The hardest thing in the world for most retailers is retaining their staff. With fashion retail retention running at a frightening +75% staff turnover, it must sometimes feel like a thankless task to train and develop your team, only to see them move on and take those skills to a rival competitor.
So, can you stem the tide? And is it even worthwhile trying?
Of course my answer to both of the above is yes – and it is worth remembering that without training and development, how much higher COULD this figure be?
When times are tough, the Training and Development teams CAN be the first to go, however with ‘Retail Week’ reporting that ‘Customer service expectation soar in recession’ and Nicola Harrison reporting that ’The recession has changed consumers’ shopping habits so much that three quarters of shoppers would leave a store without buying if they received poor levels of customer service.’
It seems critical that training your teams to give fantastic service is the base of delivering and meeting your customer’s expectations!
You may ask what retention has to do with training. Well, if you are struggling with a constant stream of exit interviews and recruitment, you may want to find out where you are going wrong!
When you follow the right process with any member of staff, it can be possible to increase retention and alongside that provide a future pool of talented individuals that will grow WITH your business.
So, how do you achieve this? Well, the most important thing to remember is the Induction that any new member of staff receives within your business. This sets the tone of their employment with you and a rushed and hurried introduction can make an employee at best, feel nervous and unprepared and at worst, feel that they may have made the wrong employment choice!
Setting out a clear Training program at this stage with regular performance reviews also goes a long way to making a member of staff feel wanted and that they have a place in your organisation.
So what happens next? This can be when, after a very positive start, things start to go wrong. All too often staff training programs can become a tick box exercise and Managers push people through some of the basics of retail, without ever really checking that they have understood or grasped the skills needed to succeed.
This can also lead to talented, but inexperienced members of your team being underdeveloped and mean that potential Management of the future is left disillusioned and looking for pastures new.
Customer Service is such a critical part of any retail business and I have been surprised over the years, how often staff can fail to make the correlation with the people they serve every day and the money that contributes to paying their wages!
If you can get your staff to understand this and they aim to deliver a better standard of service, you will find yourself in a win / win situation.
Some movement within retail is positive – staff being promoted, for example, should always be viewed as a good thing and no movement at all would be an extremely challenging work force to manage. This is where a strong Succession Plan is key and the clever Managers are usually always looking for the next personal to fill those upcoming and important roles.
When you are looking to fill a ‘sales floor’ position, it can sometimes be seen as less important. I would remind any retailer to take a different view around this. Usually your ‘Sales Assistants’ are the front line personnel and will represent your brand and store to the majority of customers who enter your threshold. Baring this in mind, maybe we should all view these positions as the most significant and strategic of all!
The final caveat I would remind you of, is that if you recruit the right person for the job in the first place, you will have already increased and improved your chance of retention!
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