Delegating tasks to your team can improve productivity and create a better workflow. Here are five easy approaches to dividing employee responsibilities for retail businesses.
- Job descriptions
Job descriptions give each of your team members a written, detailed overview of what their job entails, who to report to, and what is expected of them. This clarifies for a casual retail employee, for example, that their main responsibilities are serving customers and the general upkeep of the store, while a weekend manager may oversee visual merchandising and replenishing stock.
- Task allocations
Allocating tasks is a straightforward way of delegating what needs to be done during a shift. This ensures that every employee is contributing to the team’s collective workload, while also encouraging individual accountability.
Deputy’s Tasking feature allows business owners and managers to create and assign jobs to their employees and receive notifications when they are completed. A manager, for example, may task their weekend part-timers with tidying and organising stock by style and colour to prepare for an annual stocktake the following week.
- Daily to-dos
Creating a daily to-do list is a simple way of getting all the business’s essential daily tasks completed. Each task should be aligned with the expertise or seniority of the employee. For example, a manager, assistant manager or full-timer may be the only employees who can do banking or returns, while all employees may oversee change-rooms or process sales.
Daily to-do lists can be used on an ongoing basis and should reflect the changing nature of the day’s trade and the team working that day. While a busy Saturday may see multiple part-timers working, on quieter weekdays there may be fewer but more experienced employees in store.
- Projects
In addition to the daily to-do list, create a secondary jobs list that reflects any additional project-based or seasonal requirements of the business. This may include, for example, sale preparation, the arrival of a new range in store, or training of Christmas casuals.
These tasks can be allocated in the same way as the daily to-do list is but given broader time frames in which to be completed.
- Work buddies
Grow the skills of junior employees and give managers extra support by teaming them up to work together on tasks. A part-timer, for example, who is studying fashion may benefit from assisting the store’s visual merchandiser. Or a full-timer with aspirations to become a manager might help with the administrative elements of rostering and payroll.
Speak to your junior team about what areas interest them within the business and your senior team about what they’d like support with.
3 tips for better workflow in your retail business
Catch up with your employees one-on-one regularly. This will help you stay informed as to what’s happening within your team and business and to address any employee issues or requests.
Nurture a collaborative culture. Encourage your team to support one another. Stamp out toxic behaviours and recognise hard work and team achievements.
Be flexible. From unusually busy periods to being short staffed, some days everything won’t get done. Recognise this and adapt this into your workflow.
Find out how Deputy can help you manage task and time scheduling, rostering and payroll within your business more efficiently. Contact our friendly team today on 1300 DEPUTY to learn more.
