The Importance of Hiring The Right Employees

Many retail store owners overlook the importance of hiring the right employees. When you are busy handling dozens of other responsibilities that come with managing a business, it's easy to forget about something as simple as choosing employees. Unfortunately, however, the wrong employees can have a disastrous effect on your business, lowering your sales and tainting your brand name.

Employees should come to work with a clear drive and determination to make the most out of their time on the clock. According to a recent study published in the Gallup Management Journal, only 29% of all US employees are actively engaged in their job with a true passion and desire. That means over ¾ of all employees here in the US are simply going through the motions just to get by. Statistics such as these should serve as a wake up call to retail business owners everywhere.

Of course, hiring the right employees is also necessary to reduce the risk of theft. Did you know that over $50,000,000 (yes, that's billion) worth of goods in the US are stolen by employees each year? A recent survey revealed that upwards of 75% of all employees have stolen at least once from their employer. Unless you want to theft to eat away at your store's profits, you must hire trustworthy, reputable employees.

Don't make the decision to hire employees based solely on their application. Instead, categorize all of the applications into three separate stacks – not hiring, maybe and high chance of hiring. You can followup with applicants in the “high chance of hiring” to see if they are ready for an interview. This will give you a chance to see what the individual is like, and you'll be able to ask them more questions. If you're still shorthanded after going through this stack, go back to the “maybe” stack of applications.

Taking the time to hire the right employees will pay off in several different ways. For starters, they'll likely go above and beyond the call of duty. Instead of performing only their job requirements, a good employee will take some of the other work off your shoulders. Whether it's answering the phone, sending out emails, making trips to the bank, etc.

Hopefully, this will give you a better understanding on why hiring the right employees is important. Sure, it takes additional time and resources to carefully analyze and interview all of the potential applicants, but it's a smart move that's sure to pay off in the long run.