Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
The Frontlines with 7-11's Rachel Allen
16 Plays20 days ago
Welcome to The Frontlines, the podcast that finally shines a spotlight on the most overlooked and most essential part of our workforce: frontline, high-volume hourly workers.
Hosted by industry insiders Tim Sackett and Madeline Laurano, The Frontlines dives into the real-world challenges, frustrations, and opportunities shaping how organizations hire and how people experience the hiring process. Because let’s be honest, this is the part of hiring we’ve ignored for decades. We post jobs and hope people show up. That doesn’t cut it anymore.
Each episode brings a raw, unfiltered look at what’s really happening, from broken application processes that take weeks (for jobs people need today), to outdated hiring systems designed for corporate roles but forced onto hourly workers. Tim and Madeline combine decades of hands-on experience with real stories from the field, both from employers trying to hire at scale and from workers navigating a system that often feels stacked against them.
But this isn’t just another HR podcast full of executive interviews. The Frontlines goes deeper. You’ll hear directly from the people living it, the candidates, the workers, the managers, alongside data, research, and practical insights on what’s actually working (and what’s not).
From AI-driven hiring transformations to mobile-first application experiences, from workforce demographics to the realities of shift work and internal mobility, this podcast tackles the conversations our industry hasn’t been having… but should.
If you care about hiring, retention, or just building a better experience for the people who keep your business running, this is your front-row seat to the future of work.
The Frontlines is presented by Workday's Frontline Workforce Management Solutions.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction of Hosts and Guests
00:00:00
Speaker
everybody, welcome to another episode of the Frontlines podcast with my great friend Madeline Lerano. Madeline, we're in Boston, your hometown. in Boston and we are very excited to be with a good friend of
Rachel Allen's Role and Journey at 7-Eleven
00:00:11
Speaker
ours. I know, Rachel Allen from 7-Eleven. Happy to be here. Tell everybody what you do, what's your what's your job Sure, not the Slurpee maker.
00:00:20
Speaker
Unfortunately, no. That would be a great title. That would be a really good title. I work at 7-Eleven. That one should be the CEO's title at 7-Eleven. Slurpee maker. Chief slurpee maker. Chief slurpee Not a bad idea. I'll have to take that one back. Please take i'm i've told I've told you guys this before, but i'm I'm a boomerang. We actually have a lot of boomerangs, and I'm one of them. Isn't that great? <unk> good for culture like To me, that always speaks to culture. We want to back. absolutely. like people leave, and they're like, God. I love it there. I kind of miss that place. Nothing compared. Yeah. As my the my old boss that called me to come back, he said, time to come home.
00:00:52
Speaker
Yeah. So i returned back for my second stint there at the end of 2021. And I currently now lead all of town acquisition. and I also have strategic workforce planning.
00:01:06
Speaker
Amazing. That's a big job. It is a big job. So when Tim and I first decided we were doing this front lines, like we were just texting back and forth, like who we wanted on it. And he, you know, obviously brought you up at the top of the list. And then like a week later I came to him and like, let's
The Concept of 'Boomerang' Employees
00:01:21
Speaker
get Rachel on. He's like, I already said that. Yeah. Look at your text messages. I got there first. He's like, already suggested her, number one. Yeah. That's a great idea, Matt. That was the right answer. That's what you were supposed to say. You're amazing. Yeah. Wow. I never would have thought of that myself.
00:01:36
Speaker
So we usually ask people their their first job, but but now we we had, obviously we were on more of a live podcast earlier, which people can go check out. So if you want to know Rachel's first job, you got to go check out that podcast. I actually like the boomerang job thing. Yeah. Like I've never, like Mads, have you ever boomeranged back anywhere? I did.
00:01:55
Speaker
Where? i So I worked for a an analyst firm, Aberdeen, and when I was young, and then boomeranged back when I had kids.
00:02:06
Speaker
And they're both very different experiences. um And then, you know, it was a good decision. it was the right decision. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I think there was a separate podcast.
