Labor Market C-Store Inventory
The Labor Crisis
Great news, the economy is improving and is projected to continue to grow throughout 2021. However, the gap in employment that began at the start of the pandemic still continues. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate sits comfortably at 6.1%, as of April 2021. Although down 8.7% from the previous year, these numbers remain well above what they were pre-pandemic.
What does 6.1% Unemployment mean? To put it into perspective, the 6.1% equates to 9.8 million persons unemployed in April 2021.
Civilian unemployment rate, seasonally adjusted – Labor Market
Labor Market Supply and Demand
When we think of supply and demand, we don’t often first equate that to the labor market. As our world opens back up, the c-store industry should expect increased fuel sales, foot traffic, and retail sales across the board.
People are going back into the office, traveling for pleasure, and going out more regularly, making their presence in your c-store more consistent. In turn, this means that now is an imperative time to find and retain accountable, loyal, and trustworthy employees.
Identify the Problem and Promote the Positives
Employers with high turnover rate need to examine the reasons by communicating, experimenting, and improving the work environment in their c-store. Some prime tools to identifying these issues within the workforce are:
- Perform employee surveys.
- Highlight the positive feedback of employees.
- Boost employee engagement.
- Champion health and wellness for employees.
- Build Relationships.
- Perform exit interviews.
How Quantum Can Help in the Current Tight Labor Market
Dependable Inventory Auditors helping our C-Stores in our labor market
The current c-store chain is a crucially more sophisticated and complex operation. With food service stations, loyalty campaigns, and carwash components, the list of responsibilities can seem daunting to employees. Management in c-stores today must balance employee engagement, employee performance, recruiting, incentive programs, customer service standards and costs.
By taking inventory auditing off management’s task list, it provides more time to focus on growth within your team and maximizing talent where it is needed most. When you outsource the auditing function, more time can be focused on employee relationships and key actions to help maintain the ideal worker in your store.
Remember when Quantum Services performs your audits,
- You ONLY pay for what you want and what you need. With an outside auditing team, you pay for only the number of audits needed which gives the flexibility to focus your internal staff on profitable store activities while maintaining auditing within a budget.
- You get our trained and experienced staff. It is simple when all we do is audits, we are the experts.
When calculating all the hard and soft costs of an audit program, using an outside auditing group is often less expensive and more cost-effective. With the current state of the economy, continuing labor shortage and projected growth, employers are outsourcing their auditing services and seeing the countless benefits. Inventory auditors develop relationships with store management and staff that are productive, helpful, and will increase the quality of the establishment.
Have more questions? Please call us at 800.777.9414 or complete our contact form.