At first, you may set up your shop and be the sole employee of your own business. But, before long, you will need help. In order to increase your opening hours and to give yourself the chance to work on all the other aspects of running a business, staff are essential. But how do you hire employees for retail and how do you keep them motivated when they have the job?

These are questions that first-time bosses need to know the answers to and this article provides a guide for you. Once you have the right team in place, you will be able to trust them to run the customer-facing aspect of your business when you are out and about.

How to Hire Employees for Retail

Sell the job

If you are looking for shop staff, you need to sell the most interesting parts of the job in the advert. These include greeting your customers, processing sales, dealing with cash and card payments, visual merchandising, dealing with customer support issues and more.

Strong candidates want to feel challenged in their work, so make sure you provide detail on the responsibilities they will have as part of the job. When you hire employees, you want to make sure you get ambitious staff who will give their all for your business and thrive on getting involved with as much of the business as they can.

Shout about your company values

Be completely straight about your company values. If you run an eco-friendly company, for example, you are unlikely to find much common ground with a candidate who was a climate denier. If you make a point of telling jobseekers what you are all about, you stand a better chance of encouraging the sorts of candidates who live those values too.

Hire the attitude

Attitude is hugely important in making sure you hire employees who will help you build your business. If you like how they think and their personal philosophy, that means they will commit to your cause.

Attitude is often more important than skill. It is easier to train someone with the required skills to look after your store than it is to foster the right attitude in someone who doesn’t share your passion.

Take the interview out of the interview room

Tradition says that you interview someone in a room and that’s it. But we don’t have to carry on with traditions if there is a better way. Take a walk around the shop when you hire employees.

It will put the candidates at ease because it is less formal, and you will see more of the real person that way. In addition, you can see how they interact with other people. You can even see how they act around customers as well, which is obviously important for discovering what they will be like whilst at work.

How to Motivate Retail Employees 

Offer that responsibility

When you sell your job on the responsibilities for the new employee, make sure you follow through on that. You hire staff to make your job easier, and this is one way that you can achieve that and motivate your employees at the same time.

Offering the chance for employees to take on additional responsibilities shows them that you have trust in them and their abilities, provides them with a challenge to rise too and keeps them engaged in the job.

It also allows you to free up your time to carry out other, important business tasks.

Recognise good work

Everyone likes a pat on the back every so often and it is these moments of recognition that keep people invested in their work. Think about rewards you could give for meeting targets, hitting goals or just being a positive influence for the shop. 

It could be a financial bonus, a certificate, a cake or anything, but showing your appreciation for an employee’s hard work is incredibly motivating.

Give them a say

When you run a business, it can be difficult to be objective when reviewing your progress and considering where you can improve. Your employees can help with this and encouraging feedback tells them that you value their input.

Ask for feedback and allow them to speak freely without concern for how you will take their responses. It is best that you know what is working and what isn’t and plain speaking is much more helpful than them trying to cushion the blow.

You can also give them input on new product lines and other areas of your work too.

Great Wholesale Opportunity for Retailers

When you hire employees for retail and motivate them accordingly, allowing you time to concentrate on  building your brand, you can see your business grow from strength to strength.

If you are looking out for new lines, Afrotouch Designs has a great wholesale offering of truly vibrant, bold and beautiful stationery, greeting cards and gift items. See our Wholesale page to find out more and to put in an order.