Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM DECEMBER 2015 52 Chad Burris Furniture Trends THE RESPONSE TO RESPONSIBILITY T hey should do this task that I have asked them to do, simply because I am their boss, and I am paying them!" When was the last time you had this thought about your employees? Have you ever been so busy with tasks that you acknowledged the need for some help, and then actually convinced yourself to delegate some of these tasks to employees? How often do these task assignments end in one of these three ways? 1. The employees didn't perform the task to standard, so you had to go behind them and do it yourself. 2. The employees said they would do it, but secretly complained and thought 'This is not in my job description'. 3. The employees didn't do the task at all. Sound familiar? In the restaurant industry, they call this type of delegation "side work". If you are a server, you wait on tables and your income comes from tips. Once your shift is done, then you have to do side work, which usually is detailed on a white board list and determined by which section of tables that you were assigned to that night. The more lucrative the tables, the tougher the side work. If your employees think they have it tough, ask them if they know how much money a waitress gets paid to dust the blinds every night, or mop the dish room floor, or clean the tea urns, roll all the silverware, or break down the soda station. In most states, it is an hourly rate of $2.13 which gets taxed according to the amount of tip money that the waitress made that night. At the end of the week, that $2.13 an hour likely gets taxed down to a zero on her paycheck. Assigning tasks can be like giving a child a list of household chores: "Clean your room, make your bed, unload the dishwasher." They seem temporary, unimportant, and may be perceived as a waste of time. Similarly, how do you think that this list of tasks can be perceived by your employees? • Dust the case good section • Vacuum the rugs • Wipe fingerprints off the glass Is there a better way to delegate to your employees? A way that gets them to engage, instead of grumble? A way that promotes accountability, instead of creating a "my job vs. his job vs. her job" culture? Insert Responsibility Let's use the same scenario as above. It is common knowledge that in a furniture store, dusting, vacuuming and cleaning fingerprints is important to maintaining a professional showroom. Instead of assigning them as tasks or chores, assign them as responsibilities. For example: you pick a team of employees and have this conversation with them. "We all know that we take pride in the appearance of our showroom, and since it is of such importance to me personally, I would ask that you take the initiative to maintain that appearance. I trust that you can create a system amongst yourselves to keep our showroom up to standard." By emphasizing the importance of a clean showroom and touching on their sense of pride, you have turned the same tasks that were previously chores into an area of responsibility. This also is no longer a temporary assignment. You have appointed them with the continual upkeep of the showroom. To insure buy-in, you can also follow up with the question, "Is there anything you need from me to help make this responsibility easier?" If they say "yes", then entertain their requests. If they say "no", then they have essentially accepted responsibility. This responsibility model is scalable as well. Consider your protection plan program in your store. Success in this category takes effort. Is there someone on your staff that is deserving of more responsibility? You could go so far as to promote them to be the in-store product protection champion. Are there other areas of your business that you could improve by delegating responsibility? If delegation has been a struggle in the past, try instead to create responsibility, not chores. The response to responsibility may surprise you. RO " Chad Burris, Product Protection Business Development MEGA Group USA

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