Staffing Your Retail Store - Staff Roles and Responsibilities

Looking to staff your retail store the right way? You are at the right place! We have compiled this guide so that you can make your staffing decisions easily.

Your team and leadership can make all the difference in making your business a success. Not only do your employees represent your brand and provide customer service, but they also play a vital role in the day-to-day operations of your store.

When deciding to hire, you need to determine which positions you will be offering at your fitness retail store. The positions and responsibilities will be according to your business needs.

Retail Store Staff Roles

Staffing a retail store may sound easy but if you don’t have any guidelines laid out or if your guidelines are constantly changing it may become a hectic process. If you have a streamlined process for finding and hiring your new employees it will make the process less stressful and faster.

Following are some retail store staff roles and the skills required for those roles. But do note that not all of these positions may be required at your retail store, you need to decide which positions you require for your store.

Staff Manager

A staff manager will be responsible for hiring, training, and retaining employees. They are also responsible for evaluating the performance of the employees and firing or promoting the employees based on their performance statistics.

Your staff manager should be skilled in managing the employees of your store. They should be someone who knows how to effectively manage a team or multiple teams within a company or store. 

Skills of a staff manager

• Great communication skills
• Organizational skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Team Management skills
• Decision-making skills

Store Manager

You have started your retail business and have hired a few employees who are handling a variety of tasks at your store. It might be difficult for you to keep up with the day-to-day reporting of all of your employees with the overall operations, that is when you need to hire a store manager.

A store manager has many responsibilities such as maintaining day-to-day tasks, training new employees, managing and maintaining employee schedules, and marketing your store. Your store manager might also need to keep a check on your payroll, budgeting, and customer assistance.

Skills of a store manager

• Excellent Leadership and problem-solving skills
• Great customer service skills
• Experience leading a team
• Understanding of firms’ sales, promotions, and trends

Sales Associate

A sales associate might be necessary for your store as they can help customers who need to find specific products. Sales associates can help your customers navigate their way around the store and can answer any questions they might have regarding the products at your store. This way sales associate help in increasing your sales.

Skills of a sales associate

• Excellent communication skills
• Problem-solving skills
• Conflict resolution skills
• Organizational skills
• A quick learner and adaptability skills

Cashier

If you are experiencing an influx of customers then it might be a good idea to hire a cashier who can manage the everyday transactions. Not only are they responsible for processing purchases and transactions, but they also assist customers with returns and exchanges and promote any add-ons that the store may be promoting.

Skills of a cashier

• Experience with a POS system
• Organizational skills
• Conflict-resolution skills
• Basic mathematics and financial knowledge
• Excellent customer service skills

Inventory Control Specialist

An inventory control specialist can be a great addition to your retail team in case if you don’t have an inventory management system for your business. You should hire an inventory control specialist when are scaling your retail business.

The inventory control specialist is required to track and maintain your inventory, prevent loss, keep a check on the demand, quantity, and ensure that the products received by the company are according to the standards of the company.

Skills of an Inventory control specialist

• Experience controlling inventory within a retail setting
• Ability to increase or maintain the company’s profits
• Proven experience creating, analyzing, and maintaining
• Ability to think analytically and strategically

Related Articles: Tips To Hire New Employees Efficiently For Your Retail Store

Retail Staff Average Salaries

Finding the right people

Finding the right people for the job is not as easy as it may seem. You need to consider a lot of things as well as secure the ones that best fit your job description. You need to clarify your job requirements in the ads that you will create. You need to clearly state the following in your job ad:

• Brief introduction about the company
• Qualifications and skills required
• Responsibilities and Duties
• Attitude and personality that will suit the job

Once you are sure that you have everything clearly stated in your job ad you need to get it to the right people. You can either put up flyers in and outside your retail store or you can utilize social media for getting the word out about job offers at your store. The better option is that you utilize social media as it has a far and wide reach.

The recruitment process

Once you have placed your ads you will start getting CVs from candidates and from those you can shortlist and create a pool of candidates whom you will call for the initial interview. Once you have conducted the initial interview on the telephone you can further narrow down your candidates to the ones that seem like the best fit for the position.

Now you just need to conduct one last interview face-to-face with your candidates and finalize the candidate who is best suited for the position and your company. There are certain personality traits you might need to look out for while finalizing your employees, following are some of the personality traits:

• Team player
• Excellent customer service skills
• Committed to work
• Quick learner
• Empathic and Friendly

Importance of effective training

Once you have hired your employees you need to provide them with basic training. Training not only helps in providing a guideline for your employees, but it also helps you as an employer see whether your employee can perform the basic tasks or not.

Training focuses on the behaviours that will increase sales and provide customers with the best experience at your store. You can provide your employees with training on customer service, product knowledge, and safety instructions. Training is great for employees as it builds and polishes their character and attitude as well.

Staffing is an ongoing process. The process of recruiting, training and retaining your employees will continue as long as your business is running. So the best way to invest in your business is by investing in a great team and training them according to your business needs.

Related Articles: Tips To Retain Top Talent Amidst Rising Competition In The Industry

Takeaway

Having a clear understanding of the different staff roles and responsibilities in your retail store will help you ensure that you have the right team in place to provide excellent customer service and keep your business running smoothly. With the right people on board, your store can thrive and reach its full potential.