Blog

Recognizing the unique Millennial

The top three challenges for HR organizations today are employee engagement, turnover rates, and succession planning. Though these issues are not new, former strategies just don't seem to have the same effect and the shift has left employers - especially those with Millennials in their ranks - scrambling for answers. In the past, reward systems were monetarily based, providing employees with compensation for their time and extra efforts with strictly financial compensation. The ineffectiveness of this method in retaining and motivating employees is indisputable.

• 37% of U.S accommodation and food services employees say that they had or will quit their position in their current place of employment within a 12 month period.
• The majority of employees in 2015 were reported as “not engaged” while another 17.8% were “actively disengaged”
• For the majority of 2015, monthly averages for consistent employee engagement hovered between 31.5% and 32.1%
• One-third of new hires quit their job after about six (6) months.¹
• Nearly four out of five (78 percent) of business leaders rank employee retention as important or urgent.
• In 2015, 40% of companies reported that with the arrival of lower unemployment rates, the difficulty in finding and maintaining talented individuals has heightened their concern for loss of personnel.

So, what has changed?

‍Millennials.

As of 2015, Millennials make up the largest section of the global workforce and will compromise nearly 75% of personnel by 2030.² The average tenure of a millennial employee is only two years and the key to building a strong, profitable business in 2018 rests in the ability of a company to redirect this pattern. Millennials may have a bad rap for being on cell phones and a general sense of entitlement, but here is the truth: Millennials aren't lazy, they have specific needs.

Psychologically, every human being experiences a direct correlation between their perception of self-value and their state of happiness. This is even more pronounced in millennials, where monetary rewards are secondary to the feeling of personal growth, engagement, and significance within a company. With every resource at their fingertips, millennials are constantly looking to jump into a role that will fulfill these elements. The employer then is fighting a perpetual battle against the threat of the “next best thing.” In order to win the fight, you have to understand your employee's criteria.

Fuelling your employees

Retaining valued talent in your business depends on your employee engagement levels. For Millennials, the single highest contributor to this is their belief that they are truly valued for their unique strengths. Recognizing the influential role an employee plays within your company bolsters their confidence and boosts their comfort with expressing ideas amongst coworkers and superiors. If a millennial believes their employer recognizes them as an asset, they respond by fully applying themselves to maintaining high standards, simultaneously satisfying a need for self-growth and importance.

“More than ever, they want to be part of a workplace culture that allows them to discover their own identity and inner confidence so they can unleash their full potential. (Glenn Llopis, Forbes 2014).

”Currently, less than 40% feel so engaged.³

Because Millennials base their performance on output rather than time spent on a project, it is essential that they feel their commitment to quality is noticed. According to a recent survey by TriNet, one in four millennials feel in the dark about their work performance; As it stands, 8/10 Millennials think they deserve to be recognized more for their work. Only 54% of female employees say they are recognized when they do excellent work and only 61% of males.⁴ That's an average of 43% of employees operating under the impression that they are not valued!

‍The answer to these statistics is relatively simple- Workplace culture is everything. Traditional superior-to-employee encouragement, though beneficial in its own way, can often feel contrived, insincere, or infrequent to an employee. Peer-to-Peer Recognition fosters camaraderie, heightens energy levels, and alleviates preoccupying worries about work performance which deduct from creative spirit.

You can completely re-establish your work culture by integrating a peer-to-peer recognition program. By encouraging staff to communicate with one another on their successes, you are cultivating company-wide collaboration. Values-based recognition from a peer is like getting a compliment from a friend on your outfit or touchdown in high school- instantaneously that person is invigorated with new energy to duplicate their success or surpass it. The cycle peer-to-peer recognition promotes quickly takes on a life of its own, as each compliment given encourages the receiver to then offer one of their own to another co-worker.

Did you Know? ‍

86% of values-based recognition programs show an increase in worker happiness.

