Your employees are the faces of your business – while your customers may show up to purchase your wares, they will be turned off if staff is inattentive, rude or aloof. In addition to hiring quality candidates for your store floor, you'll need to carry out thorough and regular training to ensure they are giving your shoppers the best care and attention possible. Here are some training tips to keep in mind.
Shadowing at its best
If you are regularly hiring new employees but also have some staff members who have been with you for a while, then you can save time by having your new hires shadow your old pros. Ask some of your most trusted employees to spend a week or two guiding a newer member of the team through daily tasks. Try to align employees who will be taking on some of the same jobs – for example, if you are promoting an employee from cashier to manager, have him or her spend time training the new cashier who will serve as a replacement.
Teach an old employee new tricks
Even if you have employees who have been at your store for several years, it doesn't hurt to give "refresher" training to these more experienced members of your staff. You can use this as an opportunity to provide incentive – if they complete the next round of training, perhaps they will be eligible for a pay raise or promotion.
Pop quiz
One of the most important aspects of training is making sure your employees know your products well. This means that they not only have to know what goods you sell, but also where the items are located so they can quickly direct customers to the appropriate display table, wall display or clothing rack. A fun way to encourage your employees to do their in-store research is to hold competitions to see who can find certain items the fastest.
Don't waste time with unnecessary tasks
Not all employees will be responsible for completing every single task in your store, so make sure you maximize your time by training employees only on those roles that they will fulfill regularly. For example, if you know one of your employees will primarily be reorganizing your gondola shelves, there's no point in training him or her to rearrange adult and child mannequins in your store window, unless you can honestly say he or she will be taking on that task in the future.
