Why the HR manager should love a cash management solution
When I meet with potential and existing customers discussing the business benefits I often find myself in a room with people representing Operations, Finance, IT and Security. This is of course great – these functions are definitely stakeholders in such a discussion. But one person that very rarely attends the meeting is the HR Manager.
Although I believe all HR Managers appreciate the value of a safe work environment, perhaps they don’t immediately realize some of the other benefits that a cash management solution gives.
Handling cash is scary
First of all; handling notes and coins is a worrisome task for most people because you know you deal with tangible value. This is different from dealing with digital money - you simply enter numbers into fields and press enter. It’s just number and figures, it doesn’t seem like real money.
So handling cash gets employees focused on a task they view as daunting instead of feeling empowered and uplifted from helping and serving customers.
Everyone is a suspect
Secondly, at the end of a shift or a working day there is often cash missing. This shrinkage needs to be traced and investigated, making every cashier a potential suspect of misconduct.
I’ve also found that if there is money missing some retailers make their employees balance the difference from their own salaries. What is the effect of this? Will it make your employee more satisfied and loyal? It probably won’t.
Focus on customers – not cash
I think one effect is that the cashiers, not wanting to pay the differences out of their own pockets, will double-count the change before handing it to the customer. This slows down the queue handling at the checkout as well as results in slower customer service. With a cash management solution, the system automatically hands out the correct change every time.
Another interesting HR aspect is recruitment. I’ve met with many retailers who claim that recruitment of cashiers is a difficult and expensive process because you need trustworthy, service-focused people who are also good at counting. With a cash management solution no one touches any cash and all counting is done automatically. All you need to recruit are people who love to give great customer service.
I believe that if you let your employees spend their time and focus on customers instead of handling cash they will develop their sales and service skills and grow as individuals. Surely this is what any HR manager values when building profitable and sustainable retail businesses?
I’m looking forward hearing from HR Managers and meet many more of you in the future.
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