6 Tips to Recruit and Retain Retail Employees

Many retailers are struggling to recruit and retain employees. In the webinar “How to Find, Keep, and Motivate Employees Today” from the Food Marketing Institute, Harold Lloyd, president of H. Lloyds and Associates, Inc., shared tips to make your store appealing to potential and current employees.

Tips for Recruiting Retail Employees 

• Recognize your employees’ morale and overall store culture. Ask current employees to fill out a survey to understand their experiences and opinions. This feedback can help improve your employees’ sense of community.
• When hiring new employees, ask applicants to share how they found out about your store. Use this when hiring to see which channel pulled the most applicants.
• Lloyd states that all great companies spend 40 hours on orientation for each new employee. This provides time for behind-the-scenes and front-of-house training and allows new employees to feel confident afterwards.
• Encourage cross-training in your store. Training your employees across multiple departments is a great resource and will help them find one that they thrive in.

Tips for Retaining Retail Employees 

• Give employees something to look forward to—engagement is key! Have something planned weekly, monthly, and annually for employees to look forward to.
  1. Weekly: Dress down or dress up days, free weekly lunch, treats for sales/promotions.
  2. Monthly: Company T-shirt program, employee of the month, raffles.
  3. Annually: Birthdays, holidays, work anniversaries.
• Create an oasis away from work during employee breaks. Make the breakroom a calming/welcoming environment to help your employees and promote peacefulness.

This article was written by Emily Gamb, Regulatoy Affairs Analyst.