From the smiling sales assistant who upsells a storm to the tech savvy team player who can translate EPoS data – how can retailers ensure that their top staff stay loyal?
By Sarah Britton
Nobody feels welcome in a store where staff are more interested in Snapchat than serving customers but finding employees who are truly driven to do a good job and bring that extra zing to the workplace is proving a major headache for many retailers.
Recruiting and retaining the right people is one of retail’s toughest challenges, according to Jamie Woods, Company Director at St Michael’s Services in Dumfries. “Since Covid, I’m not sure what’s happened, but it’s getting more and more difficult to find people who are willing and wanting to work, so that is often the challenge,” he says. “Everybody that I speak to, that’s pretty much always the first thing that they’ll say is trying to get and keep good staff has become a real problem.”
Jay Javid of Glasgow-based PGNJ Group is also struggling to find and retain promising employees. “Staffing has been our biggest headache, it’s been a nightmare,” he says. “We went down the international student route. Normally they’re loyal for four years while studying, but in the last cycle a lot more have left. Thirty per cent of our staff have been replaced in the last 12 months by local people.”
Determined to ensure he finds and retains the best candidates, Jay has changed tack. “We’re working hard to get the right people,” he says. “Up until last year we did nothing for staff. We always gave more than minimum wage, but nothing else. Now we’ve found staff are looking for more.”
Career progression
Offering people the opportunity to develop their skills is vital, says Amanda Speirs, Store Manager at Premier Girvan in Ayrshire. “We really try and keep a hold of our good team members as much as we can,” she says. “It’s difficult as an independent retailer because we can only offer so much progression. The opportunities are narrower in a small store, but not unachievable. We encourage people to develop with Team Leader and Assistant Manager roles.
“We’ve got a staff member training at the minute who came from Asda in town. He started as an Assistant and he is now training to be a Team Leader.”
Dan Brown, MD at Pinkie Farm in Musselburgh, claims that the opportunity to make more decisions at independent outlets can be a big draw for experienced supermarket staff looking for the next challenge. “If we see someone really standing out in another business, I’m never too shy to ask them if they’re interested in joining us. We had someone come over recently from Co-op. I’m not telling everyone to go and poach all the time, but I do feel a lot of chains are pushing people to their limits and taking the decision making and fun out of it.”
Amanda claims that encouraging her team to understand the bigger picture can build loyalty. “Involve them in the store – let them know how the store’s performing first of all,” she says. “They’re a part of the team that makes that happen – we share our successes and ask for ideas and opinions: ‘What can we do for charity? How can we get involved in the community?’ We have staff meetings, management meetings, group chats, and brainstorming sessions that are positive and engage the team. All that helps to have a good environment. Also having a manager visible on the shopfloor makes a difference – we all muck in and get the job done.”
Specialised skills
Amanda is always keen to build on staff members’ natural talents. “Lynsey is absolutely our community champion. She’s a Team Leader and has good links in the community and she loves doing it.
“You play to people’s strengths and encourage that. Otherwise, people can get bored and then they’ll look for something else because they’re not being challenged or finding the job interesting anymore.”
Dan takes a similar approach. “When I first started, I tried to do everything myself, but now I give staff added responsibilities. In a lot of chains things are process driven, with no decisions. We try to give people projects and autonomy over how the business is run.”
He explains that staff member Tracy is his go-to for community initiatives as she really enjoys them, whereas her co-worker David likes photography and graphics, so he looks after the store’s social media and marketing.
“The kitchen is always a good one as well for people who like their food, so we can give them quite specific training that they can use in the shop,” says Dan. “But also, if it’s a stepping stone for them to do bigger and better things that’s okay too. If they choose to stay, then great, but if not then that’s okay.”
Even when people leave, Dan finds that this can lead to positives for the store. “We get a lot of staff referrals from people coming from other businesses – staff have recommended us to people because we’re supportive.”
Keith Fernie, MD at David’s Kitchen, tells SLR how one team member worked their way through the ranks whilst at college and then left the store, but was soon in contact to ask if her brother could work at the store while he was studying.
The company has developed a strong ethos of hiring members of the same family, which leads to a constant stream of the next generation looking to join the business.