Peer-to-peer recognition benefits

Peer-to-peer recognition is statistically 35.7% more likely to have a positive impact on financial results than manager-only recognition. In 2015, 41% of employees said that if they were given the tools to comfortably engage in peer-to-peer recognition, they would gladly do so. Once a program had been established, 58% of “happy employees” (individuals who considered themselves fulfilled by and content with their job) reported giving regular peer recognition.⁵ Staff who are empowered to recognize other employees are twice as likely to identify themselves as highly engaged while 90% of employers say their employee recognition program had a positive impact on overall employee engagement.

These interactions then, are not one-off comments, but authentic conversations progressively developing gratifying company habits, transparency, and teamwork. Not to mention the right culture attracts new, talented employees who will vie for the chance to be a part of a positive, collaborative team. Millennials will choose to invest themselves in your business' long term, thriving in the synonymous relationship between their ambitions and your company’s achievements.

What are you waiting for? Mature employee recognition programs are 12 times more likely to have quantifiable, superior business results!!⁶

‍

Foster a collaborative and engaging workplace culture of your own - book your Qarrot demo today!

‍

Sources

• ¹ https://www.tlnt.com/9-employee-retention-statistics-that-will-make-you-sit-up-and-pay-attention/
• ² Bureau of Labour Statistics
• ³ Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review
• ⁴ Modern Survey
• ⁵ Great Place to Work
• ⁶SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey 2012

Are your staff coming in late, leaving early, or constantly chatting with colleagues? According to a recent survey by TotalJobs, one of the UK’s leading online job boards, these are sure signs of low employee engagement.‍

Employers are concerned. A majority attribute low engagement as a key driver of poor performance. And 1 in 3 report that they’re struggling to keep their employees adequately engaged.

The good news is that signs of decreasing employee engagement aren’t hard to spot. 59% of surveyed employers say that lower productivity is the first major sign of problems followed by other behaviors such as arriving late for work, leaving early, frequently chatting with colleagues and extensive Internet browsing. These tell-tale signs have tipped off employers that they need to take action. And many are beginning to combat low employee engagement in a number of different ways.

How employers are taking action

51% say that clear communication - whether via company email, newsletters, or team meetings is an effective way of reinvigorating engagement.

Nearly 46% report that setting out clear objectives for both individuals and teams is also a highly effective approach.

Other strategies include creating a stimulating work environment (39%), fostering a strong team dynamic (28%), building a strong and visible management team (25%), and recognizing proactive and engaged employees (24%).

As part of their efforts to combat employee disengagement, employers are increasingly turning to a roster of tools for help. Chief amongst these are employee rewards and recognition software solutions.

How can rewards and recognition software help?

As the name suggests, this type of software lets employers easily recognize and reward employees - whether for their on-the-job achievements, demonstrating the company’s values, or for their years of service. But good recognition software should go well beyond just helping employers dole out rewards and praise. Consistent with the results from TotalJobs’ survey, a good solution should also improve an employer’s ability to:

• Disseminate objectives and priorities to front-line staff
• Focus individuals and teams on business goals and values
• Encourage and promote teamwork
• Make earning rewards fun and engaging

In industries such as retail, food service, and manufacturing, these additional elements can make the difference between success and failure in the battle against low engagement since management aren’t always right on the front-line with employees.

In particular, employee recognition software should facilitate the communication of the very goals, targets, and behaviors employers want to reward and provide the ability for individual employees and teams to cheer one another on as they work towards accomplishing them.

The keys to this are the immediacy and transparency the software provides, both in notifying employer goals and then letting employees post their own updates and comments as well as displaying individual or team progress towards the objectives.

‍

Curious about employee recognition software and solutions? Speak to one of our experts today!

Workers feel valued when they believe that their manager, peers, or higher-ups in the organization are aware of and understand their individual contributions on the job. The best way to help employees feel valued is to recognize them when they’ve done a good job. As many studies have shown, recognition doesn’t have to be big and expensive—often, a simple “thank you” will do.

