candidates for certain skills and qualities before they’ re hired can help with employee retention.
“ Our recruiting process is designed to identify candidates who align with our company values and demonstrate a genuine interest in hospitality and customer service,” she says.“ We look to ensure each applicant understands the responsibilities of the role, and wants to be involved with their community. Key qualities we prioritize include enthusiasm, a team-oriented mindset and a desire for delivering great customer experiences.”
Preventing employee turnover not only reduces the need to train new hires, but it also helps ensure knowledgeable, reliable staff are there to help customers, deter shoplifting and keep the store running smoothly.
Taylor remains understanding of his employees’ lives at Half Time.“ Everybody has something going on in their personal life, and we try to be cognizant of that need and be flexible with them,” he says. That is his secret to employee retention.“ If our employees are in college, that comes first, so we’ re 100 % flexible with their work schedule. If they need time off, we’ ll figure it out,” Taylor says.“ That has allowed us to keep people for quite a while.”
Half Time specializes in selling a variety of beer, so it’ s crucial for new hires to know and learn about beer in order to help shoppers.
Taylor also likes to pat his employees on the back with small bonuses based on good performance or a good customer review.
“ I try to do little things like that, but in reality, long-term retention boils down to being accommodating with their schedule,” he says.“ At the end of the day, it’ s just beer. I have to sell product, but it won’ t kill me if I’ m short staffed.” •
www. beveragedynamics. com Winter 2025 • Beverage Dynamics 13