FINDING VS DEVELOPING GREAT LEADERS
In our experience, the most important role in any retail business is the store manager. If you look at your top-performing stores, we’d bet that the store manager is a great leader. And likewise for those stores not performing. More often than not, the store manager is lacking either the skill or will (or sometimes both) required to lead the team.
So what happens when, in an impossibly tough recruitment market, you can’t find great leaders for your stores?? Since the pandemic, it’s been harder than ever to find great people.
The recent ABS quarterly Job Vacancies survey showed that at the end of May, there were 40,300 job vacancies in retail across Australia. This is a huge increase from 24,900 just prior to the pandemic in Feb 2020. And more than 10,000 of these vacancies are for store manager roles.
It’s no wonder things feel tough right now. And until the labour crisis starts to improve, retailers are forced to think outside the box to find great store managers to lead their stores. And when they can’t find them, they need to develop them.
Here our top tips to help you navigate this challenging time:
Focus on retaining and developing your current team.
One of the best ways to retain your retail stars is to make them feel valued and work with them to develop the skills they need to progress their careers. Right now, this is a must for your managers.
Think about your broader team too. Identify your best sales team members (including your casuals) and talk to them about taking on more responsibilities, starting now. If someone has the right attitude (will) then you can teach them how to manage and lead the team. This might be the perfect opportunity to look internally for your future leaders.
Our leadership series is ideal for current and emerging retail leaders, focusing on building practical skills across the 10 most requested areas of learning. This type of learning will help keep your team engaged and ensure they have both the skills and confidence to succeed.
Be proactive in your approach
Don’t wait for a vacancy to start looking for people to join your team. Always be on the lookout for great talent, and build your network so you’ve got people you can reach out to when you have roles available.
Provide flexibility
Since the pandemic, team members across all industries are expecting more flexibility in their roles. Just because retail store managers can’t work from home, it doesn’t mean you can’t offer them flexibility. Work with them to get the balance right and consider trying a new approach to the days/times they are in-store.
It’s easy to think that you’re too busy recruiting to do any of this but if the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that change is necessary and sometimes we are better off for it.