As the director of human resources (HR) for Charlottesville, Va.-based Tiger Fuel Co., Ryan Whitlock helms HR for the entire organization, including its nine The Market convenience stores, fuel distribution, propane and wholesale distribution and All-American Car Wash, which has been rebranded the TigerWash.
CStore Decisions is recognizing Whitlock with an HR award for his role in driving culture, enhancing employee benefits, reducing turnover and acting as an employee advocate across the organization.
“There isn’t anyone that doesn’t feel comfortable in asking a question or working through something. I feel that’s just a critical component of a true human resources business partner,” Whitlock said.
Whitlock has always been interested in “the people aspect” of business. In Whitlock’s first job at a local Red Lobster in Rochester Hills, Mich., he had the opportunity to create training programs for the host department such as phone etiquette and its mystery shopper program. “I knew pretty soon, pretty quickly that was a career path I was interested in taking,” he said.
While attending college at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., Whitlock embarked on a 14-year career at Applebee’s when he was offered a staffing specialist position. He went on to hold roles as a regional training manager in the Washington, D.C., area and regional manager of HR for Virginia.
Whitlock began working at Tiger Fuel Co. in March 2016 as its director of HR.
“I was lucky enough to run into the opportunity here at Tiger Fuel in what I feel to be the most effective recruitment method that we have today — through networking and through a referral,” Whitlock said. He was visiting a community pool with family when he was introduced to Tiger‘s president Gordon Sutton.
Bettering Benefits
In February 2019, Whitlock spearheaded Tiger Fuel’s rollout of its Tiger Life Care health benefit program, through a partnership with CareTeam Health that assists area employers in joining to open a private membership health center for employees. Preventative visits are free, and all other visits require a $25 copay. Tiger also introduced pet insurance and revamped its paid time off program to be more robust and reward employees with a long tenure.
In March 2019, Tiger Fuel Co. ranked No. 3 on C-BIZ magazine’s list of 15 best employers in Charlottesville, Va.
Whitlock has also been instrumental in developing inclusive, well-rounded formal training programs, growing employee wages and reducing turnover. Tiger committed to investing more than $300,000 more per year on wages, giving 170 employees at The Market and Tiger Fuel an 11% wage increase in November.
“We took time to really look at our market and used our data tools to see where we fell,” Whitlock said. “Even though we were above the parity wage numbers at the time, we know the folks that really drive our business are the customer service oriented folks, and we wanted to be able to not only just lead (in terms of wages), we wanted to be at the top.”
Since the November wage boost, Tiger cut its turnover in half across the organization. “(As of March 2020) we’re sitting at about 10% turnover for the whole group. It’s about 40% in our retail c-store division,” he said. “So that’s pretty amazing and pretty quick.”
Above all, Whitlock has cultivated a positive perception of HR at Tiger Fuel Co. “I make it my role to ensure that we’re making our employees’ lives easier, that the money they earn from working hard and doing a great job is kept in their pockets as much as possible through better benefit lineups, through the ability to make decisions easier or to change little things (to make) balancing their busy lives easier.”
Whitlock said he looks forward to spending the rest of his career at Tiger Fuel. “I have found a career, a company, a culture, leaders and a family that make this decision a no-brainer.”