How Grocers Recruit and Retain High Quality Employees

00:00 – Sean Kosednar:
Hello and welcome to Grow Pod. My name is Sean Kosednar. This week I have another conversation from Innovation Showcase. I caught up with Audrey Hogan right after her Learning Lounge presentation about employee retention. Keeping great employees is something I know all IWG members want to do. Before we get to our conversation, please remember to subscribe to Grocer Pod.

00:00 – Sean Kosednar:
Subscribing means new episodes will be downloaded automatically. You can find Grocer Pod on Apple Podcasts, Google Music, Spotify, Stitcher, or any platform you use. Now, here’s my conversation with Audrey Hogan.

00:00 – Sean Kosednar:
Next up, I’m joined by Audrey Hogan. Audrey, thanks for sitting down with me today.

00:00 – Audrey Hogan:
Thanks for having me.

00:00 – Sean Kosednar:
You just got done with the Learning Lounge. What did you talk about?

00:00 – Audrey Hogan:
The title was “Keep the Good Ones.” It was about hiring—recruiting people who are incentivized to work with you—and then making sure you keep them. We focused on retention strategy and how much things have changed in the last 20 years.

00:01 – Sean Kosednar:
Retailers say it’s tough to find people and keep them. What are your tips? How are we hiring good people?

00:01 – Audrey Hogan:
First, recognize it’s 2024, not 2004. The tools and what’s available have come a long way, but most processes haven’t changed. If we’re treating it like 2024, we shouldn’t have paper processes anymore. Everything should be digitized because it saves time and money.

00:02 – Audrey Hogan:
Managers shouldn’t be doing manual work they don’t need to do—like handling shifts and negotiating schedules from an office phone call.

00:02 – Sean Kosednar:
And I think your platform can help with some of that?

00:02 – Audrey Hogan:
We do. We support end-to-end employee management—from recruiting through pay and everything in between.

00:02 – Sean Kosednar:
I coach youth soccer. Kids 15–18 tell me they want $20 an hour. That’s not always realistic for a grocery store. What tips do you have for retailers dealing with those expectations?

00:03 – Audrey Hogan:
A similar question came up in the Learning Lounge. My take may not be popular, but I stand by it: recruiting is sales. You’re selling your company and the job to the applicant. If you can’t budge on the hourly rate, you have to make that rate more palatable with other perks.

00:04 – Audrey Hogan:
One way is hiring people who are incentivized to work with you in a way that offsets pay. Hyperlocal recruiting is a big example. Hourly workers want to work close to home. No job board really facilitates that well.

00:04 – Audrey Hogan:
We partnered with an app with 11 million hourly job seekers. It uses location services and pings job seekers when they’re driving past a place that’s hiring.

00:05 – Sean Kosednar:
So even if it’s not $20 an hour, they might save a quarter of their paycheck if they live nearby.

00:05 – Audrey Hogan:
Exactly. Another thing is earned wage access—instant pay—so you can access your paycheck before payday. If bills are due Wednesday, you don’t wait until Sunday and pay late fees.

00:05 – Audrey Hogan:
For high school workers: many don’t have cars, and many want money immediately. A job close to home plus getting paid right after work can be a strong incentive.

00:06 – Sean Kosednar:
Training can offset pay too. Market the job like: by the time you leave, you’ll have leadership training. Like management training programs that people accept lower salaries for.

00:06 – Sean Kosednar:
In grocery, you can offer food handling certifications that help them now and later.

00:06 – Audrey Hogan:
Yes. If you can impart knowledge and certifications, communicate that upfront—coach and mentor them so they build skills and grow.

00:07 – Sean Kosednar:
Okay, we’ve hired good people. How do we keep them?

00:07 – Audrey Hogan:
That’s the question. Some stats I shared are still shocking. Sixty-two percent of grocery employees don’t see a future at their current company. Almost half don’t find meaningful work. A little over 50% are actively looking for new jobs.

00:08 – Audrey Hogan:
A lot of owners assume those numbers apply to everyone else, not them. But that’s usually not true.

00:08 – Audrey Hogan:
When you hire someone in high school to bag groceries, they might not see a future because it feels like a part-time job. But if management says: we want you to keep working here, go to college, and grow—bag groceries now, manage the store in ten years—that changes the story.

00:08 – Audrey Hogan:
That’s career pathing. Grocers haven’t traditionally done it, and they need to. Cashiers are one of the highest-turnover roles. They look around and see leadership that isn’t moving, and they ask: where do I go from here? Many leave within 90 days.

00:09 – Audrey Hogan:
I’m a big proponent of formal learning management systems. Build learning libraries and formal courses. Tell new hires: if you want a raise in six months, learn these things and demonstrate them. Then you’re eligible for a raise or bonus. After 18 months, complete the next set and you’re eligible for head cashier. It’s a lot of work upfront, but it’s worth it.

00:10 – Sean Kosednar:
What about moving laterally—cashier to floral, produce, meat, deli—so there are multiple pathways, not just cashier to manager?

00:10 – Audrey Hogan:
Cross-training is huge. Grocery staffing used to mean being slightly overstaffed so you always had coverage, even if you disappointed some people on hours. Now people are quitting, and sales aren’t static—you’ll have tight weeks and fluffy weeks. To distribute hours to people who want them, you need cross-training. Otherwise they’ll pick up gig shifts and leave.

00:11 – Audrey Hogan:
A technology challenge is that many grocery systems don’t track multiple pay rates. Cross-training happens in the store, but systems don’t reflect it, which creates costing and payroll accuracy problems.

00:12 – Audrey Hogan:
With our system, if someone is scheduled in the deli, they clock into the deli and get paid the deli rate. Otherwise you end up paying meat cutter rates for meat clerk work because the system can’t keep up. Overpay is more common than people think.

00:13 – Sean Kosednar:
And it’s easier to schedule people across roles when it’s all in one system instead of managers negotiating and maintaining separate processes.

00:13 – Audrey Hogan:
Exactly. Managers don’t need to negotiate “sharing” employees. Everyone has visibility. You can borrow an employee from another department, and the home manager is still accountable for that employee’s hours.

00:13 – Sean Kosednar:
These ideas are doable without software, but why does your approach make it easier?

00:13 – Audrey Hogan:
We meet folks where they are. Technology adoption varies widely in independent grocery. I’ve met grocers still using punch cards as time clocks. That works only if you have extra time to manually calculate paychecks—and nobody does.

00:14 – Audrey Hogan:
On the other side, some grocers are using biometrics so employees can’t buddy-punch. Schedule enforcement matters too. You can build a great schedule with budgets baked in, but if you don’t enforce it at the time clock, it’s just a plan.

00:15 – Audrey Hogan:
We help make a good plan and stick to it. If things change, we notify the manager so they can manage proactively.

00:15 – Sean Kosednar:
Do you have tools for when employees leave—exit interviews or analysis on why they’re leaving?

00:15 – Audrey Hogan:
Yes. Our documentation module supports everything from applications through onboarding. Onboarding questionnaires and documentation stay in the employee file so you can report on it as needed.

00:16 – Sean Kosednar:
If someone’s interested, what should they do?

00:16 – Audrey Hogan:
They can reach out to me or check our website. My email is audrey@timeforge.com and the website is timeforge.com. I’ll have links in the show notes.

00:16 – Sean Kosednar:
Thank you for joining me today.

00:16 – Audrey Hogan:
Thank you for having me.

00:16 – Sean Kosednar:
Thank you all for listening. Please remember to like and subscribe to Grocer Podcast where you can stay up to date on the latest things going on around AWG. Until next time.