Recruitment of staff
It is important to reflect on the investment made into your retail team and the value a well orchestrated sales force can add to a business. Your team will either be your greatest asset or your biggest liability, so it is essential to start with the right mix of talent. Forward thinking can save you money and maximise sales opportunities.
Determining the qualities required from staff differs for every business so the first step should be to list the key functions, accountabilities, attitudes and characteristics that you need from each team member. Without a clear picture of what you want it can be impossible to attract the right person through your advertising and vacancy promotions.
To establish the qualities required from each staff member consider the increase in traffic flow, longer trading hours, the flexibility in roster coverage, increased stock levels, and increase in stationary quantities. The history and success of previous Christmas activities should help you assess these factors.
After establishing what sort of team members you need, it's time to take action:
- Create a budget to cover additional hours and extra staff required to perform additional duties.
- Devise a job description that is specific for casual Christmas staff. Clearly outline responsibilities.
- List essential criteria and experience required from each applicant.
- Set time aside to recruit staff.
- Establish standards you need from staff. These standards should be discussed when interviewing applicants.
- Convey to applicants your expectations when it comes to rosters.
- Explain duties/responsibilities clearly.
- Create an induction for new staff. Consider who will conduct the program and what it should cover. Also, think about how long is needed to train staff before they become productive and profitable.
- Create a training plan to better prepare current staff.
Recruit skills and attitudes that make your business successful. Consider the pace of your store and employ staff that can cope and will love selling your product. A positive attitude will be needed during this busy, exciting and challenging period.
Small versus large retailers:
In smaller businesses staffing budgets are usually limited, so it is important to employ people who have exceptional customer service standards and diverse skills. Choose carefully as you don't have a lot of time to develop staff. Ideally the applicant will possess these qualities prior to fulfilling the position.
Larger organisations, on the other hand, can afford to employ people with specific skills such as sales consultants, stock replacement and management personnel, visual merchandisers, stock delivery staff, and POS cashiers.
Large retailers have strong brands and become destination points for many casual job seekers. Conversely, many small retailers find it hard to attract good staff to their business in recruitment drives.
However not all is lost. If you are a small retailer you just have to find more creative ways of getting to the potential applicants. Consider some of your customers as potential employees or ask them if they could recommend anyone. This does not have to be a hard sell but just a simple flyer put into every bag that goes over the counter highlighting why it would be great to work for your business and the opportunities that exist.
Setting objectives and staff training:
Once you have selected what you think is the ideal team it is crucial to bring them into the business feeling supported and valued. This involves considering some of the following points:
- Induction training outside of the store environment to cover key expectations and housekeeping issues (this can be done as a group if you have many new employees at once).
- Setting up a buddy system for the first three weeks to ensure someone is looking out for the new employees and their needs are met.
- Sitting down with each new employee, clearly defining their roles and providing a job description with their employment contract.
- Using motivational activities and targets to build team morale and unity.
- Plan rosters well in advance and set up contingency systems where employees take responsibility for finding replacements through a buddy system if they are not able to do a shift.
These ideas help retail businesses to plan staffing requirements in advance and ensure the systems are set up to facilitate teams in a stress free environment.
It is important to recruit and have systems in place well in advance. Don't wait for Christmas to train and redirect responsibilities. It will be too late. Staff will get frustrated and customers will be dissatisfied with their shopping experience in your store.
Remember Christmas brings new customers into your store. This experience should make them want to return to your store again and again. Staff who are confident and know standards and procedures reflect a professional store operation.
Set company objectives and goals to keep staff motivated. Don't just focus on the money you expect them to generate. Create smaller goals, focusing on activities that will achieve the sales results. Make them achievable and measurable so that you can recognise and reward good performance. Send a newsletter listing the company goals and good wishes for Christmas.
Incentives and commissions:
Incentives and commissions can be an effective way to motivate individuals. The type of incentives used will vary from business to business. It is about determining what motivates your team and this will not always be money. Many retailers choose other options such as additional paid leave days for the achievement of sales targets. Others may provide vouchers for additional training of the employee's choice. This type of incentive not only encourages higher sales, but also increases the employee's skill set. The key is to create a great working environment and make your staff feel valued.
