Workplace Organization

If you own or operate a retail or food service business, you may be amongst the large percentage of companies unintentionally stifling the potential of your managers and, by extension, the performance of your front-line staff.

The Scope of the Issue

Over 50% of the global economy is driven by businesses with “distributed networks” of sites and employees. Retailers, including food service chains and retail banks, make up a major part of this group. However, many of these businesses are unintentionally limiting their success.
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According to McKinsey & Company, front-line managers—such as store, district, or area managers—are often burdened with heavy administrative work and lack the authority to make critical decisions that improve the customer experience.

Too Much Admin, Not Enough Impact

Rather than spending time where they can drive the most value—on the floor coaching staff and engaging with customers—front-line managers spend up to 60% of their time on administrative tasks.

This imbalance can have serious consequences, especially for service-based businesses. Research shows that customer-facing employee behavior is strongly linked to customers’ perceptions of service quality. If managers can’t influence and coach these employees, the customer experience suffers.

Why Great Managers Matter

It’s no surprise then that Gallup found that hiring great managers can result in a 27% increase in revenue per employee. Unfortunately, many companies still hire based on tenure rather than talent or leadership potential.

Natural leadership ability—the capacity to inspire, build strong relationships, drive outcomes, and make tough decisions—is essential not only for better performance, but also for higher employee engagement.

Related article: 3 Strategies for Helping Managers Improve Employee Engagement

The Engagement Connection

According to Gallup, naturally talented managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. And engagement matters—a lot. Low employee engagement, according to Gallup’s 2012 data, costs U.S. companies between $450 billion and $550 billion annually.

Rethinking the Manager’s Role

Before reworking hiring practices, companies need to redefine what the role of a front-line manager should be. These individuals shouldn’t be treated as administrative cogs, but rather as drivers of store performance and employee success.

A Case Study: Empowered Managers Deliver Results

McKinsey reports a study in which store managers felt powerless over key performance metrics—such as category sales—and were overwhelmed by paperwork.

To change this, the company experimented with:

• Improved store layouts
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• Streamlined reporting
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• More floor time for managers
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As a result:

• Managers spent 60–70% of their time on the floor
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• They delivered high-quality coaching to staff
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• They used performance scorecards to focus teams on key actions like greeting customers and suggestive selling

The outcome? A 51% increase in productivity in one region and 65% in another when rolled out across the store network.

The Path Forward: Empower and Engage

To replicate this kind of success, businesses must:

• Hire managers with real leadership ability
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• Redesign systems to free managers from excessive admin
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• Empower them to coach, make decisions, and engage directly with staff and customers

Final Thought: Let Your Managers Lead

Empowered managers drive better performance. When they have the time, tools, and autonomy to coach their teams and connect with customers, everyone wins—from the front-line employee to the bottom line.

Ready to Motivate Your Front-Line?

Engage your managers and empower them to motivate your front-line for better results with Qarrot. Book a demo today!

Implementing an eLearning program in retail and franchise businesses will improve the effectiveness of front-line staff and positively impact overarching business objectives.

There are several elements that eLearning programs combine that make them particularly effective when deployed in organizations to train staff.

The gamification of eLearning programs means that competition is encouraged amongst staff, and points are accrued for carrying out desired actions. Employees are incentivized with perks, like gift cards, and are accordingly rewarded when they’ve achieved a high level of performance.When searching for an optimal eLearning platform, the following attributes should be considered:

• Interactive and engaging: Is the platform easy to access from mobile devices? Is the interface and user experience inviting, or would it be difficult to use the platform for a long period of time? Does it provide staff with clearly outlined goals and does it adequately convey rewards?
• Ability to customize: Are there facets of your business that need to be emphasized? Look for a platform that allows for flexibility.
• Administrative view: A robust platform should allow for management staff or corporate to analyze the progress of staff. It’s critical to have a clear view of the impact the platform is having, in addition to having insights on how employees are progressing. For franchise businesses, this would be especially important to track how various locations are faring compared to one another.

Ultimately, eLearning programs prep retail staff to best serve customers and mobilize them to work towards achieving sales and revenue objectives.

‍How to ensure the success of a virtual learning program

‍Prior to rolling out an eLearning program, businesses should assess the types of KPIs and metrics they will be focused on measuring. Bob Phibbs, a thought leader in the sales training industry, notes that businesses should be looking at not only higher sales, but also at the number of items per transaction and the average sales per employee per hour of work.

Once metrics and benchmarks are set, businesses should remember to frequently check in with staff to gauge their progress and their level of engagement with the platform.

‍Training programs deliver unparalleled results

‍In the same piece by Phibbs cited above, he explains that investing in a training program for front-line staff will produce results that a discount or marketing program wouldn’t be able to. What’s more, the training will stick with staff and improve their performance well into the future, as opposed to simply boosting sales for a temporary period of time.

‍Neglecting staff training is detrimental to businesses in the long run

‍As it turns out, businesses who believe there’s not a significant enough ROI on front-line staff training programs are mistaken.

Emad Rizkalla, CEO of Bluedrop Performance Learning, explains that companies failing to “develop their employees could be doing damage not only to morale, but to the bottom line as well.”

He cites a finding by HR Magazine that says “companies investing in $1,500 or more per employee per year on training average 24 percent higher profit margins than companies with lower yearly training investments.

Further findings to illustrate his claim include stats from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), including one that states that companies who offer comprehensive training have a 218% higher income per employee than those who offer lower quality training.

For companies with training programs, Rizkalla also points out that there are other less tangible, but equally important, outcomes. This includes “happier employees, better leaders and enhanced teamwork.”

Accordingly, Phibbs stresses that employers who invest in training programs will experience lower levels of turnover in their organizations.

Learn more about how to create an eLearning initiative that your front-line staff are motivated to complete!