Retaining Frontline Talent: America’s Car‑Mart’s CHRO on Side Hustles, Boomerang Culture, and Whole‑Health Wellness

Show Notes

Summary

How do you keep a largely frontline workforce engaged across 135 dealerships and 12 states—while embracing the rise of side hustles? Jules Gianneschi, Chief Human Resources Officer at America’s Car‑Mart (a publicly traded, integrated auto sales and finance company based in Rogers, AR), shares how her team builds a purpose-led culture around a clear mission: keeping customers on the road. Jules explains why normalizing second jobs can actually improve retention, how whole‑health wellness (physical, mental, and financial) drives performance, and why authenticity at work reduces “energy tax” and boosts productivity. She breaks down Car‑Mart’s “boomerang” culture, the associate value proposition built from employee interviews, and the power of local leadership in rural communities where reliable transportation changes lives. Jules also offers two simple HR rituals—Hour of Power and Hallway Huddles—that upskill teams and keep HR connected to the business. She closes with practical interview advice leaders can use to create psychological safety and see candidates at their best.

Timestamps

[00:45] – Who is America’s Car‑Mart? Integrated sales/finance model, footprint, and purpose

[01:51] – The CHRO view: supporting frontline associates and a lean corporate team

[02:40] – The rise of second jobs: economic drivers, passion projects, and retention upside

[05:15] – Whole‑health wellness: physical, mental, and financial programs that meet people where they are

[07:50] – Authenticity and energy management; building the EVP; “boomerang” employees and core values

[14:30] – Mission clarity in action: rural markets, transportation access, and GMs as community leaders

[16:35] – Community engagement that builds loyalty: local events, service projects, and everyday hospitality

[18:05] – HR rituals: Hour of Power (weekly learning) and Hallway Huddles (monthly stand‑ups)

[22:05] – Interview advice for candidates—and how managers create safety to get real signals

Takeaways

- Normalize side hustles to boost retention—offer stable schedules and transparency, not secrecy.

- Operationalize whole‑health wellness: pair benefits with mental health support and financial education.

- Build your EVP from associate interviews and data; anchor it to clear, lived values.

- Clarify the mission (“keep customers on the road”) so every frontline role sees its impact.

- Empower local leaders—make managers the face of the brand in their communities.

- Install lightweight learning and comms rituals (Hour of Power, Hallway Huddles) to upskill HR and stay close to the business.

- Create psychological safety in hiring: invite candidates to name nerves so you can evaluate true fit and potential.

What is HR Voices?

HR Voices is a scenario-based podcast for People Leaders who’ve actually had to make the call.

Each episode brings experienced HR and People leaders into realistic, anonymized workplace scenarios—the kind you recognize immediately. Performance issues. Messy conflicts. Investigations that don’t fit neatly into a policy box. Instead of talking about their own companies, guests react to outside cases and walk through how they’d think it through in real time.

There are no right answers here. What you’ll hear is judgment: how seasoned leaders balance risk, fairness, legal reality, and humanity when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious.

HR Voices is for HR, People Ops, legal, and leaders who want to hear how other smart humans actually handle employee relations—without confidentiality breaches, hypotheticals that feel fake, or a lecture on “best practices.”

Rebecca Taylor (00:18)
Hello and welcome to HR Voices. I'm your host, Rebecca Taylor, and I'm joined today by Jules Gianneschi the CHRO of America’s CAR-MART Jules, welcome.

Jules Gianneschi (00:27)
Thanks Rebecca, it's great to be here.

Rebecca Taylor (00:29)
Yeah, thanks so much for being here. I know we were talking a little bit about just sort of, have a background in HR, you're obviously in HR, we could talk about HR things probably for a while. Do you mind if we start at the beginning? Can you tell us about your company? Can you tell us about your role and what are some things that you're working on right now?

