Job Satisfaction - An affective or emotional response to one s job. Cognitive Dissonance Psychological discomfort when attitudes and behaviors are

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1 Wegman s Food Market Organizational Behavior and SWOT Analysis 2009 Key Terms: Job Satisfaction - An affective or emotional response to one s job. Cognitive Dissonance Psychological discomfort when attitudes and behaviors are inconsistent. Organizational Commitment Identifying with an organization and its goals. Job Involvement Extent of being immersed in a job. Company History Wegman s Food Market is a supermarket retail chain located throughout several northeastern states of the US including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, and Maryland. Their corporate headquarters is located at 1500 Brooks Avenue in Rochester, New York, and they currently operate 75 stores with plans to expand, adding two to three new stores every year. Originally, John Wegman opened Rochester Fruit and Vegetable Company and was soon joined by his brother Walter. In 1953, Wegmans had more than 350 Full Time Employees and introduced their first employee benefits program. In the early 1970 s Wegmans introduced several new stores and acquired new properties, including Bilt- Rite Chase-Pitkin Inc, a garden supply retailer. They showed that they were an innovative company when they became one of the first retailers in the US to use the UPC barcode scanning system in their East Rochester store in Five years later, they introduced Wegmans brand products in several stores throughout their chain.

2 Wegmans showed even more devotion to their employees in 1983 when they introduced Wegmans Scholarship Program, which is discussed in more detail later. Additionally, their Work Scholarship Connection program was put into motion a year later to help students succeed in school. In 1990 Wegmans showed a concern for the environment by installing plastic bag collection bins for recycling at all of their locations (Wegmans). In 2005, Wegmans earned the title of Number one best company to work for by Fortune Magazine. This year, Wegmans ranked number five, and celebrated twelve years of making this prestigious list (Sharon). Applications Wegmans philosophy says We believe we can achieve our goals only if we fulfill the needs of our people. This way of working is the whole reason that Wegmans is so successful. Wegmans managers realize that the better their employees are treated, the better their customers will be treated, and the better business will be. One of the things that Wegmans is most known for are the educational incentives offered to their employees. This benefit is not something that is offered to only full time employees, or only corporate employees, but literally to all of Wegmans employees. The Hillside Work Scholarship Connection was founded in 1987 to help youth in surrounding communities to succeed in school. The program allows high school students to work part time at Wegmans while attending school. Throughout the program, students are coupled with mentors who not only help them to excel in the workplace, but in school and life as well.

3 The average high school dropout rate for the community was 50%. Of those students who participated in the Hillside Work Scholarship Program, 80% graduated from high school, and many of those went on to obtain higher educational degrees. In addition to this great program, Wegmans also offers scholarships to all of its employees. Wegmans began awarding scholarship money in 1884 and since then has given over $70 million to more than 22,000 employees. By making competition for awards open to all employees, Wegmans gives every employee the feeling that they are all equally important to the company. Wegmans recognizes that employees have just as much to deal with outside the workplace as they do at work. Because of this, Wegmans offers several different assistance programs to help employees cope with issues they may be dealing with in their personal lives (Wegmans). The employee assistance program at Wegmans offers many different ways for employees to get help. Some situations may include grief counseling for the death of a friend or family member, coping with emergencies at the workplace, dealing with a divorce, or help with one s overall well being. Also offered are more specific adoption assistance programs, and dependent care reimbursement programs in which employees can set aside a certain amount from their paycheck each month before taxes to reimburse expenses for a disabled or elderly family members. These programs make a great difference in the lives of employees who may be struggling to accomplish everyday tasks because of a disability in their lives (OPM-EAP).

4 Wegmans of course offers many other benefits including medical insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield, a 401K, job sharing, compressed workweeks, and telecommuting. All of these things help make working for Wegmans an exceptional experience because of the great balance between work and life. Overall, what makes Wegmans a great place for customers to shop is the experience they get through interaction with employees. Management has realized that in order for employees to be helpful, attentive, and pleasant while they are at work, they must be satisfied with their life at home. Since Wegmans employees know that their job means a lot more to them than just a paycheck, they are more likely to want to represent Wegmans positivity in their stores. Aside from showing outstanding performance in the area of work-life balance for employees, Wegmans has earned many awards including the 2005 Champion of Workplace Learning and Performance, the 1994 Regional Private Sector Firm of the Year, the 2002 Corporate Leadership Award from the Niagara University College of Business Administration, and the 2007 Maximizing People Potential Award. Clearly Wegmans has accomplished a great deal over the last sixty years. However, no company is perfect, so by analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Wegmans, we will gain a greater understanding as to how this company is progressing (Wegmans). Strengths A company shows that they care about more than just what an employee does at work by offering to help pay for some of the expenses of a costly college education.

