Research Report

People Power for C-Stores: Using Employee Engagement to Build Business Results

When it comes to business, people matter. Studies consistently show that employee engagement leads to business growth, and that’s why NACS CCRRC chose to study the topic in this three-phase project.

The report explores employee engagement in convenience retail based on survey responses from 20,000 c-store employees and managers across 11 different banners.* The Council wanted to identify what influences employee engagement, how it relates to business growth and where c-stores can improve. The results confirm the reality of these opportunities.

*Participants were invited to take part in a voluntary, web-based survey in which they were asked to respond to 33 questions. No incentives were provided, and all responses would remain confidential.

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Title page of People Power for C-Stores: Using employee engagement to build business results
Illustration of a cartoon character wearing a C-store uniform running inside a large white gear. The gear is interlocked with two smaller gears, showing that the employee is providing energy to power the system.

Introduction

Business is not just about numbers, it’s also about people. Studies consistently show that engaged employees are more efficient, have lower turnover, and generate higher levels of customer satisfaction — which leads directly to greater growth in sales and profits. This is why the CCRRC North America NACS chose to study employee engagement in a three-phase project called “Power Up Your People.”

This report is the final phase of that project. It explores the status of employee engagement in convenience retail based on a survey of 20,000 c-store employees and managers across 11 different banners conducted by the Service Management Group.* Its purpose was to identify:

  • How employee engagement and business outcomes are related in the convenience industry.
  • Which factors are most important in influencing employee engagement.
  • Where the opportunities for improvement are.

This research confirms that improving employee engagement in convenience retail can make a significant difference in business performance, and that there are very real opportunities for c-stores to capture performance gains by improving employee engagement.

Council members who have worked on employee engagement found that their own organizations experienced the greatest gains and long-term success when everyone in the company, from the top down, understood the value of increased engagement and behaved to support it. Together, the three resources developed for this project give convenience retailers the foundation they need to build that understanding, and the guidance they need to get started.

* Participants were invited to take part in a voluntary, web-based survey in which they were asked to respond to 33 questions. No incentives were provided, and all responses would remain confidential.

Power Up Your People resources from CCRRC North America NACS

How Employee Engagement Works.

This series of short presentations uses the academic evidence to explain what employee engagement is, how it impacts business performance, and which organizational building blocks are required to create and sustain it.

View on Vimeo

Powering Up Employee Engagement: A Flash of Light.

In a series of short videos, C-store supervisors and managers tell firsthand stories of what happened when they applied employee engagement principles in their own stores.

View on Vimeo

Business Benefits

People power: How much is it worth?

Studies involving thousands of companies, diverse job levels, and millions of employees consistently show that there’s a strong relationship between employee engagement and better business results.

Now we can say with certainty that this is true for the convenience industry, too.

This research clearly documents that higher staff engagement at c-stores leads to better business outcomes.

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Better customer service and increased customer loyalty

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Associates who actively promote the business to friends and family

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Faster speed of service

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Lower employee turnover

Even the best performers have plenty of room to capture gains.

Some convenience retailers have higher average engagement scores than others — but the store-to-store variation within banners shows that even strong performers have plenty of room to capture gains.

What does the academic research say about the business benefits?

Profitability

High engagement firms were 22% more profitable than low engagement firms in one study and 10% more profitable in another.

Turnover

High engagement firms have lower turnover rates. 25% less in one study and 10% in another.

Shrinkage

Typical results show a 28% difference in shrinkage levels between engaged and non-engaged employees.

From How Employee Engagement Works, by Blake Frank, PhD, for the CCRRC North America NACS Power Up Your People project.

Spread the word: More satisfied customers and better brand ambassadors

Customer satisfaction and loyalty goes up when employees are engaged — and the biggest gain is on the important dimension of “likelihood to recommend this store to a friend or neighbor.” On the other side of the counter, highly engaged employees are far more actively involved than less engaged employees in promoting their stores to friends and family.

