The Tribe Report 10. The Non-Desk Best Practices Issue | Page 11

SPOTLIGHT

Not just any publicly traded retail brand
has a company vision that includes the
word “love” and mentions a desire for the
planet to flourish.

instance, is a three-day event held every three years.
“In the past, we’ve had everything from drumming and
dancing to Michael Franti and Ingrid Michaelson concerts
to a World’s Fair with farming of the future,” said Miller.

CO-CEO Walter Robb says on the company website: “Tribal
But that’s part of what has put Whole Foods Market on
Gathering is one of the reasons we’re a strong company.
the FORTUNE 100 Best Companies to Work For list for 18
By getting everyone together, we ensure a single vision
years straight, ever since the list’s origination in 1998.
shared by all.”
Whole Foods Market’s powerful culture and high levels
of employee engagement are particularly impressive
“We invite every store team leader to the Tribal Gathering,”
when you consider their huge non-desk population. The
Miller said. “They get great updates about the company,
vast majority of their employees, referred to internally as
get inspired and have chances to connect. Then they take
team members, are out on the retail floor, in distribution
all that energy for the vision back to their team members.”
centers or working in bake houses, seafood processing
and other facilities. Like most companies with large nonOf course, there’s an app for that. Last year, Miller’s team
desk workforces, few nonmanagement employees have a
created an event app for the festival that garnered a 90
company email address.
percent adoption rate. Posting photos and updates helped
build connections between team members from over 400
So how does the Team Member Communications team
stores, distribution centers and facilities. Based on the
connect nearly 90,000 employees and help align them
success of that experiment, “we’re now hoping to roll out
with the company vision? In one sense, they do it the way
a team member app that anybody can access,” Miller said.
almost every other company with non-desk employees
do