Thanks for visiting our profile page. Pret's approach to treasure hunting, (that's what we call finding great managers) management retention and career development is pretty unusual. Some would say it's downright odd.
Because Pret is growing, one shop at a time (no rush), we're always looking for good managers. They're the lifeblood of our company. They have made us successful. Pret managers are often the envy of the retail world.
Why might you want to join Pret as a Manager?
It really depends on what you want out of life. Of course, a fairly good test is to be a customer of Pret. Try us out. Eat our food. Hassle our staff. Ask them lots of annoying questions. See if you get a good vibe.
Once you've done that (and want to dig deeper), go through our website. Read our in-house literature. Maybe contact us and ask for some more info. Chat to us. You can tell a lot about a company just by talking to the employees.
Pret's won a few awards for its training and HR. (The Guardian voted us amongst the top employers in the UK in 2007 - pretty good for a sarnie shop).
We pay quite well. Most importantly, we pay as much as we can afford rather than as little as we can get away with. The average salary (including bonus) of an Assistant Manager in 2008 was over £24,000 and for a General Manager £32,000. We reward our managers according to their ability to take charge, improve service, sales and customer loyalty. Our benefits aren’t bad either. Managers get 33 days holiday a year (including bank holidays), private health care, life assurance, free lunch, 50% off all products, £20 per month dry cleaning allowance and loads more including monthly Friday night drinks and 2 legendary parties each year.
One thing is for sure - we bonus well. Up to 30% 0f salary (even more when targets are exceeded). Each quarter, a group of managers triple their bonus. We encourage and reward our managers to be business leaders as well as being very knowledgeable in all Pret's standards and processes.
Listen & Trust
At Pret we believe that a manager’s role is to 'lead', not just manage the day-to-day stuff. That may appear obvious, but the truth is that too many 'managers' working in the hospitality/retail business are simply glorified jailors. They’re given a bunch of keys, a boring manual, a polyester tie and a bunch of tired inmates to watch over.
Our founder, Julian Metcalfe, still works at Pret. He started the first Pret in Victoria in 1986 and is the first to admit that he was a pretty poor manager then and is still learning new skills today. A manager never stops learning.
About half our managers are promoted from within Pret. The other half join from the outside – either as assistant managers or managers. Our "manager in training" programme lasts anywhere between 5 weeks, (for those promoted internally), and 12 (for those who join Pret from other companies) weeks, and it doesn't stop there. You continue learning well after the official programme ends.
Before we can support a manager with the right development and training, we assess their strengths and areas for development. Because weekly turnover of our shops varies from £15,000 a week to £180,000 a week, we can easily vary the challenge to suit the person. Our traffic light system identifies plenty of opportunity.
It's hardly surprising that managers have different skills. Some are brilliant at training and developing their staff. Some are truly great with customers, others are stunning business people. Our aim at Pret is to provide all our managers with roughly the same degree of basic skills and then put them in a role, which they will excel at and enjoy.
No one gets bored at Pret (hopefully).
Ready, Steady, Go!
Every ten to twelve Pret shops have a full-time Ops (Operations Manager /business leader) to support their teams. This investment in our people is covered by our office, not by the shops' budget. In addition to our TrainingAcademy in London, every shop has a proper "family tree", including in-house trainers. No other company seems to do this. Odd really.
Pret's Op's, trainers and numerous others at the Hudson's Place support centre, will have come from Pret shops. They know the form; they're familiar with the pressure.
We try very hard not to mess up our managers' valuable time with useless "suits and ties", consultants and pen pushing buffoons.
Our mantra is (if we had one and we don't) "If it doesn't help our customers and staff, why are we doing it?"
Company Address
1 Hudson's Place
London
SW1V 1PZ