Summer, peak season and Christmas trade is only just around the corner. So it’s now that you need to start planning.
Hiring the right staff to help maximise sales and profitability during the busiest times is something that many business owners/managers can get wrong. The good news is, that now is the time to start the hiring process, and if you start early, you will get the pick of the bunch! The good ones always go first.
So what do you need to look for in a new employee?
The GOLDEN RULE is to hire for attitude, train for skill. If you hire someone with the right attitude now you have plenty of time to train them just the way you want before it’s hectic and busy.
Otherwise, when hiring consider the following to ensure you make the best choices:
- Find evidence that they are engaged in the real world, able to communicate with solid skills, are personable and play well with others, ensure your interview questions draw this sort of information out.
- Know your business culture and make sure the applicant fits into that culture. If you don’t currently have the culture you want in your business, then start employing people to work towards the culture you do want (but remember culture starts at the top), so if you don’t have the right culture at the moment, start with self-assessment and work down.
- Sell yourself and your business to an applicant, this is one of the most forgotten parts of an interview that I see when working with retailers. Tell them what amazing customer service looks like (your expectations), what experiences your customers have when shopping with you, and what your management style looks like. The person you offer the position to is far more likely to say yes if they can see your passion and culture from the outset. This is a two way street, they need to love you as much as you need to love them for the relationship to really work.
- Trust your gut. If it doesn’t feel right, it’s possibly not. But make sure you ask some great questions – like “can you tell me about a time you didn’t give great customer service and what you learnt from that?” This question always sorts out the great applicants from the others, because poor employees will never see the lesson – but good employees will.
Great retail employees are out there searching for great employers like you. So ensure your interview questions are crafted towards the applicant you most desire, make sure they are a good fit for the workplace culture you have, give the new employee the attention they need and train them to exceed your customers’ expectations. This is how you grow your retail business – one sensational employee at a time!
Small business retail is amazingly rewarding but challenging, especially without support. If you’d like to learn more about succeeding in retail reach out to www.inspiringretail.com.au
