Build the Team that Builds Your Business

One of the biggest perks missing for most retail and restaurant employees is the opportunity for advancement and recognition. Even part time and younger workers who have no intention of making retail their forever career are well-served by receiving recognition and promotions for a job well done. And selfishly, for your, the business owner, a satisfied and proud employee is better for business.

Good people react favorably to advancement. So how can you easily structure a program that inspires and rewards employees?

Start with a milestone ladder. This is just an example. You can adapt to suit your business and culture.

Apprentice
Junior Associate
Senior Associate
Team Leader
Management

Now, create a set of criteria for each level of advancement. Here are few ideas to get you started. Again, tailor the levels to your own business and the desired behavior you’re trying to elicit from your staff.

Minimum number of hours works to reach the next level
Meeting performance goals (sales, administrative tasks, social media postings)
Positive customer reviews
Increased average sale
Consistency in being on time and not calling out
Preparation for and leading staff training meetings

With each level of achievement, offer the employee a small raise, gift card, a certificate, a staff pizza party or even a name badge with increasing number of stars or new title. What about business cards? We rarely see this but when an associate is able to offer a business card to a customer, it gives that customer a better connection to your business through the employee relationship and builds credibility. I recently ate at a restaurant where the waiter offered his business card and said, “I hope you enjoyed your service. Please request to be seated in my section when you return.” That’s powerful!

Next step is training. Even the best structured reward plan, the most inventive career path or the most enthusiastic motivation won’t give you the desired results unless your employees are well trained. This means you need to go far beyond onboarding. It’s about consistent, meaningful and measurable education.

When your staff is well trained, they perform better. When they perform better, they have greater job satisfaction which ultimately leads to increased tenure. It’s another win-win.

You’ve heard the adage: hire for personality, train for skill. Training can create a significant improvement in staff attitude and performance but only if you believe in it as well. To half-heartedly deploy a program that’s inconsistent and lacks meat, only wastes your time and theirs.

Think it’s too much work? I’m going to give you a 4-time per month sales training program outline right here you can use as the basis of your annual plan. You can probably outline your entire years’ worth of training in about an hour. Figure on four training sessions per month each lasting about 30-45 minutes.

Week One
Sales and customer service training

Choose one micro topic per week, i.e. customer greetings, upselling, asking for emails, active listening, etc. Introduce the topic and processes for how you’d like each addressed. Some weeks, add in a real life scenario and have employees role play the different ways to handle the situation and agree on the best solution for the future so you are all working on a standardized process. Other weeks, host brainstorming sessions and engage the entire staff in creating new ideas, solutions and more efficient procedures for your business.

Week Two
Product knowledge

Choose one line of products or specific menu items and discuss their benefits to your target audience and their advantages over the competitors. Invite vendor sales reps to come in once a month to discuss their product lines and give additional sights into features and benefits. If you are really ambitious, invite your staff on a field trip to competitor stores or restaurants to see the differences for themselves and report back to the group.

Week Three
Team member led discussions

Delegate one session each month to your employees. Supply them with a list of books, online webinars, trade publications or business books. Ask them to present key points at a staff meetins. The purpose of this type of training session is to expose your team to the various aspects of business, including trends, customer acquisition, pricing, marketing, demographics, key metrics, etc. A better knowledge of how business works makes your employees more valuable.

Week Four
Practical tasks

Devote one week each month to the practical aspects of running your business properly and efficiently, for example running the POS, new merchandising ideas, cleanliness, etc. Cover policies like cellphone usage, the importance of honoring schedules and other hot button issues..

A few tips for running great training sessions

Focus on a small tidbit each week, not broad topics

Occasionally offer small rewards for active and enthusiastic participation,
especially for the introduction of actionable new ideas

Be consistent and make participation mandatory

Make it fun!

Explain the “why” behind each topic

Video tape each session for future use and reference

Take it one step further:
Create a list of online courses for extracurricular learning. There are a near infinite number of free webinars on sales, marketing and business, as well as courses on platforms like Udemy.com that start as low as $15. Give team members a list of approved courses and create a reward system for completion.

When employees learn more about your business, they become valuable assets and a productive and knowledgable team will help you build your business.