How engaged are your employees?

‍If you’re unsure or don’t know how to approach this question, continue reading for our 6-question self-assessment survey to quickly gauge employee engagement.

Before diving in, we’d like to point out that this 6-step process is meant to quickly ‘triage’ your overall level of employee engagement on your own. More in-depth assessments can be done using one of the many great employee survey tools now available on the market. Unlike those tools, this approach is meant to jumpstart your thinking and give you a rough-and-ready sense as to whether your employees are generally in a good place or not.

When you answer these questions, simply give each a score of 1 (low / rarely), 2 (medium / sometimes), or 3 (high / often). Then add up your scores to arrive at your overall score.

With that said, let's get started.

Do your employees feel a sense of purpose?

Whether it’s working on a world-changing new technology or running the french-fry station at a quick service restaurant, your staff do better work when they feel a sense of purpose related to their job. It may be a feeling that they’re contributing to a greater good or simply understanding how they contribute to a great customer experience.

When thinking about this question, ask yourself: Do you or the managers within your organization communicate a sense of purpose to employees? If not, chances are you’re not scoring too highly here.

Do your employees feel valued?

How often do you or your managers recognize employees for their accomplishments? Do you promote a culture of recognition where employees also feel empowered to say “good job” to their peers?

Do your employees have clearly defined roles? Are performance expectations clear?

It’s common sense that employees need clear roles and responsibilities in order to do their job well. But our research shows that while most workers understand their overall job description, many are still hazy on the boundaries of their roles and often lack a good understanding of their manager’s expectations.

Many tools exist for communicating employee responsibilities and manager performance expectations. But in considering this question, ask yourself: Do you or your managers regularly talk to employees about their work? Are you giving them feedback? Are you clearly communicating expectations for how you’d like them to perform their responsibilities?

Do your employees feel accountable?

It can be easy to assume that anyone you employ feels accountable for fulfilling their job responsibilities, but here too our research shows that reality is different.

Feeling accountable on the job is driven by many different things. Sometimes it’s just an age or maturity question. Sometimes, it’s the seniority of the position (more senior positions carry a higher level of ‘accountability’ by their nature). But just as often, it’s a question of whether a manager has imbued a sense of accountability in her team. This comes from leading by example, but also in expressing an expectation of accountability to employees.

How well do you or your managers communicate an expectation of personal accountability to your employees?

Does your work environment promote open communication?

While it might be tempting to grade yourself highly here because you and your managers are great at keeping staff ‘in the know’, think again. A workplace that promotes open communication is one that encourages employees to express their ideas, concerns, and to give feedback. Not only does this help employees feel more valued, but it lays the groundwork for staff to grow professionally and progress within your organization.

How well do you or your managers promote open communication with your workplace?

Are your employees properly enabled to perform their responsibilities?

Resource-strapped businesses like startups often lack all the tools they need to be successful. This can be motivating for resourceful staff for a time. But in most organizations, if employees lack the tools or manager support to do their jobs properly, they quickly become frustrated. That frustration can turn to active-disengagement if they believe their situation isn’t going to improve anytime soon.

Whether you’re a part-timer at a cafe or are an executive at a large, global organization, feeling enabled to perform well in your job is critical to your motivation.

How well do you or your managers enable your employees to perform their jobs?

Final question: Have you been honest with yourself? Great. Add up your scores. What’s the result?

6 to 10    

Danger zone, immediate action is necessary.

12 to 14  

You’re okay, but some improvements are probably in order.

15 to 18  

Congrats, you most likely have highly engaged staff!

‍

Uncover more tips to help improve your team engagement! Visit us at Qarrot!

In an era when nearly 70% of U.S. employees report being “not engaged” or “actively disengaged at work¹, many companies are scrambling to determine their level of employee engagement and, if it's low, whether that's having a negative impact on their business.

