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As a business owner or senior manager wouldn’t it be just great if people would do what you wanted? Surely this is easy? You are in charge and have all the power and so you should be able to get them to follow your instructions and then voila, all is solved.

Yeah right!….. If that was the reality then there wouldn’t be the need for many managers. Probably just one, you, who called the shots and everyone else scurried around trying so hard to please.

No, I am afraid that is all pure fantasy dreamed up after a week spent on holiday enjoying this beautiful weather away from the realities of the day to day machinations of a normal workplace.

How it really works is that the people in your business are all pretty smart, have opinions, have many years of experience across all functions and think they are right most of the time. And often they are. Amongst this set of clever people are all the different personalities that make for the odd game of Russian roulette or power plays from time to time, often when the pressure in the business is on and calm heads are needed by all. Throw in the spice of diverse cultures, different languages and sometimes diverging attitudes, and you have a right royal recipe for a very interesting day, every day.

So, I hear you asking, with the scene now set, “How do I, as the manager of all this mayhem, move these people along so that I can achieve business success?” Really, the question should be “How do I motivate people to move together towards a common goal?”

This is a simple question that has vexed even the greatest of thinkers.

I would bet that from time to time, as you reflect on your team members, that you identify with the old Yorkshire saying “There’s nowt so queer as folk”. If this is indeed true, then it takes a special person to lead them because to be successful you have to have a pretty good understanding of what makes people tick. If you want to motivate your team you need to be thinking about them as both a group and as special unique individuals. So, that is covered.

The most important thing to know, however, is that you cannot motivate anyone. Yes, you cannot motivate anyone! Before you all pack up on me here, let me explain. Firstly, every person is entirely responsible for their own motivation. What you can do, and this is really a huge part of your remit, is to spend a lot of time, energy and resources creating the environment where all these diverse people come together and actually want to do things in your organisation. If you can achieve this, then you will have committers as opposed to compliers and your business will start to flourish. Imagine having set the environment up so that people really really wanted to do stuff for the business? Once you get into this zone, suddenly things get a little easier because people in the business feel part of it and will look after it and defend it for you. They are finally on your side!

Is this easy to achieve? No. Is it possible? Very definitely. Each organisation has its own buzz and feel and the trick is to tune into a natural synergy with what is real for your business and develop and grow the culture, creating an environment that stimulates and motivates people. Yes, it is all about the environment. That is the way to get the motivation high.

Complex stuff but quite doable. It is the only true way to lasting business success.

Have a chat to us. Anytime. We’d love to talk.

While recruiting an HR Manager recently, two of the core questions I used were “What is your definition of HR?”, and “What is the key goal of the HR function?” What was supposed to be a basic question designed to warm up the candidate and glean some information about their philosophies quickly became one of the most important questions I asked. I was struck by the range of answers I received, and the fact that no two candidates shared similar views on the subjects, despite sharing similar qualifications and levels of experience.

I was equally struck by this question when, as part of creating our website, I learned that the most searched term in relation to HR is “What is HR?” Here was I expecting to be enlightened as to what New Zealander’s are looking for from HR; is it performance management systems, recruitment services or employment relations advice, but no, what they really want to know is what we actually do!! And is it in any wonder when there are so many strings to the HR practitioner’s bow? Upon reflection, however, these differences and the answers were crucial in the recruitment decision and have proved equally valuable to consultants in finding businesses who align with our thinking, and where we can really add value.

In my discussion with HR professionals three trends emerged;

1. The first type of HR candidate described HR in terms of compliance and focused heavily on managing risk and employment relations

2. The second saw the role as employee support, a voice for employees and spoke about engagement and employee driven initiatives

3. The last group of candidates viewed HR as supporting business goals and described productivity increases and contributions to business metrics

Gaining value from these insights is in having the discussions with senior management and establishing what they expect from HR, and what they believe is the key goal of a function. If the expectations of the businesses leaders don’t align with the HR professional/consultants it’s an uphill battle for the function to be successful and gain the respect it deserves. If the thinking is similar then HR is sure to be a respected and valued partner in the business and the relationship will flourish.

