As a manager, especially as a retail store manager, you’ve probably learned a lot this holiday season. You’ve learned about the temperament of your customers, the way your store does business, and the reliability of your employees. You had to make some serious adjustments to get through the holiday season and you now need to make some more adjustments as you back down.
Assess Stock Options
You likely won’t need to keep quite as much stock on hand now that the holidays are over, especially if your special holiday sales have finished. Look to corporate or to your general manager to learn more about what you should do with clearance items and when the next phase of stock should go into the store. You’ll likely finish up with your winter stock sooner than you think. You may even have Valentine’s day stuff out. Readjust the numbers based on your sales and what is most popular this time of year.
Assess Your Employees
You may have had some regular employees before the holiday season started and you probably hired some temps. Who deserves to stay? Did your regular employees become too comfortable and call out too often, letting you down? Did your temp employees really step up to the plate? It is perfectly fine to let the employees who aren’t best for your business go while keeping the ones who actually seem to value their jobs.
Readjust the Schedules
Once you know who you are keeping, you’ll need to readjust the schedule. Check out these cool scheduling tools from When I Work for examples of how easy it can be to use apps (who isn’t carrying a phone) to better orchestrate your scheduling needs. They can be accessed on phones or online, so no one should have trouble using them – and there’s no way for anyone to claim the schedule was changed or lost later on.
Adjust Store Hours
A lot of stores open earlier and close later before and right after the holidays. This isn’t really necessary once the holiday season has passed, as people aren’t really as concerned about shopping before and after work. Make the necessary adjustments so that you can be a more profitable store.
The holiday season can create havoc, but now it’s time to take a breath and reorganize. Doing so will ensure your store remains profitable throughout the year.