“In the past, people were against employing family members and families working together, but we found that works for us,” says Keith. “We’re owned by the Sands family, and we’re run by myself and my sister-in-law, Diane, and my son Kyle runs a store. My wife, Claire, also works in the business. We’ve got sisters working together, we’ve got a father and son working together, and we’ve got a mother and son at another store as the supervisor and the cook, so that helps create a strong team.”
He claims that being respectful, appreciative and adaptable makes all the difference. Team members are regularly praised on the store’s social media platforms, and kindness is key. “We keep people by treating them how we want to be treated ourselves, that’s the simplicity of it,” he says. “We genuinely try to help people. We’ve been flexible and that in turn gets you the flexibility and it’s generally reciprocated.”
Dan also celebrates staff achievements on social media and tries to accommodate staff requests where possible. “One of the things we’ve done more recently is to offer flexible working hours,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to standardise it, but by putting in the extra effort, we’ve found they’ve been quite grateful for it.”
Money talks
Flexible hours are certainly appealing, but, of course, money is still a major factor. “If I can see someone that can really bring something to the business, I would never let them walk away because of a basic wage,” says Dan. “The people that really go above and beyond and bring more value than just sales – they bring the whole team up as well – it’s worth bringing that person in. If you see someone who has a real talent, you should be willing to pay for that regardless.”
Jamie feels that paying above minimum wage aids loyalty. “We’ve always paid a good bit more than minimum wage,” he says. “When we get good staff, we try to look after them and keep them, so hence we pay them a bit more than a lot of places.”
At David’s Kitchen, the food-to-go workers are paid above minimum wage. “We found food to go is a very busy, hard pace, it’s a catering environment,” he says. “We pay them a little extra because of the stress and the pressure of the position. That decision was made to keep staff on, as well as to attract new staff.”
Perks of the job
Staff at PGNJ are paid above minimum wage, but Jay is keen to explore extra benefits. “People want discounts, free coffee, more perks,” he says. “[Company Director] Stephen is working with a consultancy – to look at incentives to encourage loyalty. We’re looking at a loyalty package, rather than a one-off now and again. A lot of international students wanted sponsorship which we couldn’t do in the past, because we hadn’t applied for it, but we have now so we can consider it.”
All staff at David’s Kitchen are given a discount on store-made food. “They get half price on anything we make, so all food to go and our own ready meals,” says Keith. “Or if you’re having a party, your buffet is half price.”
In addition, everyone gets a birthday card and a voucher for the store’s afternoon tea and at Christmas, staff receive cards with store vouchers, which are dependent on their length of service.
Pinkie Farm staff receive plenty of perks too. “We do a hefty staff discount – 10% off the whole store and 40% off all our food counter things,” says Dan. “We also have decent staff nights out and treat them well at Christmas.”
What’s more, staff are given long service awards to recognise loyalty and Dan also takes time to enter them for external awards, such as SLR’s Above and Beyond Awards (see p22 for further info), where they can receive further recognition.
At Premier Girvan, staff are treated to half-price coffees from the Costa machine. In addition, staff are rewarded when they go above the call of duty. “It’s important to recognise and reward staff,” says Amanda. “If someone is going above and beyond what’s asked of them – it’s nice to give them a box of chocolates. I give people a thank you on the group chat and personally for doing a good job, or a small gift.”
Amanda’s efforts appear to have paid off. “The store’s been open for 13 years and we still have some of the original team members here, which is fantastic, as they know the store inside out,” she says.
Having a solid team who can think on their feet is invaluable, adds Dan. “Before, I thought everything could be process driven, rather than having people who think outside the box,” he concedes. “It’s not easy to find them. When you’re starting from scratch, you have to think about how you can make your business more attractive to others. Building a strong team comes over time. It’s easy once you start having good people. The more effort I’ve put into staff, the more I’ve got out of the business.”
Keith agrees: “We all want to keep the team that we’ve got,” he says. “If you can keep staff turnover low, you’ve got a very settled team, which then becomes an experienced team.”
East Lothian-based Dan Brown of Pinkie Farm believes his staff turnover is low because he ensures the store is sufficiently staffed.
“The biggest thing is having enough staff so they’re not feeling under pressure all the time,” he says. “If they always feel they’re massively behind, it brings people down and puts them off. I see more and more people leaving the bigger chains because of that. A lot of stores are expecting a Customer Service Assistant to do what a Manager should be doing. It’s about creating an environment where they aren’t feeling dumped on their own.”
