In every business where there are more than three or four people working, it is possible to define whether there is a ‘pulling up’ mentality or a ‘dragging down’ mentality occurring.
And despite staff training, the establishment of rules and procedures and the presence of a hardworking manager, these two factors (and of course, shades in between) can make or break a business. Let’s go back one step and analyse the team dynamics at play here. If you have a staff member who doesn’t feel like they’re a stakeholder in the business, they’re most likely to play the ‘lowest common denominator’ game i.e. Who’s looking? What can I get
away with? Or he/she gets away with it so I can as well.
Now, I don’t mean financial stakeholders here of course. The challenge for every business owner/manager is to ensure staff members are involved, utilised and made to feel part of the team. The surest way to secure a ‘dragging down’ mentality is to have uninvolved, under-utilised or unappreciated staff and, of course, a manager playing favourites.
Let’s be fair here (and a little realistic), how can we ensure a two-shift-a-week casual gets involved in the business and becomes a stakeholder? They’re not even thinking about the place on the five days they’re not there and, in reality are only there for the pay packet. Well, these are the cards that have been dealt to us as managers in a retail liquor business. We hire on a casual basis because it suits our business model and cost structure. We have to work around these difficulties or the ‘pulling up’ mentality is a glorious but unattainable vision.
In my October 2023 article, I mentioned setting a staff Pulling up or dragging down
questionnaire every month, in part testing and in part setting the expected standard. Ten questions on product, price, food/drink matching, RSA… you get the idea. This is a great way to involve staff and you’ll very quickly find out who’s keen to learn more (pulling up) and who doesn’t see it as part of their job (dragging down).
What is your opportunity in making each staff member a ‘Champion’ in one particular stock category? They could get more involved in displays of their category, get more in-depth in product knowledge and could assist with sharing that knowledge around the team.
How do you communicate with staff when they’re not at work regarding rosters, upcoming promotions, new stock arriving, display changes etc? Well, apart from rosters we usually wait until they’ve come to work and then we’re playing catchup. I have also previously mentioned staff who put up barriers to being trained and will often ‘white-ant’ your efforts. My question is, can you afford to have that person working for you? During Covid times, it was tricky getting (good) staff however there’s less excuse now.
A ‘pulling up’ mentality comes from staff who want to be there, feel involved just a little, feel that their work may lead somewhere or at least give them skills for a later role and, most importantly, to work around like-minded people. So, what skills does a manager need to pull all this together? He/she must be able to set minimum standards and get people to work on time but also ignite a passion for the industry and for their business. And these skills must be in evidence each and every day.
Food for thought.
This article was written by Peter Hall and was originally published in the April edition of National Liquor News.