|
|
|
#7 BEST PLACE TO WORK 2008
What is the Best Places to Work according to Hawaii Business
Magazine?
Best Places to Work is our annual look at
companies that embrace the simple principle that if your people
flourish, your company flourishes. That often means offering great
pay and great benefits, but most of all, it means creating a
supportive company culture where people can grow and excel, both
professionally and personally. Best Places to Work are the real
deal.
In our fourth year compiling the list, we are proud to report that
we have collected our biggest list yet. After thousands of employee
surveys and thorough company reviews by our partner Best Companies
Group, 69 companies achieved the enviable distinction – particularly
in Hawaii’s tight labor market – of being a Best Place to Work.
Here’s our look at companies that are changing the way we do
business.
Follow the Leader
Convenience/Gas Store Operator Grows Customers with Happy Workers
By Jolyn Okimoto Rosa
HAWAII BUSINESS MAGAZINE
Al Gustavson knows the convenience store
business. He owns and/or operates 14
convenience store/gas locations in Hawaii – five on Oahu, two on Maui,
four on Hawaii and three on Kauai — all under his management company
Goose’s Edge Inc. Gustavson started in the business 30 years ago with
two Bay Area stores, which he later sold. Locally, he opened his first
store on Maui, where he lived for 22 years before moving to Kona last
year.
His stores, which are operated under Shell and Tesoro brands, together
tally upwards of $85 million a year in gross sales. To be clear, those
are very good numbers. The company will be in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico,
this month in recognition of its fourth consecutive award as Shell Oil’s
Top Rated Brand Standards Chain in the United States.
That said, we were a little
surprised to see Goose’s Edge on our Best Places to Work list.
Convenience store chains are not usually known for job satisfaction. So
we had to sit down with Gustavson and find out why and how his company
became a Best Place to Work and what perhaps other businesses could
learn from him. We found it’s a mixture of clear company philosophy,
accessibility to management, cash incentives and, most of all, a strong
leader.
Is the way you treat your employees especially
important in Hawaii’s a tight labor market?
No question. But I did the same on the Mainland.
It’s a good business practice. Everybody follows the leader. For me to
be successful, for me to be No. 1., these guys have got to see [respect]
from me because they have to reflect it to everybody else.
What do you ask of your workers?
Our motto is “The Best Buying Experience 24/7.”
That means we have the cleanest restrooms, our shelves are super-stocked
and [we have] the friendliest staff. We’re not sitting in there eating
food and talking on the cell phone and ringing you up.
So it’s a competitive edge?
And I have a lot of pride. As you know in Island
style, your name is everything. I travel all over the state and
unfortunately everyone knows me. (Laughs.) And I want to be able to walk
around with my head held high.
How do you train your employees?
If they get stuck, they go back to that motto [of
providing the best buying experience] and ask, “What does this mean, how
does that relate to the problem I’m doing?” It works.
Are you accessible if they need help?
Absolutely. Here’s a company that has my card next
to every single cash register. They can go direct to the head guy, 24/7.
The newest employee who has been there 5 minutes can call me direct.
But how do you get employees to uphold high
standards and be happy about doing so?
Employees make serious incentive money for doing a
good job … We make the rounds, once a month, for surprise inspections.
We call it, “The Walk.” I go through a checklist and the stores get
scored. If they get 95 percent or above, they get a certain amount of
money.
How does the program work?
There is a monthly program and a yearly program.
For the year, if they win [by getting the highest overall score among
the 14 stores], the manager gets $6,500, the assistant manager gets
$5,500, full timers get $2,000 and part-timers get $1,500. I’ve probably
given, over [a period of] five years, easily, over $100,000 … If the
stores make more money, everybody makes more money.
Your staff is 98 percent female. How does that
factor into making your company a Best Place to Work?
We pay for [the DOE’s After School Care Plus] A+
program so that employees are able to work the hours after school. We
cover that because childcare is a big issue, and we hire mothers and
grandmothers. The program costs $55 per child, per month.
Are there special incentives for managers?
For the managers and my executive staff, we take
them to a retreat once a year. Last year, we took them to Ala Moana, we
saw “The Lion King,” we had a great dinner and we took them to Sunglass
Hut. I closed [Sunglass Hut] down, and I told them they could have any
sunglasses they wanted. How many times are they going to buy a $400 pair
of sunglasses?
How do you find people for your management team?
Flo [Florence Cornelio], my vice president of
operations, I took her out of the “cooler.” She was working for me when
I had one store [in Kahului] and she did such a great job that now she’s
vice president of operations. [She started as a cashier, was promoted,
in turn, to assistant store manager, store manager, general manager and
now VP of operations.]
Besides your incentive program and health benefits,
are there any other benefits you hope to provide someday?
Profit sharing. But you can only do that if you
have excess cash. A lot of ours goes into the incentive program. What
I’ve found is — and I’ve had pension plans and all that jazz — the
people we hire don’t really see that far ahead. They need the money now.
They need it for the rent today. So that’s why we went to incentives
every month.
Any other secrets to keeping employees happy?
We really love to have fun. I love to laugh. The
people who don’t stay with us are the ones who don’t laugh. And you know
what else? When we release somebody — basically they release themselves
— nine times out of 10 they want to come back to work for us.
CLICK HERE
TO SEE PICS OF THE EVENT
|
|
|
Where did Captain Al graduate college? |
|
Chico State University, California. |
 
 |
