Thursday, Oct. 3, at the NACS Show kicked off with education sessions on a range of topics, including employee coaching and making your convenience store chain a top workplace. Both are key considerations in trying to attract and retain high quality talent in a tight labor market.
A session titled, “Employee Coaching: The Value of Checking In” outlined how c-store retailers can be more effective at coaching employees.
The session featured Bob Huebner, president and founder of 200Mark Consulting; Tate Cutrer, director of talent and learning, RaceTrac Petroleum Inc.; and Grace Wirfel, manager of talent management and leadership development at Sheetz.
While feedback tells an employee what to do, the key to coaching is asking questions to create insights. It also shifts ownership and responsibility to the employee to come up with solutions.
There are times for both feedback and coaching.
“Coaching can be used for people not acting optimally for your business or to take someone from good to great,” Cutrer said.
While many c-store retailers feel they don’t have time for coaching, making coaching an expectation of your management team will ensure they implement it. In-the-moment coaching can be just as quick as giving feedback and bring better results. Asking the right question can be key.
“You can give someone feedback several times or say, ‘I’ve told them that several times. Maybe I can ask some questions,’” Wirfel said.
Coaching can result in decreased turnover and increased productivity, which leads to higher sales and customer loyalty, Wirfel noted. “So when you think of it from a business sense it does make sense to pause … take the time and ask them great questions. They may have better answers than you.”
It’s also important to never make assumptions. “We don’t know why people behave the way they behave unless we ask,” Cutrer said.
Sometimes there’s a skill issue. Did they receive the training? Or a motivation issue. Did they not know how important this is? Or is there a barrier you’re not aware of? “We think of it as Skill, Will or Hill,” Wirfel said. Asking open-ended questions can help determine the issue.
Coaching should also reinforce what employees are doing well, point toward what to start doing in the future and identify what’s getting in the way.
Best Places to Work
In a session on “Culture: Make Your Workplace a Great Place to Work,” 200Mark Consulting’s Huebner; and Joanne Loce, managing partner, Fortify Leadership Group, talked about what culture is and why it matters.
Loce pointed out that there are many forces today impacting the culture of c-store organizations. The c-store industry is in something of a war for talent today at a time when many new policies and standards are also being implemented. Meanwhile, consolidation continues, and globalization is impacting all c-stores and the trends affecting them. At the same time the environmental trend is picking up steam from paper straws to how to dispose of trash, and foodservice is changing the game.
Your organization has goals, and there are driving and restraining forces impacting your success.
“Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs, which governs how people think and act. Culture is a compilation of what we expect and accept,” Loce explained.
Huebner noted that sometimes company talk about wanting a certain type of culture, but their actions would make you think the opposite. “The processes and the way people are talked to and the way decisions are made reinforces something different,” he said.
In a positive work culture, Huebner noted, people take pride and ownership. There’s increase work effort, productivity and efficiency; and improved teamwork, higher morale, reduce absenteeism, better overall customer experience and lower team member attrition.
Culture drives competitive advantage, Loce said. You can feel a positive culture when you walk in the door. It impacts how employees interact with customers.
A strong culture can also be a significant liability when it is not aligned with strategy. In other words, some cultures undermine their mission, she said. “Culture is resource and as leaders we should be managing it.”
Meanwhile competing cultures within an organization can create an oil and water technique— in other words a cultural mismatch could create infighting between two opposing cultures.
Loce and Huebner discussed what retail operators can do to impact their company culture in direction with the company’s goals. It’s important to remember that the culture that matter most to people is the one they experience each day.
