CHICAGO -- The latest numbers from NACS show that associate and manager turnover is up, up and away. The c-store associate turnover rate is 133%, up from 95% in 2015, according to preliminary 2016 data shared at this year’s NACS State of the Industry Summit. After enjoying turnover of less than 18% for the past six years, manager turnover hit 27% in 2016, NACS data shows.
Here are three ways retailers are rehabbing their recruiting strategies to find workers willing to stick around ...
FKG Oil Co. is finding its Wisconsin and Indiana units to be a tough sell for job seekers. “I’m willing to try just about anything to increase our applicant pool and make our managers happy,” says Mitch Abbett, human resources manager for the 79-unit convenience retail chain, based in Belleville, Ill. The chain recently upgraded its applicant tracking system, which digitizes recruitment elements such as job listings. The new system pushes FKG higher up in internet search results and allows the chain to constantly recruit with more evergreen job ads.
“Since we have switched, we have gotten a better, wider pool of applicants and have seen some improvement in the Wisconsin area,” Abbett says.
Its approach may be tech-forward, but the chain is courting more than millennials. “We are trying to market to everybody,” he says. “I definitely don’t want to throw away a boomer or Gen Xer. Nobody is too old to work in a c-store.” Abbett is also personally following up on passive applicants—those who might have started an online application but never finished.
A chain long respected for its recruitment and retention practices, Kwik Trip Inc. is investing more resources on the front end to find potential hires who fit the company’s culture. The La Crosse, Wis.-based chain has hired more team members to scout talent. “We now have close to 20 recruiters who focus mainly on finding the right management people,” said Jeff Wrobel, vice president and CFO of Kwik Trip, at a recent industry conference.
C-store chain Yesway has helped limit its turnover by teaching hiring managers to slow down and not just fill an empty position. “We teach our managers how to hire the right person the first time, onboard, train and make sure they have the tools they need to do their job most effectively,” says Rick Winter, senior vice president of human resources for the 31-unit chain, based in West Des Moines, Iowa.
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