As Permian Basin employers continue to frantically scan the horizon for new workers, one Midland retailer decided to expand its horizons to include most of two states.
About a month ago, the Lowe's store at Loop 250 and Wadley began "borrowing" workers from 54 stores in their region five, which includes Texas and Oklahoma, according to store manager Greg Gault.
"The stores contribute a few bodies each on a rotating basis," he explained, adding up to 60 to 70 people at any given time. Lubbock-based District Manager Craig Harrison said this number represents somewhat less than a third of the store's work force.
Lowe's is paying the workers' travel expenses, including motels and meals, along with the costs of driving to this area. They plan to continue this "as long as it takes," Gault said.
Why did Lowe's take such a costly step to staff their store?
"Lowe's prides itself on customer service," said Gault, "and we were not able to reach that level with the staff level we had."
The usual venues for finding help had all been tried, Harrison said -- want ads, college searches, job fairs and banners in front of the store as city ordinances allowed.
"We participated in every job fair that came along," Gault noted. "Businesses in this area are all short staffed. It would not help to steal workers from competitors," because those same workers could be "stolen" back. Something had to be done to get some fresh faces into the equation.
The company did a survey of customers who shop Lowe's main competitors in this area and discovered people had gotten used to waiting in line and not being served, probably due to the booming economy making this a way of life over the last two or so years.
"This isn't right," said Harrison, adding, "What will people remember about us in the long run if they aren't happy? We needed some way to give back to the community, though that may sound like a political statement."
After discussing the problems with higher-ups and testing the concept with 20 workers and receiving positive feedback, the vice president of Lowe's region five gave Harrison the OK to borrow workers on a full-scale basis. So far, it seems to have worked very well.
"We're extremely pleased with it," Harrison said. "I've talked to a lot of people and I'm getting very good feedback. I even get a couple of calls a week from customers thanking me for what we're doing."
Most of the borrowed workers stay in this area about two weeks at a time and are then able to return to their families.
The advantage for the Midland store is they have 60-70 workers who need no training other than how this store is arranged compared to the workers' home stores. Those workers already know Lowe's procedures, are already on the payroll and are basically ready to take full responsibility as soon as they arrive at the store.
Has the move paid for itself in increased sales?
"It's not about the bottom line," Harrison stated. "It's more about service levels in the store. What we want to achieve, whatever the cost, is to be able to help people get everything they need."
In truth, the procedure may not have been in place long enough to gauge its results to the bottom line. But Harrison and Gault both see happy customers as more loyal customers.
Ironically, they have seen this plan help their store staffing in two somewhat unexpected ways. The store's current employees have noted the store's move to ease their workload -- "we need to get our local workers off the ladders and interacting with customers," said Harrison -- and become more satisfied with their jobs. Harrison believes this will improve their retention rate.
The other benefit has been that some of the imported workers have liked the area and inquired about transferring here permanently. As a transplant to this area himself, Harrison fully understands that thinking.
"I love West Texas. I've been here three years now and I have no inclination to go anywhere else. What West Texas has to offer is people, no traffic and more."
Will this migration to West Texas leave other stores short of workers? Probably not, said Gault, because most other Lowe's stores, especially those in metropolitan areas, have more of a worker pool from which to draw, so they don't face the shortages seen by employers in the Permian Basin.
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