Employee engagement - or how motivated staff is to perform their jobs - can impact businesses in different ways. Depending on the type of business and the employee role, the impact of low engagement levels can affect different business metrics.

Though poor engagement universally affects employee productivity and turnover rates, it can extend to a broader range of impacts, including everything from sick days taken to customer loyalty. For customer-facing staff, employee engagement levels affect their interactions with customers, impacting everything from customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and even the company’s brand and reputation. For manufacturing businesses, low engagement correlates to higher rates of safety-related incidents. Similarly, across most businesses, absenteeism, sick days, and health claims (related to company health plans) are all impacted by employee engagement levels. In all of its various forms, poor engagement also correlates strongly to decreased sales and profits.

Regardless of the impacts you observe and measure, it’s important to understand these are the outcomes of poor engagement. And so any effort to improve engagement should start with analyzing why your employees are unengaged in the first place. A good understanding of the key drivers will arm you with the information needed to develop an action plan. Then, when it comes to business-casing the investment required to support your plan, you’ll know which metrics you can expect to impact. And you’ll be able to show the ROI from improving the metrics you believe you can impact through your action plan.

From analysis to action - national retail chain case study

Vision Source, a retail optical chain with 4,000 locations, realized that its franchise employees did not view themselves as “salespeople”. In particular, staff did not make a point of attempting to cross-sell or upsell patients as often as they could. The chain determined that this was largely due to a lack of system-wide sales training as well as motivational tools to focus front-line staff on making the effort to promote certain products and services.

Given this assessment, Vision Source put in place a system-wide sales motivation program that included online training, reference materials, and sales incentives.The impact was immediate. Employees suddenly had access to training that helped them improve their on-the-job performance and attractive incentives for selling certain higher margin products and services. Employees felt more empowered and motivated. And the result was a significant increase in the year-over-year growth rate.

Impact statistics from the field

As presented earlier, the impact of poor employee engagement varies by business, industry, and employee role. Here are statistics² from companies that have implemented employee recognition programs in which the focus is on recognizing and rewarding behaviours that reflect the company’s core values:

Engagement

90% of companies say it has positively impacted engagement, resulting in a more meaningful and happier work environment.

Retention

68% say it has positively impacted employee retention. The estimated cost of replacing an employee ranges from one to three times his or her annual salary and the average company loses about $1 million with every 10 professional employees who leave.

Safety

37% say it has positively impacted employee safety, resulting in reduced absences from work-related injuries, lower injury-rates, and lower costs associated with worker medical expenses, worker replacements, training, and insurance premiums. On average, $1 invested in injury prevention returns between $2 and $6 in direct savings.

Wellness

29% report a positive impact on health and wellness goals, reducing the number of sick days taken, paid sick leave and lost productivity.  Engaged employees are absent two-thirds less than the employees who are disengaged and unhappy.

Brand and Reputation

Organizations with 50% or more of their employees rating themselves as “engaged” retain over 80% of their customers.³ More highly engaged employees provide a better customer experience, which, in turn, promotes greater customer loyalty. In fact, companies in the top quartile of employee engagement experience a 10% higher customer rating than those in the lower quartiles. Improving the customer experience may pay for itself as U.S. brands are reported to lose approximately $41 billion each year from poor customer service.⁴

Cost Control

A high employee turnover rate correlates with inventory shrinkage. Inventory shrinkage is estimated to cost retailers a staggering $30 billion annually, and half of that loss, or $15 billion, is attributable to employee theft.

‍

Learn how your team could benefit from a recognition and rewards program! Book your Qarrot demo today!

The amazing growth of gift card rewards

Recalling my days working for a leading customer loyalty program, I remember the remarkable growth of program members exchanging their points for gift cards. This growth was remarkable for different reasons. First, it was a travel program where the majority of members accumulated their points for airline tickets. This travel orientation meant that members were accustomed to saving-up their points for long periods of time. Moreover, before the program introduced gift cards to its catalog, it added merchandise and experiences. This meant that members had a wide range of choices—everything from plasma TVs to show tickets to VIP events. Despite all these options, gift cards quickly grew to become the most popular non-travel reward.

