Clark Associates

Today is National Read Across America Day! Here at Clark, we are always looking for ways to grow and reading books has been a great way for employees to dive deeper into both personal and professional development. Clark employees have access to libraries across multiple locations where they can check out books to learn more about different topics.

Here at Clark, one of our core values is pushing forward with an entrepreneurial spirit. This means that we push the status quo and are not afraid to make mistakes. When we learn from our mistakes, we can be better together. #MotivationMonday

As we reflect on the past 50 years, we’ve looked back on each division of Clark Associates and how they have grown. Take a look at the first Clark Short featuring WebstaurantStore: https://www.youtube.com/embed/FshrIhcthyI

Do you feel like you are staring at a screen all day long? As we have experienced during this pandemic, technology is something that has helped in so many ways, but it also results in us staring at screens for hours on end. The Muse wrote an article on how you can balance screen time while working from home. Take a look! https://www.themuse.com//manage-reduce-screen-time-during-

Happy Motivation Monday! As we hit our final week of February, what is one thing you are going to do to stay consistent with your goals? #MotivationMonday

For today's Feature Friday, we are introducing Commons Coordinator, Danitxa Orta! Danitxa helps provide delicious food and drinks for our employees in the Clark Commons on our Lancaster campus. Reflecting on her time with Clark, her favorite part of working here is the people and how helpful and understanding everyone is. Outside of the office you can find Danitxa reading, watching Netflix, or hanging out with her fraternal twin sister! #FeatureFriday

Introducing this week's #FeatureFriday, Amanda DeFelice, Marketing Coordinator for The Restaurant Store. For Amanda, choosing to work for The Restaurant Store was a simple decision due to its selfless charitable acts, ample growth opportunities, and an encouraged collaborative team atmosphere. Amanda enjoys having the ability to work in a wide range of marketing projects from physical prints that will ultimately end up in the stores to digital aspects such as seeing the impac...t our presence online can have on customer shopping habits. She thoroughly enjoys meeting and collaborating with a variety of people at the company, from those she interacts with on a daily basis to colleagues she communicates with less frequently. Outside of the office, Amanda has a passion for dance, and after nearly two decades of furthering her dance education, she had the opportunity to dance professionally for the Philadelphia Flyers during their 2017-2018 season! See more

That feeling when your Clark Associates team members make everyday feel like National Have Fun at Work Day! Tag a colleague who makes work fun! #NationalHaveFunAtWorkDay

Reflecting on 2020, CEO Gene Clark shared some insight on how Clark Associates persevered, innovated, invested, and grew despite a challenging year. Want to read the full letter? Check it out here: https://www.clarkassociatesinc.biz/ceo-letter-2021/

Happy National Coffee Break Day! Send your colleagues an e-gift card so they can enjoy a brew on you or take a virtual coffee break to unwind and enjoy time with coworkers. Tag someone below you would want to share a cup o’ joe with!

Let today inspire you to serve in your community in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy, sacrifices, and brilliance. King recognized the power of service and commitment to bettering all neighborhoods. How are you spending this day of service?

Today we’d like to introduce Clark Business Services, the glue that holds all of the Clark Companies together. Housing our Accounting, IT, Benefits Administration, and Purchasing departments, our Clark Business Services team provides all of the Clark Associates companies with the tools they need to thrive.

Creating an environment that is both welcoming and inclusive to people from all walks of life is an important component of our culture. Recently we formed 14 Diversity and Inclusion teams made up of more than 90 employees from various divisions, locations and spanning across eight states. These teams are working diligently to brainstorm ways Clark can continue to grow in this area, and finding creative ways to celebrate what makes Clark employees unique. As a result of the teams’ efforts, we will be implementing a new Do the Right Thing communication program for employees to anonymously report if they experience something that does not align with our core values. This is just one of many initiatives we will expect to execute over the next few months.

For today’s #FeatureFriday, we’d like to introduce Category Manager for Procurement’s food prep and warewashing equipment division, Khalile Stackhouse. Khalile first heard about Clark Associates while searching for career opportunities during his senior year at Millersville University. He felt compelled to apply because Clark’s core values of entrepreneurialism, taking ownership, and discipline aligned with his own. Khalile’s favorite parts of his role are the ability to be involved in many different aspects of the product development process and facing new challenges daily. When Khalile isn’t working, he loves going to music festivals and adding to the long list of artists he has seen perform live!