Jules Gianneschi (00:46)
Absolutely. So ⁓ I am the CHRO at America's CarMart and we are a publicly traded

integrated auto sales and finance company. And what that means is we help support our customers through the acquisition of a vehicle, the financing of a vehicle, and then even through the servicing of the loan. So throughout the life of their loan. So super proud to work here. We're a very purpose driven organization. We're based in Rogers, Arkansas, but we operate in 12 states and have 135 dealerships.

Rebecca Taylor (01:19)
That's no small feat and anyone who's bought a car can speak to the experience when you have a really good partner throughout that process. That's always a good thing, right? Yeah. So can you tell us about your role as CHRO? What is that like kind of working with an organization that works in multiple states, which I'm sure multiple employee types, some dealing with the general public, some working more back of house? What's that like being the CHRO in a company like that?

Jules Gianneschi (01:28)
Absolutely.

It's really exciting ⁓ because you get to see, I talked a little bit about the customer's life cycle, but you actually get to see the whole associate life cycle. So ⁓ building on what you said, Rebecca, we do have a lot of frontline associates and those are our associates who provide ⁓ service to our customers out in the stores and really are the ambassadors for our company and our company culture and the communities they serve. I mentioned we're a very purpose driven company and so we take a

lot

of pride in being a part of the communities that we serve and in particular keeping our customers on the road. And then that doesn't happen so our dealerships need support and we do have a small corporate team that is based in Rogers, Arkansas. That's where our corporate office is and that team provides all of the enabling support to make sure that our dealerships can do what they do best which is to keep our customers on the road.

Rebecca Taylor (02:42)
Very nice. And so when you're looking at, you know, sort of managing so many different types of individual employees and creating work situations that make them thrive, make them successful, what are some of the challenges that come along with that?

Jules Gianneschi (02:57)
You know, I think there's a lot going on ⁓ in the economy right now that can make it challenging to just be an employer, not just here, but anywhere. So I was reading a study last week and it was talking about the number of individuals who actually rely on a second income. And when I say a second income, not like a second earner in their house, but actually ⁓ having more than one job. And I just find that fascinating. I think back to when I was early in my career and both

Rebecca Taylor (03:18)
Right.

Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (03:26)
in college and coming out of college, there was never a time that I didn't have two or sometimes three jobs and sometimes that was by design, meaning that I needed to cover a certain bill or whatever coming out of college, you know, having student loans. But later in life, those were more choices because I had personal passions and I had professional endeavors and sometimes those things weren't always in the same space.

So when you read a study and it talks about individuals having dual income, or not having dual incomes, but having more than one income, I just think it's fascinating. And there's a percentage of those people that it's economically driven. But more and more, it's being driven because people both want to have stability, meaning they want to have a nine to five or a job that they show up with that provides them with benefits or maybe a great place to work and great people to work with.

But sometimes they have this intrinsic need to pursue something outside of that. So whether that's somebody who's running a photography studio on the weekend or someone who just enjoys meeting people and so they're doing Uber or Lyft because they're looking to expand, you know, maybe their social circle. just, think it's so fascinating to just kind of see where the world of work is at today.

Rebecca Taylor (04:46)
Yeah, and it is interesting because there certainly is a rise of folks that have a second job or a side hustle, as sometimes they call it. And to your point, is, I think, reflection of, in some ways, might be a reflection of economic times now, but it's also kind of been a pretty common practice for some folks for different reasons, right? Sometimes you might have a second or third job for a period of time because you're paying down a home repair loan or

Jules Gianneschi (04:56)
Yeah.

Yeah,

Rebecca Taylor (05:16)
trying to buy a car, right?

Jules Gianneschi (05:17)
exactly.

Rebecca Taylor (05:19)
And then it kind of, you know, it sort of gives you the ability to be a little bit more flexible while still having that stability of the, of, you know, your central job or your main job, if you can have that.