Customer satisfaction and loyalty

Top 20% of stores on employee engagement compared to bottom 20%

Stores in the top 20% of employee engagement scored significantly higher across all three dimensions of customer service than those in the bottom 20%.

Infographic styled like a storefront awning showing three metrics of customer sentiment for stores in the top 20% of employee engagement compared to stores in the bottom 20%. Overall customer satisfaction: +9.0%. Customer likelihood to return: +6.8%. Customer likelihood to recommend: +13.3%.

Employees as brand ambassadors

Would you recommend shopping/dining at this store to friends and family?

% who strongly agree

Greater employee engagement creates better brand ambassadors.

Chart showing percentage of shoppers who strongly agree with the question above, grouped by employee engagement at their respective stores. Disengaged: 12% of shoppers agreed. Moderately engaged: 54% of shoppers agreed. Highly engaged: 94% of shoppers agreed.

Get ready to zoom: Higher engagement drives faster service

One reason higher employee engagement produces better in-store experience is its impact on “speed of service.” Stores with more highly engaged employees score higher on fast service — and higher than retailers who compete with c-stores for the same labor market, such as QSRs.

Highly engaged stores are top performers on speed of service.

Cartoon of a C-store employee running inside a large hamster wheel

Staff engagement and speed of service

% of customers highly satisfied with speed of service

Chart showing the percentage of customers highly satisfied with speed of service, segmented by average staff engagement score. Bottom third: 58% customer satisfaction, 50% average staff engagement score. Middle third: 61% customer satisfaction, 67% average staff engagement score. Top third: 68% customer satisfaction, 79% average staff engagement score. A benchmark marker indicates that the SMG average for QSRs and competing retail formats is 66% customer satisfaction. The chart illustrates that higher staff engagement is strongly associated with increased customer satisfaction on speed of service.

Bottom line: Less turnover and more profit

Higher levels of employee engagement are related to both higher profit and lower turnover. The impact shows up clearly when we compare the engagement scores from one of the participating banners with the 2015 industry average from the NACS State of the Industry Survey.

Engagement and operational profitability

Comparison table showing employee engagement metrics for Firm X versus the 2015 industry average. Firm X has an overall engagement score of 59%, 8 percentage points higher than the industry average of 51%. Individual metrics include: overall job satisfaction at 52% for Firm X vs. 41% industry average (+11%), teamwork at 52% vs. 40% (+12%), work culture at 57% vs. 47% (+10%), growth at 55% vs. 46% (+9%), service culture at 63% vs. 56% (+7%), and support at 61% vs. 52% (+9%). Inside gross profit dollars per labor hour is $31.02 for Firm X versus $29.83 for the industry, a 4% increase. Annual hourly turnover for Firm X is 80.5% compared to 87.9% industry average, a 7.4% improvement. Callouts highlight that the 4% higher gross profit per labor hour equates to $24,000 more annually per store, and that replacing an hourly employee can cost %16 of annual ages, a cost of $3,328 each time a $10-per-hour employee leaves.

Some banners perform better than others on employee engagement...

Overall engagement scores ranged from a high of 64% to a low of 36% among the 11 banners studied. Averaging the scores of all individual respondents results in a study average of 51%.

Overall engagement scores by banner

% represents the overall engagement score for that banner

Bar chart showing overall engagement scores by banner for the 11 banners studied. Scores range from 36% to 64%. The two highest-scoring banners each received 64%, followed by banners scoring 61%, 59% (two banners), 54%, 53%, 50%, 47%, 43%, and 36%. A horizontal line marks the study average of 51% for individual engagement.

...but store-to-store variation shows even strong performers can capture gains.

Even among convenience retailers with high banner averages, some stores perform far better than others on engagement. The chart below shows that every company has “headroom” for improvement and the opportunity to capture business benefits from employee engagement efforts.

Store-to-store variation within banners*

Percentages refer to store engagement scores

Left to right, the banners are arrayed from the highest degree of variation to the lowest.

