Pulling from a large talent pool
Today, drawing from 82 Sheetz family members, the company is able to put family in the right positions.
“So, it’s not like everybody gets a job here,” Sheetz says. “It’s only the ones who show the passion for it, and go out and get the experience, both education and other work experience, that will make it back here to work.
“There is a good chance you’re going to have somebody — two or three in every one of those generations who is very capable to hold a pretty high-level office here. It’s different than somebody who is running a tiny little business who has one or two kids and not such a big family.”
As CEO, Sheetz works for a board of directors made up of external and internal people. That board has one family ownership representative.
“I am an owner, but I don’t have to worry about getting three calls from three different owners telling me three different things,” Sheetz says.
There is one downside to such a large family ownership group, though. Communicating the company’s direction to ownership can be challenging in any business, but at Sheetz that’s multiplied by more than 50.
In an effort to make everyone, even non-active family members, feel like part of the company, Sheetz recently created a family council.
The council, which has its own leadership, meets twice a year to communicate what’s going on with the business and teach younger generations what they need to do if they want to come work at Sheetz.
Treating employees like family
Along the way, the Sheetz family has learned that it takes more than just family to run a successful company, and an ownership culture is one way to retain key staff.
“You need to be willing to go out and bring in — either develop them from here as they are working their way up or bring them in from the outside,” Sheetz says. “You’ve got to be willing to go out and get those outside people. And you’ve got to be willing to pay them properly and find ways to give them ownership.”
Sheetz has an employee stock ownership plan that owns a small part of the company, so anybody who has been employed for more than a year receives shares of stock.
At the more senior levels, it takes a little more ingenuity, such as ownership in one of Sheetz’s subsidiary or real estate companies.
“You’ve got to be creative with your upper-level management that aren’t family to make sure you’re paying the talent what they deserve, and making them feel and act like you,” Sheetz says. “If you’re going to be an owner-operator, then you need to make them feel the same way.”
