Pret a Manger

There are few companies where the head office prioritises the store staff so strongly as Pret-a-Manger. This food chain believes that as long as its staff are happy, this will reflect on the customers. And they have certainly been proven right. The chain is enjoying amazing growth worldwide and has an enormous fan base.

Pret-a-Manger doesn't actually assess its store staff primarily in terms of the tastiest coffee or how quickly they can operate a cash till, but rather mainly on the cheerfulness radiated towards customers and each other. They do so by sending mystery shoppers to the stores on a weekly basis, every week. And if the mystery shoppers give the staff a positive assessment for cheerfulness, each staff member that branch receives a wage bonus of one pound that week! It's a great reward that is achieved by more than 80% of the branches every week. Moreover, the mystery shoppers may hand out gift vouchers to individual staff members when detecting desirable behaviour, such as helping to lift a baby pram or giving senior citizens an extra biscuit. Staff members enjoy the recognition of their good behaviour, and as a customer you know that the atmosphere will be pleasurable.

The success of this philosophy was proven by the fact that the chain was sold for two billion dollars last year. And what do you do as a chain that prioritises its staff members? You give each of them a 1,000 pound bonus. All 12,000 staff members, regardless of their rank or position!