PERSONNEL MATTERS

ROBERT VOSBURGH

Single retailer seeks smart, active companion who enjoys the outdoors, good food (vegetarian OK) and cares about the environment. Looking for a long-term commitment and passion, and for a person who can help me become better at everything I do …

In the high-touch business of whole health, filling management positions just might read like an ad in the personals. And supermarket retailers are busy playing the field.

“The demand for natural and organic food expertise is really high,” said Michelle Sayers, director of natural food business development at Kehe Foods, a Chicago-based food distributor. “No matter where I go, with customers I'm working with or to industry events, people are always looking for folks with this type of expertise.”

Traditional supermarkets face enough of a challenge as they create and implement health and wellness umbrellas. The products themselves, as well as merchandising and pricing, are largely unexplored territory. On top of that, health-minded consumers increasingly are using a different set of standards in their purchasing decisions. They're known to rate retailers on whether they can keep organic milk in stock, offer information and trial incentives, and otherwise build a shopping environment that encourages healthful living. It's a tall order to fill.

“Product knowledge and communication are crucial in these categories,” said Jose Tamez, managing partner of Austin-Michael Executive Search in San Antonio. “You can almost get anybody who handles inventory control or category management. Today it's about messaging.”

Retailers are taking concrete steps to find the right person to build and administer their programs, especially since there's a lot of money at stake. The whole health market — including everything from organic food to hybrid cars to solar-powered homes — is pegged at more than $450 billion, according to the Environmental Business Journal. The consumer emphasis on healthful, sustainable living is compelling many supermarketers to cast a much wider net in search of talent.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENTS

Finding the right people to implement and grow health and wellness categories presents traditional supermarkets with several obstacles. Unlike produce or grocery, the products and services that are part of the retail whole health portfolio often require a degree of knowledge — even familiarity — that other categories don't. What's more, the emphasis on education, rather than straight sell-through, means there's a much heavier focus on store-level execution than otherwise might be found in traditional categories.

“Supermarkets not only have to hire someone who is authentic themselves, but someone who understands that whole health is not just natural and organic, and that it encompasses a broader concept,” said Cynthia Tice, manager of natural and specialty foods at Foodtown, a 63-store co-op in Avenel, N.J. “Marketing whole health is not just putting natural and organic in your sets.”

Tice, who owned a natural food store for 20 years, and most recently was a consultant, noted that the corporate retail structure must make room for a different business model if it is serious about making a go at health and wellness.

“There has to be a plan — an understanding of the key categories and a devotion of space specifically for them,” she said. “It needs to be corporately determined, with the understanding that these items may not get the turns like conventional products do, and that it's an investment in the future.”

Executive recruiters agree that the conventional supermarket industry might hold little appeal for a potential candidate who's considering a whole health category manager or buyer position. People who take such jobs — whether they come from inside or outside the company — all but certainly follow some aspect of the health and wellness lifestyle, be it exercise, diet or ethics. They very well might be anti-corporate, but they're also passionate about bringing whole health to the masses. The trick for successful recruitment is to emphasize the latter by presenting the operator as progressive and forward-looking.

“Your employment proposition has to be such that you can accommodate this new breed of thinking,” said Gary Preston, managing partner of Preston-Reffett, an executive search firm based in Doylestown, Pa. “You need a way to get them into your company and become acquainted with food retailing.”

Chains like Whole Foods or Wild Oats are the most obvious destinations for health and wellness specialists, but mainstream supermarkets offer a much bigger audience. Safeway has its eye-catching lifestyle format; Kroger has created the successful Natural Choices department for select banners. Authenticity is the operative word, experts say.

“Retailers have to be truly committed to the segment to attract the top people out there, because they're able to assess, quite quickly, whether this particular chain or wholesaler is as committed to it as they're being told,” Tamez said.

Retailers can also acknowledge they're lagging in the categories, and are looking for someone like the candidate to build them up. But first, supermarket executives have to know what they're looking for, and where to look.

“It's a big hot button,” said Jean Forney, managing partner of Samuel J. Associates, an executive search firm in Deerfield Beach, Fla. “Actually, it's the creation of a job for most supermarkets today.”

INTERNAL AFFAIRS

There's a widely held assumption that supermarket companies need to look outside of their own organizations for whole health expertise. The reality is quite different, for many buyers and managers are being drawn from inside the ranks.

“Retailers are starting to focus on understanding the individuals they have in their organizations much, much better,” said Cecile Alper-Leroux, director of Human Capital Management product strategy for Lawson Software, St. Paul, Minn. HCM is a concept developed by the software firm to describe new methods companies can use to uncover and promote the natural attributes of employees.

“We see skills as being renewable, but there are also competencies and interests to be looked at,” she said, adding that employers can begin looking as early as the application or recruitment stage, and highlight anything outside the work environment that could benefit the company. Someone, for example, might volunteer that they're a triathlete or vegetarian, and therefore, likely to have been exposed to healthful living.

Utilizing employees in new ways fits in with larger changes occurring in American lifestyles. Alper-Leroux said that supermarkets — notorious for turnover, particularly at store level — have learned that tapping personal competencies can help boost retention rates.

