Bringing the ‘Joy of Pret’ to the employee experience
Pret A Manger knows that its employees are central to providing the unique customer service the organisation is celebrated for. But Pret face a similar challenge to many Quick Service Restaurant chains; staff recruitment and retention.
Whilst Pret recognises it will always have a relatively transient workforce, it wants to make sure it continues to attract and retain the highest calibre of employees – those who will thrive in its fast-paced environment and grow with the organisation.
So, Pret wanted to understand both how to attract the best employees and to evolve their employee experience and culture to retain them.
Understanding the employee
We undertook extensive research with previous applicants and current and ex-employees to really get a broad and deep understanding of employee motivations – what attracts them to this type of role and sector, how, what and where they find the information they need, what they like and dislike about the role and what motivates them to stay or move elsewhere.
Answers ranged from practical needs such as location and flexibility of hours to more emotive factors, like the organisation’s values, or an undefinable ‘feeling’ the brand gave them.
We also ran focus group sessions with current and former employees to help us get a real understanding of day-to-day working life at Pret – both good and bad. We wanted to learn what caused valued employees to leave as well as stay.
Finally, we benchmarked Pret’s recruitment collateral, including its website, against competitors to see how we could differentiate our communications and drive more applications.