Kroger improves employee retention with innovative recognition programWe're Your
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Overview

Kroger is one of America's largest retailers, with over 2,700 stores in 35 states. Yet, while Kroger is a dominant player in the retail industry, the supermarket chain has faced stiff competition for talent in recent years from other supermarkets.

Determined to overcome this challenge, Kroger partnered with Brand Consultants Jewel Huffman & Lilia Hutchinson to implement an innovative points-based employee recognition program. This long-standing program continues to be optimized and adopted by more Kroger divisions—or "banners"—as a result of its success. In fact, 15 of these programs are up and running today!

Strategy & goals

As competition for scarce talent has become fierce, more companies are seeking creative ways to retain and motivate employees while boosting productivity. Recognizing this, Kroger partnered with Boundless to develop a points-based rewards system to improve employee morale, retention, and performance across its divisions. The points-based recognition program allowed each Kroger division to operate independently, based on its size and goals, while maintaining program consistency. Specifically, the program has added more high-value retail items over the years to boost engagement and excite their employees.

Kroger associates received printed cards with point values for meeting specific goals or providing excellent customer service, which they could redeem immediately or accumulate toward higher-value items. Employees can also use their rewards for food and other household items as a functional and widely useful feature of the program. 

Besides rewarding associates for their efforts, the points-based recognition platform helped management to identify top performers, replicate best practices across stores, and refine training processes, leading to better business outcomes. 

Results

The points-based recognition program delivered exceptional outcomes. Thanks to the program, Kroger managed to:

• Improve employee morale and retention
• Enhance employee productivity and coaching
• Boost sales by a staggering 150%, with the program growing from about 40% of business to 75% 

Conclusion

The points-based rewards program was a massive hit at various Kroger divisions. As a result, Kroger has continued to roll it out across several other divisions, including Cincinnati and Atlanta, which are among its largest. Based on program success, there are always new plans to optimize it further and outperform year over year!