SHERMAN, Texas -- Douglass Distributing has a plan to prevent a little phenomenon CEO Diane McCarty calls “crisis mode.” Triggered by unexpected staff terminations or resignations, crisis mode is characterized by higher than average stress levels, short-staffed shifts and, occasionally, flailing.
The operator of Sherman, Texas-based Lone Star Food Stores is working to overstaff its convenience stores to prevent managers from launching into this unappealing state of being.
Here are three reasons why the chain is taking on this ambitious enterprise ...
C-stores lost more than a quarter of their managers in 2016, according to the most recent NACS Compensation Report. Reducing on-the-job scheduling anxiety could help keep supervisors long term.
In fact, scheduling is among the top three issues c-store employees think their company could improve upon, according to NACS’ 2016 People Power for C-Stores report.
When employees leave the company unexpectedly, that is very stressful for managers, McCarty said. By adding more people to the payroll than necessary to be fully staffed, McCarty said she hopes to alleviate some of this apprehension.
Understaffed stores also rack up overtime costs, McCarty said. By posting jobs to Craigslist, Facebook and other external sites, the c-store chain has been able to quickly recruit team members for its overstaffing goals.
Douglass plans to create a floating lineup of alternates that are not locked down to a particular store. “What we’re going to try to do is find more people than we even have jobs for and just plug them into a store and tell them that they will likely be moved when an outage arises elsewhere,” she said.
Right now, most stores within the chain are not fully staffed, and McCarty acknowledges her plan is wildly optimistic. “But it’s worth a try,” she said.
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