How successfully hire the grocery store employees

 

 

Hiring grocery store workers presents a number of unique challenges, which can make it very difficult for employers to compete with other industries to appeal to potential candidates. Some of the top challenges are:

Industry perceived as not very appealing

Robert Paul Jones, associate professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Tyler (UTT), explained it best when he said “the industry doesn’t do a lot to make itself attractive.” For the most part, grocery stores are not seen as particularly innovative or pleasant to work at specially for candidates who are out of college and looking for a more stable gig with a clear career trajectory.

Long working hours and low pay

Grocery stores often have extensive open hours and employees are expected to work during the evening, over the weekend, and even on holidays. In addition to less than desirable working hours, employees are often required to work 8-hour shifts or longer, which can be off-putting to some candidates. Since it requires a lot of standing, walking, and even some heavy lifting, the job can be quite physically demanding and the pay certainly doesn’t make up for it.

You can successfully hire grocery store employees with the right strategy in place. Here are some key tips and tricks to help you navigate the process:

Sources local candidates

Get creative with sourcing local candidates to apply for open roles—and not via a form to fill in at the supermarket. For example, you can take advantage of local job boards, Facebook groups, and LinkedIn groups to each potential candidate. You can also utilize specialty job boards to target those looking for grocery store roles.

Look for customer orientation

Great employees create a positive, friendly atmosphere at your stores. You need customer-oriented, helpful grocery store workers to make your customers come back to your store. Finding and hiring such grocery store employees comes down to the selection process, which is the best opportunity to vet whether a candidate is a good fit for your business. You can do this by starting with a personality questionnaire to help you get to know the candidate and identify whether they have the right disposition and potential to succeed in a grocery store role. Also, take the chance to ask specific interview questions that will reveal desirable characteristics,

Examples of personality-specific interview questions to ask:

• What does good customer service look like to you?
• How would you handle a difficult customer?
• Do you enjoy a social work environment?
• What strengths can you bring to the table?

In order for grocery store employees to be successful, they need to be able to work well with others. That’s why you need people who are team players and always ready to give a helping hand to their colleagues and customers. They should also have decent interpersonal skills, as they’ll be required to consistently interact with both other supermarket employees and customers in the store.

 

Prepare a hiring compliance checklist

Once you decide to hire someone for a grocery store role, you need to put all of the appropriate legal matters in order before they start. It’s useful to create a hiring compliance checklist with all the forms and other necessary documents that need to be filled out to ensure you cover all your bases from both a legal and regulatory perspective.

Improve your retail onboarding process

Your new grocery store employees will need proper onboarding and training to be able to work productively, even if they only work seasonally or for a few hours a week. For example, let your new employees shadow the more experienced ones and then work under their supervision. Good onboarding will help you reduce early turnover, make sure new grocery store employees are comfortable with basic responsibilities, and have their questions answered.

Create a positive work environment

You want to do everything you can to attract job candidates and keep them coming back, right? That said, even your best efforts will be in vain if the grocery store is a toxic work environment. Also, creating a positive experience for shoppers starts with creating one for your employees.

Conclusion

Working at a grocery store can be both physically demanding and mentally exhausting especially during this time period, where there’s a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 on the job. That’s why getting people to work for you (and stick it out indefinitely) isn’t an easy feat. With that being said, it’s not impossible with the right approach.

By doing everything you can to create a positive work environment and have a streamlined candidate selection process in place, you can attract and hire grocery store employees who’ll stick with your business, collaborate with colleagues, and offer exceptional customer services that keeps people coming back to shop in your store.

 

References

Abraham, K., 2009. Managing Human Resource. 4th ed. New York: Prentice Hall.

Armstrong, M., 2014. A guide to people management. In Armstrongs Essential Human Resource Management Practices. pp.143-51.

Asare-Bediako, K., 2002. Professional skills in Human Resource Management. Accra: Kasbed Ltd.