Human Resources
Every employer, no matter how large or small, needs to have a strategy for attracting and training frontline employees and the managers of tomorrow. Yet, convenience store turnover is staggering—100% is typical, and 200% is common among hourly retail employees. Training and preparing employees for advancement is one proven method for attracting and retaining talented workers. Employers are also encouraged to invest time and resources into comprehensive background checks on prospective employees by inspecting financial records, work history and for any criminal activity, all of which will paint a clearer picture of a potential employee that will have access to the cash registers and influence over customers as a representative of the convenience store brand. In other words, one bad employee can cause a serious damage. Every new hire needs to be treated as the most important hire the company will ever make.
Managing Today’s Retail Workforce
As major shifts in the economy have created unparalleled effects on the labor market, CSD has partnered with Humetrics to help c-store operators benchmark their hiring practices and employee costs. By Mel Kleiman, Contributing Editor. In an ongoing effort to support the convenience store and petroleum industry’s forecasting and planning responsibilities, Convenience Store Decisions and [...]
Screen In the Best, Screen Out the Rest
Just as you should consistently ask applicants questions that get you all the information needed, so should you question yourself every time you consider hiring a new employee. By Mel Kleiman, Contributing Editor. One of the fastest growing classes of lawsuits today are employment law filings. In addition to discrimination and wage/hour actions, we’re seeing [...]
Train to Retain
To get and keep “A” players, retailers must become an employer of choice. This doesn’t always mean paying more money, but it does mean understanding that the way employees treat customers reflects the way their employers treat them. By Mel Kleiman, Contributing Editor. Do you ever wonder why no one ever trains us for life’s [...]
Motivating Employees in a Challenging Economy
Some chains just don’t have the financial resources to give out much-deserved raises and bonuses, but there are other ways to show your staff you appreciate their hard work. By John Lofstock, Editor. To say the least, the past few years haven’t been the best for business. While we have weathered a brutal recession, it’s [...]
Don’t Settle for Employee Mediocrity
Training and preparing employees for advancement is one proven method for attracting and retaining these talented workers. By Mel Kleiman, Contributing Editor. In the course of my more than 25 year’s of consulting and professional speaking work about how to recruit, select and retain the best frontline employees, I have identified one common case of [...]
Putting the Community to Work
With 20% of its staff now made up of challenged and disabled individuals, VERC Enterprises has earned a reputation as a top employer. By Erin Rigik, Associate Editor. VERC Enterprises, an independent convenience store, gasoline station and car wash operator in eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire, has reached a new milestone by including challenged/disabled individuals [...]
Marketing in a Digital Age
Rising Star: Megan Sutfin Social Media Administrator, Sac N Pac Stores. Smart convenience store chains recognize that social networking is a crucial tool in keeping the lines of communication open with customers and growing loyalty for years to come. A social media team can help your chain control brand image, calm any negative conversations that [...]
Southside Oil Welcomes John Hornyak
New senior vice president of wholesale fuels joins Southside Oil team. Southside Oil, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the largest ExxonMobil fuel distributor in the region, Mid-Atlantic Convenience Stores (MACS), has appointed John Hornyak as senior vice president of wholesale fuels. Hornyak brings to the Southside Oil team celebrated experience as a senior executive in the [...]
What’s your turnover rate?
Turnover can be very costly, yet it is often overlooked or poorly measured by many convenience store retailers. Studies peg the cost of replacing one c-store employee can be $1,500 or more and that ignores the opportunity cost from increased sales resulting from a well trained, stable, customer focused work force. Many chains are [...]
Getting The Most From Teams
Sometimes it makes a lot of sense to have a cross functional work team established to tackle business challenges or drive operational improvement in current processes. Other times it is better to assign the task to an individual or to a group with a clearly defined leader. Cross functional teams provide the added benefit of brining [...]
Improving Retail Retention
In a down economy, employees have fewer job opportunities, but retailers would be remiss to overlook company morale simply because employees have fewer options. By John Lofstock, Editor. We live in a 24/7 stressful society, filled with uncertainty in the job market, the economy, competition, etc. A large percentage of employees admit to being unhappy [...]
Susser Welcomes Three Individuals To Leadership Team
New leadership members bring a wealth of experience and are expected to help drive growth in key areas for Susser. Susser Holdings Corp. has appointed three new members to its leadership team: • Gail Workman as senior vice president of sales and operations with Susser Petroleum Co., Susser’s wholesale fuel subsidiary, based in Houston • [...]
Carney Joins The Pantry’s Executive Leadership Team
Former senior vice president, general counsel and secretary of The Borders Group, brings 25 years of experience to The Pantry. The Pantry Inc. has announced that Thomas Carney is joining its executive leadership team as senior vice president, general counsel and secretary. Carney joins The Pantry from Borders Group Inc. In his new role at [...]
EZ Energy Announces New Hires
From chief financial officer to marketing category manager and support center assistant, EZ Energy introduces new faces to its team. EZ Energy is welcoming a number of new employees, including Michael Paull as vice president & chief financial officer. During his 21+ years of corporate finance and accounting experience, Paull has worked in multiple industries [...]
VERC Enterprises Achieves Goal
Some 20% of the 200 employees at VERC Enterprises have physical or mental disabilities or challenges. Helping employ these individuals has been a huge focus for CEO Leo Vercollone. VERC Enterprises, an independent convenience store, gasoline station and car wash operation with 23 locations throughout eastern Massachusetts and New Hampshire has reached its goal of [...]