Box chart illustrating store-to-store variation in engagement scores across eight retail banners, ordered from left to right by highest to lowest variability. For the first banner, engagement scores range from 11% to 87%, with an opportunity zone (middle 95%) ranging from 16% to 81%. The second banner ranges from 25% to 97%, with an opportunity zone from 36% to 97%. The third banner ranges from 25% to 100%, with an opportunity zone from 36% to 96%. The fourth banner ranges from 5% to 80%, with an opportunity zone from 10% to 68%. The fifth banner ranges from 20% to 87%, with an opportunity zone from 25% to 83%. The sixth banner ranges from 32% to 86%, with an opportunity zone from 32% to 86%. The seventh banner ranges from 39% to 93%, with an opportunity zone from 40% to 92%. The eighth and final banner shows the lowest variability, with a range from 29% to 38%, with an opportunity zone from 29% to 38%.

*Only stores with 15 or more respondents are included.

Finding the opportunity zone

The green lines represent the banner’s highest scoring store (which don’t need improvement) and the red lines the lowest (these may be beyond help). The opportunity zone is found in the blue boxes. They show the wide range of engagement scores for 95% of the banner’s stores.

Engagement Drivers

Many factors combine to increase employee engagement. All of them make a difference, but some have more impact than others in convenience retailing. When we asked employees what mattered most to them, four things stood out:

  • Company concern for their well-being
  • Opportunities to use personal strengths
  • Clear expectations
  • Encouragement to find better ways to work
Illustration of four C-store workers, each holding a puzzle piece above their head. From left to right, the puzzle pieces read: “Company concern for their well being,” “Opportunities to use personal strengths,” “Clear expectations,” and “Encouragement to find better ways to work.” The puzzle pieces are shaped to interlock, symbolizing how these engagement factors fit together.

What matters most to employees?

If a retailer can concentrate on only a few areas, the red sections in the infographic below is where they will get the greatest returns.

Key engagement drivers

Chart showing percentage values for various workplace factors that influence employee engagement. The top four drivers, highlighted in red as areas where retailers can get the greatest returns, are: “Banner cares about my well-being” at 12%, “I have consistent opportunities to use my strengths” at 11%, “I know what is expected of me” at 10%, and “Encouraged to find better ways to work” at 10%. The remaining drivers and their respective scores are: “I feel safe working at this location” at 9%, “I have opportunities to learn and develop” at 9%, “Equipment helps me do a great job” at 8%, “Recognition for work” at 7%, “Work well as a team” at 7%, “I get the information I need to perform well” at 6%, “I am satisfied with scheduling notice” at 6%, and “Managers timely feedback helps me improve” at 5%.

But don’t forget about safety.

Not feeling safe hinders employee engagement — a lot! When asked if they felt safe working at this location, the average engagement score for those who answered “strongly agree” was 69% — all others — even those who answered simply “agree” as opposed to “strongly agree” — scored in the 20s or below.

Key related driver: the banner cares about my well-being.

Engagement scores and perceptions of safety

Bar chart displaying engagement scores based on responses to the question “Do you feel safe working at this location?” The highest engagement score of 69% is among those who strongly agree, followed by 26% for those who agree, 21% for those who disagree, 20% for those who neither agree nor disagree, and 19% for those who strongly disagree. The chart highlights a clear correlation between feeling safe and higher engagement.
Illustration of a C-store employee holding a red umbrella with a single white cloud in the background against a light blue sky.

Making sure employees feel safe on the job is an important issue to address if you want to build strong engagement.

Full-time associates are more engaged than their part-time peers.

Associates who are employed full-time have higher levels of engagement across the board than their part-time counterparts.

Related drivers: cares about my well-being, opportunities to use strengths.

Engagement by position - part-time and full-time

% top box (respondents answered “strongly agree” or “highly satisfied”)

Chart comparing engagement metrics between part-time and full-time employees. Full-time employees score higher across all categories. For overall engagement, 47% of part-time and 55% of full-time employees strongly agreed. For overall satisfaction, 41% of part-time and 44% of full-time employees. Intent to remain six months is 56% for part-time and 70% for full-time. Recommend to work is 49% for part-time and 53% for full-time. Personally committed to help succeed is 53% for part-time and 64% for full-time. Energized when doing my job is 39% for part-time and 46% for full-time.
Illustration of a C-store employee holding a clock in one hand

Some convenience retailers are increasing the number of full-time employees in the workforce to improve employee engagement.

