J-months:
ideal time for staff development?
I hope you are all having a busy Independent Retailer Month! Some of you live in areas that are vacation destinations and summers are busy at your shop, but for many the “J”-months are slow. If your employees have down time, it’s a good time to do some sales training or have your staff expand their retail operations skills. This post is filled with ideas for staff development.
Training does not have to be formal or time-consuming to be effective.
Start where they are. Ask your staff about their favorite part of working in retail and/or what they would like to learn. This post offers specific sales training ideas and inspiration questions that will help you determine where your employees’ talents and interests lie.
Do you have a creative employee who might enjoy building props or creating displays? (Assign them a rack, shelf area, a mannequin or display table to merchandise.)
Do you have an employee with organizational skills who may enjoy planning upcoming store events? (Ideas for Small Business Saturday, a Holiday Open House, a book signing, a workshop etc.)
Would they like to work on your website? (SEO, uploading products, creating a page for reviews, employee profiles, staff picks)
Do you have someone who is savvy with social media? Perhaps you can hand-off some of those duties. (Have them create a video store tour, mannequin styling reels or staff picks posts.)
Would they enjoy learning about shipping, receiving and inventory control?
Do you have an employee with nice penmanship? Have them craft some thank-you note cards or “thinking-of-you” customer messages to sign and send.