Straight From the Boss: What Makes a Great Retail Employee

Retail workers are a specific breed of people. The best ones spend day in and day out working tirelessly to provide great service to customers but what exactly makes a great retail employee?

Krystal Najim, a store manager for a large retail company, has hired and worked with dozens of employees for more than a decade and sat down with Monster to share insight as to what makes the best employee for a retail job.

Looking For Star Quality

When asked what the number one quality she looks for in an employee, her answer was simple: personality. It isn’t just any personality that makes a great retail employee but “specifically an aptitude for talking to strangers, positive and great energy.”

“Everything else can be taught, but without the personality, your job of talking to people becomes difficult,” she said.

The requirements are the same at the seasonal level.

“Many seasonal employees have the opportunity to stay on after the season if they work hard so it’s important to hire with that in mind and not just find people to fill the hole,” she said.

Signs of Success

So how do managers know an employee will do well at a company? What are the signs?

First, Najim looks for employees who are coachable and can take feedback.

“If a person truly wishes to do well in a position and improve themselves then they will have to hear what they are doing wrong and how to improve it,” she said.

As a retail employee, you need to be open to constructive criticism from a boss, even if it’s tough to hear. Especially with the amount of staff turnover in retail, it is easy for someone to get hired and outshine you, so it is important that you are constantly working on improving your skills and building on feedback.

Najim brings it all back to just being a good worker, “If they cannot take positive or negative feedback they won’t do well at any company.”

Najim says the second sign is flexibility.

“Retail requires a lot of flexibility, with your schedule mostly, but also in regard to reacting to business trends,” she said.

You have to always be ready to adapt whether it is by moving shelves and doing floor sets or changing the way you give customer service; things are always changing.

Get Your Boss To Invest In You

So what characteristics make a manager want to truly invest in an employee’s success?

“The short answer is that everyone I hire I invest in immediately. That’s my job,” said Najim.

But it’s not always that simple.

“The catch is whether the employee wants that. You can pretty much tell in the first 30 days who does and who does not. It seems less about certain characteristics than it is about who is open to growth. Each and every experience in your life is an opportunity to grow as a person. Retail is one that will challenge you in every way.”

Najim hires a lot of students that need a part-time job to pay for gas money and college loans and she knows, that for many, an interest in a career in retail is unlikely.

“Most people think it’s just ‘folding clothes and talking to people’ but you learn so many skills that will carry over either into your life or your career and I’m not just talking about an organized closet. Retail teaches you how to have patience in people, how to balance many different task loads, the importance of organization, flexibility, how to network and so much more,” she said.

Challenges For Management

What’s the biggest challenge with managing retail employees?

“It is definitely managing personalities. It is so incredibly important to tailor your coaching conversations to each employee. You have to know what motivates them and how to have that hard conversation with them sometimes. You never want them walking away from a conversation like that feeling deflated but feeling empowered!”

Interested in a career in retail? Or just a part-time gig? See what retail positions are available near you!