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Get Clear on Your Culture
Before Recruiting

Now that you’ve committed to being a star employer, it’s time to look at your recruitment efforts. The key to recruiting high-quality employees is to first get clear about why people should want to work for your chain.

“How many of you have a list of five to 10 reasons why a star employee should want to be on your team? Because if you don’t have the list, where’s the employee going to get the list?” Kleiman said.

The contents of this list should be used to determine how to best focus your messaging when marketing to new employees, Kleiman pointed out. Without a unique recruiting message, it’s hard to stand out against a sea of similar employers offering comparable roles and wages.

Messaging matters, whether it’s on Indeed.com or on the door of your c-store. A “Now Hiring” sign is boring, Kleiman pointed out. 

“What does that say? It says, ‘We need a body.’ What would happen if the sign said, ‘Life’s too short not to work for someplace awesome’? What if the sign said, ‘Come for the job. Stay for the career’? What’s your message?” Kleiman said. 

Zeroing in on the aspects that would make someone want to work for your chain tells you a lot about your company culture and values, and using this information in your recruitment materials will help attract employees who are in alignment with that culture.

A September 2023 report by Workhuman and Gallup, titled “Empowering Workplace Culture Through Recognition,” found that employees who strongly agreed that they were connected to their organization’s culture were more than three times as likely to be engaged at work. What’s more, those that were connected to their organization’s culture were also more than five times as likely to strongly agree that they would recommend their organization as a great place to work and 55% less likely to be looking for new job opportunities.