Stock
Stock levels and buying should be estimated based on previous history. Review previous buying patterns, current purchasing trends and look at what stock has been requested recently. Seek the opinion of staff as they are aware of your customer's needs.
Consider delivery dates and quantities to satisfy the demand at Christmas. Stock should arrive ahead of time to allow for processing. Source suppliers that can repeat orders at short notice to allow for higher than expected product demand.
Security
Communicate security standards and expectations. Ensure all staff understand the security procedures and what needs to be implemented in the event of theft or a security breach.
Consider blind spots in your store and high risk items. Conduct role plays so staff know what to say to someone acting suspiciously and who to contact in the event of an emergency.
Store layout
At Christmas it is crucial to manage every square metre of your retail space towards a strong return. Retailers are generally loaded with stock and have a short time frame to move the volume.
An effective store layout at Christmas allows retailers to manipulate traffic flow to increase the volume of customers past key product lines. It also draws the traffic deep into the store ensuring they pass the highest number of products possible on each visit. Increased product interaction means increased sales.
Stir the senses with full and visually appealing displays. Include Christmas themes, colours and music. The shopping experience you offer through your staff, service and store must be memorable, giving you a competitive edge and point of difference.
Throughout the eight weeks of Christmas trading the importance of product lines will change so the plan for the store layout needs to change with it. Consider a four stage calendar to plan out a rotation cycle that makes a hero of the right product at the right time in the window, at the front of the store and in key hot spots throughout the store.
Ensure staff are aware of housekeeping standards. Create a housekeeping roster that can be maintained during busy periods and late night trading. Think about implementing the replacement of stock and housekeeping duties before you open for trade or after close of trade for optimum store presentation.
Marketing strategies
There may be temptation to focus on marketing only when business is slow. However it is worth considering how much additional impact you can get from your marketing investment by promoting your business at times when the traffic flow is up and consumers are interested.
Determine your strongest target market for the Christmas trading period and what unique offers you hold for them. Remember that it is not all about products. Many customers are motivated by convenience and service at Christmas - two considerations that cost you no more.
Regardless of the stresses of Christmas trade, you should aim to make every customer relaxed and happy shopping in your store. Don't underestimate a team of well trained and supported sales people who genuinely enjoy the buzz of Christmas. They are your best in-store marketing tool.
Consider as many cost effective ways as possible to market your retail business. Plan to leverage from the marketing activities of others such as centre management or co-promote with other retailers.
Often your shopping centre or strip will promote the collective benefits of retailers in the area. Meet with your centre marketing team well in advance to identify what media they are using to drive traffic to the area and how you can co-promote your business. The following are some of the options available:
- Retail coupon booklets.
- Collective advertising and promotions.
- Voice overs.
- VIP campaigns.
- Website promotions.
- In centre giveaways.
- Community events.
Also, remember that your store front, windows and promotional displays are your best prepaid media. You already own the space and the product. It is what you do with it that will determine if customers are drawn out of the masses and into your store.
Most importantly you need to ensure that your investment into Christmas marketing is cost effective and reaches the people you want. Target loyal customers and give them a reason to return to your business. They are your staple income. Additionally, identify new markets and how you are going to communicate with them.
Develop a promotional calendar for your business and budget for the peak Christmas trade. Don't miss out on opportunities because you have not budgeted or organised any promotional activities. This is the time to capitalise when there is increased buying power.
Here are some other promotional activities to bear in mind:
- Advertising in newspapers, magazines or on the radio.
- In house promotions.
- VIP nights for your loyal customers.
- Special offers for" limited time only".
The key to a smooth Christmas trading period is effective planning. Do your budgets, work out who you want to employ and what you need from them, contact suppliers, plan your store layout calendar and come up with a marketing strategy. If you leave things until December, you cannot realistically maximise your business's potential.
