Liquor Store Employee Reviews that Actually Improve Performance

There is much more to running a liquor store than re-stocking fridges and shelves and knowing what products to sell. While these “nuts and bolts” are important, your employees are arguably as important. Imagine two competing stores, both in good locations, with the same layout, that stock the same products and have similar in-store promos. As liquor license consultants, we visit such stores frequently, yet invariably, one store will outperform the other from a profit standpoint. Why then, all things being equal, does this happen? In our experience, store employees are the X-factor.

Hiring experienced workers is important (Thrive Advisors can help with liquor store employee acquisition), although once on the job, keeping employees motivated and performing well is key. A performance review is a tool that most companies use to influence the way employees work, yet instead, an annual review may feel “punitive” instead of “corrective” or “encouraging”. Employees may feel as though you’ve collected a list of their shortcomings and grievances, accrued over the year, and then, “Bam!”, they’re hit with the review. You can’t effectively run a liquor store by looking in the rear view mirror. Feedback needs to occur in close proximity to the behaviour you are trying to improve.

Changing the Nature of Liquor Store Employee Reviews

According to the Gallup article “Transform Performance Management”, only 2 of 10 employees agree that the way their performance is managed motivates them to do outstanding work. There are many other alarming performance management stats that point to the ineffectiveness of a typical review.

A 1996 meta-analysis “The effects of feedback interventions on performance” (Kluger, A. N., & DeNisi, A) revealed that over one-third of the time feedback interventions (FI) decrease performance. An employee review is one type of FI.

According to Gallup in “Give Performance Reviews that Actually Inspire Employees”, only 29% of employees strongly agree that their performance reviews are fair, and just 26% strongly agree they are accurate.

Gallup suggests that employee performance reviews often do more harm than good and there isn’t a “one size fits all” solution to improving employee performance management. However, Gallup recommends some simple changes that work better for both employees and employers:

• Train managers to have more frequent and meaningful conversations with employees about their performance. According to Gallup, when a team gets weekly feedback employees are 5.2 times more likely to strongly agree that the feedback was meaningful; 3.2 times more likely to strongly agree they are motivated to do outstanding work; and 2.7 times more likely to be engaged at work.
• Shift the paradigm from “manager as boss” to manager as coach/mentor who can “see their employees from both an objective and subjective point of view”, asking themselves questions such as “What is this person exceptionally good at? What do they care about most? What are their dreams and goals?”

Need More Effective Employee Performance Reviews? Talk to Thrive Advisors

Thrive Liquor & Cannabis Advisors does much more than cannabis license and liquor license consulting. Our advisors can help your business implement more effective employee reviews that improve performance, job satisfaction and your bottom line.