Our lesson from this is to be clear on our philosophy, and what we believe we stand for as a consultancy. We have also learnt to have these conversations with the businesses we work with, and in some cases to walk away when we can see our goals will never align. It’s also a question we recommend all businesses ask when dealing with an HR professional. Ask your current HR team, your consultants, or ask us “What is HR?”. It is an important conversation and one we are happy to have.

Read any article or magazine these days and you will find that flexible working options are top of employees’ list of “must haves” in any roles they consider. Most employers have implemented some kind of flexible work policy, with flexitime and work from home options becoming more and more popular. In fact, in a number of industries it is more the norm to start at 10, work from home one day a week and leave early on Fridays, than to be at the office 8.30 – 5 for five days a week.

The exception to this is the retail employee, who has a week governed by store opening hours, peak trade periods on weekends, and demanding customers who want to be able to shop at any time that’s convenient to them, including following the Friday afternoon work drinks when they finish at 2!

So in a world where the work/life balance is top of mind for most employees and flexible options are constantly evolving, how can we expect our employees to stay in the industry when what’s on offer elsewhere is so appealing? I’m sure every retailer has a story to tell of high performing team members apologising as they hand you their resignation letter, saying they love working for you but the admin job they are taking will give them weekends off or allow them to work around school hours, and who can blame them?

So what does this mean for retailers? Are we doomed to keep losing talented employees from the industry? We are if we don’t keep up and evolve our thinking to offer flexible options which allow our frontline workers to enjoy more time on the activities outside of work that matter to them. The reality is that the opening hours won’t change. If anything they will just get longer as malls and strip shopping innovate to compete for business. Consumers will become more demanding, especially as they become more savvy around online shopping and with it the growing expectations of 24 hour a day shopping. And weekends will always be a crucial time for sales, as the average New Zealand family loves its weekend latte and browse through the shops. Retail therapy is alive and well!

So knowing the constraints and demands of the industry, we need to start thinking of ways to work around these and innovate and improve the way we arrange our rosters and the makeup of our teams. One of the first ways to do this is to ask the teams themselves. What do they want and how do they think this could work better? If your Store Managers came back and said they wanted every second weekend off, and this is how they could do it and maintain sales, wouldn’t you consider it? Especially if it meant holding onto them in the long run?

Trish McLean, CEO of Retail World Resourcing says that this is a conversation she is having more and more with retailers, as top candidates start asking the questions about what is being offered in terms of flexible work options. “ We see a lot of talented candidates, and the package they are seeking has changed markedly over the past few years. Whereas most salary and career progression has always been top of the list, flexibility is now a key concern. The retailers who recognise this, and develop initiatives that offer flexible options to their employees will be the ones that win the war for talent in the future.”

Unfortunately we don’t have a one size fits all answer for this, as every team is different, as is every brand. But we can start you off trying ideas and innovating to keep being competitive in the labour market.

1.Design a roster that has clearly defined roles in school hours and outside school hours. This way you can hire students for one, and parents for the other, and they can swap hours during the school holidays when parents need to be at home and students need money and extra shifts.

2.Encourage your team to think like a team. Have a base roster with hours that need to be filled and it’s up to them who does what as long as they are filled. I have seen this work really well in rural communities where the team support each other and take pride and ownership in the store. If everyone commits to covering two shifts a month for someone else they benefit from the flexibility allowing them to attend important events in their personal lives and help each other out. Peer pressure often weeds out those who won’t play the game.

3.Let your Managers take ownership of their own roster and results. If they know what they need to achieve and the wage budget they have, as long as they stay in budget and reach their targets does it matter who works when? This allows them to set their own roster, which may or may not include weekends and late nights. If they are a good manager they will work the busy periods, at least part of the time, and if they aren’t the privilege can be revoked.

These ideas won’t work for everyone, and there are sure to be many more ways to offer flexible options. The point is it’s about time we, as an industry, started to investigate how we can do this and show some creativity and innovation in our thinking around our workforce. If we don’t we risk becoming a last choice job for most New Zealanders, and losing the potential to recruit the kind of employees we need to keep moving forward and ensure retail in New Zealand remains successful for the future.

The costs of recruitment are high, anywhere between 6 to 12 months of an employee’s salary when all costs are taken into account. So, retention is the way to go, and that, these days, is strongly linked to the flexibility that employees demand. Are we up to providing it?