Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
The North American Hardware and Paint Association (NHPA) facilitated the education for the Retail Best Practices Conference at the True Value Spring Reunion in Chicago on March 16. Sharing insights and best practices on retaining top talent, NHPA director of organizational development and consulting Kim Peffley and director of member services and events Katie McHone-Jones led over 250 True Value retailers through three sessions covering retaining top talent, recruiting based on core values, the employee/employer paradigm shift and more.
Eric Lane, senior vice president of sales for True Value, kicked off the event by welcoming retailers and sharing excitement over the education opportunities in store.
Session one explored how retailers could solve labor challenges through core values and hiring strategies. The presentation explored how to identify potential candidate pools and how to evaluate strengths and opportunities in employees, sharing strategies for differentiating operations to make them the business of choice in communities.
In session two, attendees discovered industry-specific tools to help with the recruitment
of new team members, strategies to identify and connect with underutilized candidate pools and processes utilized by high-performing retailers while recruiting their dream teams. They also learned about group interviews and how utilizing activities during them leads to high-quality employees. One such activity is the spaghetti challenge, which retailers participated in during the session. During this exercise, groups were challenged to use spaghetti, tape and string to build a structure to hold a marshmallow, with the tallest structure winning the competition.
Retaining top talent through engagement and wellness was the topic of session three. Attendees were given tools to determine their employee engagement levels—and how to drive engagement and build company commitment.
Along with these, NHPA offers many additional educational opportunities. To learn more click here.