Engagement increases with responsibility.

Managers showed higher rates of engagement than non-managers, except at one banner surveyed.

Related drivers: opportunities to use strengths, encouraged to find better ways to work.

Engagement by position - managers and non-managers

% top box (respondents answered “strongly agree” or “highly satisfied”)

Bar chart comparing engagement metrics between managers and non-managers. Managers report consistently higher scores across all categories. Overall engagement: 63% for managers, 49% for non-managers. Overall satisfaction: 49% for managers 49%, 41% for non-managers. Intent to remain six months: 79% for managers, 60% for non-managers. Recommend to work: 61% for managers, 49% for non-managers. Personally committed to help succeed: 74% for managers, 56% for non-managers. Energized when doing my job: 53% for managers, 40% for non-managers.

More responsibility increases non-manager engagement, too.

Darrell Meek, Operations Manager, J.D. Street & Co., from the first-person videos developed by the Glen Douglas Group for the CCRRC North America NACS Power Up Your People project:

You would think that by empowering your employees, and giving them more ability to make decisions, the end result would be that they would run over you, and do less work, play more, goof off, or just not do what they’re supposed to. But in reality, you get the exact opposite effect. You get employees who become engaged, and take ownership in their job, and become part of the company, instead of just the person behind the counter.

Voices from the field

Employees were asked to comment on what they found most satisfying in their workplaces and what they felt could be improved. Here’s what they said.

Illustration of a C-store employee holding a megaphone

The best part of the job is customer interaction.

Convenience retail employees get strong positive feelings from dealing with customers. While there are some expected differences between manager and non-manager responses, it’s clear that customer interaction is what really “lights up” both groups. The energy they draw from dealing with customers comes through loud and clear in their comments.

What’s the one thing you like best about working for your company?

% of comments (more than one response allowed)

Chart showing responses for managers and non-managers. Customers were mentioned by 39% of managers and 41% of non-managers, significantly more than any other topic. Coworkers were mentioned by 16% of managers and 20% of non-managers. Management was mentioned by 11% of managers and 16% of non-managers. Everyone is friendly was mentioned by 11% of managers and 14% of non-managers. Flexible scheduling was mentioned by 5% of managers and 9% of non-managers. Positive environment was mentioned by 8% of both managers and non-managers. We are like family was mentioned by 9% of managers and 6% of non-managers. Benefits were mentioned by 10% of managers and 4% of non-managers.

I love to work with the guests. Interacting with them puts a smile on my face. With it so busy most of the time, we see many people everyday.

Fun to get to meet so many different types of people.

Concerns about management, pay, and resourcing/scheduling surface when asked what needs improvement.

These responses shed light on what employees feel is limiting their ability to do a good job. Issues related to management, pay levels, and scheduling are the most commonly mentioned.

What’s one thing the company could improve?

% of comments – managers and non-managers combined*

Chart showing percentage of comments mentioning various topics. Management 15%, pay 14%, schedule 12%, training 9%, communication 7%, benefits 7%, equipment 6%, teamwork 6%, fairness 5%, offer discounts 5%.

*Percents do not add to 100

I simply cannot make a living being compensated so poorly for my efforts. I work 40 hours per week and these are long, hard hours and I bring home less than $275 per week. In this area I cannot even pay my rent with that.

There are occasions where more staffing is needed to accomplish the tasks for the day, but these are only during busy times.

I wish that managers could reward the employees who they see doing a lot of the work all of the time.

More (and better) store meetings are needed - non-managers

Non-manager concerns focus on making sure everyone gets the information they need.

Better communication in the stores. Maintenance tells us one thing that managers had no idea about. In another situation managers were becoming frustrated with employees for doing something according to an old policy because they were not told that the policy had changed. Store meetings are held when the majority of part-time employees are unavailable.

