The service station, offering lifestyle choice

"This area is like a little bush town and the customers are pretty fond of us all, especially the older ones."

"Where's Bec today?" he asks.

"Oh hello Mr Russell," says customer service attendant Shareen Suhan. "It's Rebecca's day off. She'll be in again on Saturday."

Local customers at the Kippa-ring store often stop to chat with the people who run it. It's not surprising they know them well. At least three of the staff have worked here for ten years or more. Shareen has been here 17 years, through two different franchisee owners before the site became a Caltex-operated Calstore nine years ago.

Why so long? "Well, I like the people," says Shareen. "This area is like a little bush town and the customers are pretty fond of us all, especially the older ones."

Most of all the staff like the flexibility of their working arrangements. Many live nearby, within a few streets of each other. And Caltex, they say, has offered them employment that ideally suits their lifestyles.

Store manager Jan Leeder is a relative newcomer, having been here just five years.

But even when Jan started her Caltex career as a casual customer service attendant (CSA) at the Caltex Woolworths site at Stafford in Brisbane back in 1998, the role suited her.

Caring for kids

When Jan's two children were younger she could earn money at weekends while her husband was at home. Then during the week her early morning starts meant she could finish work by two and meet the kids when they got home from school.

Paid holidays

Higher duty CSA Rebecca Hodgson lives a short walk from the site. She found that working as a casual for five years suited her and her two kids, too, when they were younger. She moved to a permanent part-time arrangement four years ago, working 35 hours a week. "It's better for me because you get paid holidays," she explains.

Rebecca works days, four times a week and every second Saturday morning – two days on consoles and two helping the manager with back office functions.

Close neighbour Shareen Suhan is also on permanent part-time duty and has two kids in their 20s. "I don't have far to travel, I love the customers and they like us," she says. "One told us the other day they broke the mould when they made us girls."

Not just for girls

Of course flexibility doesn't only suit women workers at Kippa-ring. Another local, CSA Chris Offer, has been working here for ten years. He started as a 15-year-old schoolboy and is finishing his second university degree. "I can work nights, mornings, and weekends and arrange the roster to suit my study time," Chris says.

Stories like this are repeated throughout the Caltex convenience retail network. Staff across the company, and not just in retail, can benefit from similar arrangements.

Besides they know their flexible working arrangements are supported by the company's diversity policy. The company is increasingly trying to support employees with flexible working arrangements in which a "win-win" can be achieved for the employee and the business. "Flexible working arrangements can help our people to balance the most important things in their life," according to Group HR Manager Simon Willshire.

Two-way deal

While it's excellent news that the Kippa-ring people are happy with their work arrangements, the company gets plenty in return, as Lytton-based Retail Business Manager Scott Harrison points out.

"In exchange for the flexibility we've got loyalty and reliability, which makes for a much better convenience retail operation," says Scott, who previously worked as the Kippa-ring store manager.

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