes Pierce.

One of the Fortune employee questions asked "Does management have a clear vision where it is going?" A whopping 96 percent of Wegmans employees answered yes. Pierce and Shadders reiterate that the entire management team, including HR, must have a clear vision of where the company is going.

Wegmans vision can be summed up in two words - simplicity and focus. Each year, Wegmans picks the top two or three things to improve company-wide and each store focuses on that for the year. These ideas bubble up from the store level throughout the year.

Perhaps not surprisingly for human resources professionals, the secret to success lies in the people. Wegmans philosophy proves it: put your employees first and the results will follow.

Candace Coakley is communications consultant for the Northeast Human Resources Association. E-mail her at candacecoakley@comcast.net.