Behind the scenes: How Sheetz put together a ‘Realistic Job Preview’ on the Web

The first in a multi-part series

How realistic is the ‘Realistic Job Preview’ on the Sheetz Web site? Earl Springer, the chain’s manager of recruitment, told NPN MarketPulse that employees were interviewed about their jobs, how they do them and the attitude they bring to work, among other things, and that information formed a main element of the job previews.

For example, a visitor to the site (sheetz.com) who chooses the preview for an associate store manager will see a picture of a woman who works in that position and hear audio that includes these remarks: “Once I stopped into my store on my day off. During that visit one of the sales associates mentioned that the toilet paper roll key for the men’s room was not working. To help my team I volunteered to get a new set of keys at the hardware store. It took me an hour, but it saved my team from having to leave the store to fix the problem. I was happy to help out.”

“That anecdote about the key was actually word-for-word from an associate manager trainee,” Springer said. “We thought that was a good one to use.”

Employees who were interviewed were chosen randomly from each job class, Springer said. The job classes that can be previewed on the Web site are: beverage host/hostess; facilities; sales associate; assistant manager; associate manager (identified as the career path to the store manager position); and shift supervisor.

In the interviews, Springer said, “We asked what they liked and didn’t like about the job. What they wished someone had told them before they started the job – if there was anything. What we tried to do was give a pretty realistic view of what it’s like in a day in the life of those jobs.

“Obviously we could have gone into a lot more detail,” Springer said, “but what we were trying to do was stay in a range where a person could view the introductory stuff and go through the whole package in less than 10 minutes for one specific job.”

The job previews do not appear to be sugar-coated.

“We didn’t want that,” Springer said. “We try to tell the good and the bad of the job and... have people eliminate themselves before we take time at store level to go through the next part of the selection process.”

Sheetz, Inc., based in Altoona, Pa., operates some 330 convenience locations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina, and has more than 11,000 employees. Revenue in 2006 was more than $3.8 billion, according to the company. The job previews were incorporated into the Web site in June 2006.

Next week: More on how the Sheetz “Realistic Job Preview” was put together, and how it fulfills its purpose.