At home among strangers: how to choose the perfect store administrator

Hire a professional from outside or raise a top manager in your own team? Labor market experts are sure that no matter what decision you make, difficulties are inevitable. We will have to clearly prioritize and calculate possible risks.

The search for a new “overseer” can be dictated by various reasons: moving or dismissing the previous administrator, expanding the network, the desire to move away from the daily management of the store, restructuring. Perhaps you had to resort to layoffs, and the current working conditions were not very satisfactory for the previous employee. But in any case, it is important to remember that recruiting is a craft based mostly on the relationship of people, so there is no universal approach. We will try to outline the features of each of the options.

Education of own employees

It is likely that a certain employee stands out among the store’s work team who, in addition to positive experience in his position, looks at the situation in the store more globally than the others, is ready to bear responsibility for important decisions and is able to influence the work of other sellers. What awaits the owner when upgrading such an employee to the post of administrator?

Financial benefits. First of all, promoting an existing employee is often cheaper. When moving to a new company, many employees expect a salary no lower than their previous position—often this is the main motivation for changing jobs. Sometimes salary expectations look like this: market (real) compensation level + 50%. Knowing this simple formula, when interviewing an employee for a new, more senior position, you can confidently offer a salary 15-30% lower than the external candidate's stated salary.

Saving time on introduc- ing an employee to the store. This is crucial, as the administrator will be managing people whose idiosyncrasies are well-known. The only potential inconvenience in this case is having to manage yesterday's friends. Ideally, this situation is resolved as follows: an employee ready to take on the administrator position is transferred to another store in the chain.

Improving the operations of an individual store or chain. A promoted employee has the opportunity to implement store improvement ideas that may have been simmering for years. They understand the store's operations from the inside and the capabilities of each salesperson, which means they can optimize the store's performance.

In addition, the employee is well versed in the products offered.

Loyalty to management and the company as a whole has already been established – after all, this quality has already been tested and served as one of the factors in choosing this particular employee.

Attracting candidates from other companies

According to a study by Harvard University professor Boris Groysberg, outsourced employees will almost always cost more and work worse (Source: Boris Groysberg, In Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Performance). This can be avoided by poaching the administrator along with his team.

A store manager position often arises when a company requires new development directions and fresh ideas. The likelihood that a new employee will bring these to the table is greater than through the career advancement of an established employee.

If a company owner suspects that the psychological atmosphere within the team leaves much to be desired, then a new leader may well have a positive impact on the situation.

The opportunity arises to hire a "star" —an employee who stands out from the crowd. This will cost more, but it's the kind of person who might be impossible to find within your current team.

However, according to Matthew Bridwell, a professor at Whaton University, the fact that the entire team is involved in one way or another in the process of onboarding a new administrator means that the financial performance of the store is going down during this time, and soon after the probationary period from store staff can expect a wave of requests for a salary increase.

Strategist and teacher

A store administrator is a person who combines several opposing qualities. On the one hand, he is a good business executive responsible for ensuring that the quantity of goods at the beginning and end of the shift converges. This is a rather diligent person who, if such responsibilities are imposed on him, will be able to accurately fill out the cash register, keep track of the working hours of sellers and support personnel, including replacements, sick leave, vacations, calculate wages and weave the most intricate work schedule of the outlet employees.

On the other hand, a slightly sulky and immersed in the world of numbers and graphs, the administrator is not the best choice for an organization focused on quality customer service. For daily communication, motivation and, which is very important, to maintain morale in the team, the administrator should be, if not a psychologist, then at least sensitive and able to capture and gently direct the team's mood. It is not a secret for anyone that clothing and footwear retail is subject to seasonal fluctuations in demand, and in those months when trade is traditionally "standstill", it is important for the administrator to support the sellers morally.

The proximity of the administrator to the team will also help to learn in time about the planned changes in the staff of the team, such as a maternity leave planned in secret from everyone, dismissal, or an attempt to set up the team against the system or the leader.

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At the same time, the store administrator must have such a quality as stress resistance. The ability to calmly and correctly deal with conflict situations with suppliers, customers and within the team, without shifting this responsibility onto your own management, is an indispensable part of the store administrator's work.

Thus, when hiring an administrator to work, look for the following qualities:

- A clear desire to work with this product

- A tendency to accuracy and accuracy

- The ability to think simultaneously about several tasks

- Stress resistance

- The desire to find a common language with subordinates

- Equally creativity and perseverance

You should not try to find a seller who is guaranteed to become a store administrator. Tricky questions like “Who do you want to be in 5 years?” Will not bring you closer to the dream of raising a good manager from a simple salesperson. Plans are changing, and an employee on whom the director is betting may leave for a number of reasons. Instead, look for a mature personality, moderately creative but a little down to earth. After a while, when this seller gets comfortable and wants to develop further, he can be offered an administrator position.

Functionality and Responsibilities

Consider a typical administrator’s functionality in a trading unit:

- Realization of maximum sales / profits;

- Store staff management;

- Work with government agencies, checking authorities;

- Personal responsibility for the material values ​​of the unit and compliance with labor standards in the store;

- Ensuring the most comfortable conditions for customers of the store.

When delegating these responsibilities, it is worth understanding in what percentage the administrator should devote time and resources to them, and how suitable a particular candidate is for this.

An excellent team leader may lag behind in terms of sales indicators, a wonderful business executive may not get along with sellers, and a talented salesperson with entrepreneurial abilities may not be so responsible in ensuring labor safety and goods safety. Therefore, the balance of qualities is the fundamental quality of the administrator.

Of course, there are factors that do not depend even on the most talented administrator, thanks to which he cannot be wholly responsible for the performance of the store. This is financing a trading unit, and a centralized selection of assortment, and, more globally, geographical and planning choice of territory for the store. A true professional can only compensate to some extent for such shortcomings if he does not encounter a wall of misunderstanding on the part of management.

Two in one: director and administrator

Is it worth combining these two posts into one? HR specialists do not have a definite answer, everything will depend on the position of the managerial level in the company: who the owner or the director general controlled by him sees himself directly. In some companies, the store director is only expected to achieve the necessary sales volumes, without interfering with the management of the trading unit. In this case, the administrator / director should be able to simultaneously have an entrepreneurial vision of the situation, but be distracted by the routine work, which consists of a set of small tasks related to personnel management and work with the supply of goods. First of all, it is worth assessing whether, in principle, there are such working conditions in the store and whether this person is suitable for such multitaleatherg and intense activity. Such employees certainly meet.