Creating a New Solution for Compensation

Hiring and retaining smart, well-read, personable booksellers is one key to staying competitive in the marketplace. While the ability to pay high salaries and offer bonuses and perks can go a long way toward attracting and keeping qualified employees, that's not the only solution to the compensation conundrum. By thinking creatively, and strategically, about the intangible benefits of working in a bookstore, store owners and managers can find ways to show employees they are valued, and that the bookstore is a great place to work, now and for years to come.

Chris Morrow, general manager of Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Center, Vermont, can attest to this approach. The Livable Jobs Toolkit from Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR), a nonprofit association founded in 1976, is an important element of his store management strategy.

Morrow told BTW, "Given [the realities] of bookstore wages, from top to bottom, it is very important to create as good a workplace as possible. The Toolkit helped me understand this more fully and to implement some things," such as employee discounts on books, trade show trips, flex-time, and "a sane work environment."

He noted, too, "We believe that business can be a positive force in society beyond providing jobs and profit for its owners.... The triple bottom line -- profits, people, and planet -- is what we look at regularly."

The executive director of the VBSR, Will Patten, said economic factors contributed to the creation of the Toolkit in 2000 (it was updated in 2006). "The world has changed a great deal," and healthcare, childcare, transportation, and energy costs have "gone out of control."

The Livable Jobs Toolkit offers suggestions for providing employees value beyond monetary compensation, including a flexible framework for assessing your business' needs and preparing a strategy to implement measures that will improve hiring and retention. The toolkit offers in-depth explorations of offerings such as flex-time and Health Savings Accounts, plus worksheets and self-assessment questionnaires.

Another tool booksellers likely will find useful is the Total Rewards Inventory from WorldatWork, a Washington, D.C.-based association of human resources professionals that focuses on the attraction, motivation, and retention of employees.

Total Rewards encompasses any result of employment that an employee considers valuable. The inventory details the components of the total rewards concept, and includes a detailed checklist that booksellers can use as a starting point for assessing the creative compensation they offer employees, and in brainstorming ideas for additions and changes to a compensation plan.

Jason Kovac, practice leader at WorldatWork, noted a flex-time schedule can be inexpensive to implement. "Although many small businesses initially feel they will not be able to compete with larger retailers on this front, with a little bit of definition and analysis, it can work."

Kovac suggested dividing the workday into three categories: core, busy, and slow. During core hours, an all-hands-on-deck mindset prevails. When it's busy, if someone calls in sick or leaves early, the results won't be as catastrophic as they might have been during core hours. During slow periods, there's even more room for flexibility -- perhaps there isn't enough work to keep everyone busy, or fewer booksellers are needed on the sales floor because of a decrease in customer traffic.

Once these time periods have been identified, and flex-time-friendly hours are clearly delineated, a more refined schedule can be created.

Kovac said, "The core hours should be the hours that everyone is there, and some flexibility can be found in the busy hours.... Instead of offering days off, allow employees to come in a little late, or leave a little early -- as long as the core hours are covered." And, by their very nature, the slow hours create opportunities for even greater flexibility in terms of hours scheduled or time off.

Career development is another benefit independent bookstores can offer, Kovac said. "With a smaller organization, employees are asked to do more jobs than with a typical, large employer. These learning opportunities can be invaluable to employees, as they learn new skills and competencies. This will help both the organization and the employee."

Teri Babcock, partner in the Human Performance/Retail practice at Accenture, a global management consulting company, concurs: She suggested bookstores consider offering opportunities for job expansion, such as "exposing customer-facing employees to the financial aspects of running a business or the selection or purchase of products."

Thus, if a new hire expresses interest in learning more about becoming a buyer, store manager, or, even, owner, providing relevant training and learning opportunities would be a valuable benefit -- and an essentially free one if it takes the form of simply shadowing or being mentored by someone already in the desired staff role.

In addition, a Web-savvy employee with online-networking smarts could be given the go-ahead to create a store MySpace page, or to contribute to a blog. Early access to new books is thrilling to almost every bibliophile, and suggesting and helping run events can be exciting as well.

