Jeremiah Buck, owner of Papa Murphy’s in Wichita, has implemented a “Pay for A’s” program to invest in his young staff’s futures and reward both high school and college students for each ‘A’ they receive in their classes.
The “Pay for As” program, which Buck adopted in 2019, started on a conference call where Buck was finding ways to improve employee retention.
“One of us had an idea on rewarding good students, and we took it and developed it into the Pay for A’s program,” said Buck.
High school staff members who play a part in the program are paid $10 for an ‘A’ grade they receive each semester, while college students receive $50 for every ‘A’ grade.
“We pay out at the end of every semester. We wanted to put a couple tanks of gas or a date night in high schoolers’ pockets. And we wanted to do a little bit more for our employees going through college by trying to pay for some of their books,” Buck said.
For the spring semester of 2024, more than 40 local Papa Murphy’s employees earned more than $4,100 to support their education. Since its adoption more than six years ago, the program has paid more than $30,000 to over 400 of its employees.
Sydney Amrine and Robin Pinks, both crew members at the Wichita Papa Murphy’s location, shared that the program has challenged them to achieve final ‘A’ grades in their classes.
“Getting the most of my schooling is important to me, and Papa Murphy’s has helped me feel more confident in my ability to balance working during college in the future,” Amrine said in a Papa Murphy’s Bulletin Article.
Buck, who has been with Papa’s Partners since March of 2005, said the company has seen a measurable decrease in its turnover rate and a positive increase in our customer service metrics since the program was implemented. The program started just before the COVID-19 pandemic, which Buck said played a key role in helping the company have their lowest turnover rates ever during 2020.
“I think it shows we care about our employees as people outside of work. And it gives us a way to say thank you to for the hard work they put into their schooling,” Buck said.