Jules Gianneschi (05:28)
Right, right. And some people, you I think it's also interesting, I think, coming out of the pandemic.

there were a lot of people who focused on their mental health. And so I think you also see a lot of non-traditional individuals who might be in that second, you know, that second bucket and they might have like say rental property or something else. And what they're trying to do is accelerate towards retirement. And so that's one of the things as an employer, we focus a lot on ⁓ whole health wellness. And we spend a lot of time, you know, helping our associates understand not just

Rebecca Taylor (05:38)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Jules Gianneschi (06:02)
their physical wellness and making sure that they have access to good health care benefits, but actually mental wellness and making sure that they understand what good work-life balance looks like. And also financial wellness and making sure that they understand how to manage their finances and how to set a plan and how to work towards something and achieve that. So that's really what you want to be able to do is to meet people where they're at. And so when you think about all of

Rebecca Taylor (06:12)
Hmm.

Jules Gianneschi (06:32)
those things going on either in the economy or in the workplace. That's something where I think as an employer, we're able to offer this just great opportunity where we're very focused on. have a lot of stability in our workforce and we have a lot of stability in our schedule ⁓ in terms of how we serve the public and when we're available to serve. And that allows people the flexibility that if they're wanting to pursue a passion on the side that, sometimes

that provides them the opportunity to do that.

Rebecca Taylor (07:04)
Hmm, that

is kind of nice to kind of hear you embracing that kind of concept or just not just you, but you as an organization, right? Embracing that concept because, sometimes it's hard to, you like you mentioned, sometimes it's like you're trying to increase your income for different reasons and for different things and just kind of hearing and knowing that there's flexibility so you can find that in other ways. And that's not a secret you have to keep from your company. I think that's sort of the key that I'm hearing that's really cool because

You know, I speak to a lot of HR folks that have been dealing with people working two full-time jobs at once. And, you know, that I think is a, it's different than what you're talking about, but it still is, you know, you're, there still is, because of this, there's sometimes more secrecy from employees around their honesty of what they're, you know, comfortable sharing with their company about what they do in their free time and whatnot. So just the fact that you created an environment where, you know, you sort of can, from what I'm hearing sounds

Jules Gianneschi (07:36)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Rebecca Taylor (07:59)
that it sounds normal, that it sounds expected and that it's okay to have other endeavors is nice. It's not like everything for the company all the time. And then you're gonna get loyalty that way, right? Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (08:08)
That I was just going to say. So it's

a great talent retention strategy when people feel like, I can come in and I can have stability and I have this place to work and people that I enjoy working with. But if I have a personal pursuit or passion, that's OK, too. So speaking for myself, my undergraduate degree was in fine arts. And so I never thought that I would end up in ⁓ corporate or more retail. ⁓ I just always thought I was going to end up in theater.

Rebecca Taylor (08:13)
Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (08:38)
doing something else and the Olympics is going on right now and so whenever you get asked like hey if you weren't doing what you do now you know what would you be doing and my answer is always the same I'd be designing customs for Cirque du Soleil. The reality is that's not really practical ⁓ and I couldn't make a living that way and so you know having having been through different periods of your own life where you go gosh I you know I both wanted to have stability but I also wanted to have flexibility in order to

Rebecca Taylor (08:40)
Yeah.

Alright.

Jules Gianneschi (09:06)
⁓ pursue things that matter to me as an individual. ⁓

Rebecca Taylor (09:10)
Hmm. Yeah, I think that's really interesting because it's almost like normalizing

the idea that people are whole people and that we have interests outside of, you know, maybe the things that might pay some of, you know, some of the bills and, and normalizing that is okay. And I think encouraging good, cause like you said, it's a great retention tactic, Allowing people to show up as they are, you know, that's, that's a, that's something I'd love to kind of, you know,

Jules Gianneschi (09:32)
Okay.

Rebecca Taylor (09:36)
dig into a little bit because that's sort of some of the debate that I hear is authenticity at work, showing up as you're sort of being able to bring your whole self to work. And my argument is always that companies have to have a high level of psychological safety for people to be able to do that. But how do you think that your culture allows people to be open like that? What is it about it?

