FEATURED ARTICLE
Improving Your Retail Store Culture Starts with a Simple Conversation
The following is adapted from RETAIL PRIDE , The Guide to Celebrating Your Accidental Career by Ron Thurston
We all know work culture is important . With the right culture , your team will be engaged and motivated , and with the wrong culture , they ’ ll dread coming to work every day . So the question is , how do you build the right culture ?
The good news is that you don ’ t need those things to be successful ! Instead , the best resource you have for improving your work culture is right in front of you : your retail teams ! They can tell you precisely what ’ s working and what isn ’ t , and when you place them at the center of your cultural efforts , you will naturally begin building the kind of culture that will motivate and engage them .
So how do you know if your strategies work in realms that can ’ t be easily understood via surveys and metrics ? The answer may sound simplistic , but it ’ s often overlooked : bring some of the team together and talk about your strategies !
You need to know what engages your team , what makes them want to stay , what might make them want to leave , and what ’ s important to them . In that regard , nothing can replace honest conversations in a safe and trusting environment .
Bring People Together and Ask Them
Some of the common questions you can ask are :
Ron Thurston
Best-Selling Author of Retail Pride
What would you tell a friend about your store if they were about to start working here ? What would you most like to change about this store / company ? Who is a hero around here ? Why ? What prevents someone from doing well in the store ? Do you feel successful every day ? If not , why not ?
Pay particular attention to what motivates the team and what they care about the most , along with their perceptions of the company ’ s strengths and weaknesses . These insights can help you understand both the immediate and long-term steps you may need to shift your company culture from where it is today to where you want it to be — collaborative , supportive , participative , and productive .
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You need to know what engages your team , what makes them want to stay , what might make them want to leave , and what ’ s important to them . In that regard , nothing can replace honest conversations in a
” safe and trusting environment .
22 27TH NATIONAL RETAIL CONFERENCE & STORES ASIA EXPO 2021 AUGUST 12-13 , 2021