Strategize to Keep Good Staff

Turns are good when it comes to selling merchandise in the campus store but turns in staffing can become a problem.

Some employee turnover is unavoidable and even desirable to bring in fresh ideas and different expertise. Too-frequent turnover, though, hampers productivity, undermines the enthusiasm of remaining staff, and ultimately impacts the store’s bottom line. It may be time for a retention strategy.

Deb Snellen, executive director of professional and organizational development, Lake-Sumter State College, Leesburg, FL, has had decades of experience with human resources in higher education and the college store industry. In her CAMEX100 session in New Orleans in 2023, Scalable Talen Management: Retention Strategies for Any Size Store, she laid out the 4C Model to help stores develop a plan for bolstering employee retention.

“The first thing, know the reason you want to implement talent management practices,” she said. “Have a focus.” For retention, that might involve clarifying what problem you’re trying to solve, such as ensuring student workers return the following fall or keeping more experienced professional employees on board as part of a succession plan.

“Go to the root causes of your main issues,” she also recommended. What looks like a retention problem may actually be a hiring problem upon closer inspection, for example.

If you’re sure you’ve got the right people in the right positions but are losing too many or too quickly, then the store needs to consider improving the 4Cs: culture, capacity, capability, and career. These four touch on different aspects of work life that may affect whether an employee is satisfied with their job or wants to leave.

Culture

The culture in your store can be a strong incentive for employees to stay—or it may push them out the door. Snellen advised identifying the core values that shape your culture, “three to five things that are just really important about how you do your work,” she said. Then take steps to reinforce those values with your staff.

“And that can also help you in hiring people because you can ask people how they exhibit those core values,” she added.

Snellen suggested other ways to bolster the positives in your store culture as part of your retention strategy:

• Set up a buddy system, pairing each worker with someone in a different department. A small store could buddy up with another entity on campus.
• Peer mentoring is similar to the buddy system but usually involves matching two employees in the same department. They can be at the same experience level with the idea they will learn and grow together in a supportive way, or one may have more experience and is willing to help the other.
• An engagement survey lets you find out how employees feel about working in the store and how much they’re really connected to the work.
• Use an engagement pyramid model to map the various levels in which employees engage with the store.

Capacity

Capacity has to do with building trust in the hiring process. That might mean setting consistent procedures for recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding and providing mechanisms for employees to voice concerns or problems.

“If I’m having a problem with my manager, I’m not going to tell the manager. I’m just going to leave,” Snellen noted.

She recommended holding interviews with new hires at the 45-day mark to check in on how they’re doing and whether their new workplace is meeting expectations. It doesn’t need to be a lengthy interview (unless a problem is uncovered), just a few questions to assess the employee’s status.

Capability

Most employees want to expand their knowledge and skills and look forward to receiving training and educational opportunities on the job. If they don’t receive any, they look somewhere else.

Snellen suggested creating an individual development plan for each employee. “Ask them, ‘How do you want to grow in the next year?’” she said. Gear training around those goals; many resources are available online.

“Ninety percent of training doesn’t have to cost a lot,” Snellen noted.

She also recommended scheduling employees for occasional lunches with their manager and one-on-one meetings. The 360-degree survey model—in which employees not only rate themselves but also their peers and managers—can also be useful, she said.

Career

If a staff member can’t move up the ladder or into a new area of interest at their current employer, they’ll find an opportunity elsewhere. Snellen suggested talking with employees about their intended career path and how they might achieve their goals at the store.

Talent reviews are another way to help identify ways for employees to grow, Snellen said. These reviews—typically separate from performance reviews and conducted at a different time—assess the abilities and expertise an employee might possess, especially skills outside their current role. Your store might be able to put those skills to good use, retaining a capable employee who might otherwise have sought out greener pastures.