My Retail Epitaph- Six Crazy Ideas That Could Change Convenience Retail Forever

Previously, I wrote about the experience of moving away from my convenience retail career. You can read it here. Comparing convenience retail’s simple roots and grand, technological future gave me a lot to think about. So many problems; so few solutions. Armed with a pen and a piece of scrap paper, I marched into the long night only to find each idea more crazy than the next! The last post featured the first two ideas, but that was just the beginning. Here, now, are the six crazy ideas that could change convenience retail forever!

Idea #3- Incorporate a Third Level of Management

During my retail career, stores primarily ran under the leadership of two managers. Makes sense, as the store manager needs time off. My observations of this system, however, led me to believe that a third level of management is necessary. Why? Flexibility!

You will observe that flexibility is a common theme among these ideas, and for good reason. If you are going to incorporate new ideas into your business, you will need your best performers ready to assist in short term, creative ways.

As an example, let’s say an individual is overseeing ten stores. The top performing manager benefits his own store, obviously, but what of the other nine? Wouldn’t you want the best habits being spread among each store? The best managers of a community should be acting like they are part of a community! Out there- assisting the community of stores in real time.

I’m aware that many companies already incorporate a third level of responsibility. Beyond the value of increased responsibility alone, is there any value to the position? When the purpose of an entry level management position is to enable community engagement and business excellence on a community scale, that position will become attractive to the younger, community valuing members of your business. Turnover should decrease and engagement should increase. This is a management funnel built for success in the modern age!

Need more evidence? QuikTrip employs five managers in their stores. It’s no coincidence they are as successful as they are.

Idea #4- Strict Enforcement of Store Classification- A, B, C. Embrace Overpayment.

Speaking of QuikTrip, one of my favorite stories from the book “From Lucky to Smart” details how founder Chester Cadieux made all full-time employees succeed on the overnight shift before moving on to the night shift, then the day shift. After working the night shift himself, Chet came to the realization that the shift most others thought undesirable was in fact the key to the store’s success.

The value of embracing hard work for its own sake cannot be overstated. “I believe we can train competence, but we can’t train commitment,” says Chet. How does this translate to his third shift workers? Incentive and compensation. This also translates to culture.   

Overpayment- Individuals on the path of promotion began on the overnight shift and were paid a livable wage. Store managers were paid equal to assistants at large grocery stores. At QuikTrip, overnight associates were not simply employees filling a role- they were hard working goal setters well-aware of what awaited them in the future. They were motivated to embrace a view that matched the company culture for two reasons. One- simply being in the position indicated the employee was in training to lead said culture. Two- they were being paid a wage that demonstrated respect for their investment and potential. Their performance was a natural outcome of this process.

Culture- When QuikTrip opens a store in a new area, employees are often asked to move to the area and work with new employees. Culture is that important. Listen to Chet speak about moving into a new area:

When we move into a new market, we move a high percentage of the store personnel from another division to staff the first ten stores. Transferring the culture of the operational excellence to new divisions is critical. We continue to move high potential people as needed to ensure QuikTrip’s standards never waiver and the culture is transplanted (67).

What is that culture? One of hard work and expectation. One of process and understanding. One of expectation, incentive, and reward. In a world now dictated by “lived experience,” this is what it will take to expand not simply your stores, but your company culture and all that it entails.   

If a company believes, as the saying goes, “we are only as strong as our weakest link,” then l suggest the following: Classify all stores as either A, B, or C, according to criteria. Say a company overpays the rate of “B” store assistant and matches that rate to store managers in “C.” stores. Employees in “C” stores will have a clear guideline for future success. Having flexibility (see above) allows top performers to come alongside developing employees to foster best practices and lead by example.

In my experience, employees can become extremely motivated by objective standards and personal guidance. By classifying stores as A, B, or C, combined with overpayment, companies can start the process of ending rapid turnover and increasing company engagement. What’s not to like?

Idea #5- Change the Supervisory Structure

Seeing the death of margin in retail’s hardest year was bad enough, but something else was awry. It was an odd feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Something felt but unsaid in every shrug of the shoulder.

Hierarchy isn’t good enough anymore. Sorry not sorry.

In a world of complex organizations, unpredictable global events, and ideological workforces, businesses need to react at the speed of light. Outdated models of hierarchy are like a noose around your neck, or a chair carefully balanced by your heels.

Employees can be rewarded for effectively working within a team to foster the abilities of those around them. Often, this will lead to a quicker reaction to business challenges and increased employee morale. According to researcher Sarah Finch, “Whilst some level of management might be necessary for a business to actually make decisions, when workers don’t feel empowered, when managers are ineffective, or when senior staff take credit for other peoples’ work, employee morale suffers.”

Egalitarianism is a hot topic in today’s culture. Regardless of how you feel about this issue, you should consider this approach for your business. Embracing an egalitarian approach to hierarchy can help everyone to feel valued. A Stanford University study concluded that hierarchal leaders tended to turn on one another and value their own contributions while egalitarian teams tended to work together and value outside voices.

The current pandemic should put to rest the notion that old ways will pave the pathway for future success. Celebrating risk taken in the past will never produce future success. Business leaders will need to press on with new ideas and fresh perspective. A flattening of hierarchy in convenience retail is long overdue! “I’ve always said that if there were a Nobel Prize for management, it would go to the person who finds an organizational structure that’s not based on vertical differentiation, on hierarchy, on leadership,” says Lindred Greer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. “There have to be ways to organize that don’t imply inequality and inequity — ways to organize that are more mutually respectful and reinforcing.”

