SAF 2015: Would You Work For Your Company?
Glenna Hecht, a Human Resources consultant, returned to the SAF stage this year with two sessions. The first one one focussed on an interesting concept: How does your company measure up to prospective employees?
The hiring competition for floral shop owners isn’t just other floral shops - it’s all of retail, and your dream employee may decide to go somewhere else because your business doesn’t meet their needs. Or you may find your employees only stay for a few months then leave for the same reasons.
Glenna took the participants through a workshop focusing on creating a value proposition for your shop. Highlights included:
- Be firm but clear about what you can offer in terms of benefits. And for smaller shops, be open to alternative types of benefits. For example, some applicants may opt for a flexible work schedule over more traditional benefits.
- What training do you offer? Is there opportunity to move up and take on more responsibility? Some applicants are looking to start a career, and if you value hard-working employees you need to be able to plan for this in advance and discussing it during the interview process. At a minimum, you should be training employees for other positions in your shop to cover absences and sudden departures.
- Be honest about your business’s culture. Glenna referenced Generation Y and Z who are more likely to leave competitive, less nurturing workplaces. It’s okay if your culture is different, but if you are not clear about that in the hiring process it will lead to issues later.
Most importantly, Hecht advises that you should always be hiring - either interviewing possible candidates or re-engaging your current staff every day so that they are feeling connected to your floral business.
Glenna’s second session of the day focussed on what happens after the hiring process in terms of how to coach an employee to improve performance and contribute more to your business.
SAF members can access Glenna’s materials on the SAF website.