How to Attract and Retain Travel Center Employees

Thanks for the quick ideas. Now, can you tell me more?: “When you are involved in your community, you become part of the very fabric that makes up the community,” said Robert Hurt, executive recruiter for Haskel Thompson. “Attracting and hiring applicants becomes infinitely easier when you have the support of your community.”

Hurt recommends employers involved with community outreach programs, sponsor activities with local school systems, attend job fairs, participate in college career days and contact local government employment resource centers.

Why does it matter?: For Coffee Cup Travel Plazas locations, attracting a diverse range of candidates is important because they, like many travel centers, are in unpopulated areas.

How can your travel center become embedded in the community?: Coffee Cup Travel Plazas has worked to become embedded in the communities where they operate their four locations.

Stores also provide donations and scholarships as part of the Coffee Cup Gives program and makes sure to promote their contributions.

“All of the team members get to come to the check signing and they know what we do besides selling fuel. They see how we benefit the community,” Schapekahm said. “I’ve been a part of so many interviews of where people say they like that we are involved in the community.”

Coffee Cup gets in touch with potential employees at drive through job fairs, freshmen move-ins and more.

Could this approach work with high schoolers?: Coffee Cup’s focus on students isn’t limited to universities. In South Dakota, some high schools operate four days a week—Monday through Thursday, which means students can work all day on Friday. “Those high schoolers now can get three full days and that has helped with weekend coverage,” Schapekahm said. “When the schools started to do that, we swooped in.”

Word-of-mouth marketing is especially important among the high school crowd.

As part of the manager’s outreach, she became involved in a committee at the high school to meet students and talk about the work. “Now a quarter of their team is high schoolers,” Schapekahm said.

What about older employees?: Coffee Cup has also been intentional about reaching out to older employees.

“In Kider County, North Dakota, we emphasized early-morning hours and short shifts for Cinnabon bakers. The imagery was of older men and women,” Schapekahm said, adding that the company paired the mailers with an in-store job fair and hired 11 people in less than two full days.

What about your customer base?: Schapekahm and her managers also keep an eye out for regular customers who they think have the personality and attitude to thrive in the locations and will offer on-the-spot interview opportunities.

Hurt knows of one successful manager who took time to speak with guests every day and hired the majority of her staff from that existing customer base. “Despite all the technological advancements over the decades, sometimes the best method to reach the most diverse talent pool is to make yourself available by being present and having a conversation,” he said.

What about your approach to shifts?: Employees today look for competitive wages, flexibility and opportunities close to their home, but Mark Emery, co-founder and CEO of Juvo Jobs said many employers haven’t changed with the dynamics of the market. “You have to run your business, especially in the hourly space around your community,” said Emery. “Right now, there are nine million job openings more than there are people. We hear people all of the time saying nobody wants to work, but that isn’t true. They just don’t want to work for you.”

In the past, many employers have been hesitant to create alternative shifts for employees, but Schapekahm has found that being flexible can help attract and retain talent.

Creating alternative schedules can be risky, but Coffee Cup starts by training employees on shifts where it won’t have a negative impact if it doesn’t work out.

“We do that to see if there is value in carving a schedule out for them,” Schapekahm said. “It can be difficult when we’re short staffed but if we do it right, it is worth it.”

How should you reach applicants?: In a competitive labor market, time is of the essence. “The first one to reach back out wins, and you have to do it in a method they’re used to,” Emery said. “Use a tool that meets them where they are.”

Juvo Jobs offers in-app communication. Employers who use the app have to respond within 24 hours, and the app itself will respond after 36 hours if the employer hasn’t. “It says sorry they’re busy, here are four other openings you might like,” Emery said.

Coffee Cup has always reached out to applicants within 24 hours and has hired an HR contact who can make instant contact. “She reaches out to candidates and does the pre-screen to recommend or not recommend an interview,” Schapekahm said.

Before adding to the staff, managers and Schapekahm partnered on contacting applicants within 24 hours via Talent Reef.  “It can be hard for busy travel center managers to go through that,” Schapekahm said, adding that managers now have six hours a week back.

(Read 7 Tools to Help Find, Hire and Keep Travel Center Employees for more ideas like Talent Reef.)

What about training new employees?: Quality training is one of the largest factors in employee retention, especially when paired with career path progression planning.

“Training needs to be meaningful, consistent and collaborative,” Hurt said. “If an organization does not have robust training, they are signaling to the employee that they do not care about them.”

One of the most effective training methods is to teach the skill, show the skill and then have the employee repeat what they saw. “Don’t move forward until you have mastered the skill in front of you,” Hurt said. “Similarly, with career path progression, the employee needs to master their current position before they move to the next position.”

What about employee advancement?: One of the top ways for travel plazas to ensure that they are appealing to the most diverse group of candidates is to be transparent with career path progression and opportunities.

Hurt also recommends operators share success stories. “We have all heard of the person that started as a midnight clerk and became the vice president,” Hurt said. “That is good to hear and is temporarily motivating. What would be better is providing a road map to how they accomplished their progression so others could work towards fulfilling their career goals.”

// This article was created for Stop Watch magazine, the magazine of the NATSO Foundation. Foundation is the research, education and public outreach subsidiary of NATSO, Inc. The NATSO Foundation provides programs and products to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the traveling public’s needs through improved operational performance and business planning. Visit www.natsofoundation.org for more information.