There are many words that describe a new store salesperson's first time from employment to being self-sufficient in the store. We can talk about induction or use more trendy words like preboarding and onboarding.
In this article we will talk about onboarding a bit more comprehensively.
Before explaining the concepts, we look at why a well thought-out and structured introduction of new salespeople in stores is so important.
Why you should invest in the induction of your shop assistants
Good onboarding is crucial for:
- How quickly each new store employee becomes profitable.
- How profitable the new store salesperson will be.
- And how long you can keep your new profitable salesperson.
But wait. It says a lot about profitability, and nothing at all about satisfaction, engagement and other values traditionally associated with onboarding.
Let's develop.
Good onboarding leads to faster profitability
Imagine that you are a new salesperson in a store.
When you're new, you can't the products. You don't know the customers and their usual needs. You don't know what additional products the customer also needs to get the most benefit from what they buy and you don't know the checkout system or your procedures.
You simply don't do much new at first. And it's a very hard feeling to feel like a burden to the company, colleagues and customers.
This is where onboarding comes in. If we can reduce the start-up time, the new employee will benefit more quickly and thus bring profitability.
Not only that. When your new shop assistants feel that they are making a difference and can actually help their customers, their confidence grows. They become happier and more engaged. Which brings us to the next point.
Good onboarding leads to higher profitability over time
The salesperson who quickly feels that they are making a difference, and gets that boost in confidence, will thrive better at work. When a customer enters a store where the staff are happy and happy, it's contagious. Because if there's one thing we humans are sensitive to, it's the atmosphere in a group of people.
It will be a positive spiral.
When customers have a better experience, more will shop and the average receipt will go up.
But instead of relying blindly on us, you can look within your organisation. Take your best-performing stores and compare the atmosphere with the stores that are not performing as well.
Of course, the atmosphere is not the only thing that determines whether a shop will be profitable or not. But it is a clear indicator that they are doing the right things to live up to their potential.
Good onboarding allows you to retain staff longer
Retail is an industry with high staff turnover, and lots of extra staff. At the same time, the staff is the most important resource a store has, as they are the ones who meet the customers and help them buy the right things.
In this work, auxiliary staff are at least as important as regular staff. It is usually the extra staff who work weekends - for example, Saturday after pay time when the store has the most shoppers.
It goes without saying that it is better for profitability to have experienced and knowledgeable staff in the shop to help customers.
Onboarding that leads to happiness and happy employees who are doing well will also lead to those employees staying longer. Some may even make a career out of the profession that they first saw as just an extra job during their studies.
Why you should invest in onboarding
In other words, induction is key to unlocking the full potential of every new store employee.
A good induction should ideally be of the same high quality regardless of which store the new employee is going to work in. A structured process increases your chances of successfully engaging and activating your new store staff every time, in every store, with minimal manual effort.
As a bonus, you will also find it easier to recruit and retain the right staff over time, as you build stronger employee branding and become a more attractive employer. If you feel good and do good, you'll have more fun at work.
Once you have a structure for how and what to include in your induction, you need a system to package and reach out with the onboarding to all newcomers in your stores. That's where a Learning Management System (LMS) fills an important role. We would be happy to show you how Evercate can give you control over the onboarding of your new hires in your stores in a very user-friendly way.
Contact us for a meeting and we'll take a closer look at your specific needs and challenges.
Do you want your stores to sell more?
Then you should book a free demo to see how Evercate can help!
Talk to usWhat is Evercate?
Evercate is a platform that gives retailers control over ensuring that the right information and knowledge reaches the right people in each store at the right time. No need to rely on the intranet, store email or store managers to have the time and understanding to pass on the information in the right way.
Everything is measured and clearly shows where you need to focus to improve your results.
Our customers use Evercate for new hire onboarding, product training, promotional information and more.
