Real-Life Communication
A management career can be tough if you don't have good people
skills. "It is important to be able to communicate at a high level verbally
and in writing," says Garold Hart. He has 30 years of experience in retail
management.
You'll have a lot of job duties as a retail manager.
Some are technical, such as sales forecasting, budgeting, pricing and merchandise
management. But probably the most important will be how well you manage your
staff. Good teamwork is what will keep your company humming and help sell
the products and services that pay everyone's salaries.
Most people
will have several jobs at different companies or departments over their careers.
You need to ease into a new team and make it productive.
Emotions can
be highly charged at the time of a change in leadership. People who liked
the previous manager may resent you. People who didn't like him may be
waiting for you to show them that you're just like him -- or worse. In
any case, your staff will be wary until they get to know you and your management
style.
Jennifer Ratliff is a retail recruitment specialist who used
to be a retail manager. She says it's common for associates who have
been there a while to want to "push the buttons" of a new manager. "They're
always going to try to step just to the limit of a policy or procedure."
You've
just joined a new store as a retail manager. You're stepping into a position
where most of the employees have been there many years.
An employee
comes to you and says that his wife is having their child the next month.
He is requesting two months off to help care for it. He asks for assurance
that his health benefits will be continued and that his job will be available
when he returns.
"So, how do you establish your relationship with them
at the same time as doing your new job appropriately?" asks Ratliff.
Read
the following legislation that applies:
The Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA) requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid,
job-protected leave to eligible employees for certain unpaid family and medical
reasons.
Employees are eligible if they have worked for a covered employer
for at least one year, and for 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months, and
if there are at least 50 employees within 75 miles. Unpaid leave must be granted
for any of the following reasons:
- to care for the employee's child after birth, or placement for adoption
or foster care;
- to care for the employee's spouse, son or daughter, or parent, who
has a serious health condition; or
- for a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform
the employee's job.
Another section reads:
- For the duration of FMLA leave, the employer must maintain the employee's
health coverage under any group health plan.
- Upon return from FMLA leave, most employees must be restored to their
original or equivalent positions with equivalent pay, benefits, and other
employment terms.
- The use of FMLA leave cannot result in the loss of any employment benefit
that accrued prior to the start of an employee's leave.
Are you going to grant the employee leave? Will his benefits
last?