Minimum wage, employee retention, and pursuit of happiness
Money can’t buy happiness, said Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Money can’t buy you love, said the Beatles. But it can pay rent, get you fed and dressed, and even provide occasional micro-doses of happiness.
This is why we all try to make more money. And those among us who work at convenience stores complain that it’s hard for them to make as much money as they would like to make.
Indeed, low pay rates are the leading cause of dissatisfaction among the c-store workers - about 49% per report from NACS and the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council.
Add to this the high rate of turnover plaguing the retail industry, where 36% of workers leave in their first month on the job, and you pretty much ran out of reasons to be happy. The abovementioned report refers to it as “inaccurate perceptions of pay”.
What can you – the c-store owner – do about it?
Some store chains raise the pay rate, to $18 or even – like Buc-ee’s – to $20 per hour. But not all can afford this pay rate and stay in business, so the industry average hovers at about $12.
But frankly, pay rates are not the only issue when employee retention is concerned. Most people employed in this industry need flexible hours and balk at unexpected, unplanned last-minute schedule changes. As much as they like getting paid overtime, not all of their time is dedicated to work. They also have lives outside of the workplace, and it would be un-American to hinder their pursuit of happiness.
This is why Ticon developed the location analysis report dedicated to advanced store performance management, forecasting sales, providing owners with historical traffic data, demographic reports, and more. You can apply the information from this report—such as seasonal visits fluctuation, monthly, weekly, and even intraday fluctuations in visitor rate—to help you optimize your employee schedules in advance, before the need for it comes out of the blue.
No more need for last-second changes, no need for excessive overtime. You are back in control. You are happy, and so are your employees.
Win-win.
