Your staff are one of the most vital assets to the success of your business. 

They are the ones on the floor delivering customer service and building relationships with your valuable customers, the ones representing your business to all the shoppers in your store, and the ones you entrust with important tasks like managing the cash and counting the inventory. 

Just like the other moving parts of your business, you need to take stock of your staff performance to make sure everything is running smoothly. 

Here are a few ways to do just that, and measure staff performance in your business.

Set goals

With Oliver POS, it’s easier than ever to set goals for your staff to achieve. With our monthly sales goal feature, you can set custom goals for each of your employees to meet every month.

To set a monthly goal, simply open your Oliver Hub, and from your main menu select ‘Settings’, and ‘Staff.’ When you select the staff member you’d like to set a monthly goal for, select ‘Staff Details’ and their monthly sale goal will appear. Once set, the Hub will measure how close your staff is to reaching their monthly goal.

However, keep in mind your employees schedules when setting goals for them. For example, full-time employees should have a higher goal than part-time employees. Likewise, staff who work on your busiest days, such as Saturdays and Sundays, should probably have higher goals than those who only work more slow days. Take these factors into account before setting achievable and reasonable sales goals for your staff.

Analyze Reports

Reporting tools aren’t just meant for tracking sales. With Oliver POS’ advanced reporting tools in the Oliver Hub, you have access to in-depth staff reports. Oliver POS staff reports will keep you up to date with your top employees, as well as products sold, sale amounts, and summaries of all of your staff’s performance over any custom date range.

Attendance

Attendance can be a big indicator of your staff’s performance. Keep some kind of timesheet or scheduling system wherein your staff can clock in and out for their shifts. If you notice one of your staff members is often leaving early, coming in late, or missing work altogether too often, it may be a sign that their performance is suffering.

Calculate Conversion Rate

If you’re running a brick and mortar store, keeping track of your conversion rates may be a useful thing to start doing. This formula keeps track of how many customers come into your store, versus how many transactions occur in your store. This will give you an idea of how effective your staff is at making sales.

Conversion Rate = (Total Shoppers in Your Store/Total Transaction) x 100

Use Your Own Judgement

Measuring performance can be challenging because it’s so subjective. While the methods listed above can help you get a better idea of who is performing well, there are other factors involved that may have an effect on their performance.

Pair your performance metrics with your own judgment of your staff. Take note of how effective and efficient their work is – do they take a long time to complete a simple task? Do they get all their work done? Do they seem to be enthusiastic and motivated at work? Do they get along with the rest of your staff? The best way to get a sense of your staff is by seeing for yourself their daily performance.

What to do if your staff performance isn’t meeting your expectations?

If you find that your staff performance isn’t as high as you’d hoped, it might be a sign that there’s a problem. Before rushing to penalize your employee (or employees), first check in with your own expectations. Are they realistic? Are they fair? This is especially important to consider if you see a decline with your entire staff – if all employees aren’t meeting your standard, then it may be a problem with your expectations, not your employees. Likewise, it could also be an indicator of an underlying problem within the workplace. 

Talk to your staff. If there is an underlying issue, get to the bottom of it and understand what can be improved. 

If it’s one employee in particular whose performance is suffering, the best strategy to help them improve is by having an open, one-on-one discussion about their behavior. Do not rush to penalize them or put measures in place to ensure their improvement – talk to them and get to the bottom of what’s going wrong. It’s possible that something is hindering their performance, either a personal struggle, a workplace obstacle, or something else entirely. They may not even realize their performance is suffering.

Your staff may need more training. Some may need training in sales or  customer service techniques, while others may simply need a touch-up on product or service knowledge. If this is not the case, your employees may need an incentive or a morale booster to keep their enthusiasm high. 

Maintaining open communication with your team is highly important for the morale and performance of your employees, and in turn, the performance of your business. Just like sales, inventory, or customers, your staff is a fundamental pillar of your business.