Looking back, I now realize that the popularity of gift cards as a reward option had a lot to do with their flexibility and their faster attainability compared to the more aspirational, less attainable travel rewards.

But, my previous company isn’t alone. The entire incentives industry has seen the same trend in the past decade. In fact, the Incentives Research Foundation states that in 2012 gift cards had become the most popular gift among consumers shopping for friends and relatives and the tool of choice for businesses hoping to motivate employees, customers, and partners.

Gift cards: the preferred employee incentive reward

When it comes to motivating employees, gift cards are now undeniably the preferred non-cash reward option and used by 75% of businesses. Use of gift cards in employee rewards and recognition programs has even exceeded travel, merchandise, and cash rewards according to the October 2011 October 2011 report “State of Gift Card Use in the U.S.” by the Incentive Research Foundation. According to the IRF’s research, consumers have embraced gift cards because they make gift-giving “easy” and “reduce shopping time”. This convenience factor has no doubt also influenced people’s warm reception of gift cards as incentives in the workplace.

Incentive program managers and planners also prefer using gift cards as incentives because they are easier to administer, are more flexible and personal, and are popular amongst company staff. Above all, incentive planners view gift cards as the “most effective” reward option that offers the best overall return on investment, even compared to cash.

Similar to the IRF’s findings, we believe the effectiveness of gift cards over other non-cash and cash rewards is largely due to the unique combination of flexibility and “trophy value”. For example, if you offer your staff a catalog of merchandise, you’ll achieve high trophy value but low flexibility as staff may aspire to have some of the items you offer, but won’t necessarily find something appealing at any given time. In contrast, cash rewards offer high flexibility but low trophy value. The following quote from Mike Ryan, President Emeritus of The Performance Improvement Council, in the IRF report highlights this perfectly:

“A responsible person who receives cash as a reward may not feel comfortable about spending it on themselves, so it is not exciting for them. A $25 gift card is better than $25 cash because it gives them license to spend on themselves and this makes it appealing.”

Gift cards seem to strike that perfect middle ground - by offering a selection of well-known brands, as well as “open” prepaid cards from Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, your employees will find both trophy value and flexibility.

Compared to merchandise and travel, gift cards also dramatically reduce the administrative costs and burden associated with employee incentive programs. Ever shipped a TV across the continental US? It’s not cheap. Not to mention that merchandise programs require frequent catalog refreshes to maintain employee interest and tend to have higher customer servicing requirements (with staff calling to find out when their rewards are going to be delivered).

Digital revolution: the rise of e-gift cards

With the rise of mobile and digital payments, it’s not surprising that gift cards too are increasingly offered electronically. “E-gift cards” are similar to their plastic equivalents in that they can often be used in-store (printed or with a barcode displayed on your phone) or used to pay for purchases online (by either entering a PIN or redemption code). Moreover, Millennials prefer e-gift cards because, unlike physical cards, they can’t be “lost” and don’t need to be remembered before going shopping.

Plus with the growth of online retailers like Amazon as well as the online offerings of bricks-and-mortar retailers like Best Buy and Walmart, the number of possible ‘reward options’ is nearly infinite. Why manage a merchandise catalog with hundreds of items, when these online retailers have tens of thousands? And to offer their catalogs as rewards to your employees all you have to do is provide their e-gift cards as rewards in your employee incentive program.

Beyond the flexibility and choice provided by e-gift cards, I believe they will quickly overtake physical gift cards in the coming years as the most popular employee incentive reward due to their simplicity. Incentive program managers and planners will love them too - from the low cost of fulfillment to the instant gratification they provide (e-gift cards can be emailed or received instantly upon redemption), they help simplify and, at the same time, expand the utility of incentives.

