Employee Engagement

July 27, 2015

There’s an ethos at Google that says if you give the right tools to the people who like to make a difference… they will.

While it might be difficult to compare an operation the size of Google to a museum store, many of the essential tools for employee engagement are the same no matter the size or mission of the business.

Your employees can make all of the difference.  Not only are you entrusting them with the care of your customers, they also need to take care of your bottom line. Your employees are your partners in creating a successful enterprise.

In the book, The Truth About Getting the Best from People, author Martha Finney writes that software giant Inuit found engaged employees are more than twice as likely to be the company’s top performers.  You don’t have to employ thousands of people to see that this is true. Engaged employees have fewer sick days, they make customers happier, they’re usually more innovative, and you’ll have lower staff turnover.

The challenge to creating an engaged employee in a small operation such as a museum store is often exacerbated due to its size.  In the non-profit retail space, few operators can pay the floor staff – even their best performers – much more than the lower end of the wage scale.

So how do you create employee incentives given the limitations of your operation?

Often for rank-and-file employees simple adjustments can pay big dividends.  Things like flexible schedules, an inviting and comfortable place to take a break, or recognition of their achievements can go a long way.  And, never forget the power of communication as a foundational tool for building a cohesive team.

Perhaps one of the first places the store operator should look to achieve top employee performance is their own abilities. Operators and managers need to have the skills to create cultivate the best employees. It’s also important to be able to share knowledge through training, communicate often and openly, and have an attitude and aptitude to nurture everyone on the team.  If your store staff is only one or two people it becomes even more critical to help them become experts in your business. After all they are the ones who will up-sell, suggestive sell, and close the sale on virtually every transaction. If your store depends on small sales, then the ability of your staff to increase the size of those sales is critical.

An extensive report for the British government, Engaging for Success (the MacLeod Report), took an in-depth look at what was needed to create productive and engaged employees. The report highlighted these critical drivers:

• Give employees a clear line-of-sight between their job and the overall vision of the organization.
• Treat employees as individuals and ensure that they feel they are valued and supported to do their job.
• Employees should feel to free to voice their ideas and they should be confident that they’ll be heard.

Museums and other nonprofit stores are in a unique situation since they are a small operation inside of a larger enterprise.  It’s too easy for the store staff to become isolated from the larger museum staff and the institution’s mission.  One suggestion is to get them out into the institution so they are as knowledgeable about the collection as they are about what is offered in the store. It’s also important your staff be aware in anything new that’s happening.  As new additions are added to the collection, make sure your staff knows about it so they can talk knowledgably with customers.

Regardless of what you pay your employees, they need to know they are professionals.  It doesn’t matter if they’re part-time or full-time, it’s important they become experts in the work they do.

Challenging your team to be the absolute best they can be is the surest ways to cultivate engaged employees. Of course it will take a fully engage manager to make that happen.

To learn more about fully engaged employees visit www.engageforsuccess.org.  You’ll also find a link there for the MacLeod report.

Steve White is a freelance writer and entrepreneur living and writing in Denver.