Building an all-star team

Customers might be drawn to a store because of its alluring merchandise, but the connections they make with a store’s employees, when done well, help to create a loyal customer base.

During the 2023 Coastal Connections Conference, four retailers offered their best tips for hiring and retaining retail workers in an educational session titled, “Building an All-Star Team.”

Speakers included William Hill of Margaritaville Resort Orlando Gift Shop; Scott Hamblen of Sunshine Ace Hardware in Naples, Florida; Kim Springsteen-Abbott of Lady Gryphon’s Coastal Collection Shop in Tarpon Springs, Florida; and Kathy Cruz, a shop owner and business coach for Savvy Shopkeeper in Lakewood, Ohio.

Although cultivating a team of loyal employees takes hard work, it’s certainly doable for any seaside retailer. It involves hiring the right people, adequately onboarding them and consistently training them.

Hiring winning team members

Seaside retailers should be creative in their approaches to hiring the right candidates to staff their stores. At Margaritaville Resort Orlando, Hill said he has used social media, in-store advertising, employee referrals and customer interactions to find the right people. He noted recruiting is also an option.

Hill also advised that seaside retailers take a two-step approach in the hiring process by having an initial phone call with prospective hires and then an in-person interview if the initial call goes well. Some key topics to discuss in that initial call include the position requirements as well as the prospective hire’s previous work experiences, availability and pay expectations.

An in-person interview should be used to get to know the potential new hire better and check that his or her values align with the store’s values. Hill noted that this interview shouldn’t be very regimented; it needs to be a conversation.

The job candidate should do most of the talking in these interviews, too. Springsteen-Abbott said she focuses on listening when hiring employees for Lady Gryphon’s Coastal Collection Shop.

“As owners, we want to tell everyone everything about our company at the initial interview, but you should be doing hardly any of the talking,” she noted.

Springsteen-Abbott suggested asking prospective candidates what they know about the store to see whether they have done their homework and are interested.

If that conversation goes well, Hill recommended hiring anyone who seems to be a strong candidate rather than waiting on interviews with other candidates.

Conversely, he said retail managers shouldn’t hire out of desperation, either. If a candidate seems eager for the job but has some red flags — such as limited availability or a bad record of job hopping — it might be wise to wait for a better candidate.

Hill concluded that personality is the most important trait hiring managers should look for in prospective candidates.

“I can teach anybody how to fold a shirt; I can’t teach somebody how to be a human being and how to talk to somebody,” he points out. “Personality is more important than experience.”

Training and onboarding

Once seaside retailers hire strong candidates, training and onboarding those employees is critical to retaining them.

Although onboarding might sound like a formal term, Springsteen-Abbott noted that it’s essential for setting expectations for employees. She suggested highlighting the company’s story, its vision, its mission and goals for the employee’s particular job in an onboarding meeting.

Cruz said clarity is important when training employees to set them up for success. She said seaside retailers should give each position a clear job description, measurements for success in that role and clarity on deadlines.

She added that retailers also should not be afraid to delegate tasks and train individuals to be experts in certain areas of the business. According to Cruz, business owners sometimes fail to delegate responsibility to others. But delegating can help alleviate the owner and develop a loyal employee.

“If you don’t want to feel like you’re drowning in your business, it’s really important to let go of ownership,” she concluded. “The happier you are in your business, the happier they are going to be working for you.”

Retaining top performers

Seaside retailers also want to do more than just hire and onboard their team members. Hamblen said they should be regularly training and engaging with employees to ensure retention. He stressed that overlooking employee engagement can have adverse effects.

Hamblen listed three levels of engagement that retailers might notice among their employees: engaged employees, not-engaged employees and actively disengaged employees.

He noted that some of the things employees want most include recognition for their contributions, approachable managers, the ability to learn new things, respect, a fair chance at a promotion and career guidance. He added, “You know what’s amazing about this list? It costs nothing.”

He concluded that customer experience suffers if employee experience is poor.

“If you want to grow your customer experience, you have to grow employee engagement,” Hamblen said. “You can’t send your employees out to be advocates for your business if they don’t believe in it, they don’t love it and if they’re not passionate about your mission. Define your culture and standards. Hire for culture first, readily connecting to people, and then keep a pulse on your team’s engagement.”