7 Ways to Improve Employee Performance in Retail
Retail is a highly competitive industry where customer service considered one of the main factors determining the success of companies engaged in the market. In order to survive in the midst of very high competition, retail companies must be able to provide good customer service and meet customer demand. Those are impossible to be done without the hard work of their employees. So, what can a retail company do to motivate their employees to be more productive? Here are some simple things you can do
to improve the performance of your retail employees.
- Provide Regular Training for Your Employees
Staff training is useful for improving the quality of retail employees, especially for those who communicate with customers face-to-face. There have been several problems involving shopkeepers with their customers, and most of these cases happened due to the lack of professionalism while dealing with customers. You certainly don’t want this to happen to your business, right? Therefore, it is important to conduct regular training sessions for all your employees.
2. Use Both Centralized & Decentralized Approaches
Did you know that you don’t have to choose one of these two approaches, but you can implement both at once? You can continue to decentralize by assigning authorities and responsibilities to manager of each division, but then you can also centralize by asking each manager to create periodic reporting and submit it to you. Thus, it will be easier for you to monitor all the business processes as well as any issues faced by each division.
3. Implement Incentives to Motivate Your Employees
To encourage your employees, I recommend that you provide them with various incentive programs. Incentives have been proven to be instant motivators for employees. Have some rational expectations from them and reward them in return. You don’t always have to give them money. You can also reward them with vouchers, additional holidays, special treatment and many more.
4. Conduct Employee Performance Evaluations
Assign your HR manager to periodically conduct employee evaluations, for example twice a year. Through repeated evaluations, HR managers can identify the issues they are facing, areas for improvement, things that motivate them, career opportunities they expect and many more. Allow them to conduct peer and self-assessments as well.
5. Allow Your Employees to Give Honest Feedback
In addition to evaluating employees, you also need to allow your employees to assess your company’s organizational culture. Assign your HR manager to ask some important things to your employees, such as their expectations of the company, whether they have complaints related to HR management, as well as their ideas and suggestions for the development of the company.
6. Don’t Forget to Provide Allowances
Your employees are valuable assets of your company that play an important role in the success of your retail business. Salary is not the only reason that makes them feel at home while working. Give them other benefits such as health and life insurance (having a life insurance is a must for those who work around heavy equipment!) to show your concern for their well-being.
7. Start Investing in Technology
In order to survive in the face of the evolving retail sector and ever-increasing competition, you should not get rid of technology from your daily business operations. You can research your competitors to see how technology plays an important role in increasing the productivity of their employees.
Consider investing in an ERP software built for retail industry that has been widely used by various retail companies that may be your competitors. This software generally consists of various modules designed to simplify retail business processes, including a HR management module, an inventory management module which can be integrated with barcode scanners, a Cloud-based Point of Sale module that speeds up payment transactions and many more.