Close×

Newly appointed NRA CEO Dominique Lamb discusses the importance of staff training and development.

One of the most important aspects of success in any business is continual improvement. And we can only improve our performance in any area by learning – from our successes and our mistakes – and then making those lessons work for us.

Often, retail business owners are so busy that there is little chance to undertake ongoing learning in a formal sense, and it is the “on-the-job” lessons that guide our future efforts. However, it is important to find that time to invest in yourself and your staff, to ensure that your business is always learning and growing.

The nature of retail jobs, particularly in smaller stores, is often that new employees are unskilled and have little or no experience in retail. It is possible to get them started in their job by showing them the basics and putting them to work.

But it’s better to give them some formal training – either through a traineeship or some recognised qualifications. I’m reminded of the old question about what if I train my staff and they leave? And of course the answer – what if you don’t train them and they stay?

The NRA has lobbied the Federal Government in recent years to direct more of its training funding to the retail sector. After all, we are the area of the economy most able to quickly add new staff – either when the economy grows or when Governments are trying to stimulate employment through incentives.

At a time when there is such high youth unemployment, it would be a real boost to the employment prospects of younger people if they were job-ready and able to walk on to the floor of a retail business and get straight to work.

On the subject of learning and improving, it is an honour for me to have recently been appointed as the CEO of Australia’s largest and most diverse retail industry body – the National Retail Association.

It has certainly been a steep learning curve for me in recent days, but also a very rewarding one. The NRA has been serving the interests of our industry for close to 100 years, and I am very aware of my responsibility to continue that tradition of service in the years ahead.

I congratulate the NRA’s former CEO Trevor Evans, who was elected to the Federal Parliament as the Member for Brisbane at the recent election. I know Trevor will continue to be a fierce advocate for the retail sector inside the Parliament, just as he has been in his previous role with the NRA.

I have stepped into the CEO’s position from my previous role as Principal of the association’s law firm, NRA Legal. In that position, I was privileged to advise many members on their employment or enterprise bargaining matters.

This has given me a unique insight into some of the challenges and issues confronting retailers across Australia, and the difficulties you face every day in meeting your responsibilities to staff, abiding by government regulations and red tape, and making ends meet financially.

Even as I transition into my new role, I intend to stay actively involved with NRA Legal to keep helping retail businesses to meet these challenges.

I also look forward to continuing the NRA’s tradition of speaking out strongly on behalf of our members, and the wider industry. For example, the Association has been closely involved in the Modern Award Review, and has been a strong advocate for a more sensible and affordable Sunday penalty rates regime.

However, I’m very keen to hear from the wider industry about other issues that matter to you. Please get in touch with the NRA if there are any issues you feel should be brought to the attention of our politicians and bureaucrats.

As I said at the start of this column, we all need to work constantly to improve our performance and to learn from what we have done in the past. That applies equally to a national industry association as it does to individual businesses. So I look forward to hearing from – and learning from – Australia’s dedicated and talented retailers in the years ahead.

comments powered by Disqus