Kids Manage Winn-Dixie Store for a Day
Winn-Dixie promotes more than 10,000 associates between the ages of 14 and 20 to managers in more than 1,100 stores in 14 states for its Youth Management Day. Now in its 13th year, the program allows junior associates, seven to 12 per store, to serve as store managers and department heads. Managers shadow the associates and assist when situations require seasoned management.
“There are advantages from both sides,” says Mickey Clerc, vice president of public relations for Winn-Dixie. “It’s a recruiting tool for the company, plus it gives the kids self-confidence that carries on to whatever they do in their life.” Several managers who went through the program in past years go on to become managers, according to Clerc.
Moderator Comment: What do you think of the Winn-Dixie
Youth Management Day program? What other innovative recruitment and youth training
programs in the retailing industry are worthy of note? [George
Anderson – Moderator]