Pret worldwide employs over 4000 people.  In Hong Kong we have a small group of shops led by an imaginative (and passionate) leader (Ops). All our shops have trainers within their core staff. We run many courses at our Pret Academy in Causeway Bay (most of which have nothing to do with sandwich making).

We have a strong tradition of developing our people and currently, 75% of our managers began their Pret careers as Team Members.  Our training programmes seem to work. We will continue to invest heavily in our employees’ development. We don’t sit on our backsides talking about staff ‘training and development’. We actually get on and do it.

At Christmas we throw a massive party. Some have passed into Pret legend. Everyone at Pret is invited. Quarterly we get the whole company together for a reward and recognition brief.

Pret always tries to go above and beyond the basic requirements for its staff, implementing innovative incentive programmes. The Mystery Shopper programme is designed to focus on Immaculate Shops, Immaculate Food and Immaculate People and to give Pret staff the chance to share a team bonus every week. Each Pret is visited every week by a mystery shopper, assessing Pret in terms of cleanliness and services from a consumer’s perspective. In shops that score 9/10 or more, every team member earns a bonus based on the number of hours they have worked that week. Over 80% of Pret shops in Hong Kong achieve their bonus each week. In addition, mystery shoppers can award an outstanding card to a Team Member for exceptional service and this member also earns an extra cash bonus. Cash rewards are also given to people when they are promoted so that they can distribute this reward amongst colleagues who have helped them out.

Pret’s success as a company is based on ‘word of mouth’ propaganda. The same principle is applied when looking for new staff. We strongly encourage our existing staff to recommend their friends and family to work for us, because we know that good people know other good people. Successful recommendations are rewarded with cash. Of course, staff appreciate extra cash and precious rewards, but we know that what people appreciate by far the most is the prospect of a promising career, which will enable them to improve their skills and provide better for themselves and their families. We actively encourage internal promotion and create opportunities for our staff to climb the career ladder as fast and as high as their potential allows.