If you want to increase business in your retail store, then encouraging floor staff productivity is a must. Your employees are the face of your store so it’s essential to find ways to motivate them to perform at their highest level.
Surprisingly, this does not necessarily mean you have to pay them more money. Few people will turn down a pay rise, but for most people money only goes so far as a form of long term motivation. This is especially true for millennials, who tend to value the benefits offered by their job as much — or even more than — the salary (which we covered in this blog post, if you’re interested).
Fortunately, there are several small shifts you can make to help your floor staff become more productive at work. Let’s look at four ways to improve floor staff productivity:
1. Encourage autonomy
As much as you dislike having to micromanage your employees, they dislike it even more. There is no quicker way to make employees feel unhappy at work than by micromanaging their every move.
Not only will they have less job satisfaction, micromanaging actually makes employees less productive. It sounds counterintuitive but science backs up this theory.
Research shows that employees who are free to make their own choices at work are not only more productive, they enjoy their job more. For instance, a study on workplace culture found have a greater amount of control over the tasks performed at work resulted in greater workplace satisfaction.
So if you want your employees to do their best work, give them more freedom and autonomy
Employees who are free to make their own choices at work are not only more productive, they enjoy their job more.
2. Provide specific feedback
Many business owners assume that their employees know the work they do is appreciated, so they rarely offer feedback. But if your employees are showing up to work day after day without getting feedback, workplace morale – and productivity – will start to go downhill.
According to a recent study, 8 out of 10 millennials want regular feedback on their workplace performance. By giving employees regular feedback, you acknowledge the effort they are putting in and give them an incentive to work harder.
So make it a point to notice the things your employees do well and then tell them about it. For instance, if you notice that one of your employees is particularly good at handling difficult customers, tell them about it! By appreciating the value they bring to your store they’ll be encouraged to work harder.
8 out of 10 millennials want regular feedback on their workplace performance.
3. Invest in employee training
One of the best ways to increase workplace productivity is by offering your employees further training. This could be something very informal, like having a more experienced sales assistant sharing some of their best practices at the morning meeting.
And it doesn’t necessarily have to be training related to specific business operations either. It could just be an employee development program or an opportunity to attend a trade show or conference.
Showing your employees that you care about their personal development will go a long way to boost workplace productivity. 59% of millennials want opportunities to learn on the job.
4. Play engaging music
There is powerful evidence for the effect of music in relieving stress and anxiety. Furthermore, this study proved how employees (in this case, software developers) were more efficient when they listened to music while they worked. Increasingly, the research is showing that playing the right music at work keeps employees more engaged.
Repeated song tracks is one of the most common complaints from retail floor staff
A great way to provide a unique playlist of music for your employees is by partnering with a provider like Ambie. Our playlists updated automatically to avoid annoying repeat songs – which is a regular compliant from retail floor staff.
Chat to us about how we can boost your staff productivity, and collect your free music sampler.
