C-store operators had the opportunity to attend a variety of education sessions on the opening day of the NACS Show at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta.
A session titled, “Navigating the Labor Landscape,” moderated by Ashley Ray, HR director of Maverik Inc., with speakers Aaron Rolka, recruitment evangelist and employer insights of Indeed, and Renzo Bassanini, executive director of field HR of RaceTrac Petroleum, outlined the challenges and opportunities in labor management today.
Rolka pointed out that unemployment is at a near 50-year low — 3.7%, according to BLS. And now there are more job openings than unemployed workers. While 36% of economists predict that a recession is likely in the next 12 months, well over half of economists expect the economy to continue a positive trajectory for a while longer.
The number of workers quitting their jobs is at a 20-year high. In 2019, more employees are realizing that more attractive options may be available and shopping around for new positions. Retailers have found it challenging to find and retain quality workers.
Retail is changing quickly and as a result, so are talent needs. While traditional job grow is down, non-traditional jobs are growing like for positions like drivers (up 273%) and warehouse employees (36%). Keep in mind that the top skills sought after in retail are highly transferable between departments.
Today, 96% retail job seekers research prospective employers. Rolka talked about how to improve your Indeed company page to best attract job seekers.
Bassanini shared RaceTrac’s labor strategies. RaceTrac has 29 recruiters who bring in about 8,000 people a year through its centralized model. The benefits of a centralized model are a streamlined candidate experience, consistency and a flexible strategy. He also spoke about the challenges and ways to navigate them.
RaceTrac has prospective employees do a ‘realistic job preview’ before they receive an offer to get a feel for how they’ll handle the job and so the applicant has a clear idea of the position.
Meanwhile, Maverik uses a decentralized model. The chain upgraded its applicant tracking system to maximize its success with this model. “If you’re doing a decentralized model you really need that good applicant tracking system,” Ray said. She outlined the benefits and difficulties of the decentralized model. The process can be quicker and allows for a more localized experience in different market areas. Disadvantages can include difficulties with efficiency and consistency. Maverik corporate works to avoid this pitfall by creating a set hiring process and ensuring managers have the right tools and are asking the right questions.
Tobacco Evolution
In a session titled, “Evolving Your Tobacco Category,” Don Burke, senior vice president of Management Science Associates, shared how best-in-class retailers are evolving tobacco sets to drive sales.
Burke shared a look from the retailer perspective at what’s happening in the tobacco category.
Some 43% of c-store retailers are growing their nicotine business today, Burke pointed out. What differentiates them? One key difference included that at these stores, the number of tobacco items were up +10.5% — in other words they continued to grow their category items.
Burke noted, “you need to be carrying a secondary vapor brand; carry the top 3-4 brands in a premium cigarette brand and carry a less-available deep discount cigarette brand.” More customers, he noted are leaving roll-your-own for deep discount cigarettes. On the other end of the spectrum, super premium is also up 0.4%. “Sometimes customers think if I have to pay this much for a cigarette I’m going to go for super premium,” he said.
It’s important to note that customers like nicotine and are experiencing it today in new ways — not always using tobacco. “Watch that as a category,” Burke said. “Many will always want to consume nicotine. It may not always be with tobacco though.”
He pointed out more stores are offering the “modern oral” category, which includes items like nicotine toothpicks and other nicotine-containing items customers can put in their mouths.
Burke went on to detail the sales trends across channels and tobacco segments. One key point is that as JUUL pulled flavors from its lineup, more customers began switching to mint. Burke expects the vape category to remain strong despite current struggles.
One important note is as 21+ and other laws and ordinances send cigarette volumes downward in specific areas, customers simply go to neighboring areas to buy their cigarettes where such laws don’t exist.
“You can be impacted by SET changes happening in neighboring areas — you need to be prepared for that kind of activity,” Burke said. He outlines how how stores one mile outside the ordinance area see the biggest sales bump. “Municipalities need to recognize this,” he said.
Unconventional Labor Pools
A session called “Tapping into Unconventional Labor Pools,” with speaker Kim Scully, leader of operational recruitment and staffing at QuickChek, outlined the benefits of often overlooked employee segments.
“The easiest way to source/recruit people is to not have to do it in the first place,” Scully said, who noted she came up through the ranks at QuickChek.
Hiring minors comes with both benefits and challenges. When hiring minors, QuickChek provides a ‘Minors Report’ to the location with rules on schedule, total hours and breaks to help managers stay up to speed. Minors are usually available to work weekends, are flexible when it comes to scheduling and have a lot of growth potential.
Retirees, meanwhile, can also be overlooked, but they bring a strong work ethic, have flexible schedules and are highly social. It can help to show applicants the tasks required, so they have a realistic expectation of pace and physical demands. Given experience in previous jobs they know what needs to be done and are willing to jump in and go the extra mile.
“Most people we’re recruiting are customers and are applying following in-door signage,” Scully said. QuickChek also recruits at events.
Veterans brings a wealth of skills, work well under pressure and show leadership qualities. Vets particularly can transfer skills into all different situations. In recruiting veterans QuickChek leverages its partnerships with various charitable organizations.
To encourage employees to refer potential employees, QuickChek introduced ‘Chek-Mate,’ its employee referral program. Any team member can make an employee referral and that person is guaranteed an interview. If they are hired, the employee who referred them gets $50, and if they stay three months the employee receives another $50.