Jules Gianneschi (09:59)
Yeah, listen, think

it takes, ⁓ so you just start from the very much like person of one. So if you start with yourself and you think about if I have to come into work and I have to present myself in a way that doesn't feel authentic, that requires a whole lot of energy. ⁓ And I like to talk to my teams and our leaders about managing your energy.

Rebecca Taylor (10:15)
Mmhmm.

Jules Gianneschi (10:22)
So if a part of your energy becomes about managing how you show up, then that's energy that you're not dedicating to what we're asking you to do, which is to produce a widget or whatever. So by helping our associates be able to show up in an authentic way, then they can come and be super productive each and every day. When I joined the business about four years ago,

sat down and talked with a lot of our associates about what they enjoyed working with the company. And I looked at a lot of data. And I think data is really important. And we have this great culture. I call it the boomerang effect, where we have people who are with us for a period of time. And maybe it's like their first job. And they're growing. And then they get to a point, and they say, I want something different. And they leave us.

and our percentage of returners is really high.

They go away for maybe one or two or three years and do something else. And then they come back, and then they are here for another 10 or 20 years. And so I like to call it this boomerang culture. And I think there's really something magical and special about that. So we sat down and we interviewed a number of our associates. And we did this to build out our associate value proposition. And those were some of the things that we learned is that our associates really enjoyed ⁓ the aspects of our culture that, were driven

by

our values and our values are integrity and respect and compassion and excellence. And so those were things that really motivated our associates. And when we asked them like what was motivating about it, they said it's because I get to come in and A, I get to be who I am. And then B, when I come in, I get asked to participate in making decisions and helping support people. And so I get

some level of ability to like bring my energy in and help solve problems, help keep customers in their car, help them navigate a difficult time, or help that person find their first car and see that like absolute excitement when they're getting ready to drive away. And the customer that is our primary customer is a customer that ⁓ maybe doesn't get those

chances in other places. And so we take a lot of pride in making sure that our customers get great service and great treatment when other companies might tell them that they're not credit worthy.

Rebecca Taylor (12:55)
Yeah. So I'm loving what you're saying, because there's a very, very clear connection to mission, vision, values, you like you mentioned. And when you have employees that are so aligned with that and where your mission and vision can be stated so simply, right. And I mean that as a compliment, like we're keeping people on the road. That's something that if you're an employee and you're trying to figure out your place in that, there can be a clear kind of connection to a different role, right?

Jules Gianneschi (13:22)
Right, exactly.

Yeah.

Rebecca Taylor (13:24)
That's really rare. mean, it's rare in some organizations that don't necessarily have a tangible output of their work. And it's a challenge that I always talk to HR folks about is, you like you have to have something that's that simple to help someone to kind of find that purpose so that they can really be engaged and really contribute to the company's mission and vision too, because...

It's one of the things that I think it's one of the things that I was so excited to work with the All Voices team. You know, when I got invited to take over hosting this podcast, it's just that concept of, you know, everyone who's here is really, really embedded in the mission and the vision of the company. It shows up in how every person interacts with each other. makes decisions a lot easier to make, right? You can look at data through a specific lens, but when you really are clear in your objective and your employees are all running in that same direction.

Jules Gianneschi (14:06)
Okay.

Rebecca Taylor (14:15)
That's what really makes it work. seeing a culture where people can kind of make what they want out of their career and they can really kind of be themselves and find how they want to grow and do things. I've seen a lot of, there's like a really good Venn diagram here. I think it's really cool.

Jules Gianneschi (14:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, and we're

super proud, like our general managers, they play such an important role in the communities where they are. Most of our communities are small, I would say primarily like rural or suburban. So we're not in big metro markets. And so for us, providing access to transportation for our customers is critical because many of those places don't have a good ⁓ public transport.

infrastructure. So having a car might be the difference between having a job and having a good job. And so, you know, when you know that, like you really want to make sure that you help ⁓ that customer be successful and that they are able to build the equity in their car. And we take a lot of pride on our customers coming back to us and then bringing their family members back to us. And so it's really fun when you get to see that play out.