‍

Qarrot makes motivation easy with our feature-rich platform and catalog of e-gift cards! Book your demo today!

With employee engagement on the minds of many employers and human capital professionals these days, we’ve taken it upon ourselves to scour hundreds of statistics from various studies and articles to come up with the 14 we find the most surprising.

These statistics concern not only the current state of employee engagement but the cost of low engagement to companies as well as the benefits of high employee engagement.

Current State of Employee Engagement

• 37% of U.S. accommodation and food services employees say they had or will quit their position in the current 12 month period.¹ (Retail, customer service, and hospitality organizations are designed around high-turnover: jobs are relatively easy to learn and new employees can be integrated fairly quickly. But, this strategy doesn’t eliminate the cost of “cycling through” staff.)
• 49,5% of U.S. employees are “not engaged” at work. (Worldwide, the percentage of engaged employees drops dramatically to 13%)
• 35% of the U.S. workforce said they’d look for a new job if they don’t receive a pay raise in the next year. ² (In U.S. tech-powered companies, 65% of employees are confident they can find another job if their salary expectations aren’t met.)
• 52% of the workforce is open to a new job opportunity.

The Cost of Low Employee Engagement to Companies

• 150% of a mid-level employee’s annual salary can go into finding and hiring their replacement. (400% for high-level or highly specialized employees. Those expenses cover advertising the vacant position, interviewing applicants, screening candidates, hiring, training...) ³
• 2 years is the average time it takes for a new employee to reach the productivity level of the person they replaced. (The onboarding process also costs the company; training, distraction for managers whose time for coaching and developing existing staff is removed.)

Employee turnover resulting from low engagement has other hidden costs: the process of training new hires can be a distraction for the current staff and, if turnover happens frequently, can ultimately demotivate those employees tasked with back-filling while the new hires come up to speed. This can have even more insidious effects with customers. Turnover amongst customer-facing staff can give the appearance of instability within the organization and ultimately can hurt customers’ confidence.

The Benefits of High Employee Engagement

• 80% of most organizations’ market value comes from intangible assets such as brand, quality of the workforce; its talent, passion, and commitment (A few decades ago, this value was almost exclusively based on tangible assets like machinery, products, and facilities.)⁴
• $2,400 is the average increase in profit per employee per year a company can reach with employee engagement programs.⁵
• 97% of the companies with good employee engagement levels (half or more highly engaged employees) report that engagement leads to greater productivity. 93% say that it plays a major role in the company’s capacity to meet its revenue goals. Overall, 82% of these companies report that high employee retention improves customer loyalty, which provides with a noticeable competitive advantage.
• 33% report a significant impact of engagement on profit margins, and 81% on revenue growth.⁶

Interestingly, highly engaged employees have both a positive impact on customer experience and, as a result, customer loyalty. A long-term study at Sears reveals customers who had a pleasant, pro-active or superior service experience are 10% to 30% more loyal than customers who have did not and would strongly consider purchasing again from a brand if they had a good customer experience.⁷

Regardless of the statistic, it’s clear that employers and human capital professionals are preoccupied with employee engagement for very good reason.

‍

Boost your employees' engagement and motivate improved performance with Qarrot - schedule your demo here!

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

Over 50% of the global economy is driven by businesses with “distributed networks” of sites and employees. Retailers, including food service and retail banks, are an important segment within this group. And for most of these businesses, McKinsey & Company has found that managers are being stifled. Whether by over-loading them with heavy administrative burdens, or simply not empowering them to make decisions critical to providing a good customer experience, these companies are undermining their own success.

According to McKinsey, front-line managers – including district or area managers as well as store managers – are not empowered to spend their time where it can create the most value. Instead of spending as much as 60% of their time on administrative tasks, front-line managers could be spending more time on the floor and coaching staff.

In fact, a lack of front-line coaching can be disastrous for service businesses, where research shows that the attitudes and behavior of customer-facing employees is strongly related to customers’ perceptions of service quality.