It's also a thrill to get a "good job!" from a respected employer. The desire to have one's work acknowledged, if not met with praise and appreciation, is universal -- but in many workplaces such recognition is far from a given. Bookstores that make employee recognition a key element of their management plans will create a positive environment, and a happy handseller is going to be more successful, and loyal, than one who feels overlooked or under-appreciated.

An essential aspect of recognition is summed up in another business buzzword: empowerment. Robert Spector, author of The Nordstrom Way, Category Killers, and other retail-centric titles, knows retail management and strategy through his work with Nordstrom and his international speaking engagements on the topic. He also grew up working in his parents' independent grocery store (and is working on another book, The Mom & Pop Store, which will feature profiles of four ABA member bookstores).

Spector said his experience on both sides of the cash register has shown him the value of empowerment. "It's an essential part of Nordstrom. If you boil it down to its essence, it's about giving the people on the sales floor the power to make decisions, and it all flows from there." Employees who believe they have an impact on the business are going to work harder -- through customer service, pursuing learning opportunities, and the like -- to help it succeed.

Another Spector suggestion: "If someone finds a way to increase business, give her a reward for doing that.... If you ask employees what they think and implement what they suggest, that could take you a long way."

That reward could take the form of a gift card (to the store or a local business), or the opportunity to host or introduce an in-store event featuring a favorite author. Said Spector, "Make it something that helps employees feel they're doing something special."

And WorldatWork's Kovac said, "Recognition can be as simple as the owner/manager congratulating an employee for a good job. Most of the time, organizations view recognition as cash bonuses, but in reality recognition can be as simple as verbal congratulations, movie tickets, or a plaque. A little bit of recognition can be inexpensive for the organization, but can do a lot for employee morale and self-esteem."

Accenture's Babcock said that alternatives to cash compensation also could include time off for sabbaticals with job guarantees or family-member product discounts. She counsels booksellers to consider options tailored to employees' individual needs. For instance, with flex scheduling, an owner/manager might allow a single parent to take longer lunches to attend to child care or might schedule a college student to work before and after class.

Babcock explained, "Thinking as a small business, the key would be to understand what options your business can accommodate and, then, create human resources programs that allow you to find employees who are best suited to your company's needs, such as posting positions in a local college paper or online service to attract college students."

Ensuring your recruiting and hiring strategies dovetail with your retention plan lays the groundwork for long-term employee satisfaction -- if that plan is backed by sufficient observation and research. "Those most successful in their store-level employee management have a planned, documented strategy for whom they want to target in their hiring and what they need to do to retain these workers," Babcock added.

For example, she said one retailer "targets older workers who have retired for specific customer-facing positions. They find that these workers are more mature, more reliable, often do not need or want full-time positions for the healthcare benefits and are less likely to demand salary-based increases."

In the pursuit of retaining these employees, the retailer provides "special accommodations for these employees ... such as stools to relieve long periods of standing, part-time and more flexible work schedules, time off for doctor appointments, or mentoring by peers of the same age. They also coach their store managers to manage these workers in a different way."

While older workers or college students might not be the ideal employees for every bookstore, Babcock said "it is the planned approach -- (1) explicit evaluation of what type of employee best fits their needs; (2) tailoring of programs to retain those workers; and (3) evaluation and adjustment of programs based on results -- that makes the difference."

In addition to crafting and implementing a sensible yet creative hiring and retention strategy, VBSR's Patten urges booksellers to consider adding another item to their employee management to-do lists: advocating for change so that their in-store efforts are supported by, or echoed in, the larger community.

He said, "We need to get businesses outside their own profit-and-loss statements and into the public arena, to make sure the infrastructure is there" to support liveable-wage efforts. He added, "The investment in social human capital is just as important and as prudent as the investment in financial capital. Our whole point is that we're not suggesting that people do this out of moral courage, but out of financial self-interest. We believe it's just business."

Northshire Bookstore's Morrow follows that model -- the store has been a VBSR member for a decade, and Northshire is active within the association and the community. And in the bookstore, he keeps things interesting with perhaps unexpected, but surely appreciated, employee perks.

"I try to look at the employee experience from a holistic perspective. A happy staff is more efficient, more fun, and more customer-oriented," he said. Thus, the bookstore provides 15-minute massages one day during the December busy season -- and free flu shots, too. -- Linda M. Castellitto