While co-workers may get together informally for drinks or other social events to unwind or share problems that they’re trying to solve, that’s not always the case with HR professionals. They are one of the few team members who need to maintain a distance at times, and that can make it tough to talk through work-related challenges.

But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t opportunities for HR professionals to find help with issues that they are facing. The NACS Human Resources Forum was created as a safe place for convenience industry HR professionals to share ideas and insights specific to the unique world of convenience retailing.

Establishing trusted connections, more than anything else, was the reason that a record-setting 126 people were at this year’s HR Forum, which took place March 24-26 in Nashville, Tennessee.

Both first timers and long-time attendees, including several who have attended every Forum for over a decade, said that the opportunity to share during sessions and network—in addition to participating in post-event share groups—is the reason that they attend year after year.

The importance of connections doesn’t mean that there wasn’t great advice and analysis shared on stage, because there was. Respecting the safe space of the event, suggestions and observations have been anonymized, whether from the stage or from conversations during networking activities.

Here are some of the high-level ideas that were shared.

They didn’t tell me there would be this many people here,” noted one pleased first-timer. Let’s set a new record next year when the NACS Human Resources Forum takes place March 16-18 in Louisville, Kentucky.”

Recruiting and Hiring

Most conversations focused on building and cultivating great teams, which ultimately leads to great customer service. To manage turnover and its costs, attendees shared ideas to reimagine the entire recruiting process.

For years, a main qualification for back-office employees was having a college degree—but does that limit your talent pool? If this requirement is not essential to the job, consider removing it.

Reviewing job requirements should also extend to the length of job descriptions. HR Forum participants reviewed c-store industry job descriptions to improve the language and the likelihood of attracting great candidates. One significant recommendation: Keep job descriptions to two pages or less and focus on what is specific to the job, as opposed to listing tasks that are common to all jobs. (Yes, there was at least one four-page job description submitted for review.)

In developing job descriptions, it’s also important to remove ambiguity. For example, avoid stating that the company has “a comprehensive benefits package” and instead specify what the benefits are. In addition, company jargon and acronyms can creep into job descriptions. At some companies, job descriptions are reviewed by someone outside the department before they are posted. This practice helps minimize internal jargon that may be overlooked.

Also, while the Trump Administration has placed a focus on eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), that doesn’t mean that companies need to significantly alter their procedures—as long as they continue to put a focus on merit-based hiring and promotions.

Finally, while recruiters have traditionally been engaged hiring C-suite employees, companies are increasingly using recruiters beyond the C-suite, with the cost of inefficiencies from open positions outweighing the cost of hiring recruiters.

Salaries and Benefits

Salaries and benefits are always among the most important criteria that employees cite for why they select and stay at companies, which can present challenges in defining salaries and benefits that match expectations and can also vary by demographics.

The growth of pay-transparency laws makes it essential for companies to examine overall salaries. In particular, watch out for the one-off decisions that can take some employees’ salaries out of whack with the rest of the organization. Carefully examine exceptions and why they exist, noted HR Forum speakers.

For frontline workers, one company helped streamline salaries and expectations by developing an online pay calculator that estimated hiring salaries for possible job applicants based on criteria like managerial experience and education. It helps reduce ambiguity by showing candidates exactly why they received a specific offer.

Companies also should examine how they can align on their compensation philosophy. What makes you stand out beyond salary—and what are non-traditional benefits that might be of value to employees? Some highly praised benefits include discounts on dependent care or wellness care packages that can be used to help offset costs associated with gym memberships, exercise equipment, nutrition training or mindfulness programs. Wellness benefits are particularly prized by younger employees.

Policies and Training

Company policies are among the biggest pain points for many employees, usually because they can become institutionalized without regular reviews and updates. “We should never have policies that employees consider stupid. Either change the mindset or change the policy,” noted one HR Forum speaker.

How do these policies come about? Sometimes a policy is put in place because the strongest or loudest team member pushed for it. But is it the best for the business? That’s a question to continually ask when creating new policies.

When policies are needed, think about ways to introduce them differently than a dry e-mail announcement that accompanies an attachment. Look for fun ways to engage employees with otherwise mundane policy updates. One company records and shares short podcasts for HR updates.

Also, invest in training on a regular basis, especially for employees added through acquisitions, who also need to learn about company norms. “We used to hire people off the street and give them better training than the people we acquired [through M&A],” noted one speaker talking about the mistakes they made in earlier acquisitions.

Artificial Intelligence

A common quote today about artificial intelligence is that “you won’t lose your job to AI; you will lose your job to someone who is using AI.” The uses and pitfalls of AI are important to consider as AI use grows in the workplace.

One company uses a recruiting automation program to speed up the hiring process for frontline workers; 85% of applicants were able to schedule interviews within an hour of applying, and the hiring process was reduced from 10 days to three. AI was not making hiring decisions, but it was significantly reducing the time it took to reach that decision.

Chatbots can help simulate human conversations with the basics of who, what, where, when and how—and companies with fewer than 20 locations are using them to interact with customers and potential employees.

Because AI is rapidly evolving, “best practices” are still under development and are essential for HR professionals to consider. Do you know how AI is being used in your workplace—by whom and how? It’s good to set up policies, both in the HR department and throughout the company, to address allowable uses for data collection and decision making.

C-Suite Strategy

Human resources activities and objectives must be closely aligned with the vision of the CEO, and that’s one of the reasons why CEOs also attend the NACS HR Forum. CEO attendees shared some ideas for how HR professionals can advance their ideas—and career.

How can HR professionals best get CEOs to buy into their initiatives? Speak the language that relates to their backgrounds. If a CEO has a tech background, for instance, use that “language” as you build your pitch. The same applies to finance, marketing and so on. Second, keep in mind overall business objectives. Think about the CEO’s biggest worries and how you can help solve them.

In terms of advocating for your own growth, CEOs said that HR professionals should not assume that they know what your needs are Make a plan for what you want your career to be and communicate it.

How to Create Authentic Connections

“When the purpose is clear, the mundane becomes meaningful,” according to Kevin Paul Scott, author, speaker and cofounder of the leadership consultancy ADDO.

Scott, a presenter at the NACS Human Resources Forum, wove stories and videos together to show HR professionals how they can help create authentic connections with their employees—much like how public relations and marketing also create connections.

“Culture and marketing are the two sides of the same coin,” he said. While most companies pay a lot of attention to marketing as a way to establish connections with consumers, it’s equally important to use the same techniques with employees to enhance culture.

The data supports this as well. Employees who feel connected to their company’s purpose are three times more likely to be engaged at work. “When you tell stories about what you mean to the community, it creates affinity with employees. Don’t just share these stories with customers,” he said.

“Endearing is enduring,” Scott said. He shared three tips to create an enduring brand:

1. Prioritize the personal. A personal experience goes far beyond a singular customer: It applies to all customers if you want to create unique customer experiences. Scott cited how one airline focuses on that moment of truth when customers enter the aircraft. Flight attendants use the phrase “value me because” when thinking about why customers are on the flight, which could apply to positive, negative or mundane moments—and how they can provide the best customer experience.

2. Cultivate the culture. Show employees the incentive and they will reward you with positive actions, said Scott. “Cared-for people care for people,” he said.

3. Maximize the moment. It’s not practical to allocate sufficient resources to give every customer an experience that will result in a viral social media moment that celebrates the company. But you can create policies that allow employees to proactively create special moments for customers. “Do for one customer what we wish we could do for everyone, and you can create something special,” Scott said.