3 Ways C-Stores Show Staff They Care

CHICAGO -- With soaring turnover and plummeting unemployment rates, it can be tempting to spring for gimmicky initiatives to convince employees to stick around. But one of the biggest drivers of staff engagement is just showing workers that the company cares about their well-being, according to NACS's most recent People Power for C-Stores report.

Here are a few ways retailers are working to make staff feel warm and fuzzy ...

Instead of offering bonus programs and incentives, retailer Family Express opts for a competitive base salary.

“Our people produce $160 in inside sales per hour,” Alex Olympidis, president of operations for the Valparaiso, Ind.-based chain, told CSP Daily News. “A highly productive workforce allows us to pay our sales associates a starting wage of $10 per hour and our store managers a minimum of $50,000 annually as a reward for outstanding performance, rather than as an incentive with the hope of producing outstanding results.”

Kum & Go, a convenience-store chain based in West Des Moines, Iowa, offers employees financial assistance when they might need it most. As part of the chain’s associate loan program, staff members are able to take out a loan against future paychecks for financial emergencies.

Team members can also join the retailer’s Christmas Club, where they put money toward a holiday savings account. Kum & Go matches a percentage of the contributions plus 7% interest.

Both programs yield high participation and continually show up as some of the highest valued benefits on annual surveys, said Kristie Bell, communications director for the chain.

Many retailers send inadvertent signals of disrespect to their employees, Olympidis said. “The most profound way to show disrespect is to overwork associates or managers,” he said. For the past seven years, Family Express has been overtime-free.

Workers also aren’t expected to show up on a moment’s notice, Olympidis said. Staff members receive their schedules between two weeks and one month ahead of time.