Rebecca Taylor (14:59)
Right, right.

Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (15:26)
And then our general managers, their name is on the door. And so they take a lot of pride in being that face of the business in the community. And it makes it really ⁓ very approachable. And they get very involved in their communities. So whether it's say a crawfish boil on a Friday night, or maybe a fundraiser in the community, or ⁓ gosh, we have so many examples of.

teams going out and helping Habitat for Humanities or we become a safe space during Halloween for trunk or treat. So just really, really community driven and you know, it's fun. We have popcorn popping all the time. We have coffee ready to go. So we enjoy people just dropping by even if they don't have, you know, a specific business matter, but just, you know, keeping that type connection with our customers is really important.

Rebecca Taylor (15:59)
Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's really special because relationships really are everything. Relationships with your community, just human connection. I posted about it earlier on LinkedIn today where I'm like, just we're kind of with the connective tissue of what makes humans humans is what makes businesses run. It's what makes communities thrive. And, you know, that's reflected. That's going to be reflected in your customer experience too, right? When your employees are motivated that way, when your customers are treated that way, that's a really, really

It's a really powerful stance to be and to be that company that has that type of association within your community, within your customer base is great. It's how you build, like you mentioned, those long-term relationships so that you're not just buying your first car, you're buying every car. And so is everybody around you is buying all of their stuff from the same place, right? I love that. So ⁓ what's something exciting that you're working on right now?

Jules Gianneschi (16:57)
Yep.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So there's a couple of things that maybe for other people I would say that just seems like.

Of course you would do that, but there's a few things that our team has been working on which are really exciting. A lot of those are business initiatives, so we're a lot of new products or change management. I mentioned ⁓ having built our associate value proposition, but if I were just to turn inward for a minute, I think it's super important. The HR team can sometimes be like the Cobbler's children. We're busy taking care of everyone else, and we don't always take care of ourselves.

Rebecca Taylor (17:40)
Mm-hmm.

Jules Gianneschi (17:46)
And so a couple of team members had given me some feedback over the course of the last year, and we put that feedback into action. So there's two things. One is what we're calling the hour of power. So ⁓ every week, I ask the HR team to take an hour of their time and dedicate it to some kind of learning pursuit. So maybe it's going in and reading up on AI, or maybe it's someone who wants to move into the communications team.

they want to how to use Canva or one of those products. Or maybe it's somebody who's just joining. We have a couple of new graduates. We have some interns that have joined us. so they're stepping into their first roles. And so maybe they're sitting with, let's say, the compensation analyst and learning how to do market pay studies. So the hour of power, that would be the first thing that's been kind of exciting. The second thing is you can also

always think that you're staying connected to the business. But you have to check in and make sure that that's what's happening. And so ⁓ we implemented what I like to call the hallway huddle. So.

Rebecca Taylor (18:56)
Hmm.

Jules Gianneschi (18:57)
Think of it as like a water cooler conversation. ⁓ But once a month, we just meet up in a corner where most of the HR team sits and we do a standup meeting. And we talk about what's going on in the business. We talk about what we're working on with our business partners. We take some time to do some high fives around the room. And it's a great opportunity for peer recognition. But when you do that, your whole

Rebecca Taylor (19:00)
Yeah.

love.

Jules Gianneschi (19:25)
team walks away better educated about what's happening. And one of the things that I learned, in fact I was just talking to one of my team about it right before we joined, is you can take for granted that things that you're talking about at a leadership level are getting passed all the way down into the team. And I think largely they are. But if you're receiving that information and maybe it's only in the context of your job or your department, you're missing out on having a conversation with your

Rebecca Taylor (19:43)
Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (19:55)
years and I just like the eyeball to eyeball. So like when we're standing in this circle, like it forces us to all stand in a circle and look at each other. Like that ability just to make that human connection and have a conversation with someone and have them talk about a project or ask a question. We created the safe space for somebody to raise their hand and say, hey, I heard this business term. I'm not sure that I understood what that means. Like who can help me with that?

