Wegmans\' Key Strength in Terms of HRM

Wegmans' key strength in terms of HRM is that it has an exceptional retention rate, so employing more strategies to improve retention is probably not warranted. Rather, Wegmans can provide a benchmark for retention that other companies can use -- they can look to Wegmans for policy advice.

Recommend Retention Strategies

Wegmans succeeds by providing employees with a strong social environment, generous benefits and flexible scheduling, three things that specifically appeal to the types of employees that Wegmans is seeking. Having a corporate culture that encourages employees to remain with the company, and provides a working atmosphere that employees find desirable, is often cited as one of the most important factors in earning high retention rates. Wegmans does an excellent job of this, and in part this is because employee retention is a personal matter there. At Wegmans, employees are treated as individuals with needs, and the company sees to it that it meets those needs. The employees do not feel as though they have an impersonal relationship with the company.

Another key strategy that Wegmans utilizes that would be a good benchmark for other companies is that it has a combination of hiring employees who are stable and retainable, but the company also allows for some growth opportunities for the better performers. One of the catch-22s of retention is that employees often leave when they find they are not able to advance to their liking, but companies with high retention rates have fewer opportunities for advancement. Finding the right employees is therefore critical, and Wegmans has done an exceptional job of matching people with positions appropriate to their ambition level. Workers who seek advancement are unlikely to find themselves buried in a job that offers none.

Non-Recommended Retention Strategies

There are some strategies for retention that Wegmans should not adopt, because those strategies are ill-suited for the type of company that Wegmans is. For example, retention strategies at high-tech companies are often ill-suited for a grocery store chain. Opportunities for advancement are not going to be common at Wegmans, so that cannot be a key selling point to potential employees. The same can be said for stock options -- Wegmans is a family-owned company. In addition, grocery stores have a fairly low revenue/employee ratio, so they must be careful not to offer benefits that are too generous. Wegmans offers benefits better than most competitors, but it should not offer Google-level benefits because it simply cannot afford to. It is worth keeping retention policies within industry norms.

Recruitment & Selection

Recruitment and selection is an important element in the creation of retention. The first step is to find employees who are retainable. If the company has few opportunities for advancement, it needs to find employees who do not need that, for example. In addition, matching skills with openings is important, because often it is underperformance or skills mismatch that causes an employee to leave. Culture clash can also be a factor in turnover, so it is also important to recruit and select employees who fit with the company's culture. These factors are generally common from organization to organization, though the specific things that the recruiter is looking for in an employee will vary.