Creating Memorable Employee and Customer Experiences at 7-Eleven
00:02:17
Speaker
We'll unpack that. There was a lot. There was a lot of hesitation. I didn't want to get into a Pelican therapy session. It was going to unfold here. Some people are still alive. Yeah. I can't talk about that. I no longer work there. I don't know if that says anything. never had a boomerang, but I go back in my career and take a look at what's the job that I had the most fun at. And I remember my first real HR job that I just remember laughing to my stomach hurt multiple days. Like, I mean, and we, there was, it was a group that was pretty close. It was a retail operation out of Omaha. And I just literally remember going to lunch every day with these four guys and literally crying, laughing oh that's every day. yeah so then I'm always going, i don't know if I would want to go back to that job. I would want to go back to that time and place with those people.
00:03:04
Speaker
I would bring back to those. Because it was like the funnest time ever that you could just have We're work more than we're at home. Yeah. And so who you're surrounded by when you're at work makes a huge difference. Absolutely. Yeah. So you're remembering the moments and the people. Yeah.
00:03:18
Speaker
And that's where, you know, that's something we, because we work for 7-Eleven, when you ask someone about that, it's always a nostalgic type of a, type of, everybody has a memory. And so we, we really try, you know, I think some, we had someone visit us.
00:03:32
Speaker
last week to speak to us about some leadership, you know, development opportunities, that type of a thing. And and something they mentioned was, you know, um creating moments. You're in the business of creating moments, you know, not just selling Slurpees. Yeah. That's pretty cool. And that's what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. so Even as an employee, not just for our customers, but for our employees. Yeah.
00:03:52
Speaker
So I'm curious. So you have three kids. I do. Wait, so remind me the ages. 14, 12 and 8. Nice. um So my kids are around the same ages And love 7-Eleven. I mean, 7-Eleven is a big deal in our house. So what do your kids think of mom? They have' an eleven love it. And they are very proud of it. And every every year when it's time for, what is that?
00:04:15
Speaker
Work? When you go to work. Bring your kids to work. Not bring your kids to When you go to the school and you tell them. Oh, yeah, yeah, Whatever that's involved. They always want me to do that. Career day. Career day, yeah. And I'm never, you know, I haven't been able to yet. But they think it's really, but it was a long time before they realized I didn't work at the corner 7-Eleven right by her house.
00:04:35
Speaker
And I was like, that's not where I'm going in every day, but I love that
Quality and Perception of 7-Eleven's Food
00:04:38
Speaker
that's what you think. That was my interview story. People were like, which one? yeah Correct. yeah Yes, every one. Which one? Every one of them. And, you know, they still think that I get unlimited Slurpees and candy for free and get to bring it home every day. don't.
00:04:53
Speaker
Unfortunately, no, not unlimited. would think for sure you would get free Slurpees. I think if I'm a corporate employee, it's the one thing. So if you hire me at 7-Eleven. Yeah. And the chief Slurpee officer, who's now the CEO that I renamed, so that's why you're hiring me because I have such great ideas. Sure.
00:05:07
Speaker
that's i'm That's in my contract. Yeah. Okay. Any corporate 7-Eleven I come into. Yeah. I better get that. do i like My mic keeps dropping. Everybody gets everybody gets a melting a free Slurpees Slurpee Day. Oh, there you go. So everyone, we can go in there and do that too. Absolutely. And then there's other times where you can get the free Slurpees as well. And if you do our Gold Pass um and on the app, you do get seven free beverages available.
00:05:33
Speaker
every month. oh so So there you go. Here's your inside. It's still in my contract, Rachel. I could talk about 7-Eleven forever. It's in my contract. Well, everyone has memories.
Integrating AI in Recruitment at 7-Eleven
00:05:46
Speaker
You know what's so underrated for 7-Eleven? Tim, I want to hear what you're underrated. It's the baked goods. Like the muffins. The donuts, the muffins. They're baked daily. The last time, I can't remember. I think it was the 7-Eleven in Dallas Airport.
00:06:01
Speaker
And I got a breakfast burrito. And I was like, oh, legit. I'm like, this is good. Because you know you expectation. Like when you go into any kind of convenience store breakfast kind of thing, you're just like, is this going to be good? And was like, ooh, anything. And I can guarantee that it's fresh. And it gets delivered daily. And there you go.
00:06:24
Speaker
It's definitely, i think, If that is one thing if that I could impart on anyone about 7-Eleven is you know it's not what you've always thought of as the gas station food, I guess. So right there's a big focus on fresh food, um and I think we're crushing it right now.
