Microcultures matter: How Love’s taps local values to drive engagement

Live coverage from Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference.

Scaling a company from a mom-and-pop shop to a major company can leave some employees feeling lost in the shuffle.

Love’s Travel Stops was founded 61 years ago as a family business and has since grown into a $24 billion company with more than 650 locations and 40,000 employees. Yet its leaders have built a strong reputation for a company culture based on employee listening.

This is critical to every employee’s success, Jenny Love Meyer, chief culture officer at Love’s, said Thursday during Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference.

“My dad, Tom Love, laid the foundation for our culture,” she said. “He went to locations, talked with team members and made time to show appreciation, like delivering turkeys to managers on Thanksgiving Day.”

This legacy of support and appreciation is something that Meyer and her team continuously strive to embody, though on a much larger scale today.

To do this well, Meyer said Love’s, a member of Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, has built a strategic framework to reinforce a “culture of respect and care.”

Here’s what she says matters most.

Onboarding

Love’s onboarding doesn’t stop once a new employee has finished training, Meyer said.

The process is meticulous and continuous, changing with the employee’s goals during their time working at Love’s, she said. By listening to what they want out of their time, Love’s can better assess how to tailor their onboarding and learning, she said.

“Every employee has a start and an end to their journey here,” she said. “We embed our culture through recruiting, training, recognition and performance evaluations throughout that time to ensure consistency.”

Culture tours

Because Love’s has grown into a major brand across the United States, it may feel like there’s a disconnect between frontline and corporate workers. But Meyer said the company began embarking on culture tours – echoing her father’s Thanksgiving Day turkey stops, albeit with a more structured approach.

The tours include Meyer and other executives traveling to different Love’s locations and engage with team members directly. They strive to visit 10 to 15 locations per month.

“I spend 90% of my time with team members, hearing their thoughts, suggestions and questions,” she said.

This initiative not only allows Meyer to gauge employee sentiment, but also reinforces a culture of transparency and open feedback.

“When team members ask questions or make suggestions, we ensure they know the outcome,” Meyer said. “It’s one of my favorite parts of the job…we create videos to share the experiences from these tours, allowing everyone in the organization to see what’s happening.”

Embracing microcultures

Love’s strives for consistency, but recognizes that each store location and its employees may have different priorities based on customer demographics, size and location.

Instead of trying to force one encompassing culture on individual locations, Meyer said Love’s embraces its microcultures – or the values that are prioritized within a single store.

“Even if we have states that are right next door to each other, you still have microcultures within those locations,” she said. “Our goal is to acknowledge those differences while reinforcing a culture of respect and care.”

Using the company’s intranet, aptly named “Heartbeat,” employees often share what makes their location unique and may offer up solutions or ideas they come up with on their own, Meyer said. She encourages this kind of collaboration and innovation in microcultures.

Collecting feedback

Love’s regularly conducts what they call benefit surveys, or surveys that inform employees of an action plan after the employees have submitted concerns and questions, Meyer said.

“Benefit surveys, conducted every other year, ensure that employees know where we stand and what changes we can make based on their feedback,” she said.

These surveys not only uncover lingering issues, but offer valuable insights that leadership can then address head on, Meyer said.

Through thoughtful employee listening and tailored communications strategies, Love’s continues to enhance the values its founder emphasized, or as Meyer put it: “We believe in the power of our employees. Their voices matter and we’re dedicated to making sure they are heard.”

Courtney Blackann is a communications reporter. Connect with her on LinkedIn or email her at courtneyb@ragan.com. 

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