RETENTION How to keep hold of your staff

Jasper Hart talks to retailers about how respect and development opportunities are helping them retain staff

Amid all the discussion about the best ways for retailers to keep costs down, the impact of staff turnover on a business’ bottom line is an under-discussed factor. According to a presentation from Mondelez International’s communications manager, Susan Nash, at the recent Independent Achievers Academy (IAA) Learning & Development Festival, finding a new hire currently takes 40 days on average, and can cost a business 25% of an annual salary, before considering the hidden costs of disruption caused by a departing employee’s absence.

“Staff are the heart of all retail businesses, and finding and retaining the right people is critical for the success of each store,” says Garry Craft, managing director (convenience stores) for workforce management software S4labour. “Not only in terms of onboarding and training costs, but particularly when it comes to staff morale, productivity and knowledge, as these are the biggest drivers of profitability.”

Convenience stores are naturally going to struggle to compete with multiple competitors when it comes to matters of pay and, depending on the number of employees, flexibility of hours and holiday. “Hanging onto the people you have has become my focus,” says Sue Nithyanandan, of Costcutter Epsom in Surrey.

“Keeping the good staff and making sure we try and give them the best working environment and support. As small businesses, we have to be fine-tuned and we don’t have a huge bank of people to step in.”

Despite the competition posed by the larger grocers, a convenience store’s position as an independent business can work in its favour, as retailers can offer staff the chance to contribute directly to their success. This can have a positive effect on pay as the business grows due to proactive staff and management, but Craft says this should be a secondary aim to personal and professional fulfilment.

“In the short term, staff reward systems work well as an incentive –for example, running friendly sales competitions,” he says. “But real staff motivation and engagement that will drive retention is not necessarily financially motivated. How staff feel at work, how they feel they are being treated and the satisfaction they get from the job are all real long-term drivers of retention.

“Running incentives and increasing pay helps to a certain extent, but retailers need to be looking beyond that, to offering a fair, flexible, transparent and engaging place to work.”

Listen And Learn

Offering chances to develop and upskill your staff is a key way of making your store feel like such a place. “Running a business that offers training is key to retention. Whether that means teaching them new areas of the business or devel-