Never forget that one cost of employee turnover is the loss of familiarity between your staff and the customers.
By Jim Callahan
Last month, I wrote on the topic of employee turnover and the small, but important, actions that employers can take to ensure a more productive workforce.
Sometimes when retailers lose a staff member, there’s a price not often measured—the comfort and interaction that regular customers have with your workforce. In other words, if you value the strong link between your workforce and your customers, know that bond becomes a little weaker each time you lose an employee.
For example, it’s invaluable to a customer knowing the cashier will have her pack of Camels on the counter even before she has to ask—or that favorite disposable e-cigarette. That kind of brand familiarity not only extends to a pack of cigarettes, but to your store. Employee turnover chips away at that bond, and can be a tough pill for any patron to swallow.
So what steps can you take to keep an employee from leaving? They can be small.
Several years ago, I devised a “Star of the Day” award, with two red stars at the top of a short letter, signed by the owner, thanking the named employee for a great job. Also enclosed was a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar.
The program was a huge hit with the staff and I can still recall one of my managers calling to tell me that Wanda had called her parents to share the recognition with them.
I said “that’s nice,” and the manager, Velma, responded: “You don’t understand. Wanda is 56 years old.”
Encouraging Satisfaction
You can show your workers that they are appreciated and it pays, because a happy worker is a productive worker. Certainly, both types can help lower a store’s turnover rate. Do you want to bolster that happiness quotient? Try the following:
• Call or stop at one or more of your stores on the weekend or late at night on your way home from a movie, dinner or a meeting. Your employees will appreciate it and you will get to see how the “forgotten shifts” really perform.
• They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and I’m here to tell you women are no different. Bring pizza or some doughnuts to work to let them know you care.
• Years ago, I got into the habit of going out on Christmas Eve to deliver each cashier a well-adorned single red rose—if they were males, they could take it home to their significant other. It was a simple way of demonstrating gratitude to each employee for working the holiday.
• Employee contests can boost spirits. I consider suggestive selling to be the lifeblood of success in increasing sales.
These contests develop both pride and selling skills that, once acquired, remain with the individual forever.
One must always recognize that extraordinary results are likely not achieved on a regular basis in the convenience store industry without having enlightened owners, a modern building with the latest conveniences, efficient fuel dispensers, attractive product prices, and finally, those great employees who are the glue that helps hold a successful operation together.
At my last place of employment—15 years after the store first opened—more than a dozen long-term employees remain. All of those employees, including a manager and both assistant managers, share 10–14 years of continuous service. That doesn’t happen just anywhere.
That store was built, in part, on employee appreciation. Remember, building employee morale is a critical key to long-term employee retention.
Jim Callahan has more than 40 years of experience as a convenience store and petroleum marketer. His Convenience Store Solutions blog appears regularly on CSDecisions.com. He can be reached at (678) 485-4773 or via e-mail at [email protected].