The cost of losing an employee is expensive.
Retail is plagued by one of the highest staff turnover rates at well over 60%. If you didn't know, a turnover rate of around 15% is considered to be pretty decent.
But retail is above 60%. This is chaos.
Just as a team gets settled with the new Assistant Manager, the FTE leaves, then another one goes...the morale of the team is in constant turmoil.
Studies show that the cost of losing an employee depends upon their position.
An entry-level employee turnover cost is between 30% and 50% of their annual salary to replace.
A mid-level employee such as your Senior Store Manager - Area Manager turnover costs 150% and above of their annual salary to replace.
A high-level or highly specialised employee such as the Heads of and Directors costs approximately 400% of their annual salary to replace.
For example, an entry-level employee earns £20,000 annually. Hiring a replacement would cost £6,000 – £10,000. That’s one person by the way!
Imagine having multiple employee turnovers across several locations every single week. It could easily cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds for replacement alone.
Staff retention is important to stabilise the team, building trust which then positively contributes to productive in-store rhythms and routines.
Operational mastery.
Customer service mastery and so much more!
When a team is constantly disrupted by the revolving door of employees, no-one thrives and the customer experience is dire
Why your retail teams keep leaving:
1. The pay is awful. Yup, you are cheap and everyone knows it
Now, this doesn't mean you're about to bump the wages up by 20%, but you might want to take a look at current affairs. Have you seen inflation rates recently? The cost of living is eye-watering, especially in cities.
2. Insufficient on-boarding
The first 100 days of employment will determine the longevity and commitment of your newest team member. Get this wrong and you could be parting ways quicker than Britney and her first Husband (55 hours if you didn't know).
3. The Manager sucks
Often, not the Managers fault either. They tend to be great operators, but terrible with people leadership skills. A terrible Manager is costing you so much more than a salary. The level of incompetence demotivates the team, shatters the culture and costs you customers.
4. They are dictated to (instead of consulted with on certain things)
The largest workforce on the plant right now are millennials, like it or not they are here for the foreseeable and will be at the helm of your company one day. They crave to be a part of something meaningful and they want their voices to be heard in the process.
5. Severe lack of training and development
Thrown in at the deep end, dealing with all kinds of unhappy customers, not knowing how to handle each situation and feeling worse as the days pass. Would you put up with this? Training and development is a core fundamental of any role and clue – it never stops.
Or in some cases, it never even started
6. They feel undervalued
Particularly relevant if point 3 above is an issue
7. They are bored or unchallenged
People thrive when they feel alive. When they feel energised and completely aligned to something. You know that energy you can feel at a music festival or your best mates wedding? Everyone is 'in the zone' in celebration, happiness etc.
If a store vibe is off, it is a downward spiral I'm afraid. Frustrated employees encouraging others to be frustrated. It's a nightmare to crawl out of that deep dark hole, believe me.
So what now...?
Retail staff can be the most happiest and productive workforce, I believe it because I've lived it and seen it myself, several times over.
The store conversions are consistently high double digit, the retail standards are immaculate, audits and stocktakes are best in class and the team engagement is like fire. It's blazing and because of this, we attract the best talent.
You start to hire people with strong personal brands who can sell with confidence and grow with your company.
Seems like a way off right?
Nope!
All you need to do is dive-deeper into the above points.
Send out an anonymous survey to ALL of your retail staff or gather a mixture of employees for focus group discussions.
ONLY do this is you are ready to hear the facts and then, you must actually take action to improve the situation.
One of the biggest frustrations of any retail employee is when leadership or corporate bang on about 'the next big thing' and then, fail to deliver. Do you know how disappointing that is?
Be better.
Do better.
Serve your retail employees the way you would want to be served.
They deserve to have a fulfilled and empowered career too.
Want help carving out the best solutions for your brand?
Check out our consulting services.
We can deliver you an epic talk at your kick-off events, create the most magnetic customer experiences or support you in leadership development.
If you are seeing this, right at the end, thank you for reading, I truly appreciate you.