Pret A Manger awarded its 4,000 employees a £10 pre-Christmas bonus after the company made £1 million-worth of sales in a single day. It also launched an employee assistance programme (EAP).
The landmark sales figure was reached on 10 December and most staff received the £10 bonus the following day. Employees at Pret A Manger’s London head office were presented with the bonus in person by chief executive Clive Schlee. Managers at Pret’s stores around the country were told to give staff £10 from the tills. Staff who were not at work on 11 December were either given the cash during their next shift or received it in their pay packet.
Jeremy Hinds, people systems and reward manager at Pret A Manger, said: “It was a totally impromptu decision. The chief executive just decided he wanted to reward staff and we are always looking for new ways to do that, as people are a core part of the business. Staff gave us really positive feedback and we think it created a real ‘wow’ moment.”
Pret also launched an EAP, provided by First Assist, on 1 January. All staff can access the 24-hour counselling, legal and health and wellbeing service for free. “Our HR department is very busy and some of the calls it gets are not HR-related; they are personal,” said Hinds. “We needed something bigger and better to support the calls.”