When is it best to bring a P/T Manager on board?
Our new community shop is being built, and we are discussing the optimum point to bring a part-time manager into the process, opinions vary from 1) early to assist with set-up and training the volunteers, 2) upon opening to take it on from the committee or 3) after the shop has settled into a bit of a routine (after 3 months).
I would be very interested to hear of any known pros/cons on this matter, thank you.
There is no doubt in my mind that one of the decisions we got entirely right was to appoint a paid manager before we achieved full community ownership. She was able to oversee the whole retail side of the operation and put in place appropriate systems and training.
It is very important to get the shop manager involved in the setting up of the shop from prior to opening.
A major problem holding back a lot of community shops is the relationship between the committee and the shop manager not working properly.The ideal situation - the committee sets policy and financial targets, whilst the manager is responsible for running the shop in line with policies and to meet the targets - does depend on a committee prepared to step back and a manager competent enough to be trusted - not always the case in practice, but the target.
This key interface works best when the shop manager "takes ownership" of appropriate decisions and this is very difficult to achieve if he or she comes into the frame when all major decisions have been taken. If they are to be held to account for the performance of the shop it is vital that they had input to key decisions on shop layout, ranging, opening hours etc. It is also important that they are empowered to change things, and a lot of aggrevation can be caused if the committee sets things up only for the manager to be seen to be changing them. It is a partnership. One of the key reasons Tesco is so successful is that they are brilliant at combining central control on issues where this works with good empowered store managers on issues where it does not.
The answer therefore is that, provided the manager is genuinely intended to have the power to manage the shop, then they should be closely involved prior to its opening. They will undoubtedly be more effective and motivated if they are managing an entity that they had some involvement in creating and will be more confident in making the fine tuning that is always needed in the year or so after opening.
If you have a weak manager, the answer is the same, albeit for different reasons. The period prior to opening is a key time to train them up and get them up to speed before they are doing it for real.