Regular store meetings to help keep everyone ‘on the same page’ so to speak. Manager meetings that include both assistant managers so we can help our manager with any new changes that will be coming to the store as well as support her with ongoing changes.

Have store managers provide one-on-one meetings with their employees every six months to ensure that everything is on track with the employee’s goal, whether it be in regards to moving up or even just scheduling.

Schedule more store meetings with all managers and employees.

Managers want improvement in pay and scheduling.

For managers, the top candidate for improvement was pay — their own and their employees.

What’s one thing the company could improve? (Managers)

% of comments*

Bar chart showing the top themes mentioned by managers. Pay and schedule are the top themes, each mentioned by 15% of managers. Other themes: training 11%, benefits 9%, communication 7%, equipment 6%, teamwork 6%, offering discounts 5%. A callout box breaks down the top theme “Pay” into sub-themes: 17% of comments mention wanting a raise, and 10% mention needing more labor hours.

*Percents do not add to 100

Some managers argue for higher pay and greater flexibility on behalf of their employees.

The demands are very high in this competitive business. We are never given the needed payroll hours in order to do the job that is expected of us. We cannot clean, cook, stock and run the store while giving the customers the time and attention that the company expects.

Pay the employees more. It is hard to find good honest working people, I can’t pay them enough and they go to another job because the pay is better.

Try to encourage more opportunity for raises for those that continue to work hard. It shows that they are appreciated.

Raise the starting wage so we can hire better people. Have monthly meeting to keep track of our progress.

Annual raises. Take into account the cost of living and what the employees are paid per hour.

How retailers can use this report

The key findings in this study confirm that improving employee engagement can power up your c-store business.

Increased employee engagement improves business results in convenience retail.

There are specific actions that managers can take to impact engagement.

Retailers who want to take advantage of this opportunity should make use of all three parts of the Power Up Your People project. Here are some ways to get started.

Illustration of a C-store employee surrounded by a dark background, facing outward through a large keyhole-shaped light beam

Start at the top

Implement actions based on the major findings of this research.

  • Higher Employee Engagement = Higher Profits
  • Across stores within the same companies, there are huge variations in engagement.
  • Full-time associates are more engaged than their part-time peers.
  • What matters most to employees:
    • Company concern for their well-being
    • Opportunities to use strengths and to grow
    • Clear expectations
    • Feeling safe
    • The best part of the job is customer interaction!
Illustration of a C-store employee standing atop a ladder reaching for a golden star, surrounded by clouds in a light blue sky

Educate the team

The best results are achieved when everyone from the top down understands the value of employee engagement to the company and supports efforts to improve it, according to Council members who have worked to improve employee engagement in their organizations. The materials from this project can help you accomplish this.

  1. Review the step-by-step explanation of what employee engagement is, how it impacts business results, and what’s required to create it in How Employee Engagement Works, by Blake Frank, Ph.D. These five brief presentations provide a clear understanding of the building blocks of employee engagement.
  2. Review the firsthand video testimony of convenience store supervisors and regional managers to find out what they did to increase engagement and what they learned in the process. The compelling stories in Powering Up Employee Engagement: A Flash of Light contain a lot of practical suggestions.
  3. Review the findings of this study, People Power for C-stores, to get a more detailed feel for the employee engagement issues and opportunities in convenience retail.

This will position you to decide how much time, money, and effort you’re ready to invest in employee engagement.

Illustration of a C-store employee giving a presentation with a large pointer in front of a screen displaying a red letter C

Build a foundation for sustained success

You may want to put the four building blocks that support high employee engagement in place in your organization. These are summarized below and explained in detail in the How Employee Engagement Works presentations.

  • Hire people with the personality characteristics that predispose them to become engaged (stability, openness, optimism, and extroversion).
  • Build a culture that encourages and supports employee engagement through leadership that provides vision, sets clear expectations, and fairly recognizes performance.
  • Provide the resources employees need to fulfill their responsibilities — the equipment, tools and information necessary to do the job successfully.
  • Review job demands to ensure they are clear and realistic, and that they offer challenges and ways to make meaningful contributions.
Illustration of a C-store employee standing triumphantly at the top of four colorful steps, which, from bottom to top, are labeled “Review Job Demands,” “Provide Resources,” “Build Culture,” and “Hire."

