A major problem facing retailers today is employee retention. Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers are no exception to this problem. Every aspect of a store’s operation is measured as a percentage against sales. As a new store struggling to capture market share, we were continually at the maximum amount allowed by corporate standards for our payroll. The store manager was continually juggling the employee hours in an attempt to keep the payroll to sales percentages in check. Frequently, this meant that we would enter peak sales hours with a skeleton crew of employees to provide the high level of customer satisfaction demanded by Lowe’s. Management’s viewpoint was that they were doing what was required to keep operating costs down. Employees saw this cost cutting initiative as abusive and requiring far more productivity than they should have to provide.

It became obvious that cost cutting has major implications when associated with increased worker productivity. Retail suffers horrendous turnover. Our store was experiencing about a 70% turnover rate in the first year since opening our doors. Most of this turnover rate was voluntary. New employees go through a tr

Probably the most significant finding from the information gathering was that there was a general lack of communication and a great deal of misunderstanding about what the role of management truly is. One of the common questions from employees was: “Why doesn't my manager just do some actual work? “ Now that managers are aware of this perception, we need to educate the employees that management is a kind of work. Just as programs need architecture and design, functional groups of people need organizing principles. Having a person picked to handle this work can reduce the amount of time spent trying to decide how to make decisions, and can free other people up to do the work they're best at. They need to be made aware that it is useful to have a manager. A manager can dramatically improve employee performance, both as an individual and as a member of a team, or a manager can get in the way and keep employees from working. In the Lowe’s environment, managers are particularly useful at keeping obstructions from corporate management and disgruntled customers from coming between employees and their work. They are also the knowledge base in what will always be a large structure with high employee turnover rates.

aining program, and on the job training. During this time, job satisfaction seemed high. After training, and a period of time on the job, most employees would enter a period where they became comfortable in their jobs. It was sometime during this stage that a high percentage of employees seemed to become less satisfied in their work and soon thereafter made the decision to leave Lowe’s employment.

Next, there is the period where the person becomes settled in. This may be a short period or long, depending on the employee, but is characterized by some stability in terms of ones life in the job. Not a lot of new information is learned by employees about the job or organization during this period. For many employees, this was a period in which dissatisfaction seemed to set in. Employees that had started strong in providing customer service began to lose the enthusiasm they had initially displayed. As time went on, these employees lapsed into a third recognizable period. This final period was marked by increased disinterest and withdrawal preceding voluntary or involuntary turnover. For many, it manifested in behavioral issues such as absenteeism or tardiness for work. Both actions resulted in involuntary separation from Lowe’s employment after only two or three incidents. Knowing that management would tolerate neither of these incidents was no deterrent to employees once they entered this stage either.

Another successful tactic involved managers working in different zones from their normal area of responsibility in the store. This prove

Some topics in this essay:
Lowe’s Management’s, Prevention Manager, Improvement Centers, Forces Influence, management team, employees leaving, period employees, initial training, assistant store managers, short period, assistant store, lowe’s employment, team manager, cost cutting, store manager,