There is one big saying in the world of retail business. ‘You must keep growing or you will die.’ But grow too fast and you may also find yourself on the fast track to the retail graveyard as well. Becoming a victim of your own success.
What will happen if you are not constantly looking out for the problems that may occur? Ones that will come your way when you are riding on your highway of success. Typically, the growth challenges relate to outgrowing your infrastructure. Losing your talented workforce, or maybe stretching your human resources too thin. Thus, attracting new competitors and having an exhausted customer service.
HR has always played a vital part in the success of any retail business. For many years, yes, HR best practices have been controversial and remained a hot topic. Discussed among many growing retail businesses
Practices to Serve Your Retail Needs
HR best practices must only serve your current needs and objectives. So, your department’s best practices should always be reexamined and reevaluated.
At Whitehawk Associates we use workflows to connect, collaborate, and complete all tasks. We use easy-to-update workflows. These can be used by anyone in your company. This way they always remain current. A kind of living process. One that changes, evolves and grows alongside your human resource management in retail industry.
Change & Adapt
In the 21st century, many retail companies must understand and adapt their employees. Making them more efficient. The Deloitte Changing Times, Changing Roles report sums up the key concerns. It talks about how the role of hr in retail history has changed when it comes to the hiring of skilled talent.
Now the problems occur when the human resources in retail industry need to know, how to actually keep this talent? While still motivating all the other employees and staff from their successful retail company.
Before we get into the specifics, here is a glimpse of how the effects and results of human resource management in retail industry has helped it grow. At a staggering $450 billion, it contributes an average of 39% to the national GDP of most industrialized nations. The retail sector employs 36% of the total national workforce. Being a country’s second-largest employer after agriculture.
Organized retail, is about 17% of the total. This is expanding at roughly 20% per year. Compared with traditional retailers where growth is staggered at 7%. This growth is thanks to large-format retail outlets and shopping malls.
Such hot growth has meant there is a huge shortage of skilled manpower.
Strategists believe the attrition level in the retail sector will be around 60-70%. Even higher in some cases.
This becomes even more confusing when you consider just how the majority of the workforce is deployed. In most cases, 80-90% of their staff are doing front-end jobs.
The majority of front-end jobs are where consumers interact with the brand.
This is where the Whitehawk Associates importance of hrm in retailing training front-end staff comes in. Helping them to understand the consumer needs and how to address them.
Training Money up in Smoke
The retail business is known as a thin margin business. Especially compared with other service industries. Ones in which the rewards and dividends can be much higher. So, the task of retaining key talents becomes all the more difficult.
Experts say most of the attrition happens in the first year when the bulk of the training is imparted. This means a lot of training money simply goes up in smoke.
The task of attracting the best people and keeping them happy is big enough to keep every HRs head awake at night. Of course, Whitehawk Associates has got this completely covered for you. Reacting fast, taking away this headache.
Our highly skilled team has a tried and tested formula for hr practices in retail industry training of success. This will keep your valued workforce, happy, content, customer orientated, and fully up to speed.
Planning is key
By now you will understand. There are many challenges and there is no one-size-fits-all formula for success. A lot depends on how your retail human resource picks up the all-important warning signs.
Don’t wait too late, then have to start plugging the holes after things begin to fall apart. We will help you plan ahead. At WHA we understand the foreseeable problems. Helping your enterprise and business tackle them before they even happen.
Human Resources Best Practices Checklist
- Hire permanent staff rather than temporary staff
- Hire a wider gender and ethnicity diversity for your talented retail workforce.
- Incorporate flexible working hours to co-inside with peak season opening hours.
- Develop alternative formats, including online, and direct selling.
- Create appealing compensation structures to incentivize your employees.
- Identify high potential performers and invest in their development.
- Design well-thought-out training initiatives and platforms that cater to specific requirements.
- Focus on internal upward movement and cross-functional moves to ensure talented staff retention
- Design career plans for key performers.
Conclusion
Let Whitehawk Associates set in motion your human resource management in retailing. Then by following these principles, you could see higher employee preservation and a happier workforce.
Watch as they grow. Contributing to your corporation’s success. And see how they become the highlight of your retail business.
All this when your human resource management in retail industry simply implements flexibility and training with its valued talented staff and workforce.
Who knows, with the help from Whitehawk Associates, your retail enterprise or business may even end up on the front cover of Fortune magazine. Maybe as one of next year’s best global top 100 Companies to Work For.
Now that certainly won’t do your retail business any harm, will it?