00:06:41
Speaker
yeah Some people love like the you know the roller dogs. like you know yeah And there's still the classics. I don't put down like gas station food. Nope. We're not going to get rid of the classics, that's for sure. Yeah, you still got to go back to that. but So obviously we talk about front lines hiring. You guys do a ton of front line hiring. um When you think about this kind of like AI transformation, conversational hiring that you've done with Workday and Paradox, um like there's, and I'll call you a one percenter because you are.
00:07:11
Speaker
Like you think like you've already been doing it for a long time. So you think, oh, this is old and want the new stuff. And, you know, you're already like willing. like What's next? Yeah. you're like Yeah. let's Come on. Let's go. But there's so many people that you haven't gotten to where you're at. So how does somebody get started when their legal team and their, you know, yeah you know, IT team, everyone's like like, hey, it's don't we're not we're not ready for AI yet. Like how do you get started with that?
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's a great question. I think first and foremost, we were talking about this a little bit earlier, but first and foremost, you need to frame what the problem is that you're solving. yeah um Don't lead with the technology. Don't go after the shiny object. Where's the friction? Where is the employee experience? Not where you want it to be. Where's the candidate experience? Not where you need it to be.
00:07:56
Speaker
So understand what you're solving for. And then when you're presenting what you're solving for, you need to make sure that you you frame it in how this is a a business problem, not an ah HR problem, how it hits the bottom line, the impact it has on revenue, and it's all true. right But a lot of times, out historically, it's been, oh, that's a recruitment problem, oh, that's an HR problem. And there's a lot of different ways in which you can present it in in a different language. Honestly, you need to speak the language of the business. So if you're speaking to the chief marketing officer, maybe some anecdotal stories that
00:08:33
Speaker
you can that impact brand if you're talking to the CFO you're talking dollars but how do you frame it in the speak and then in the language of whoever you're talking to so that you get that partnership from the get-go and how you're going to resolve the problems and what those results are going to be and then deliver on those results or ideally over deliver on those results right And then as far as IT or legal or compliance, you're all in this together, one team.
00:09:03
Speaker
yeah So how do you, it's all about relationships. And in this era of AI, I think being being human is even that much more important and really learning how to cultivate relationships and how to do critical thinking. That's what's going to set you apart. So going into this, figure out how you have the conversation with them to link arms versus instead of a this is an us versus them. yeah Make them your partners from the get-go, how this is going to be better. under ah Acknowledge and understand their concerns. They're coming from a good place. They're trying to make sure that what you're doing is is the right thing for the company. so
00:09:39
Speaker
How do you educate around why this is the right business decision? Acknowledge and understand where their concerns are coming from. And then instead of just stopping at the concerns, okay, I understand your concerns, so what can we do? How do we move past this to ultimately get to this business solution that we need to get to as an enterprise? So yeah everyone put on your enterprise hats, lock arms,
Change Management and AI as a Business Imperative
00:10:02
Speaker
one team. yeah um and and figure out how to get through it together and then learn how to talk about it.
00:10:09
Speaker
Not everything is AI and everybody is calling everything AI now, even if it's been automation that's been in place for decades. So also the nuance of the words that you use in describing what you're trying to do yeah makes a huge difference. 100%. Yeah. I do the HR tech space screws themselves up sometimes on the marketing language. They want to have the hottest language, but then you're like, that's not really what that is. And shake by thing it's confusing. Yeah. There's not a consistent definition. That's part of the problem. So one of the other things is creating your,
00:10:43
Speaker
definitions and your terminology that you use internally so that you're all speaking the same language. And you're sticking with that. And then and then stick with it. And then before presenting something that's coming from external is benchmarking. Before you do that,
00:10:58
Speaker
translate it to how you use your language internally before you're sharing it so that you're all on the same page. I think that makes a big difference too. i love that theme of being on the same page. It's so, I think so often TA especially becomes defensive of like, oh, we used this before and now they're going to find out about it. I think what happens in this experience, you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong, is you identify there's a lot of wasted spend on other things you've used before. yeah Did you go through that process and like,
00:11:26
Speaker
Did you have to replace things to, did that help build the business case? Well, ours was a little bit of a different scenario just because we were going through an acquisition integration. So we were having to rewrite our entire tech stack roadmap because we were integrating two totally different yeah companies and two totally different tech stacks and two different operating models and two different hiring models. um So it was, i guess there were some replacements, but it was often something that the other one or the other companies already use kind of a thing. So
Innovations in Interview Scheduling
00:11:57
Speaker
it was simplifying yeah our complicated tech stack.