5 Employees feel much more excited about working for a company who takes care of them in return. One Wegmans employee stated Wegmans really goes the extra mile to take care of its people and I try to show my appreciation by providing incredible service to our customers (Wegmans). Showing concern for a work-life balance not only makes employees feel great about working, but in turn makes customers happier to shop with them, since they know they will not have to deal with disgruntled employees around every corner. Assistance programs for employees are another great way to make sure your employees are content with their personal lives before they come to work. Someone, for example, dealing with the loss of a sibling may be irritable and promote a bad company image while working. Wegmans recognizes that such an employee might need extra support in coping with their loss. Employee assistance programs are available to help them overcome any problems they are having at work or at home, so that they can continue to be a positive contribution to the company. Other perks received while working for Wegmans include job sharing, compressed workweeks, and telecommuting. Offering these non traditional ways of working help employees to better manage conflicts between their work and home life. For example, someone who loves working for Wegmans, and has worked there for many years, may find that he is spending hundreds of dollars on gas each month to commute to his office where he does accounting work. By telecommuting, he could work from his desk at home via phone and internet, save on gas, and still be employed with the company he wants to be with. Innovative practices like these offer a whole new world of opportunities for Wegmans employees (Wegmans).

6 Weaknesses While Wegmans has shown a great ability to keep their employees in balance, they are far from perfect and have many areas on which they could improve. Wegmans only operates in five states and there is plenty of room for them to expand. Since their employees are extremely dedicated to the company, Wegmans might want to consider expanding, and promoting certain employees to run these new stores. Another area Wegmans could improve in is their recognition of the need for maternity and paternity leave. While they have a very strong adoption support program, some employees might feel offended that the company supports adoption more than they support maternity and paternity leave for the birth of a child. Offering an extended paternity leave would give the company yet another edge. Being a private company could be seen as another one of Wegmans weaknesses. By incorporating, Wegmans might be able to offer a lot more to its employees than it already is. Private organizations are generally more expensive to run, so incorporating might allow even more money to be spent on providing for their employees. Opportunities With the appropriate time and resources, Wegmans could embrace many opportunities to improve their business. Since Wegmans has such a strong mass of employees standing at its front line, it would be beneficial to offer a rewarded employee referral program. While many companies offer a program like this, I believe that it would work even better at a company like Wegmans where management is already confident

7 in their abilities and holds a great amount of trust in their employee s judgment. By hiring employees that have been referred, Wegmans could save a great deal of money on hiring and recruiting costs. Women are becoming more and more prominent in the workplace. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, exactly 50% of workers in the grocery stores retail trade category, as of January 2009, were women (US Bureau of Labor Statistics). Wegmans should look into developing more programs tailored toward women in order to help them balance their work and home lives. For example, the company may want to offer onsite day care for single mothers. Doing so would promote a proactive approach to helping women in the workforce. If Wegmans were to consider offering new benefits such as onsite day care or onsite fitness centers, the opportunity to partner with other companies in the area would present itself. By partnering with another company of perhaps the same size, Wegmans and that other company could help each other to grow even stronger. Equinox gym, for example, has several locations throughout New York and the Northeast United States. Perhaps Wegmans and Equinox could form a partnership in which Wegmans would advertise for Equinox gyms in exchange for free memberships for Wegmans employees (Equinox Gym). This would help Wegmans employees to stay healthy without worrying about the extra expenses they would incur. In the long run, healthier employees means less sick time paid, which could mean an overall increase in profit for Wegmans.

8 Threats One of Wegmans main competitors is Giant Food Stores, who operates stores throughout the western US, and many stores in the same area as Wegmans, including New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. While it seems that Wegmans offers better overall opportunities for employees, Giant Food Stores may decide to offer some great benefits that would sway current Wegmans employees. One of the things that Giant Food Stores offers is internships for college students, or recent college graduates. This may be something that would persuade a smart young graduate to work for Giant Food Stores instead of Wegmans (Giant Food Stores). The current state of the economy also might pose a threat to Wegmans. As more and more people are looking for work, they are no longer looking at just their salaries but their benefits as well. Competition for jobs that hold great benefits for a work-life balance will only become fiercer. Wegmans must be extremely careful in selecting the right employees for jobs. Hiring the wrong employee in such a volatile environment could turn out to be very costly for the company. While offering great benefits for your employees is a positive thing, it can become very costly. One could argue that paying for all of these benefits is greatly decreasing Wegmans profitability. There is a great tradeoff when considering the cost of benefits. The question is whether the cost of offering all these great programs outweighs the cost of a high turnover rate, paying for employees sick days and other costs. Wegmans strongly believes that preventative measures are much less costly than solving problems after the fact. This belief is what makes Wegmans one of the

9 greatest companies to work for, and allows employees to enjoy a balance between their work and personal lives (Wegmans). Works Cited "Wegmans." Wegmans. Web. 9 Nov < Sharon. "Wegmans ranked fifth-best place to work by Fortune magazine." The Buffalo News [New York] 23 Jan Print. OPM-EAP. Web. 7 Nov < WorkLife/HealthWellness/EAP/>. Kreitner, Robert, and Angelo Kinicki. Organizational Behavior. 8th ed. Print. US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Jan Web. 11 Nov <ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/lf/aat18.txt>. Equinox Gym. Web. 12 Nov < Giant Food Stores. Web. 11 Nov <