Many large and impersonal retailers believe that a paycheck is all employees anticipate from their jobs.
Studies validate time and again that employees who feel a connection to the organization will
rise to the challenges we face in tougher times. Smaller retailers can create an engaged work environment where employees feel a greater sense of belonging and obligation to the company and their peers.
This sense of commitment motivates employees to go the extra mile to keep retailers prospering even
when their competitors lose market share. How can we earn top loyalty from our employees? It goes far beyond what we pay them. Consider these best methods to create an engaged environment for your team:
Make employees part of the decision process. Many decisions within the organization may be positively
influenced with meaningful feedback from your team on the sales floor. Their interaction on a day to day basis with customers offers the best source of information in regards to what customers want from your organization.
Solicit opinions and feedback on issues that directly affect employees and their job parameters. Let them feel ownership to decisions made about their schedules, benefits, work shifts etc.
Good work should be recognized and praised. All companies that have a culture of connected employees
formally reward those that excel at their jobs.
Encourage a culture of recognition amongst peers. Create a co-supportive environment where employees
can come forward to praise their own coworkers.
Make sure that decisions made within the organization are promptly shared with the employees. Engaged employees should always be the first to know what is evolving in the company. Often, employees learn from outside sources or read developments in the newspaper about their company and feel demoralized that they weren't informed by their corporate leaders.
Develop well defined career paths for employees from entry level through to senior management. Offer
personal mentoring to all employees on training, personal growth and career timelines.
Offer frequent job rotation schedules whenever possible. This is one of the best strategies to build job enrichment and loyalty. Employees who are exposed to all duties within their level of the company see the big picture and feel a high degree of ownership and engagement.
Continually offer increased responsibility to employees who demonstrate initiative and wish to learn more
about the business.
Offer a feedback program where employees can voice their opinions and concerns and receive formal feedback of the outcomes.
Encourage employees to submit business improvement ideas and reward employees who have offered concepts that were successfully implemented.
Offer profit sharing to employees so that they see a personal link to their success and the company's
growth.
Take Action Today:
1) Review these strategies and implement as many of them that your company can support.
2) Inform employees through formal meetings of your programs and encourage their participation.
3) Make your engaged work environment and its features part of new employee orientation.
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