Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/799779
12 FEDA News & Views Why They N&V: What about your impressions of the leadership? Smith: My favorite part of the inter- view was getting to meet with the direc- tor of Customer Service, Chelsey Texter. She was very young; she's still young. Our president, Dave Groff, is also young. That's what stuck with me. I saw how young they were and I asked them how long they had been in their roles, what their day-to-day looked like and things of that nature. N&V: It had to be encouraging to see people their ages in such high-profi le roles. Smith: Exactly. It really helped con- fi rm that this was the place I wanted to be because it made me feel that if I proved my worth, I could work my way up. N&V: Emily, you mentioned that the screening process has changed since you joined Clark years ago. How so? Smith: Now we basically have every- one apply online. It's not a hard-fast rule but when they do apply online, we have a proprietary applicant management system that allows us to target people that we think would be great to bring into one of the Clark Associates compa- nies. And even if they apply for one of my positions, for example, but would be a better fi t for one of Chelsey's positions, I'm able to send that applicant to her. N&V: I remember when I visited about six or so years ago—before the Webstaurant era. There was a handful of employees, all in one room, and they were responsible for online orders. I remember commenting to Fred {Clark} how young everyone was at the time, which was rare for our industry. Were you with the company then? Smith: WebstaurantStore was still real- ly small when I joined them and we were housed with the rest of the Clark Associates. Now we have our own offi ce buildings. N&V: Of course, your new building is awesome. What a dramatic change from the old to the new. Smith: Oh yeah, it's great. I'm not sure you're aware of it, but we just acquired a building next to the Webstaurant build- ing that the content, site maintenance, video and logistics teams just moved into. That's been exciting, too, because now we have two WebstaurantStore buildings. Also, there is another Clark Associates building that was built behind our corporate location to help with the growth there. We're experiencing a lot of growth throughout the Clark compa- nies. N&V: I understand from Dave Groff that you've had quite a journey since joining the company fi ve years ago. Smith: Yes, I started as a customer solu- tions specialist and within about a year I became a team leader in Customer Solutions. Shortly after that, I was asked to start a Customer Solutions team in Kentucky, so I moved to Kentucky for a year and developed a team there. That was actually our fi rst expansion outside of Pennsylvania for WebstaurantStore. After setting up that team, I returned to our corporate offi ce to oversee the Content Department. Three months later, I grew into the Digital Media direc- tor role. N&V: There's so much out there about Millennials—their likes and dislikes, how to attract them, keep them, etc. As a Millennial, I'm curious about your per- spective on the chatter. Do you fi nd most of it is accurate or off the mark? Smith: It depends on your perception. Are you one of those people who think negatively when you hear the term Millennials and assume they like to hop from job to job? Or, do you hear the stats and think Millennials just crave variety? I think they change jobs because they're not engaged—at least that's been my friends' experiences. If you give them a little more variety and keep them learn- ing and growing, they're more likely to stay. And, of course they want their opinion to matter and they want to make a difference—but for that to hap- pen, you have to listen to their opinions and then say, "That's a good idea or this is why we can't pursue that right now." So, yes, a lot of what's out there about Millennials defi nitely has merit. N&V: How would you rate Clark in terms of its ability to engage? For exam- ple, is the leadership big on communi- cating opportunities for growth within the company, and is there any type of career pathing? Smith: We have something called a growth path chart that traces the various routes an associate can take throughout the company to land in a certain depart- ment or a particular role. It's available all the time so everyone is aware of it and can visibly see the paths. It's also something that management talks about quarterly to see if we're interested in anything on the chart. Outside of that, an open dialogue is encouraged. There's My favorite part of the interview was getting to meet with the director of Customer Service, Chelsey Texter. She was very young; she's still young. Our president, Dave Groff, is also young. That's what stuck with me. --Emily Smith