Innovation Roadmap: Workforce Optimization
NATIONAL REPORT — When one thinks of workforce optimization, the first thing that comes to mind is likely technology. From self-checkout to artificial intelligence, there are many tech-driven solutions retailers can utilize to operate a convenience store efficiently in a challenging labor market.
"If you never ran a register for five minutes, let alone eight hours, it's pretty taxing," said Peter Rasmussen, founder and CEO of Convenience and Energy Advisors, a consulting firm based in St. Petersburg, Fla. For this reason and others, he is a proponent of self-checkout. From a customer perspective and an employee perspective, self-checkout offers a better experience all around — if done correctly, according to Rasmussen.
Giving an employee the ability to help the customers who want to be helped and then do other things instead of standing behind a register saying the same thing over and over all day long "has a measurable impact on turnover," he pointed out. "I think that's really huge when you think about workplace experience."
[Read more: Charting an Innovation Roadmap]
Rasmussen pointed to Casey's General Stores as a convenience retailer that has done a good job of enhancing its employee experience. The chain has reduced same-store labor hours for eight quarters in a row. "You think it must be taxing for the employees. No, the turnover has gone down and their Gallup engagement scores are going up," he said. "They attribute it to pulling out jobs from the store that people don't want to do. Employees can do more things that they want to do and are more empowered."
Casey's did a systemwide rollout of AVA (Automated Voice Assistant), a conversational AI voice ordering system powered by SYNQ3 Restaurant Solutions' SYNQ Voice technology. AVA enhances the ordering experience for customers by answering every call, providing convenient reorder options and processing new orders in a natural conversational interaction.
"I think any investment and innovation where you can just take out jobs that other people don't want to do can be really magical," Rasmussen said.
Nouria Energy Corp., the Worcester, Mass.-based operator of approximately 170 convenience stores, also believes in being a company that truly cares for its employees and invests in making their workplace experience the best it can be.
"We look at simplifying the jobs at the store level, making sure the task, the project, anything our people do, is well thought out before we implement it in the stores," said Chief Operating Officer Joe Hamza. "There are ways to make anything more efficient, whether by using more technology or by just making sure that you thought through whatever program you're trying to execute."
Nouria does have self-checkout in its stores, and the objective is to "enhance the convenience of our customers and improve the work conditions for our people," Hamza said. "With self-checkout, our people now have more slack to do other things that are either customer service-oriented or learning and training-oriented tasks that could actually lead to higher productivity than transacting with somebody at the register. ... Payroll is very expensive these days and it would be nice to cut back on payroll, but that's really not the objective."
Rethinking Value
At Nouria, value is more than just what the retailer can offer its customers; it is a key part of the company's employee proposition as well.
"Our company really prides itself on being a place where employees feel valued, respected and empowered to do the best job they can. The culture is built around the foundation of mutual respect and open communication with us and with our team members,"
Hamza explained. "We have a philosophy — and I'm sure many companies feel the same way — [that] a happy and engaged workforce is really key to delivering outstanding results. Everything that we plan, that we put in place is based on that philosophy and based on those foundations in terms of workforce innovation."
One avenue for keeping employees engaged is through town hall meetings hosted by Nouria's Founder and CEO Tony El-Nemr. In addition to addressing new employee programs, these meetings offer team members the opportunity to ask El-Nemr questions on anything from wages to issues and challenges.
"We believe the basis of any good engagement is communication, having that open communication and consistent communication with who we call frontline heroes," Hamza said.
The convenience retailer also offers its team members discounts and free products through a dedicated employee mobile app, which keeps them updated on new programs and offers.
"There are also things we do on a store-by-store basis. For example, store managers have things like a pizza party or a luncheon in their stores," Hamza said. "Our people are No. 1. We want people to have fun in what they do, but also we want them to feel that they belong to a company that really cares for them and wants them to succeed."
Today, people put a lot more value on their time and their experiences, Rasmussen observed, so employers must find ways to provide that worth.
"Gone are the days when someone works for General Electric for 40 years and gets a gold watch. People change jobs now. That used to be called job jumping, but now it's the pursuit of happiness, or if I'm not going to get promoted, let me work somewhere else, or maybe I can have more flexibility somewhere else," he explained.
At the end of the day, a convenience store's operating model has become more expensive — wages are higher and costs have increased — making it harder for retailers to make the multiple they need to reach to be successful, according to Rasmussen.
"It's not about cutting hours, but it's about having the right people paid their worth, and [they] can do more things they want to do and don't have to do taxing things that may make them think, 'Maybe I should just work somewhere else,'" he said.