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Profit share hard wired at Whole Foods

Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods, provides good insight into its success secrets in an interview with Fortune, just published, that retailers should read.

In a company with 78,000 staff members, it says voluntary staff turnover is 9 per cent compared to an industry average of 100 per cent plus. At departmental manager level it is 3 per cent.

What makes this possible?

"Everyone belongs to a team. Labour is a fixed cost not a variable cost. If a team can generate revenue that exceeds a budgeted margin between the revenue and the labour cost, they share in the gain. Every 30 days it is in their paycheck. If they build sales or save costs, the productivity they create is shared with them. On average in the last year it was over $1 an hour in their paychecks from gain sharing, which they created through their own efforts," Robb told Fortune's Geoff Colvin.

There is an important principle in here that you can use in your business. You need to operate with discipline but what you get in return is the power of the creative energy of your staff being unleashed - the people closest to the shopper.

If you are doing something similar, let me know. I would love to discuss how you structure it.

For more, see Better Retailing. 
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