By
Bob Phibbs
As a retail consultant, I'm often asked what is one of the best practices of successful retailers. It's simple.
They get rid of the bad employees sooner. Termination is just part of the retail hiring process.
Employees' first 30 days will be their best, so don't settle...
Your new employee will be at their best during your 30-day probationary period. You must show the new employee then that you inspect what you expect.
If you start out as their friend, you’re sunk.
Your retail management style is on trial here, and they will find out what is acceptable by how consistent you are at enforcing your standards.
If your new employee is late on day two, realize she is testing you. Tell her what your tardy policy is and that if it happens again, she’ll be gone. If she breaks the policy twenty days later, fire her; she won’t magically get better.
That sounds tough, but here's why hiring and firing are so important to your retail business...
Your employees are watching you. If one gets away with it, so will others.
Why else would you let them go during the first 30 days? If they snap at a customer, they are gone immediately. If you find them constantly talking to other employees, distracting them from their work, let them go.
I guarantee it will only worsen if you tolerate any of it during the first 30 days. One bad apple does indeed spoil the barrel.
Make the first month the toughest month in regard to scheduling. They are "low men on the totem pole," so making allowances for their scheduling needs comes after everyone else.
Schedule a new hire’s first shift after they are fully trained for a busy Saturday. You want to see if they come in dragging after a busy night on the town. If they do, they should quickly learn they can’t.
If they do it again, you need to talk. “Have you realized you can’t stay out late the night before and be ready to work at 9 am?” If they do it again, they are gone.
If they call in sick with no replacement lined up - as you taught them - they are also let go.
They scheduled new housekeepers at a hotel on Sundays -the morning after being sold out. Their boss would talk with them if they couldn’t get all their rooms cleaned like the other housekeepers. If the new housekeeper didn’t speed up, they were gone.
At a tire store, the trained new employee started on Monday when all the problems from the weekend needed to be dealt with. Their manager didn't make them the only one dealing with all of the customers, but the manager did need to see if their people skills were great or not.
Don't worry, there are plenty of retail employees who work well with rules, standards, and boundaries. They are the ones who will lead your business to higher sales.
Again, the idea is to get them used to your standards, then everything else will be a breeze.
Yes, it costs a lot to hire and fire an employee, but you have to weigh the cost of losing customers if they stay.
