Business Management

Money Is No Longer Buying Happiness
Let’s face it. Today, building an effective team of retail employees is more challenging than ever. We all agree that the key to an effective retail operation are high performing and productive employees. Furthermore, in spite of a great location or a superior line of goods or services the behavior of every single team member well have a dramatic affect on the overall success of the operation. Every time the employee steps out onto the sales floor and interacts with a customer a change in brand equity is realized. In other words, the behavior and interaction of your employee with your customer will have an ongoing affect on brand identity and brand equity within the competitive marketplace.

Understandably great customer experiences create gains in brand equity while disappointing performance by your team members will create a deterioration in your brand equity. Exactly what is the secret to ensuring that each and every one-on-one customer experience in your store consistently increases brand equity in the eyes of the community? In other words, what makes a team member consistently delight and dazzle your customers so that long-term customer relationships with ongoing repeat business are realized?

The secret is a team of engaged employees. Why is employee engagement so critical in today’s retail landscape? In earlier times employee expectations were quite simple. Employees were happy to come to work and do as they’re told, collect their paycheck and go home at the end of the day. In contrast todays employee is far more sophisticated, educated and connected than ever before. Not surprisingly, the Internet has been instrumental in increasing knowledge levels and subsequently employee aspirations and expectations in the workplace. Unlike earlier times, countless surveys have demonstrated that compensation itself is not enough to satisfy employees over the long-term. In fact, in a ranking of 10 critical elements in one recent survey compensation for employees was rated 6/10!

Today, a retail employee is not just motivated by compensation. Above everything else there is a need to belong to the organization and have a sense of ownership. Ownership can be realized through employee empowerment. Trusting your employees and empowering them to make decisions close to the customer creates personal long-term relationships between your team members and your clients. Empowering your employees creates a climate of ownership and belonging for your team members and generates a great level of loyalty to the company.

Building a team of engaged employees that generates powerful long-term customer relationships takes a long time to build. However once realized the organization will enjoy greater productivity per individual employee, higher morale, lower internal and external theft rates and most importantly, lower employee turnover.

How does an organization that has traditionally operated through a regimented model began to create a more productive and loyal team of engaged employees?

1] Make sure that all employees are kept informed of new and relevant developments in the company. They should hear them first and they should hear them from their organization directly. There is nothing more demoralizing than hearing about new organizational developments last or hearing them from an outside source that was aware of the development before your team was.

2] Give staff increased responsibility and trust. Expand their decision-making powers even if you impose some limitations. Empower staff to make decisions close to the customer and give them the necessary support and Training to enable them to make good win-win decisions for all stakeholders.

3] Encourage staff to make decisions close to the customer and even when on occasion a bad decision is made, offer supportive training and refrain from chastising or punishing the employee.

4] Ensure that a structured process is in place to recognize exemplary customer service on a regular basis. Recognize and reward engaged employees who go above and beyond the call of duty to create a memorable customer experience. To keep momentum going, this strategy is most effective during weekly meetings where peer recognition is realized and small rewards are given to stellar employees. Rewards do not need to be extravagant. The recognition and appreciation is the key to effective leadership of engaged employees.

5] Create a formal and informal system that enables engaged employees to voice their opinions and help steer the future direction of the organization. Empower them to voice their opinions on a regular basis and contribute their ideas in a positive way that will make the company more effective and more efficient. Successfully implemented ideas also merit some form of recognition and a reward.

Building a team of engaged employees is the key to future survival and prosperity in every retail organization. Although this can be complex and protracted in time, the key to success is a change in leadership style that supports a greater level of empowerment, involvement and ownership of today’s retail employee. Start now and create the culture that generates higher morale, higher productivity and lower turnover. Rise above the competition in small steps today, and soar to being number one tomorrow!

As the existence of overly competitive market cannot be denied, the importance of business management course cannot be denied too. At present time, every company, whether small or big, run with the help of a proper management process. If there is no management in the company, it is hard to imagine its function as there would be no one to regulate, organise, and supervise work. Thus, it is important to join business management courses to learn the process and management of the company before joining it.it.

To train the managers of future, there are several business management colleges across the field that offer a wide range of business administration courses such as marketing, human resource, finance, logistics, hospitality, transportation, travelling, etc. With the help of these courses, a person can understand the complexity of his or her respective field. To reach the top position in a company, one requires starting from lower level for being able to learn each aspect of the business. However, business courses shorten the span of time of wait. After completion business management course, a person gains expertise in handling complex business issues and implementing innovative ideas for the development of company.

To attain success in career, it is important that a person must develop appropriate career skill related to different business aspects. One of the important aspects of business handling is project management. As handling project is a vital responsibility to handle, there are colleges that offer extensive project managing courses, both regular and online basis. A student can opt for short term or long term project management course, which are extensive and cover all the important concepts of project handling in a company. Students can start with the online course as it gives them freedom to study from home and work along with studies.

The online marketing course allows students to attain degree along with work experience. With this mode of learning, a student get benefits of online education as well as course material that is offered to regular course and distance education students. Being an online student, a person can study at his own pace. The online course has equal value to regular course as it covers all the important concepts related to business management. The advantage an online student has while doing online course is that he gets latest information on the course easily and that too at regular intervals.

Business management degrees cover a broad category and give graduates plentiful opportunities to find work with the government, an accounting service, private enterprise or other managerial positions. A management program prepares students with essential skills and knowledge for a successful future in organising the day to day schedule and operations of an organisation and its staff.

Since there are such a wide variety of managerial positions available worldwide, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what responsibilities are required by a person with a business management degree. However, it can be confidently stated that most managers hold positions of significant responsibility within a company, utilising their skills and professional experience to coordinate staff and resources to help achieve the goals of the company you are working for.

If you have high hopes of becoming a financially successful manager, you should know that most people that fit into this category have sought a degree much higher than their high school leavers certificate. Large companies with international renown often require a master’s degree to be considered for a managerial position. You can always seek out a trade certificate first and see what employment opportunities come your way, but often it is recommended that you achieve the highest level of education you can. This will better prepare you for any position you are offered and choose to accept.

With business management degrees you also have the opportunity to specialise in the following subcategories including: tourism, forestry,communications, humanities, biotechnology, sustainable business,nursing and trade training. By selecting an area of interest you wish to pursue, you can specialise in something that can get you a more focused employment position.

Obtaining a degree from a respected university is a popular route to becoming a manager. Building a strong resume and taking up important leadership positions during your education, whether paid or as pure work experience, can be crucial in the decision making concerning your possible employment with a company after university or polytechnic.

People who decide business management degrees are for them enjoy being in charge and making important decisions. A successful manager will have skills both in the business world and with people. Since managers work with people every day in a company setting, they must be comfortable and confident with both aspects. A big attraction to managerial positions is that often there is a significant pay increase with the promotion to these roles. So if organisation and people skills are one of your strong points, why not seek out a great university or polytechnic to begin building your future in business managment.

Waiariki Institute of Technology – Business Management Degrees.