Four Ways to Create or Improve Your Truckstop’s Culture

A strong company culture can benefit employees and customers alike, but creating a culture isn’t always easy. During this month’s operational exchange conference call, NATSO members joined together to share their insights on how they are building and strengthening their corporate culture. Here are four key ideas operators shared during the call.
More
 

A strong company culture can benefit employees and customers alike, but creating a culture isn’t always easy. During this month’s operational exchange conference call, NATSO members joined together to share their insights on how they are building and strengthening their corporate culture. Here are four key ideas operators shared during the call.

Keep it front and center. By talking about the company’s culture and modeling it, you can increase employees’ understanding of what it means. It is also important to sometimes stop talking about it and listen to what the employees are saying to ensure there is a shared understanding of what it means.

Focus on employees. If you cannot service your employees, you cannot effectively service your customers. Before rolling out a program, ask yourself if employees can effectively get it done and if not, try to think of ways you can truly make their job more effective. It can be useful to ask employees for their feedback rather than always giving feedback from the top down. One operator has created an 800-number so employees can share ideas anonymously.   

Try to promote an enjoyable, team environment even though there are areas of the business that are regimented.  When there is harmony in the field, the customer is going to have a better experience and want to come back, and employees want to know they are a valued part of the team. Rather than simply telling employees things are changing, explain the situation to them and obtain their feedback.

Have all employees spend time in the field. When possible, having new hires, whether it is an executive member or someone in the corporate office, spend time in the stores. Giving all employees experience on the front lines will change the way management thinks of the front-line staff and how the company’s decisions effect them.

 unnamed.jpg

*Open to all NATSO truckstop and travel plaza members, NATSO Operational Exchange monthly calls provide a forum for operators to discuss operational questions and connect with peers on a single topic.

Limited to 15 operators, next month's call will take place on Thursday, November 12 at 11:00 a.m. EDT10:00 a.m. CDT9:00 a.m. MDT and 8:00 a.m. PDT. Operators will discuss The New Status Quo: Managing Personal Impact. Those joining in should plan to discuss the following questions: Do you handle change well? Are you flexible? Are you innovative? What is your tolerance for risk? Are you a manager or leader Plan to share your ideas on the call.

You can register online at www.natso.com/operationalcalls or by emailing membership@natso.com.

Subscribe to Updates

NATSO provides a breadth of information created to strengthen travel plazas’ ability to meet the needs of the travelling public in an age of disruption. This includes knowledge filled blog posts, articles and publications. If you would like to receive a digest of blog post and articles directly in your inbox, please provide your name, email and the frequency of the updates you want to receive the email digest.