Container Store Employee Benefits EMPLOYEE: Hello, welcome to The Container Store. NARRATOR: What is it about some stores that creates raving fans that swear by them? At The Container Store, there are now 49 of them across the country, co-founder and CEO Kip Tindell believes his success is due primarily to one thing. KIP TINDELL: We focus on the employee the most. Not even the customer, the employee. NARRATOR: Wait a minute. Did he say the employee, not the customer? KIP TINDELL: If you take better care of the employee than anybody else, they'll take better care of the customer than anybody else. And then wonderfully and ironically enough, the shareholder will be very happy too. NARRATOR: Tindell believes that by paying higher wages, $46,000 on average for salespeople and offering health plans even to part time employees, he can create a work environment that generates excitement. KIP TINDELL: You walk in the store and you can feel it. Everybody that's in the store loves to be there. The customers love to be there. The employees love to be there. NARRATOR: Veteran employee Alison Copeland remembers when she first heard about the company's distinct culture. ALISON COPELAND: And I'm thinking, really? Is this for real? And 15 years later, it's absolutely real, still true, and still so alive. NARRATOR: Newbie Greg Heft has only been with the company six months. GREG HEFT: The Container Store is nothing like any other retailer that I've ever worked for. NARRATOR: One big difference is the company's approach in worker hiring and training. Applicants are subjected to up to nine interviews, and only 3% of them are hired. Once on board, they get about 260 hours of training. That's over 30 times the industry average. Tindell says the investment is worth it. KIP TINDELL: When you're selling empty boxes, you better have great people. NARRATOR: Of course, the great recession hit retailing especially hard. And The Container Store was not immune. KIP TINDELL: You can't go around calling yourself an employee first culture then lay people off. So we didn't do that. NARRATOR: But benefits were cut. KIP TINDELL: Everybody was very happy to not get 401k for a couple years to freeze their salaries, because I knew they were literally saving their fellow worker's jobs. You know, team is a really beautiful human experience, if it's done right. NARRATOR: And now, profits are up and the 401k match is back. But Tindell is critical of how other businesses have handled the recession and its aftermath. INTERVIEWER: On average, if you look at the top 50 companies in the United States, how are we doing? KIP TINDELL: C minus. INTERVIEWER: C minus? KIP TINDELL: I think everybody is becoming a little bit more conscious in the way they do business. I think customers demand it. They vote with their pocketbook. NARRATOR: Tindell calls what he's doing conscious capitalism. KIP TINDELL: We're not just being nice, it's a successful profit strategy as well. NARRATOR: And if it's profitable, maybe the employee-focused culture won't be contained to The Container Store.