Extending our appreciation to our most important asset

By Chris Maher, General Manager

Our guiding principles — our Global Ends Policies — are set by our Board on behalf of our owners and focus our work on goals that serve our community, shoppers and employees. Global End #5 states that we will be a major employer that provides a healthy, equitable and considerate workplace for our employees.

In line with this principle, we made the decision a few months back to offer paid lunch breaks to all hourly employees working an 8-hour shift. With the stalled economy and tighter budgets — both for families and

When you think about “working for a living,” a job is basically an exchange of our time for money. Given what’s at play financially for all of us, we see the paid lunch as a creative way to invest in our most important asset — our employees — and give them a little more to take home with them at the end of the day. Now, employees effectively get the time back for themselves, to run errands, walk the dog, or get their shopping done…putting more “living” back into their lives.

As a co-op and an independent grocery store, BriarPatch has the flexibility to businesses like us — this is a way to recognize and reward all the folks who work throughout the store and behind the scenes to provide you with a quality shopping experience, in lieu of pay raises. The extra 2 ½ hours a week of paid time adds up. Over the course of a year, that’s 130 hours of time back to each full-time worker. make and act upon decisions like this, to “spring forward” into another realm of compensation. And I’m sure a good deal of you agree; respondents to our random shopper surveys that come up on receipts voice 9 out of 10 times that our staff is awesome and one of the big reasons you love the Co-op — and return again and again. This further validates and reinforces our decision to offer paid lunch, as our staff is what makes BriarPatch so wonderful for our shoppers. We are grateful for everything they do and they’re the reason behind our success, essentially why we are in business and why we’re the successful and vibrant community hub that folks like you appreciate and support. Creative compensation isn’t new to our co-op. We practice Open Book Management (OBM), and share profits with our staff whenever we meet specific quarterly goals, as a team-focused “thanks.” BriarPatch has an open door to leadership, and it’s not uncommon for employees to “climb the ladder” and grow a career at the Co-op — one of the core reasons why we decided to open a second store is to provide more effective career paths for them. We’re proud of the fact that nearly all of our hires related to the opening thus far have been internal. Employees receive paid time off, competitive health benefits, Co-op ownership and matching 401(k) in addition to this quarterly profit share. We are and will continue to look for ways to extend our appreciation for their time and dedication to our business.