“Traditionally, retailers have been seen as businesses getting whoever they can in the door for customer-facing positions, but as they grow more specialized, they're trying to attract a different individual or nurture within their organization the next generation of the specialized position,” she said.

To that end, retail seems to be on top of this trend, which empowers individuals because they're allowed to self-identify to a much greater degree than in the past.

At Kehe Foods, outgoing personalities get top billing for a sales or manager position, according to Sayers.

“We look for someone who has the category knowledge, has an insatiable appetite for learning and is actively involved in the industry,” she said. From her vantage point, as a wholesale distributor, Sayers has seen a corresponding increase in the number of specialists on the retail side who now work with their Kehe counterparts.

“We're finding that supermarket retailers are hiring their own specialists,” she said. “They're really looking to hone that expertise internally.”

The internal pipeline can produce any number of candidates to oversee whole health initiatives, depending on the company structure. Some are longtime veterans whose responsibilities have evolved to include health and wellness categories, while others have been plucked from the lower ranks.

“Someone may have been category manager of grocery three years ago, and slowly they've morphed into category manager for specialty, gourmet or natural/organic,” said Tamez of Austin-Michael. “They may not have had the expertise but they've certainly learned it and the company has invested money in making sure the education is there.”

If there's one stumbling block that could thwart retailers' ability to foster candidates from within the company, it's that there are fewer training programs because of consolidation or budget cuts. Experts point out that cross-training has been crucial for certain categories like perishables — or health and wellness. These areas are full of products and information that are extremely sensitive to variables like yield management or organic sourcing. With fewer chains fostering broad-based skill sets among executive recruits, some believe there's little choice but to look outside for expertise.

CASTING CALL

Hy-Vee is looking for a few good registered dietitians. Actually, a lot of them.

“Our goal is to get up to 100 within the next year,” said Chris Friesleben, assistant director of communications for the 199-store chain, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa. “We only had 19 registered dietitians a year ago, so that's already a sizeable increase in a one-year period. The issue we're dealing with now is trying to find them all.”

Hy-Vee's efforts may be an extreme example, but they're indicative of what's occurring at many supermarket chains: The search for candidates who can bring their expertise and knowledge to an industry with a short history of health and wellness initiatives.

“These folks are usually well-seated where they're at; they're hard to get or get to leave the company they're at,” said Preston, the recruiter. “They're a whole different breed, and the traditional approaches that supermarket companies used in the past — classified ads, Internet postings — aren't going to work. This is a very targeted group of individuals.”

Many of the potential executives recruited by firms like Preston-Reffett know much more about the products, suppliers and consumer insights than the executives trying to recruit them. With demand so high, they have the opportunity to be selective.

“The retail leaders are the ones that have invested in putting a person in place and growing the category that way,” observed Tice, Foodtown's natural/organic manager. She said that it only takes one person to make or break a retailer's health initiatives. The most appropriate candidate would be someone who has lived and breathed whole health in their own life, and adheres to a set of dietary and ethical principles that can be translated at the store level, directly for the average shopper.

“Consumers are really after authenticity, and in this category in particular, a desire for authenticity is what we hear from consumers,” Tice continued. “They're willing to spend more on products as long as they understand why. And one of the things we have to be able to provide is information on why they're spending more.”

At Hy-Vee, better customer service is the goal as the search for store dietitians continues. The interview process is somewhat slow because of the sheer number being sought, as well as the chain's requirements.

“There are a lot of people out there who are registered dietitians. We need to find the ones who will work in our store environments,” Friesleben said. “We're very, very customer-oriented, and our personnel, no matter what they do, have to have the right personality and be comfortable working with people.”

Hy-Vee's dietitian staff is composed of three corporate-level diet experts, who administer the store-level staffers. It's the three who have been talking with candidates, as individual stores request a dietitian.

“Very rarely does it take just one or two [interviews],” Friesleben said. “You really have to go in-depth in the process.”

Conversely, recruiters involved in specialized position searches note that supermarkets have to be willing to create a compelling argument to attract the best talent in this space.

“There is no question that the need for talent in organic/natural food is going to increase at a rate faster than what is currently available in the marketplace,” Preston said. “Companies who differentiate their offerings and allow creative freedom in product selection and merchandising will be in the best position to attract talent.”

IN THE STORES

After all the interviews and hiring, the true test of any whole health manager will be graded at store level. It's in the aisles and on the shelves that retail executives find out how their programs are working.

“A lot of chains separate the jobs of buying and marketing. I think that's a disconnect,” Tice said. “If you don't have the same person, that can get communicated to the consumer.”

For example, one grocery buyer may have a well-developed snack set, while another in the same company includes few organic cereals.

“A single person can consistently communicate the message, via the assortment,” she said. “When they're marketing various attributes of health, that is how it's really reflected.”

Tamez, the executive recruiter, agreed, observing that serious category players have already assigned health and wellness to a single person who can specialize in it. But even here, retailers can overdo it, and pile all niche categories — ethnic, natural/organic, gourmet — on one person, thereby defeating the purpose of hiring a specialist in the first place.

