In a series of articles addressing how retailers can help make their businesses more profitable, former retailer and ex-president of retailers’ association Retra, Malcolm Marshall, offers some advice on how to manage staff effectively.

When, as an employer, you ask yourself: “What are the company’s greatest assets and largest liabilities?” I wonder how many of you come up with the answer staff.

Well, in my opinion that is the correct answer. On the one hand they can cause you so many headaches that you sometimes wonder if it is all worthwhile, however, on the other hand they can be worth their weight in gold and which way they happen to be in your business depends a great deal on how they are treated, trained and most importantly managed.

The management of staff is the key to a good business whether you only have a few or employ forty plus. How you handle them is paramount to the success of the company in the long term. If you have a large churn of employees it is bad for morale, consistency and efficiency. The point being if you are always employing new staff, you will always be training them in your ways instead of managing the business, which means other areas will suffer.

CHAIN OF COMMAND

A crucial component to the correct supervision of staff is the right chain of command, where the management roles are properly defined and clearly laid out so there is no confusion. Communication needs to be first class and both ways. Staff need and in fact enjoy a disciplined environment, like most human beings they need to know the rules they have to adhere to. If not, they will stretch the boundaries.

That is not to say that you have to rule with an iron rod, it just means staff need to know what is expected of them and what will not be tolerated. If these guidelines are set out clearly and then managed in the correct manner, you will get so much more from your staff than if they are not. Good people management in both small and large companies alike cannot be stressed enough. It is a precursor to good morale and eventually good productivity, resulting in better bottom line profit.

People need to be appreciated and respected if they are doing a good job. It is not all about money. Yes, of course, wages are important and everyone wants to earn more, however we all need some encouragement from time to time.

It increases productivity and creates good morale, employees spend a great deal of their waking hours at work and if they are not happy for any reason, you will not get the best out of them. The resultant damage of unhappy and unmotivated staff will be fewer sales and ultimately less profit, which unfortunately takes time to manifest itself.

I feel staff involvement in the running of the business is so important, now this does not mean you are handing over control to your employees.

However, asking their advice and listening to their point of view never cost anyone anything and on many occasions has proved invaluable.

REGULAR STAFF MEETINGS

One way of achieving this is to hold regular full staff meetings, where all employees can get involved. This is not as easy as it sounds, as you will find at first that people are very reticent at coming forward and speaking.

You know the types that are always moaning in the staff room about everything, well they will be the ones that will not say a word. Over time, though, if the meetings are regular and interesting, you will find more and more staff become involved.

Don’t worry, at the end of the day it is your business and if you do not like the input, you do not have to adopt it. What I will say is I would be very surprised if, after six or so meetings, you have not had some good feedback from your staff that will improve how the company runs.

At the end of the day, we are in a people industry, where people sell to people, so our staff need to be happy and contented in their work which in turn they will convey to prospective purchasers.

So my advice is to make sure you are captaining a happy ship – the benefits are immense and believe me you will see the results in your sales figures.