00:12:02
Speaker
But yes, we you need there are ways to simplify and optimize what you do have. And I think that's where leading with the problem you're solving for instead of the shiny object helps you avoid the unnecessary extra spend because it's real easy to to spend more than you need to. I think also we we don't do the the greatest job of understanding what other functions and other groups are using.
00:12:31
Speaker
And it making sure you understand what everybody else is doing so that you're not duplicating efforts. yes So i think it's been proven like now, like when you do conversational, like apply, so you're using kind of AI to ah like for candidates to apply, it takes, you know, minutes instead of days, blah, blah, whatever. And then they also, and yeah, seconds. And then self-scheduling. So you're getting right from apply to a schedule for an interview very quickly.
00:12:55
Speaker
One of the challenges, and we hear this consistently is, especially in a multi-unit environment, yeah how many corporate locations are do you support? Over 13,000 locations, but um ah about 45% of that are corporate locations. So you have thousands of these locations and and manager schedules and how do you get the managers to be able to open their schedule and do all this? so Explain how you guys handle because I think that's one of the biggest hurdles to turn that on.
00:13:22
Speaker
We had to think a little bit differently, too, because on top of that, um most of our folks may not have an email address and there's a computer in the back room that everybody's sharing. And, you know, to to think that they're going to constantly be checking a backroom computer for schedules is just not going to be is not wasn't realistic for us.
00:13:43
Speaker
And so we we could have did a two-phase approach and unique, I don't know that a a lot of folks have done this, but we went live telling them what their window of interviews will be.
00:13:58
Speaker
yeah So that they're not having to look at a calendar necessarily and just, I can't remember what it was, but pretend Tuesday, Thursday. Thursday, two to four, or emailing you the times that they wanted to have blocked off. Right. Instead, it was when we go live with this, whatever it was, every Tuesday, Thursday from 2 to 4, have someone just know that anyone could walk in the door yeah and be ready for that interview. And that was a huge hit.
00:14:22
Speaker
Huge hit. Highly recommend. If that makes everybody's business is different, but if that makes sense and is possible, yeah then that's great. Then once... You start off with 100% compliance. Correct. yeah It's like, hey, because that that's the biggest thing is like well, how are we to get adoption and compliance? Like... just force it. yeah Like I'm like, let's also there you know everyone's got, everyone's, everyone gets equal opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. It's a test. yeah We're going to try it. Yeah. And it worked out great. Yes. And then of course, you know, as time went by, um there were requests of like, Hey, can I, can i adjust what mine is?
00:14:55
Speaker
Yes, we can. Right. Or even think of like certain like oh like, like maybe it's second
Impact of Employee Feedback on AI Projects
00:15:00
Speaker
shift or maybe it's weekends. And like, well, if you want to hire someone for the weekend, they're probably an interview on the weekend. Right. Right. Versus like, you know, I have this other job during the week, but I want to pick up weekend shifts or whatever, you know. Right. So it was also to help meet our candidates where our candidates are and what their availability is.
00:15:15
Speaker
And you can get them in there sooner if you don't have it so limited. So then it we had it was a lot easier, though, to train folks that were actively wanting that. There's engagement, there's participation, there's adoption. yeah So then we you provided training around how you can manage your calendar, how you can adjust it, and how you can own what you want that to look like for your location.
00:15:38
Speaker
But to go out live, we We did everything the same. yeah And then change you mentioned change management. That is huge. That is also a tip i would provide is that should not be an afterthought. And change management is way more than a comms plan. okay And that's what ah it's it's like after everything's done and we've built this and we you know we we know exactly what you need and want and we're going to do a comms plan and call that change management.
