For any liquor store owner, the critical difference between thriving and merely surviving — or worse, facing regulatory penalties — lies in the quality of their team.
This is why it’s crucial to have fully trained staff who are well informed about everything that goes into keeping a liquor store up and running. However, we can’t just simply wave a magic wand to hire the right people. It takes a lot of time, effort and additional help from other team members to bring on new staff.
Family-owned Twin Liquors, with numerous locations across Texas, relies heavily on their entire team working together to hire and train new employees.
“Retaining employees is a collaborative effort that involves multiple departments working together, from our corporate teams to our store-level staff,” says Cale Thibaudeau, training and development manager at Twin Liquors. “This partnership is essential to creating a workplace that continually evolves to provide a positive and fulfilling experience for all employees.”
“From meeting with a recruiter or their future store manager, to the new employee orientation and continued learning programs, employees continue to receive ongoing support,” Thibaudeau continues. “This layered approach ensures that every team member understands expectations, feels supported and sees the wide range of career opportunities available within Twin Liquors.”
Compliance and Legal Responsibility
One of the main reasons why it’s so important to have competent staff is to ensure that your store remains compliant. Employees must be diligent about checking IDs to prevent the sale of alcohol to minors, which carries severe penalties for the store and potential criminal liability for the employee.
Hiring individuals who demonstrate responsibility, attention to detail and a commitment to following the law is paramount. Hiring techniques should include thorough background checks and scenario-based interview questions to assess their ability to handle confrontational or difficult compliance situations, like refusing a sale.
To cover all these bases, Kelly Taylor, director of operations at Half Time in New York, utilizes a payroll company that has a robust onboarding documentation process.
“All of our documentation is on there, so once a new hire gets through all of that, they know all of our company’s procedures,” Taylor says. “It takes minimal effort, which is a big success for me. There are always so many questions and paperwork to get through to get fully set up, especially when you’re dealing with alcohol.”
Part of what the onboarding documentation discusses is the importance of checking ID’s and verifying a customer’s age to prevent selling to a minor.
“After they go through the paperwork, I also get them on the floor, so they know how to deal with customers and the best way to respond to their questions,” Taylor adds.
Clear onboarding procedures are crucial to fully prepare a new hire on what’s expected in their role. This is the most significant aspect of introducing new personnel for Doug Crawford, president and founder of online training platform Best-Trade Schools.
“Personally, my strategy involves teaching our new hires the steps their roles require,” he says. “Because of this, we were able to reduce new hire errors and, at the same time, promote the importance of teamwork and clear communications to both our new and old staff. In the end, it’s always better to invest in our staff as early as possible to keep employee morale up.”
Customer Service and Product Knowledge
With thousands of different wines, spirits and beer in stock, product knowledge is another important aspect of employee training.
Customers that seek recommendations for pairings, gifts or specific flavor profiles need staff with genuine product knowledge and strong customer service skills to help them find what they’re looking for.
To help ensure that new hires have the proper education, Twin Liquors offers certification courses that are specific to the beverage alcohol industry.
“At Twin Liquors, we recognize that our employees come to us with diverse backgrounds and levels of experience," explains Thibaudeau. "Some may have worked in other wine and spirits retail environments or in the restaurant industry, while others may be new to the field entirely."
“To ensure every team member has the opportunity to build a strong foundation and grow their knowledge, we proudly offer Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) certification courses — Levels 1 through 3 in both wine and spirits — at no cost to our employees," Thibaudeau continues. "This education is foundational in building confidence, which leads to success in many other areas.”
While certification courses are a great way to help train employees, Half Time’s Taylor believes that getting experience on the floor is another useful tool.
“The biggest challenge here in our stores is knowing where the products are,” he says. “We have over 3,000 SKUs, so knowing where everything is can be difficult, and the only way to get people to really learn is to put the product away.”
Typically, Taylor says that he will schedule a new hire to stock the floor right after they’ve learned the register.
“I schedule them on the floor to put products away. This way, on big delivery days, they have better knowledge of where everything goes,” he notes.
Tracking inventory is also a great way to not only teach employees where products are on the shelves, but also to ask the right questions.
“We do a snap inventory every week for certain items that may be getting a little older or that have discrepancies,” Taylor says. “So, I’ll tell employees to find certain items on the shelves, count how many bottles there are and let me know. It’s another great way for them to figure out where the beer is and ask the right questions.”
Based on what Half Time has in stock, employees can learn to ask different questions, such as what else can be ordered, what’s available on the market that the store doesn’t have or what’s not available in the U.S. anymore.
“These are the types of questions they need to ask, because there will always be questions. I still have questions, but you need to know the right person to ask," Taylor says. “You can’t just tell the customer, ‘I don’t know’.”
Employee Retention
As hectic as liquor stores can get, especially during busy shopping seasons, it’s important to keep employee retention high to prevent unwanted turnover.
In a fast-paced environment, Twin Liquor’s Thibaudeau has tips for balancing the need for quick training while still ensuring thoroughness and safety.
“It is important to train our employees in an efficient structured manner, so the associate can succeed as quickly as possible,” Thibaudeau says. “By creating a standardized training process, our store managers can rely on a step-by-step check list and focus on each task, providing each employee with the time and attention to detail.”
Zahira Jasani, Twin Liquors recruiter, also notes that screening job 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.”
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.” •
by Krystina Skibo
Having a competent staff running the warehouse is crucial for distributor success. These workers ensure all products are stocked on the shelves, packaged correctly, go to the right location and are safely put on the truck.
This is why it’s important to have adequate hiring and training practices at your organization.
According to Terry Blachek, managing director at Franvest Capital Partners, the most important aspect of any hiring and training practice is being prepared.
“It’s one thing to be prepared with a uniform, name tag and paper, but you need to have a planned day-by-day checklist and program ready to train them,” he says. “And not just the checklist, but even the material behind the checklist. Do you have a process ready to go? Think about how you’ll train your staff to complete certain tasks.”
When putting your checklists and programs together, Ryan Johnson, co-founder and senior business advisor at Vivipins, has some tips for the suppliers, for lead times and for quality control:
• Safety training so nobody gets hurt
• Machine training such that tools are operated the right way
• Computer training for software and systems
• Culture training so the new recruits understand the “why” of the work
“When training is repeatable and consistent, workers learn faster and fewer mistakes occur,” Johnson says. “That saves money and keeps operations running smoothly.”
Onboarding processes can vary considerably, but a common thread is that they should have practical elements, like those that Johnson describes.
Wendy Makinson, HR manager at Joloda Hydraroll, suggests other practical elements to cover, such as health and safety requirements, since warehouses are high risk environments.
“Using machinery is often part of working in a warehouse environment,” she says. “While hands-on training is undoubtedly necessary, we believe that formal, classroom training is equally important. This combination builds comprehensive knowledge and confidence.”
Safety training has similar requirements across any warehouse environment, according to Makinson. It must be robust, ongoing, interactive and updated as soon as new risks or processes arise.
“It’s also important to factor in refresher training and peer mentoring,” she suggests. “None of us remember everything we are taught unless we are using that knowledge consistently. Refreshing and supporting our workers’ training ensures that best practice is consistently reinforced, and high standards are maintained.”
Another important aspect of training is technology.
“At this point, even warehouse employees are expected to have some level of digital literacy, whether it is scanning inventory, operating handhelds or tracking hours,” says founder and CEO of PEO-Marketplace Guillermo Triana.