Retail store owners often find it challenging to maintain a stable, productive workforce. Who doesn’t want their staff to be happy and content with their jobs? After all, it’s a proven fact that happy employees create happy customers! Here are 10 tips that you can start using today to keep your employees happy:

1. Link pay with performance

If you’re not doing so already, link your employee’s pay to their job performance- especially for your sales team and other customer-facing roles. A commission-based compensation structure can really motivate your top performers. If your employees are feeling like they’re not growing with the store, it might be because they are failing to see the link between how they sell and what the customer experiences. It is important to clearly communicate what is expected of them and what they can do to become a high performer.

Also, make sure to set S.M.A.R.T. goals for your workers:

• Specific – Create clearly defined goals by answering the 5 W’s – Who, What, When, Where, & Why.
• Measurable – While setting goals, make sure you address how you can actually tell if the goal has been achieved.
• Achievable – The goals you set for your employees should be attainable and shouldn’t feel unrealistic. Start by putting yourself in your employees’ shoes and asking, “how can I accomplish this goal?” “Is this even possibly to achieve?”
• Relevant – Your employees should be able to identify themselves with their goals and see the meaning in achieving it. In other words, they should want to achieve it. This will motivate them even more to work towards that particular goal.
• Time-bound – A goal bound by a deadline works best: Throw in a sense of urgency and see the employee performance boost.

2. Train them well

In a world facing high attrition levels; hiring, onboarding and training employees is as indispensable as ensuring excellent customer service. Training them on necessary skills not only ensures quality service in your store, but also makes employees more confident in their daily operations. Taking employee onboarding training seriously is the first step in your retention strategy, says Axonify, a company dedicated to corporate education.

3. Give them incentives

Apart from a competitive salary, consider throwing in incentives like flexible work hours, annual paid leaves, free lunch, gym membership, company parties and so on.

4. Work-life balance

Realize that your staff also have lives outside of their jobs. Having flexible policies including a liberal leave policy, annual vacations, and paid leaves for health-related issues are some easy ways for ensuring high levels of motivation among your staff.

5. Have an employee handbook

Create a document that answers most of the common questions about the role and the company. Give this to new hires on their first day so that they feel comfortable and no out of place when working. This company “handbook” should reflect the culture of your business and should ideally include the vision, mission and history of your business along with a code of conduct, FAQs, and details on bonuses or any other remuneration plans.

6. Set expectations while filling vacant jobs

Use job descriptions to clear expectations for both the employer and the employee. This is a great way for laying everything down on the table. A clearly defined job description lets prospective employees know what they’re getting themselves into, minimizing the chance of any arguments later on.

7. Give liberal employee discounts

Give a fixed quota of cents-off deals to your staff each month to keep them motivated. Give them enough room for discounts so that they can also shop cheaply for their friends and family. This will be a great psychological boost as they’ll get a sense of pride in working at your store.

8. Put a relevant dress code in place

Depending on the kind of industry you are in and your store setting, your dress code can range from designer suiting to street clothes. It’s best to decide on a dress code based on the nature of your business, your brand’s general positioning, and the kind of movements your staff need to make when on the job.

9. Keep cool job titles

Although titles won’t matter much unless you supplement them with an equivalent amount of recognition in the form of increased responsibility and remuneration; they can contribute a great deal in shaping the culture at your store, by resonating closely with the job description. Relevant job titles also invoke a sense of confidence in the ability of the person doing the job.

10. Use retail games: where your employees play and you win!

Come up with a retail game that suits your business. WhizBang! provides some great ideas and tips for putting such retail games into practice.

Got an awesome store that your staff just can’t afford to leave? Do let us know how you keep your employees happy.

Image Credits: Racorn/Shutterstock, Ikonoklast Fotografie/Shutterstock, Kekyalyayne/Shutterstock