Survey your employees

The place to start is to assess where you currently are with employee engagement. That’s the core of what this research was designed to address.

  • Self-surveys are a way to get a quick read on employee engagement, however its value is limited by a couple of factors: If the surveys aren’t administered consistently, they won’t be comparable, and employees may not provide accurate feedback because they’re not certain that their responses will remain anonymous.
  • To conduct a survey like the one used for this study, SMG is working with NACS to provide four opportunities over the next year for NACS members to sign up in advance and have their employees professionally surveyed. This option will provide quality results, but it does require a commitment by each company to explain and administer the survey, and there will be a fee. To learn more about this opportunity, contact Dae Kim, NACS Senior VP Research at dkim@nacsonline.com

The Council and NACS are developing a comprehensive set of tools to help retailers take action steps to increase the level of employee engagement in their companies.

Illustration of a C-store employee standing next to a large clipboard labeled “Performance” with a checklist showing four options: Excellent, Good, Average, Poor. A red checkmark is placed next to “Excellent."

Additional resources

Powering up employee engagement: A flash of light

This six-part video series, developed by the Glen Douglas Group, uses real people, real stores and real results to show you what success looks like. Hear a cross-section of convenience store district and regional managers tell what happened when they applied employee engagement principles in their stores. These managers made changes that had a positive impact on their businesses.

  1. The Effect of Employee Engagement
  2. Perception is Reality
  3. People Want to Be Known
  4. Even Small Accomplishments Deserve Recognition
  5. It’s a Partnership
  6. What’s Your ROI?

How employee engagement works

Blake Frank, PhD, of the Gupta College of Business, University of Dallas, explains what the research-based evidence says about how employee engagement can aid in business growth in five short presentations that cover what employee engagement is, how it impacts business performance, the organizational building blocks required to create it, and how to get started.

  1. What is Employee Engagement
  2. How Employee Engagement Works
  3. Building Blocks: Hiring and Corporate Culture
  4. Building Blocks: Job Resources and Demands
  5. Getting Started: Building Employee Engagement

Acknowledgements

The Council wishes to thank Service Management Group for conducting the extensive survey research for this report. We also wish to extend our appreciation to Bill Bishop of Brick Meets Click. For many years, his guidance has helped ensure that Council projects are always timely, relevant, and useful. Thank you also to Susan Lindsay and Randy Allison, whose editorial and design contributions have made the delivery of that work lively, accessible, and interesting.

The NACS Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council

Hal Adams
CST Brands, Inc.

Varish Goyal
Vintners Distributors, Inc.

Kevin Hess
Kwik Shop, Inc.

Steve Loehr
Kwik Trip, Inc.

Chuck O’Dell
QuikTrip Corporation

Joe Sheetz
Sheetz, Inc.

Hank Armour
NACS

Deborah Gullaher
Suncor Energy, Inc.

Dae Kim
NACS

Crystal Maggelet
Maverik, Inc./FJ Management, Inc.

Quinn Ricker
Ricker’s/Ricker Oil Company, Inc.

Peter Tedeshi
Tedeshi Food Shops

Chris Gheysens
Wawa, Inc.

Terry Handley
Casey’s General Stores, Inc.

Tom Lefevers
Speedway, LLC

Billy Milam
RaceTrac

Debbie Robinson
SPAR

Matt Thornton
Thorntons, Inc.

Who We Are

The NACS Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council is composed of convenience industry leaders from around the world. It conducts studies on issues that help retailers respond to the changing marketplace. The unique value of these studies rests with the fact that retailers define the objective and scope of each project and “own” the process through the release of the study and its dissemination to the broader retail community.

Our Mission

To identify big issues facing convenience retailers, do research that uncovers ways to deal with them, and then encourage retailers to use these new ideas to improve their business.