As small business owners, we all know that finding good employees who are the right fit for your supermarket is important. When business owners do find a great team of workers, who are reliable, competent, and deliver great results, hanging onto those employees should be a top priority.
If you’ve found a group of great employees whose work you highly value, and a team you believe will help your supermarket continue to grow and thrive, here are some tips to help you ensure that your best employees stick around.
1. Create a Connection
Workers who feel alienated from their management can easily feel as though they are simply a small part of a constantly moving machine. For a small business such as a supermarket, your effort to connect with your employees can be the difference between them feeling as though they are invisible, and feeling as though the work they are doing is valued.
When employees feel connected to the business on every level, they are more easily able to see how the work they do is directly connected to the continued success of the business. Employees who see the direct value of their own work, be it excellent customer service or even equipment maintenance, are more likely to feel satisfied and proud of the service they provide. This directly results in a lower rate of staff turnover.
2. Communication is Key
It’s likely that before owning your own supermarket, you’ve at one point worked in an environment where it felt as though your boss simply was not listening. As a business owner, it can be tempting to tune out from others and simply focus on what you think is most beneficial for the business. Unfortunately, this unwillingness to listen to the perspectives and problems faced by your employees directly results in lower worker satisfaction.
The best employee performance occurs when workers feel happy, listened to and valued. Imagine your top performing employee brings an issue to your attention, and you fail to give it the time and respect it is worth. Eventually the issue fades into the background and continues to cause problems, unresolved. This individual is likely to take this as a sign that their place in the company is not important enough to grant them your attention, leading them to look elsewhere for employment.
Establishing an open line of communication between you and your workers will help your supermarket make changes when needed, adapt to address concerns, and result in far higher rates of employee satisfaction.
3. Provide Feedback
Employee satisfaction and retention is made easier when your best workers are regularly told that the work they are doing is both valued, and exemplary. If you have a team that is exceeding expectations, make sure they know this! Regular feedback not only allows your team to feel as though someone is truly paying attention, but also helps them to grow in their role.
You may feel as though feedback is only required when employees are underperforming, but this could not be farther from the truth. Giving positive feedback and introducing opportunities for great employees to continue to grow helps your supermarket to succeed, and helps your best employees continue to thrive.
4. Be Accommodating
One of the best ways to guarantee that your supermarket is a place where your best employees are happy is to ensure that you are being accommodating to your workers as a small business owner. Inflexibility, rigid schedules, and overbearing rules are all features of workplaces that are not accommodating and result in lower overall happiness from employees.
As a small business owner, you are granted with the opportunity to be more accommodating to your workers than huge corporations. Being flexible with items such as shift times and accommodating special requests and individual needs are great ways to help your employees feel comfortable, valued, and happy at work.
5. Make Work Fun
Of course, you want your workers to be professional. However, a professional environment doesn’t mean that fun should be completely removed from the workplace. Making your supermarket a place where workers feel relaxed, and free to express themselves is one of the best ways to make sure that employees look forward to coming to work each day. Giving ample break time, providing benefits like free coffee or snacks, or even holding periodical worker appreciation parties can boost morale, and make your supermarket a more fun place to work.
People Want To Work Where They Feel Valued
At the end of the day, your best employees want what all employees want- to work in a place where they feel respected, heard, valued, and given room to grow. From keeping communication lines open, to providing your team with increased professional flexibility and a comfortable environment, every positive change you make to your business place directly impacts your workers.
By owning your own supermarket, you have the ability to control many things, including the experience of your employees working under you. The more care and attention you devote to the quality of their experience, the higher your employee retention rate will be, making it more likely that your best employees will stick around.
