Employee Training
It is sometimes hard to find good employees that will committ to a long term position in retail. We found that alot when we first started our botuique in La Jolla, CA. After extensive research and also having had experience hiring and training college kids, I found out a thing or two to keep them motivated to stay, and to sell.
As I often share with my consulting clients, young employees (i.e. college kids) often have a LOT of energy and charm; this is great for retail stores. Offering incentives or commission is a good way to keep them motivated. Also, getting them involved in some of your marketing or product merchandising gets them feeling like they are actually contributing to the overall business (and they are! How’s that for win-win?)
As an example, I usually give each employee a “turn” to do the main window display once a month. I give them total flexibility to do whatever they want with it. Most of them are so creative that I am happy with their performance virtually every time. But more importantly, to them, it’s a chance to show their creative side and take an active role in building our business (notice the word “our” and not “mine”…) That’s because I always emphasize to my employees that we are a team, and we can all benefit from having a truly successful business. Basically, it creates a kind of “pride of ownership”, and with compensation that is, at least partially, tied to performance as mentioned above, each employee arguably does “own” a partial share in the business.
Questions? Comments? Please feel free to express yourself by adding a comment.