Idea #6- Bring Flexibility to the World of Employee Compensation

For those who find it difficult to place themselves into the mind of your average customer-facing convenience retail employee, consider the following hypothetical thoughts:

“Our industry is dedicated to speed and convenience. We strive to offer the ultimate convenience- the ability to be flexible in the face of our customer’s problems and needs.”

“Our customers demand nothing less than the most modern technology applied to both longstanding and emerging problems.”

“Is it Friday? I need to get to the bank before the line gets too long!”

Part of aligning your business is making sure that internal customer needs match external customer needs as much as possible! This means that the technology and flexibility we offer the customer is to be felt within an employee’s purview as much possible.

How flexible are we talking here? How about partial pay during a pay period? Or paying in cryptocurrency? Here’s one I would have considered- raising the rate of vacation accrual in lieu of a lower pay threshold. I know people who would have sacrificed significantly for hourly pay rather than salary compensation. We haven’t even spoken of benefit packages. Let the brainstorm begin!

As I’ve previously mentioned, employees are going to want to express their individuality when associating themselves to an employer. Giving employees radical flexibility in how they receive compensation will do a lot to address those concerns. Does this sound like an unnecessary headache to you? Wait until an employee sits in line at the bank for an hour before ranting on social media. That’s a headache any CEO can live without!

Idea #7- Get a Good Blogger

Internal company blogs are not a new thing. It’s possible you might have already experienced great success with this innovation. If so, congratulations! If not, you have some work to do.

Employee engagement is at an all time low with 70% of employees currently unengaged. Check out these statistics: disengaged workers create 49% more accidents, 60% more errors, and increase absenteeism by 37%! Organizations with disengaged workers can experience a 16% drop in profitability and an 18% drop in productivity!

Senior managers in first world countries need only to look at the broader culture to see the urgent crisis about to descend upon their stores. Trust in institutions and people groups are in decline. Your employees are well practiced in hiding their feeling towards institutional communities before they even interview with you! It’s bad enough that ten (or twenty) years ago, employees routinely grouped senior management as demanding curmudgeons worthy only of contempt. Convenience retail companies need to make community building a priority if they are to compete in this future-is-now-world.

Good intentions can blow up in your face. Maybe your blog is boring. Previously in this series, I mentioned how negative corporate jargon can be. Is your blog full of it, making your employees more stressed than they already are? Are you sharing the right kind of information? About yourself? About your company? Are you simply expounding fake enthusiasm that evaporates like fingerprints in dust? One thing you can’t do is make the problem worse!

If this describes your situation, you need a good blogger for the industry. Good bloggers will carefully craft content, as the blog will become a searchable archive of company information over time. Employees, once engaged, will use the blog similar to how they use the internet- to define reality.

Why not use the company blog to promote a healthy reality? First, sharing and transparency will help to facilitate learning within your company, as younger employees generally value lived experiences over corporate dictates. Clarifying expectations through a blog may feel more like collaborative learning. This is a clever way to ensure employees are aligned with the company’s goals and values.

Sharing imperfections can be a powerful way to connect with your employees. Employees want to feel like they are a part of something. They desire relationships. Sharing information about your life struggles (or your pets) can help you to seem less aloof and more aligned with the employee’s life experiences. Sharing stories about corporate or personal failures will help employees learn how to be brave in the face of adversity. They will learn to become better. In a word- connection. Limiting the felt “distance” between you and your employees is worth every effort!

Finally, internal blogging can be an important way to highlight the company’s value statements. Sharing stories and giving personal recognition to those who embrace the values of your company can be a sign to others that you aren’t simply seeking to be trendy or politically correct. Employees will begin to recognize the effect your values have at the top of the organization and how they flow through to their own experiences. You will become an inspiration for them to emulate the values for their customers!

Idea #8- Embrace a Company Intranet and Encourage Employee Blogging

Sometimes social interaction can be limited to a certain area, or even a certain store. Taking part in an active community can be so much more when using a company intranet.

Sure, company intranets are great for gathering information into a collective for employee use. But they also give companies a chance to radically improve employee engagement in creative ways!

One way you might consider is internal employee blogging. Not simply blogging about the nacho machine or clever customer service, but personal; transparent blogs that increase employee connection. A co-study by NYU/Carnegie Mellon found that blogs with leisure related content written within a work-related context can help increase the company knowledge base. The study found that employees were attracted to the leisure-based content first. Subsequently, the viewing rate of work-related content increased over time. Put simply, blogging one’s personal experiences made work related blogging more approachable. Comparatively, employee blogging programs that did not allow for leisure-based content experienced 90% less posting and 50% less readership than programs that did.  

Programs such as these create bonds between employees and generally improve employee relationships. Employees who blog leisure-based content for their colleagues may find similarities among their fellow employees. Later, this helps foster trust and knowledge sharing in a business context. Employees are recognized for their interest and skills. These employees often report feeling more valued at work. A study by the American Psychological Association reported that a high degree of transparency correlated to a lesser degree of burnout in the workplace.

I know that many of you are shaking your head, thinking about this. Don’t let my previous comments about employee rants scare you from taking this risk! Institute policies that encourage activities rather than identity. Give employees access to personal blogging after a period of seniority. Whatever the policy, the advantages of personal blogging are too good to ignore!

I’ll reveal the last two crazy ideas in my third, concluding post, to come. It includes a favorite of mine that I’ve never heard mentioned outside of my own head. What do you think about these six crazy ideas that could change convenience retail forever? Like, share, and comment!