How to reduce staff turnover in the retail industry

Smart onboarding 

Giving your employee a strong start is key to being able to develop a top performing employee that wants to stick around. A great onboarding experience is one of the main factors why employees most likely will stay three years or longer. A successful onboarding process should only contain the most relevant information the employee needs to be able to start working. You most likely hired your employee because you need them at your store as soon as possible. It’s an effective and smart way for the associate to put their learning into practice almost right away. The information will stick better when putting it into practice and they’ll quickly learn how to act around customers rather than sitting in the lunch room studying papers full of information that most likely won't stick.    

Want to learn more about how to carry out a successful onboarding process? Check out our article: How to onboard and train a new retail employee for your store

Improve your scheduling 

One of the biggest conflicts for retail managers is scheduling. Despite this, many managers tend to have bad foresight when it comes to scheduling and therefore get into conflicts with the employees. Their life doesn't just revolve around work, your associates need to know their working hours a reasonable amount of time before to be able to plan the rest of their life. When last minute changes are made it occurs complications that can make your employee suffer and in the long term they will leave your company. It’s important to have foresight and plan ahead to make sure your employees feel appreciated and that you care about them. 

A great way to set up and keep track of your employees schedules and hours is with help from a workforce management system like TimeplanGo. Stop planning with excel-spreadsheets or handwritten notes. Take your planning to the digital world with TimeplanGo and make your planning process more effective. Our smart, automated scheduling and time reporting solutions minimise your administrative work with 80%. Create a free account here!

Create a healthy workplace environment 

Ensuring employee health is an essential part in any kind of retail company. Make sure that your employees are taking regular breaks, feel good about the job and at work in general. This way you’ll show them that they’re an important part of your retail company’s community and workforce. This will make them feel appreciated and feel like their work and the time and effort they put into it matter. It is important to make sure your employees enjoy their time at work, this is because they will most likely stay for a longer time. 

Boost and reward your employees 

A big factor of reducing employee turnover is by making sure your employees feel confident at work. You can develop their confidence by presenting the information they need to do a great job. This can be done through regular training and communication. Many retail managers tend to overwhelm their employees with loads of information all at once. This way the employee needs to study all the information at once and will therefore most likely forget. Presenting information in small amounts regularly will make them feel less overwhelmed and the information will stick better and make them remember in the long term. 

So look for a training solution that allows your employees to get daily updates and refreshers at work. If your employees use tablets or any other kind of aid, you could use this as the platform where you send out the information. It’s a better option than sending it to their personal cell phones because many retail stores have a policy against using cell phones when working. 

Another important factor is to make sure your employees feel valued. A monthly check up could be a great way of showing it. During this meeting you can check up on them, see how they’re doing and if there’s something bothering them. In that case you can solve the problem together. Another way of recognizing and rewarding your employees could be to offer paid time off or arrange activities that you can do together outside of work. 

Allow employees to grow within the company 

Both you as a retail manager and your employees benefit from setting up clear pathways for the employees to be able to grow within the company. When establishing a career path the employee gets more motivated to do a long-term career at your store and therefore most likely will stay longer and perform well at your retail company. Another way to allow the employees to grow could be to set them up with a mentor that can guide them and help them improve their knowledge and skills on the floor. 

A lot of people that work in the retail industry like a stimulating, fast paced tempo and love engaging socially. So take advantage of that energy and encourage them to take on new challenges. When your staff performs high, it benefits both you and the employee. The employee gets rewarded through for example: higher salary and you get rewarded because the employee contributes to, for example: satisfied and happy customers. 

By applying these small changes in your retail company you’ll most likely reduce your staff turnover and keep your employees within the company longer.