00:16:06
Speaker
you understand, yes, figure out who your stakeholders are that are the decision makers, but then also understand who gets impacted, who is gonna get impacted by whatever this is that you're rolling out and how do they feel about it and does it deliver what you're hoping that everyone goes into with great intentions. yeah yeah Everybody wants to help. There is absolutely no one trying to roll something out to make your life harder. um But that's not how it's always received or perceived. yeah And unless you go out and understand what that is to begin with, you're going to hit roadblocks like nobody's business. well you you love to say go go slow and like go slow to go fast. Yes, slow down to go fast. it's like It's like, hey, we're going to make this really, really fast, but we're going to go slow to get there to make sure everybody knows exactly what's going on. Well, you want to bring everyone along with it So often people feel like things are happening to them. They're left out. And they have no control. And it's they you know it's just getting thrown at them. And so we wanted to make this feel like...
00:17:03
Speaker
not feel like we wanted them to be a voice in part of it how how this was going to to you know impact their life and so we we really took that into consideration in fact um we we delayed the the project overall i was purposely late on delivering this because of feedback from a store leader so yeah we have something called an in-store experience and we actually work at our location so i i was doing my in-store experience I was so excited. told the story leader, oh my goodness, you're going to be so excited. This is what's coming out. And guess what? It's gonna be out right before the 100 days of summer so you can use it. So that's our seasonal hiring and it's from Memorial Day to Labor Day. And that makes sense, right? Slurpee season. Yeah, slurpee season. Makes total sense. And the store leader goes, oh, please no. Not one more thing. Not a new thing. I can't deal with a new thing.
00:17:59
Speaker
yeah Yeah, so took that back. yeah ah You know, took the opportunity to to um survey some other folks, talked to have some more conversations, not just the one. And yeah, consensus was that would actually be harder, not easier. And so we purposely delayed it to October. so you waited until after the business season. We waited until after. yeah Yeah. And that was all because we cared about the person who's actually going to to use it
Evaluating Candidate Experience with Surveil
00:18:27
Speaker
in their experience. and um I think that really helped build trust and credibility in the adoption of the rollout as well because they had a say in how it went. yeah
00:18:37
Speaker
Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. yeah That doesn't ever happen. It's like we're using it this day yeah and you're all going to have to use it. Because we have some, okay, they're not all arbitrary deadlines. There are certain deadlines. This has to happen for this to happen. We can't, you know, totally get that. But we're not, we're usually not flexible. You make decisions and you build something on the information you have at the time. When you get new information,
00:19:00
Speaker
you've got to figure out how to pivot sometimes. But we, you know, as a society struggle in pivoting with new information because no, this is this is where we're going. This is what we have to do. So I really appreciated the support that I got from a recommendation to purposely miss a deadline. You know, that's that was I felt I felt very supported in it, too, which was which was really helpful.
00:19:23
Speaker
So you talked about the cost of candidate experience, you were able to measure like the cost of bad candidate experience, which to me is a fascinating measure. like How did you come up with that? So we actually use um um a company called Surveil. Yeah. Oh, we knew Surveil. Yeah. so they do something called the Candy Awards. yes yeah And through that experience, so they're obviously measuring your candidate experience through surveys to the actual candidates. Who better to ask what the experience is like yeah than those actually going through the experience. And they have something called a candidate resentment rate.
00:19:59
Speaker
And they're basically asking candidates, Hey, based on this experience, will that change your relationship with this company? So for us, all of our candidates are customers. So depending on the experience, basically it's asking based on this, will you still shop there? Will you still go there?
00:20:17
Speaker
And then they can put, they have a calculator to, and it's conservative too, they put it they put numbers too, based on what the feedback was and what the rate is. There's dollars that tell you you this is the potential revenue you're losing by providing a poor candidate experience. yeah And that really helps translate things into, this is again a business problem, this is not an HR problem.