Rebecca Taylor (19:58)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (20:25)
And when you do that, the next time they have to go work on a business project, it accelerates their learning curve and their ability to actually add value on that next project. those are two things we're doing right now that I'm kind of excited about. And I know it may seem rather silly, but having an hour of power and a hallway huddle, I think, can be a game changer.

Rebecca Taylor (20:36)
Yeah.

I don't think it's silly.

Yeah, I don't think that's silly at all. think it's really, really powerful, especially when you're, especially that hallway huddle too, because it gives people the chance, like you said, to connect and ask questions. And it's why, I mean, you know, I've been able to join all hands meetings through all voices now, cause now I just crashed everybody's meetings as I'm working, cause I love this team. ⁓ and after every single meeting, there's always an invitation to, if you have questions that you didn't get to ask, or you didn't want to raise your hand in front of the whole team.

Jules Gianneschi (21:12)
Right.

Rebecca Taylor (21:13)
you can actually anonymously submit those questions through the All Voices platform and it'll go anonymously and it can get answered. And I think that's sort of one of the coolest things is just giving so many different ways for people to ask questions. Cause the goal is to just understand. The goal is just help to drive that understanding. Yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (21:27)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's

fantastic. Thank you for sharing that.

Rebecca Taylor (21:32)
Yeah, thank you for sharing. Do you have any closing thoughts as we wrap up this conversation?

Jules Gianneschi (21:37)
You know, I think what was on my mind today when I was getting ready to chat with you is ⁓ I have three children and they're at that phase of their life where they're making transitions. ⁓ I was giving one of them some advice on getting ready for an interview. And we were just talking about things to do and not do and just sent them a text before we got on. And I said, hey, just keep it really simple. One, just be you.

Rebecca Taylor (22:06)
Mm, yeah.

Jules Gianneschi (22:07)
Two, make sure you have a firm handshake.

Three, you're going to be nervous and it's okay when you get nervous. Just tell them that you're nervous and you're nervous because you're super excited to be here. So I share that because I think it's so important. Everyone is at a different stage in their journey, but ultimately everyone has been somewhere and everyone is going somewhere. And so I think, know, as HR practitioners or people in that space, the more that we can share and just keep those things real is really important.

Rebecca Taylor (22:37)
Yeah, I love that. Solid advice, solid advice. And especially, you know, if you're nervous, just say you're nervous. That is such a powerful thing to be able to give as advice to especially because you've been in HR for so long, you've been on the other side of interviewing for so long, too. It's like, the end of the day, we're all humans. If someone's nervous for an interview, the interview is where you get where's where you meet someone, but it doesn't it's not, you know, the whole job, right?

Jules Gianneschi (22:44)
Yeah.

It's not the end of the journey.

Rebecca Taylor (23:02)
Right, right. And some people

are strong interviews and some aren't, but that doesn't make them qualified or unqualified for the job. So it's like, if you just need a moment to say you're nervous, just say that. And, you know, the flip side is, you know, encourage anybody who's listening to this. a candidate does tell you that they're nervous, you know, embrace that, reassure them, you know, make them feel comfortable. Cause then you're going to really get their trust that way too. And then you'll really learn who they are.

Jules Gianneschi (23:11)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Well, fantastic.

Rebecca Taylor (23:26)
Well, Jules, thank you. This was

such a great conversation and thank you for sharing, you your wins, your challenges, everything that you're working on. I think it's been really, really insightful and thank you everybody for listening and I hope everyone has a great day.

Jules Gianneschi (23:38)
Thank you, Rebecca.