Become a part of The Restaurant Store's growing team! Join us November 6 from 3-7pm at the Lancaster Restaurant Store: 2209 Old Philadelphia Pike, Lancaster PA for our first on site recruiting event. Bring your resume for on-the-spot interviews with Restaurant Store managers from our Lancaster, Harrisburg and Reading store locations. Friends and family are welcome to apply or simply stop in to enjoy food from local food trucks. Follow our Facebook event for more information! https://www.facebook.com/events/960741507746153

Recently, Clark Associates offered its employees opportunities to learn about the company’s 401(k) plan and how they can prepare for retirement through virtual presentations led by Align Wealth Strategies. The sessions acknowledged the challenges that come with 401(k) plans and saving for retirement but also provided solutions to help overcome them. Two different presentations were available, one for employees just getting started in the workforce and another for those approaching retirement.

This week’s #MotivationMonday is from Erica Hess, Marketing Coordinator for procurement’s consumables team. Have a great week!

At Clark, we value mentorship as a means of personal growth. This article from the Harvard Business Review provides insight into what an efficient mentorship might look like and how it can be done in a virtual setting. If you are interested in learning more about how to be a better mentor or mentee take a look at this article! https://bit.ly/3cr9Rd4

Employee growth and development is extremely important here at Clark Associates. To aid our employees we implemented a new library in our Clark Commons area on the Lancaster, PA campus. Updated regularly, you will find a variety of books on topics ranging from management and leadership to improving customer satisfaction and self help books. Employees are welcome to read on their own or join a book discussion group with coworkers.

Happy #TRSTuesday! The Restaurant Store had its Grand Opening event for its newest Pennsauken, NJ location last month! To celebrate, customers were invited to spin a prize wheel for the chance to win great giveaways, watch product demonstrations, take advantage of exclusive promotions, and much more. Interested in joining the rapidly expanding Restaurant Store team? Apply today: https://bit.ly/3ksRkjk

For today’s #FeatureFriday, we are spotlighting Training and Development Specialist for our Lancaster distribution centers, Hatia Robinson. Hatia’s primary role is to help others seek career growth and address staffing needs within the distribution centers. She started as a temporary order packer in 2018, and continued into her current full time role after seeing the investment Clark puts into their employees. Hatia’s favorite part of her job is helping other people work towa...rds growth, stating, No one’s experience will be exactly like mine, but if I can help someone else grow, I will. Just like plants, people need to be watered too. Outside of work, Hatia’s claim to hometown fame was playing three years as a 1st string side guard on the all-boys football team at McCaskey East High School! Interested in becoming a member of our team? Check out our careers page and apply today! https://www.clarkassociatesinc.biz/careers/ See more

At WebstaurantStore, the key to success is being able to get equipment and supplies to business owners fast, efficiently, and at a low cost. To ensure that’s possible, they recently bought a robot for their Albany, GA distribution center to aid in order packaging! When orders are shipped with a bunch of excess packaging materials, it's costly for us, annoying for our customers, and bad for the environment. Unlike the traditional process of putting items in a box, the robot puts a box around the items, creating custom-sized boxes for each order. This allows us to solve packaging issues while still getting orders out quickly. We are extremely excited to see how this new addition to our workflow continues to improve efficiency and cut costs so we can pass those savings on to our customers! #WebstaurantStoreWednesday

Lancaster Burger Company Food Truck came to visit the Lancaster campus last week! Employees could pick from six different delicious burgers to indulge in and also had three different types of french fry options as well! Our employees absolutely loved devouring into these juicy burgers!

Happy Monday! Today’s #MotivationMonday is from The Restaurant Store’s Junior Marketing Data Analyst, Erin Gamble.

Clark Associates is passionate about equipping our employees with knowledge, tools, and benefits for saving for their future. However, we understand that there may be barriers, such as student loans, which are prohibiting employees from saving and contributing to their 401(k) plan. Well, now we have a solution! Clark is pleased to announce our new Student Loan Reimbursement Program to help employees maximize our 401(k) match if student loans are affecting their ability to do so.

At Clark Associates, we encourage employees to get to know one another both inside and outside of the workplace. That’s why we created Discover LanCo, a social group for employees at our Lancaster campus looking to meet others and get to know the area better. With monthly activities ranging from walks in the park and mini-golf to listening to live music and after-work happy hours, there is something for everyone to enjoy! Last month's Discover LanCo event allowed employees to enjoy an earthly flow of vinyasa yoga, led by Vital Tree Yoga, followed by wine tastings and a picnic lunch at Nissley Vineyards.