When you begin to grow as a retailer, you start to notice the HR challenges you used to face as a small company takes a different shape. Everything from onboarding new employees to maintaining a healthy company culture becomes significantly harder — especially if you’re growing across different sites or international borders.

Managing the HR needs of different departments, celebrating the successes of individual team members, and remembering the little things like employees’ birthdays become an overwhelming challenge, and heads of HR and culture begin to fray at the seams to try to keep up.

These are the natural growing pains of any retailer, and a sign of healthy growth. But let’s face it — many of the processes you had in place as a small retailer just aren’t fit for purpose now that you’ve grown. So just as a child outgrows their baby clothes, it’s time to find something new to fit into.

Here’s how any retailer can get through their growing pains.

Automate the little things

Most of the repeatable processes you have in place for HR can be automated by technology.

For example, because you’re now growing quickly, you’ll have lots of new starters joining your company. With the right technology in place, you can automate much of the onboarding procedures by creating a customised new-hire creation flow based on each person’s start date. Set up task lists to send out documents for signatures, request basic information, assign time-off policies and benefits, and begin the journey of onboarding for specific positions. 

From there, managers will know when to set up an orientation programme such as setting up introduction sessions to meet the team, assigning an onboarding buddy, and issuing uniforms. The IT department will also know what equipment to provide, what systems to grant them access to, and when to do each of these tasks. Similarly, training handbooks and policies can be distributed in an onboarding guide so they understand more about the company before starting their first day. 

During peak periods such as Christmas, when retailers see a 20% increase in headcount for temporary seasonal employees, automating the onboarding and offboarding process will make it easier for you to ensure the completion of procedures when people join and leave the company. 

But automation isn’t just there just for the start and finish of an employee’s time with you. You can also automate everyday tasks like time-off requests and reporting processes — and even integrate these features with your other systems.

Focus on the things that matter

When automation frees you up from those everyday repeatable HR processes you will have more time to focus on what matters — your HR vision for the company.

Now, you’ll have more time to think strategically about the values you want to ensure run through your company, the culture you want to foster and maintain, what characteristics you want to attract and retain in your recruitment, and what structures you have in place to meet your goals. 

Out of those strategic questions, culture is one of the biggest talking points in HR right now — especially in Australia where unemployment is at the lowest it’s been in 48 years. Companies have to go above and beyond to foster a healthy company culture to encourage employees to stay for as long as possible.

But maintaining great company culture is easier said than done, especially in workplaces where so many people work remotely or on the road. How do you get people to engage with one another when they’re so dispersed?

With millennials comprising a significant portion of retail employees, businesses must find a way to attract and retain these individuals. As this age group appreciates productivity and efficiency, it is crucial to include modern software such as mobile apps in your tech stack to meet the expectations of the growing younger workforce to achieve business goals. 

Recent research conducted by Harvard Business Review shows by investing an additional $12 per hour to get to the top quartile of employee experience, brick-and-mortar stores will earn an extra $18 per hour of profit. That’s a 150% ROI, showing that positive employee experience is proven to be a strong driver of subsequent revenue. 

As with many HR challenges, technology is often the answer, and it’s no different when it comes to culture and ongoing employee engagement. With the right technology, you can make introductions between new joiners and existing employees by creating a profile for each new starter to fill in with some information about who they are, along with a headshot to put a face to the name and bio.

And to maintain employee engagement, the right technology can provide a platform for people to start discussions about the things they are passionate about in life, and connect with other team members who share those passions, hobbies, and interests — whether that’s yoga, skiing, music, or knitting!

Getting the tech right

There are loads of technology platforms out there with all kinds of bells and whistles. It’s important, therefore, to pick one that fits your business profile of being modern, mid-sized, and potentially multisite or multinational. So when evaluating technologies, assess factors like how it enhances your current processes, how it integrates with your other systems, and what resources it has to scale as your business continues to grow.

Because once you get the tech right, you’ll have more time to focus on the work that attracted you to the HR profession in the first place — getting the best out of people.

Damien Andreasen is country manager for Australia & New Zealand at HiBob.