It’s no surprise then that Gallup has found hiring great managers can result in a 27% increase in revenue per employee. Gallup’s own research shows that many companies hire managers based on years of service or tenure instead of talent and their natural ability to lead. This natural ability to lead – to inspire employees, drive outcomes, overcome adversity, hold people accountable, build strong relationships, and make tough decisions – drives better performance by itself, but is also critical to overall employee engagement.

In fact, Gallup reports that naturally talented managers play an essential role in creating an engaged workforce, explaining at least 70% of the variance in the engagement of their teams. But many companies haven’t woken up to this reality. Based on 2012 data showing that the majority of American workers are either “not engaged” or are “actively disengaged” at work, Gallup calculates that low engagement levels are costing U.S. companies between $450 billion and $550 billion per year.

But before changing hiring practices, many companies ought to first rethink the role of their front-line managers. Rather than ‘cogs’ in the administrative machine of the company, the role of front-line managers should be about achieving improved store performance.

This may be easier said than done.

Current attitudes towards the role of front-line managers have left many believing that their ability to impact the business is limited. McKinsey reports one study showing that store managers spent more than half of their time on administration and felt they had no control over key performance drivers (such as sales in important product categories). The company in the study experimented with an improved store layout, streamlined reporting, and other strategies to free-up their managers to spend more time on the floor.

The results were impressive: Their managers were able to allocate 60 to 70% of their time on the floor, providing high-quality coaching to staff and interacting with customers. Through their coaching, managers were able to discuss strategies and performance metrics with their staff. This included a new performance scorecard, which helped focus staff on key behaviors like greeting customers when they enter the store and on “suggestive” selling. When rolled out across their store network, this new approach drove a 51% increase in productivity in one region and 65% in another.

With this mind, we believe retailers can make significant gains by both hiring great managers as well as implementing the strategies and practices that empower them to allocate more time to the floor, making decisions, and acting on opportunities.

‍

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

In many businesses, motivating teamwork - or more specifically, motivating your staff to win as a team - can trump the pursuit of individual achievement and bring a higher level of success. In fact, a joint study by the International Society for Performance Improvement and The Incentive Research Foundation found that “Incentivized teams increased their performance by 45%; incentivized individuals increased their performance an average of 27%”.

This learning equally applies to retail stores, restaurants, and cafes. In many of these businesses, an emphasis on shared goals and rewards can lead to better results.

Here are a few areas where we think motivating teamwork leads to better outcomes compared to individual performance:

Lots of part-time staff

Motivating part-time staff to go above and beyond is a challenge in any situation. But if a business can successfully instill a sense of teamwork amongst its employees, even the part-timers are likely to feel motivated and do their part to help achieve the goal.

With teamwork, each member feels that they’re a part of something bigger than themselves. If one member doesn’t do their part, then they’re not just letting themselves down, but the entire team.

And when the goal is achieved the whole team shares in the success, not just one person. This avoids the possibility of demotivating employees who didn’t win.

Employees frequently rotate roles

In many retail businesses, employees tend to specialize in one area. However, in certain sectors, such as Quick Service Restaurants, it’s not uncommon for an employee to work the cash one day and to be in the kitchen the next. This rotation of tasks provides some healthy variety to staff, but it also requires that they work together to communicate, transfer knowledge, and share tips and tricks.

As a result, this type of role rotation is another prime candidate for teamwork. What better way to nurture collaboration and knowledge transfer than through shared team objectives and rewards? Staff will feel more motivated to ensure their counterparts are equipped to perform the tasks through their rotations and to help one another.

Serving the customer requires teamwork

Businesses where multiple employees are involved in serving the customer - cafes and restaurants, for example – are ideally suited to team goals and rewards. Because the employee who takes the order is usually not the same person preparing the coffee or the food, shared team goals and rewards can be essential to success.