Building Trust with the C-suite through Demonstrated Results
00:20:42
Speaker
And for us even, um at the at the store level hiring, our frontline hiring, there is no recruiter involved. yeah And so it's it's, you know, even if we wanted to train our recruiters better, that's not really going to do anything in this case. So now it's how do we, you know, present ourselves better in that experience and how do we have that perfect balance of where technology does come into play and where the human element and the human touch, the moment, they focusing on the moments that matter and then where their human moments are, where that does matter, show up, yeah you know, and show up with, with
00:21:19
Speaker
with the with the greatest, you know, um effort that you can so that we don't hurt the candidate experience. Because again, Our candidates are our customers. I love data like that, that you know your C-suite's going to pay attention and to be able to break that down by store manager, by district, by region or whatever and go, oh my gosh, like, hey, look, we have a region that's number one and, you know, like saving, you know, like best in candidate experience, which is saving us money. But we also have some here that are dragging, you know, and then being able to go out and really kind of focus on, well, what's the differences there and why? it's like, it's classic. You can actually see it when you have that many data points. and you have that much potential lost revenue, like people pay attention.
00:22:00
Speaker
Yeah, that's when it becomes, again, a business problem, not an HR problem. yeah And I think that's been, it's been fun to watch ah HR just get, you know, get the seat at the table and be a part of the the conversation, you know, for so long, you're you're all policies and paperwork, and now we're a part of some of the most strategic conversations. And and that's been fun to watch. Yeah, it's' getting a front row seat of that is pretty cool.
00:22:25
Speaker
When you're doing things that are actually measuring the outcomes and results, like, you know, you guys had a massive drop in recruitment marketing spend, you're like, oh, gosh, you probably paid for the tools plus right that that you're that you're using. And all of a sudden now you build credibility with the CFO and, like, the IT people, and everyone's like, so now the next time Rachel comes and goes, hey, I want to do this thing, they're like, okay, tell us some more, right? yeah
Advice to Talent Acquisition Leaders
00:22:48
Speaker
Versus, like, no, like, you know, no way.
00:22:51
Speaker
Yeah, it does help to open the door to the conversation. But you know, once you've earned that trust, you need to protect that thing like nobody's business and make sure that you honor that trust and keep that trust and don't do anything that could hurt that. Um, it takes a long time to build the credibility and the trust, but it can be one little thing that destroys it. So yeah, that's a good point. Yeah. You, so don't take advantage of it. Um, you know,
00:23:19
Speaker
really treat it with care, but, ah you know, understand the value that that brings you. It opens the door. It gives you the opportunity for the right conversations to continue to build on that trust. Um, yeah, it's been a pretty cool experience for sure. Very cool.
00:23:35
Speaker
So, you're I mean, Tim said this, you're like in the top 1% of TA leaders that have kind of gone through this process. Can you write that down? that Is that official? That's going to be the title of the podcast. A 1% star. Yeah, that's the 1%. I like it.
00:23:50
Speaker
What would be on your list? Like if you had to give a TA leader going through this journey, what would be like number one on your list for what they should do and think about? Yeah, um I think being curious.
00:24:02
Speaker
And open-minded and not set in this is just how we've always done it. and And having that innovative mindset. And then everything that I've just talked about, making sure that you get close to the business, make sure that your business acumen is up there. Be known as a, you know, a business person first that knows how to do HR versus an HR person. um I think, you know, setting your brand is that is huge. So setting yourself up to be successful in those strategic conversations, to be invited to those strategic conversations, and you do that by building trust and credibility, and you do that by delivering on what you say you will, and you get to deliver on what you say you will, by making the right business cases using the language of the business. So understand the challenges you're trying to solve for, interpreting it in the business language, building the credibility and trust by over-delivering what you say you're going to, and then you keep getting invited back to the table.
Engaging with Operations to Build HR Credibility
00:24:58
Speaker
So I think really making sure that your brand is one of I am, you know,
00:25:04
Speaker
I am team seven eleven first and I know how to do HR, you know, I think that that makes a big difference. yeah I think it's critical. like Like I've been told like throughout my career, like, hey, you're you're unlike every other HR leader that has been around here. And it was always like in a positive context for the most part. Yeah. But one of the things like I always do was like I got out in the field. like I traveled with my ops leaders.
00:25:28
Speaker
I didn't see myself as the HR guy or the TA guy. I'm a business leader. I'm your partner. And I want to come out and figure out how can I do something that's going help what's going on out here. And that that builds the credibility.
