Five ways to make retail staff happier and more productive:
1. Ditch the paper and keep it simple!
Have a single “go-to” place for all store communications. Collate all your internal correspondence – post, faxes, phone calls, emails – into online-only communications. As well as being cost effective, creating a single action list reduces the chances of tasks being forgotten or ignored. It also gives staff within your retail network the satisfaction of marking off items as they are completed and tracking progress of a job well done.
2. Give them a daily focus
Set online daily to-do lists to help store staff prioritise their workload. By centrally controlling this process, you can ensure that projects and processes most important to the business as a whole are at the top of their daily agenda. All tasks should be aligned with company goals and standards.
3. Manage their time more effectively
Creating a productive working environment is not just a case of setting better task lists; you need a comprehensive breakdown of how staff are utilising their time to see whether workload can be better spread, either by redistributing the number of people working each shift or changing the tasks they are responsible for. Accurate timesheets and rotas are crucial to optimising management of staff time across your business.
4. Keep the communication channels two-way
Communication should not purely consist of output from central locations, as it’s equally important that employees within your store network are able to tell you when they have actioned a point and come to you with any queries. The most efficient retailers have transparent and open communications, which work two ways.
5. Eliminate wasted activity and give staff more time to sell
Most retail staff are happiest in a constructive environment that achieves strong sales results and delivers excellent customer service. Whether it’s improving process for administration and compliance tasks, or simply ensuring they have all the information they need to do their job at their fingertips, every in-store task should have an outcome of improving sales and operational effectiveness. By doing this, you can release employees to get on with the aspects of their role they most enjoy, generating better results for your business in the process.