Whole Foods Market combines formal, experiential, and relevant learning for immediate results.
In January 2023, Whole Foods Market unveiled a 10-year vision known as Growing With Purpose. Over the next decade, the grocery retailer of natural and organic foods plans to expand strategically by focusing on four clear priorities: creating the best customer experience in stores and online, investing in team member growth and happiness, delivering exceptional business performance, and expanding reach to serve customers in new ways.
According to Mike Van Lente, executive leader of L&D, those pillars support the company’s mission to “Nourish People and the Planet.” As the first national certified organic grocer, the company provides high-quality, nutritious food options to customers who seek fresh, organic produce; sustainable seafood; responsibly raised meats; and an array of other natural products such as organic baby food and bakery items.
“Our team members need to have an elevated level of knowledge and skills to be able to help serve our customers and deliver on our purpose,” Van Lente says.
He shares that team members working at the company’s more than 530 stores across the US, Canada, and the UK must be equipped not only with customer service and operational skills related to store processes and equipment, but also knowledge about the products they sell and the ingredients they won’t—such as the grocer’s ever-growing list of banned food ingredients.
“Our strategy in learning and development is designed to help team members reach proficiency as quickly as possible,” Van Lente notes. “But we also need to educate them on [the] differentiators—our values, our quality, our standards. We must make sure team members are versed in that, so they can share that knowledge with customers.”
To ensure new hires do not become overwhelmed by the breadth of information and skills they need to know, Van Lente and his team of nearly 40 learning professionals specializing in instructional design, facilitation, learning implementation, and program management segment the learning over the first 90 days of onboarding.
The training combines formal and experiential learning, which instructors deliver on the sales floor and in a back-of-store room equipped with computers, tablets, and print materials (such as manuals, job aids, and posters).
“We don’t send our workforce away for days to learn. They receive some learning in store, and then they go onto the sales floor to apply what they learned. They do more learning, and then go back onto the sales floor. The cycle continues,” Van Lente explains. That method enables team members to learn and immediately apply new skills and capabilities.
“We give people a baseline to be able to perform the core work that they’ve been hired to do,” he adds. “But they also start learning about our products and purpose. Hopefully, this will spark their understanding that we’re more than just a grocery store.”
Van Lente emphasizes that the approach is important because “when team members can make a strong connection with Whole Foods Market’s purpose, they’re more likely to stay and learn and grow with the company.”
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