Staffing at the weekend - how do you manage this?

It's another weekend in retail and it's a story of work for some full-timers, some part-timers and weekend staff. I've worked in retail and with retailers for a long time, so I've seen the staffing at the weekend dealt with in a host of different ways. I'll look at some below-

Weekend-only staff

There have always been weekend-only staff in retail situations. Often school, college or university students that are looking for a little extra money or (mainly) women whose husbands work during the week. There are benefits to this, mainly that you can give your week team a good rest, keep them happy and more likely to stay. However the lack if experience that the non-full-time staff have can sometimes be a barrier to great customer service and high standards. But that's where you come in as a manager. If you ensure that as many hands and as many tasks as possible are customer-facing on the busy weekend trade days, then you minimise the need for staff that aren't in the building as long to carry out what are perhaps the more complex tasks.

In addition to this, it's a case if ensuring that your own workload is majorly focused on customers at this time, so you are there as a guide and influence to your team, as I spoke about in the blog below-

http://mytimeinretail.blogspot.com/2015/02/be-on-shop-floor-and-connect-with-your.html

Full-timers working every weekend

I have worked with retailers that do this, and there isn't really as much long-term objection to this as you might think. If you set up the store or vacancy in the basis that this will happen then there isn't a change to cope with. If a full-time member of staff has two days off during the week and works the weekend or a day off in the week and works one if the weekend days then they soon get into a routine and it isn't a problem. Upsides include a continuity in staffing as the busy days will have your more experienced team members. A possible downside is that your team members may (and I mean only may) look elsewhere to employers that don't currently require their team to work at the weekend. Although it's usually not an issue, there is still the stigma attached to working at the weekend and some may want to look at alternatives even if when they sit down and look at it, there isn't an issue that affects their life that much.

A mix -weekend in, weekend off

I've recently seen a rise in the alternate weekend rota as a way of covering staffing, where there is half of your regular weekday team in on one weekend and the other half in on the alternate weekend. This gives a good balance of both worlds, so you have some experienced team members alongside the weekend-only team and it gives everyone the opportunity of every other weekend off. I personally like this idea, as it gives people a weekend off but also gives them time to get things arranged in the week on the alternate week. If you're full-time then it can be a struggle to arrange doctors, dentists, hospital appointments without disruption to your normal working hours. This arrangement can be better for employees and employer.

Teams take on the characteristics of their leaders

I was watching the Champions League football last night between Chelsea and Paris Saint Germain with great interest. Although I'm a football fan, it was the interaction between the two teams and their treatment of each other and the referee that caught my eye. Chelsea were harassing and cajoling, they complained in unison at any minor indiscretion, they were up-in-arms at the slightest foul on their player whilst pushing and mouthing off at their opponents. It was a horrible right and a really bad advert for football, Chelsea and the Champions League.

In short, the Chelsea team took on the characteristics and manner of their manager, Jose Mourinho. He is a manager of some repute, although there are mixed feelings in the game about how positive an influence he is. Mourinho speaks after matches and blames opposing players, referees, linesmen, the referrers association, the football association. He really doesn't like losing, but rather than this becoming an obsession to win next time, it turns sour and accusational.

Mourinho himself started on the back room staff of Sir Bobby Robson, who's teams were passionate, good-natured and driven to win by trying their best.

All teams inherit the characteristics of their leaders if they stay together long enough. And I say leaders rather than managers because different teams have different dynamics, so the leaders are not always the managers.

Think about how you want your team to be, if you are a leader. And to determine how your team are, you need to look at how you are. If you display all the characteristics that you desire from your team, and train, mentor and manage your team in that way then it's inevitable that they will turn out in many ways like you.

Is this all good?

I remember back when I was managing when I was younger, I was often paired up with an assistant manager who was older than me, female and a different style if manager to me. This have a balanced management team that did different things well. In your team, you will want people that have the same goals as you and that you can work with but you will also want a mix of skills. Having people that are great at different things is a really good balance to have in any organisation. Getting there can sometimes be a journey. It's a case of fully establishing what you want when you start the recruitment process. For different roles, you will need not only different experience or qualifications but different characters and characteristics. Set out person specifications as well as job requirements when you recruit and you can start to build the team that you want and need to succeed.

Think about it!

E-Receipts are here!

And what a great way to collect email addresses and communicate with your customers. I've just shopped in Cotswold Outdoors, a first for me, and when I was asked if I wanted to sign up for their loyalty card, one of the benefits stated was that I would receive e-receipts. Now I've never seen it as a benefit before, but having access to an account that can provide proof of purchase for any items you buy from that store is a great selling point to a customer to take away the hassle of storing and accessing receipts.

From the point of view of the retailer, you immediately gather your customers email address, which I know some customers can be reluctant to give. It allows you to feed them more information than just the e-receipt, such as -

* Here's how much you've saved with us this month/year by using your loyalty card

* Thanks for shopping with us today, by way of thanks, here's a voucher for 10% off your next visit. To make it easier we've already pre-loaded this discount in to your card

* Thanks for stopping by today, we wanted to tell you that our sale starts next week with up to 50% off sale items

It's the last one that got me thinking. Boots used to have machines in store where customers put in their loyalty card and browsed for any relevant vouchers. What if you had something similar, where it triggered an email if you went into store but didn't buy. Something like-

We noticed you came into store tad but didn't buy anything. Just to remind you that if you can't find an item in store, you can order it online and have it delivered to store or your home the next day.

Have you downloaded our app? It makes shopping on the go easy, and the app stores all your e-receipts.

Did you buy something in store today? Forgot to produce your loyalty card? Don't worry, come back in within 7 days with your card and the receipt and we'll add the points in for you.

I think that little differences will make some retailers more successful than others. If you can use these little tools to drive customers to your door then you will win.



Not everything can be bought on the High Street