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Whole Foods Best Practices

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Whole Foods Market’s Human Resources Best Practices

Abstract
This paper looks into the Human Resources Best Practices at Whole Foods Market. Specifically, this paper is divided into three different sections which each identify the best practices as they pertain to different focuses. First, employee morale is examined, featuring how Whole Foods Market engages employees through a corporate culture of empowerment, ensuring pay and benefits exceed competitors, interacting with local communities, and through training and development.
Next, corporate wellness programs are examined. Whole Foods’ is focused upon healthy living for its customers and its employees as is evidenced by its programs. These programs focus on wellness and …show more content…

According to McGinn, “(u)nlike most acquirers, which forcibly graft their culture onto acquirees, Whole Foods adopted many of the successful practices of the companies it bought--especially those of Boston-based Bread & Circus, renowned for its fresh produce, meat and seafood.”
Pay and Benefits
Whole Foods Market is known for providing a higher rate of pay than its competitors. In fact, it has turned higher pay into competitive market advantage. Whole Foods Market accomplishes this through a number of methods. For example, Whole Foods Market uses a Pay for Performance plan which integrates profit-sharing into it pay plan. By so doing, employees are motivated to perform at their highest capability in order to receive bonuses based upon the company’s profit margin.
Furthermore, as mentioned in the Executive Salaries section of this paper, by capping executive salaries at 19 times the average worker’s pay, Whole Foods Market ensures that workers do not feel as if they are working for “big business” to get rich. Also, employees can look up each others’ earnings. This transparency helps ensure that employees feel as if there are no secrets and that nobody is being paid unfairly for the work that is completed. Finally, as an example of a benefit plan that rewards workers, stock options are available to all employees. Due to the high success of the stock option plan, 93%

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