The unusual Whole Foods policy is designed to both encourage conversations about salary among staff members and to promote competition within the company, according to The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know Your Customers, a new book by entrepreneurs Leerom Segal, Aaron Goldstein, Jay Goldman, and Rahaf Harfoush on innovative management practices. Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey introduced the policy in 1986, just six years after he co-founded the company. In the book, he explains that his initial goal was to help employees understand why some people were paid more than others. If workers understood what types of performance and achievement earned certain people more money, he figured, perhaps they would be more motivated and successful, too. Im challenged on salaries all the time, Mackey explained. How come you are paying this regional president this much, and Im only making this much? I have to say, because that person is more valuable. If you accomplish what this person has accomplished, Ill pay you that, too. Beyond making compensation data available to all employees, Whole Foods also has its managers post their stores sales data each day and regional sales data each week. Once a month, Whole Foods sends each store a detailed report on profitability and sales at each of the chains locations. In fact, in the late 1990s the widespread availability of so much detailed financial data led the SEC to classify all of the companys 6,500 employees as insiders, according to a 1996 story by Fast Company.
Posted on: Tue, 04 Mar 2014 22:51:30 +0000
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