00:25:40
Speaker
And then actually delivering builds the trust. But people always like, well, i you know I don't know how to build credibility. And they sit in their office or they sit at home on the Zoom and they're never out. Or just chiming in to say no. Seeing and feeling yeah the the actual business was of what's going on. is like It doesn't take a lot. like But you have to do it. And it might be uncomfortable and you might feel like an idiot. And you might feel like you don't know what's going on. but people notice the operations people notice for sure um from that standpoint i think that builds you know that credibility well but both of you both have had experiences where you're not just working for these companies in corporate but you're actually for weeks at a time going and working in a 7-eleven or in applebee's and talking to people and i think that's so important it gives you a perspective that i think is so important and critical and understanding you Again, like I said, everybody has really great intentions of what they're trying to roll out and trying to make you know things simpler. But when you times that by hundreds of other people trying to roll out things that's going to make things simpler. Past experiences that were not simpler. Yeah. Oh, gosh. Right. yeah They have, you know. mean Me being a field leader versus a corporate leader, yeah you really felt it because it's like when you get to of the corporate office, you realize, oh, it's just not TA a or HR benefits or whatever. It's every single function's Thinking they're helping. Correct. By building. Correct. yeah And then you have like a store manager, employees out there going, I got this like this mountain of crap that's being dropped on us. Again, with the with under the pretenses of we're trying to help you. yeah And you're like, no, you're can you just leave us alone? This is too much. Just let us be. That would help
Strategic Use of Time Saved Through AI
00:27:20
Speaker
us. Yeah. Just let us be.
00:27:22
Speaker
yeah So when you think of like all the AI capacity savings, because that's like a lot of things we're turning on, again, not just TA, not just HR, but operations is turning stuff on, finance is turning stuff on, all with this guise of getting capacity back in in an in a multi-unit environment to the manager, right to the leader out there.
00:27:38
Speaker
how How are you guys rethinking or thinking about that time that they're getting back and how that should be used? Yeah, so there's a big focus right now on... talked about this a lot, slowing down to speed up. And that is, um, so that we can make sure that we're getting the orchestration of all of this right and visibility to all the things that are happening. Um, and then, ah you know, having that cross-functional view to what is going on so that we can be strategic and intentional of how we repurpose the time saved. Um, because, ah
00:28:13
Speaker
selfishly if I'm saving time through you know automating some of the hiring process I want them to refocus on the onboarding and the training um of those that hire so that you know we increase our our retention which are those are some things to do um but what about everybody else Right. Ops is going to have some ideas of where they want to repurpose that time. Merch may have some ideas. Other functions are going to have ideas of where they want to refocus those efforts. So I think it's important to get on, again, the same language and the same page as to how you want to reinvest or repurpose the time that you're saving through that. because everyone's going have ideas. Well, there's always like this is the concept of, OK, yeah, we we saved eight hours, let's say, yeah on average, right? OK, that's average.
00:29:02
Speaker
It doesn't mean that a new store manager, maybe that saved them less because they need more time. Or maybe a senior manager, only saved them a couple of hours because they were already good at whatever And so it's like, it's always that kind of- Or the store's been fully staffed and they didn't need to- Yeah. They didn't save any hours because they didn't need to do anything. But we see like this average of eight then we're like, okay, now we're going to fill this eight hours with stuff. And you're like, then you overwhelm people. Correct.
00:29:24
Speaker
And you're like, okay, now we just increased turnover because we killed them, you know, from that standpoint. Yeah. It's challenging. It's tricky. It's such a challenge. And sometimes also knowing when- you don't read like you just don't. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because there's a lot of stuff not, not getting, you know, that they wish they could get to already. Or they might already felt like my, my job was already 45 hours. So like, you know, now I'm just back down to a normal like work week or whatever. That too. Yeah.
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:29:52
Speaker
Awesome. How can people find you? How can they find me? Yeah. You can find me on LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah. Rachel Allen. That's probably your best way. 7-Eleven. That's right. 7-Eleven. Rachel Allen. Queen of Slurpees. Yeah. She'll take it. I'm going to put on there one percenter though too. Yeah. I would definitely put that. I was named a one percenter TA leader by the Frontlines podcast. Yeah. So it's totally. That should be right on the headline. It's totally legit. Right? The Frontlines. I'm yeah doing it. Yeah. Excellent. Yeah. All right, everybody, that's another episode.
00:30:22
Speaker
For my great friend, Madeline Lerano, I'm Tim Sackett, we'll see you guys next time.