“Are they going to be knowledgeable about the products? Yes. Are they going to be experts? Very rarely. They're probably best at multi-tasking and good with numbers,” he said.

Translating individual store needs at the corporate level has long been an area of continuing education, or re-education, particularly in whole health. At progressive, employee-owned Hy-Vee, the level of investment in health and wellness is left up to stores. Friesleben said this model has kept them from moving too quickly into categories for which not all market areas are ready.

“Because we're very entrepreneurial, we don't dictate policy from the corporate level,” she said. “We encourage stores to consider having the presence of a dietitian, but we don't make them.”

For centralized, corporate roles, recruitment is the rule. But the process is different at the stores, were outreach is handled at the location. Lawson's Alper-Leroux said there has emerged the need for a one-click hire, for a manager to be able to say, “I hire you now.”

“A lot of this activity is being managed at the store, because managers are the ones who really know who would fit best in their organization,” she said. “This responsibility is being pushed out to managers because they understand the balance and nature of what their stores need.”

A flexible structure for communicating between the associates and the shopper is crucial to ensuring that a consistent, accurate message gets to customers.

“Finding the right talent to interface with the customer on the sales floor will continue to be a challenge,” said John Brown, managing partner of Preston-Reffett's Retail-iQ, a search firm for mid-level managers. “Associates with specific product knowledge can be a huge asset in the organic/natural categories. The small nutrition and vitamin stores have thorough internal training programs to certify their store-level associates and they invest heavily in their continued education.”

Indeed, store managers have to be just as convinced as the vice presidents and senior VPs at corporate, for they're the ones who hire and direct the front-line associates.

“If you have an employee out on the floor telling a customer they can eat this and cure cancer, not only are they liable, so are you,” Tice said.

On Merchandising

One of the most important decisions a whole health director or manager can make is determining how health and wellness products are set in stores.

“We talk so much about merchandising this category. There's certainly a huge disparity in what people think is the best format,” said Cynthia Tice, manager of natural and specialty foods at Foodtown, Avenel, N.J. Tice is a fan of integration, since it solves a key problem at store level: How to find qualified people. One of the biggest problems with segregated sets, she said, is that consumers must be driven in.

“You're building a destination location and you better have somebody in there manning it,” she said. “Otherwise, it's a wasted initiative.”

Integration also allows retailers to create a consistent corporate message regarding the category, through the use of signage, brochures and shelf tags.

The merchandising question is more service-oriented at the wholesale level. Michelle Sayers, director of natural food business development at Chicago-based Kehe Foods, said that assortment strategies are first determined by weighing needs vs. space allocation.

“I also take the approach that, within certain categories, it should be about lifestyle merchandising, by lifestyle usage.”

Sayers also stressed that consistency is an essential part of any whole health program.

“I tell customers that once we brand their program, let's make sure we brand it across the entire store in terms of layout, design, signage and advertising,” she said.
— RV

Dream Date

What are some of the qualities that go into the perfect whole health manager? Some of the country's leading executive search firms weigh in.

Jean Forney, managing partner, Samuel J. Associates, Deerfield Beach, Fla.

“You're looking for many of the same functionalities as a regular category manager. But the big difference here is someone who knows the vendors, knows the products, knows where to go. A lot of companies have bits and pieces of this, but they need somebody who's capable of tying it all together and making a statement.”

Jose Tamez, managing partner, Austin-Michael Executive Search, San Antonio

“A lot of them are what I call ‘Lifestylers.’ It's almost like a subculture of specialty/gourmet/natural and organic. You're somebody who lives it, breathes it and eats it. You've got it in your cupboards at home and truly believe in it. They can talk much more specific to the products, or to the target audience, and get things moving.”

Gary Preston, managing partner, Preston-Reffett, Doylestown, Pa.

“We find that individuals who have deep knowledge of organic and natural food categories have a strong social consciousness and are attracted to companies that have deep beliefs in the health and welfare of their customers and employees. The size of the company is not as relevant as the size of the position for these types of people.”

Hunting Whole Foods

Perhaps the boldest way to attract top talent is simply to go right to the source with lots of cash in hand. Apparently, that's what happened to Whole Foods Market, which recently announced it would raise the salary cap for top executives from 14 times to 19 times the average wage paid to workers.

In a blog he uses to communicate with employees and customers, John Mackey, the chain's president and chief executive, noted that mainstream retailers were copying many aspects of Whole Foods, including design and product mix, in an attempt to steal business. But that's not all, Mackey complained.

“One of their competitive strategies has also been to aggressively seek to hire several of the executive leaders in our company,” he wrote employees. “Everyone on the Whole Foods Leadership Team (except for me) has been approached multiple times by ‘headhunters’ (executive search firms) with job offers to leave Whole Foods and go to work for our competitors.”

Jean Forney, managing partner at Samuel J. Associates, an executive search firm in Deerfield Beach, Fla., said no employment pitch has worked well at Whole Foods in the past.

“I will tell you as a recruiter that the answer you're going to get when you call in to the upper echelon at Whole Foods is, ‘I work for one of the best companies in the world. Why would I want to change?’ There's a lot of corporate pride there. It goes way beyond money.”
— RV