Teamwork is key to innovation

The Society for Human Resource Management cites teamwork and collaboration as key ingredients to successful innovation. And team-based incentives are a great way of emphasizing and fostering collaboration amongst employees to produce innovation.

The SHRM goes on to add that team incentives also benefit organizations by focusing employees on shared goals, fostering teamwork that leads to better group problem-solving, improving peer-to-peer support, and cross-organizational performance.

‍

Visit us at Qarrot to learn more about motivating teamwork and rewarding your staff for winning as a team!

Is there a science behind making a sale? Here’s a rundown of foolproof ways to improve the sales performance of retail staff—and how to make these tactics stick.

1. Begin each shift with an optimistic outlook.
2. It can be easy for retail staff to get stuck in a rut, particularly after a day in which it was difficult to close a sale. Noted sales and retail expert Bob Phibbs is a proponent of staff “talking themselves up” before a shift. He even goes as far to say that employees should be mindful of what they’re watching or listening to before work, as it may affect their mood and have a negative impact on their sales performance.
3. Research has shown that when people perform interrogative self-talk, like ‘Can I do it?’ they outperformed people who simply talked themselves up in a declarative way.
4. First impressions are highly important at the start of any interaction, whether it’s a personal or professional one.
5. Retail staff only have a fraction of a second to make a good impression on shoppers. With such a short frame of time to work with, it’s very easy to completely lose someone and make them disengage.
6. To get someone on your side, be genuine and refrain from being pushy. For instance, allow them to speak first by simply asking them how they’re doing. Sharing something positive with them - for example, remarking on how nice the weather is, will led to organic small talk. Shopify points to research that indicates that five minutes of chatting increases the amount of value created during a negotiation.
7. Rehearse potential scenarios or interactions.
8. In the retail industry, quick-thinking and thoughtfulness can easily save a sales situation that has turned sour. Employees should be prepared to mitigate or resolve any conflicts or misunderstandings. Think about envisioning certain scenarios and how you’d react to them in the most professional way.
9. During a busy shift, it can be instinctive to quickly provide an answer without thinking it through, or simply brushing someone off because you’re serving someone else.
10. For example, if you don’t know the answer to a question, assure the customer you’re going to find someone who does. Simply acknowledging a concern or question and then finding a solution often goes a long way.
11. Be mindful of your body language.
12. While it’s certainly important to use discretion when speaking with colleagues and potential customers, it’s also equally important to ensure your body language conveys friendliness.
13. For instance, unclasp your arms and hands, as people who cross their arms generally look unapproachable.
14. If possible, greet someone with a handshake - Shopify cites research that proves that people are twice as likely to remember you if you shake hands with them.
15. Finally, maintaining a ‘power pose,’ (standing with arms and legs open) will give you a confidence boost and convey that self-assuredness to others
16. Cutting down on choices is key.
17. Steer clear of overwhelming potential customers with too many choices - Carmine Gallo, a communication and presentations expert, says that people’s short term memory can only retain three bits of information at a time. By providing shoppers with too many choices, it can run the risk of frustrating them to the point that they won’t buy anything.

Retail sales performance training

Many employees have their own style or technique of building rapport and ultimately selling to customers. While it’s great to see staff inject their own personality, it may be necessary to have them brush up on strategies or new best practices to keep their sales performance up to snuff.

Bob Phibbs notes that many retail staff are complacent and set in their ways, making them non-receptive to new training. In addition, staff may have no inkling or desire to learn something new, especially when they feel that they’re forced into it.

As well, front-line staff can feel that training and their real-world experiences are two vastly different things.

Tackling resistance to employee learning can be simple. Put an incentive system in place that not only encourages engagement with the training material, but also motivates staff to adopt the behaviours necessary to boost their sales performance.

Making the training process simple, effective and worthwhile for employees by attaching incentives will also go a long way in terms of employee retention.

‍

Discover more resources on employee engagement and performance incentives by visiting Qarrot.com!