I’m about to appoint a manager. What’s the best way of preparing her for the challenges she’ll face?
Be sure to give her “The Talk” — the one about how it will be hard to maintain close friendships with her former peers, and that while you don’t prohibit fraternizing (at least we hope you don’t), you do recommend she maintain some professional distance from the rest of the staff. Let her know your door is always open to discuss issues because there will be times she’ll need someone to talk to. INSTORE’s Real Deal columns (the full archive is available at instoremag.com/realdeal) are a great resource to show her the kinds of situations that she is likely to face. Another is George Fuller’s The First-Time Supervisor’s Survival Guide.
Now that the holidays are over, how can we ensure that the best of 2024’s seasonal staffers come back to work for us next holiday season?
Here’s one tip: If at all possible, do not let your most valuable short-timers go right after the holidays. January is a critical time to evaluate your staff and start ramping up for Valentine’s Day, and to make the most of this important period, you will need all the staffing help you can get, says Suzanne DeVries, president of Diamond Staffing Solutions, Inc.
According to DeVries, January is the time when many unhappy employees start to “look around” for other opportunities. It is also the time when jewelers should be assessing their own staff needs. In doing so, you might discover that your best move is to bring a top seasonal person aboard and perhaps consider letting go some underperformers.
And even after Valentine’s Day, retailers should still keep their best seasonal people close at hand. DeVries notes that they can help out on weekends and other peak times during the year; fill in for staffers on vacation; lend extra support for special events, promotions and other selling seasons; make marketing calls to existing customers; and handle other important functions your regular staff may not have time for.
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“When I was in retail, we were giving our best seasonal people about 12 hours a week,” DeVries recalls. “For most of them, this was a second job, so we used them to help out on weekends. This kept them happy and ensured they were there when we needed them in the fall.”
What if an employee who has resigned leaves with company information, such as your internal company database? Is it OK if they take their own database?
Any customer information, even if acquired by that employee during the course of his or her job, is the property of your company. So “their” database is actually your database. You don’t have to grin and bear this dagger in the back, says Joe Miguez, principal counsel of employment law at Apple. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) — in which employees contractually agree not to disclose a company’s secret information — are the best way to prevent this sort of theft.
“Most NDAs contain damage clauses in which the employee agrees that any breach will cause sufficient harm to justify both injunctive relief and monetary damages,” says Miguez. In other words, it’s like a pre-nuptial … only you get all the goods if your employee wants a divorce. NDA or not, employees who disclose or misuse your confidential information may be forced to stop using the information (through a court-issued injunction). “You may also be entitled to punitive or exemplary damages that can equal two or three times any award for actual damages,” explains Miguez. Bottom line? This unscrupulous employee may wind up paying you some serious coin.
My closest competitor is a chain. How can I compete better?
From one viewpoint, chains seem like formidable competitors with their big advertising budgets, strong online presence, offers of financing, state-of-the-art inventory management processes and heavy buying power. But in other ways, they represent a challenge you should relish: disinterested staff with little invested in the job, no real attachment to the local community, stock goods, a likely lack of custom capability. If you’re not top of mind for the jewelry services you offer in your community, you need to get much more aggressive in your advertising. First thing though, visit the store and make two lists: where your products and services overlap and where you do things differently. From that, a picture should begin to emerge of areas you can emphasize and areas you can improve to keep your customers loyal. Merchandising expert Tom Crossman also recommends you review the look of your store. All chain stores look alike, he says, and even though you may sell some of the same brands, your products will be more appealing with better, different fixtures that reflect your independent spirit.
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