A retail associate job description is a document that outlines the skills, duties, and responsibilities of the retail associate position. Retail associate job descriptions can be used both for internal HR purposes as well as for a job ad if you need to fill an associate position. Retail associates typically cover a lot of ground in their roles and require a certain skill set, so it is important to use your job description to outline both what you need from a potential candidate and what they can expect once they are in the position.
Use the retail associate job description template below to ensure you write a description that includes all the elements you need to create accurate job expectations and attract the best talent.
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Keep reading to learn more about the legal considerations of writing a job description, the top qualifications you should look for in retail associates, compensation suggestions, how to market your position, and some examples.
Retail Job Description Legal Considerations
When you are writing your retail associate job description, there are a few legalities that you should consider.
Job Details & Disclaimers
Job descriptions can be used in a court of law if an employee is fired from their position for incorrectly or inadequately performing duties that fall far outside their job description or area of expertise. That means, if you want to avoid being taken to court, you should ensure that your job description covers everything an employee might have to do in the position.
There are two ways to address this:
- Either you can avoid being overly detailed in your job description and leave your verbiage general. For example, rather than saying, “The employees will assist customers with styling, locating products, and providing product information,” say, “The employee will provide necessary customer service to create the best shopping experience for every customer.” This way, if a customer asks an associate to take a garment off of a mannequin or to steam a blouse, the tasks will fall within their job responsibilities.
- Alternatively or in tandem with using generalities, you can also bolster your job description by including a disclaimer warning that associates should be prepared to take on additional responsibilities for the sake of the larger goal of their role. In the case of a retail store associate, the larger goal is maintaining store operations and delivering customer satisfaction. So, you could say, “retail associates should be prepared to perform any additional tasks associated with maintaining store operations and delivering customer satisfaction.”
While using general language and including a disclaimer will help protect you from unfounded legal claims from disgruntled employees, they are not bulletproof. You should still strive for your employees to only be performing tasks that are in line with their role, to compensate them when their role expands, and to avoid punishing employees for incorrectly doing tasks far outside their area of expertise.
Equal Employment Opportunity Notice
As a part of every job description, employers must include an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer (EEO) notice. This notice should describe the employer’s adherence to the federal laws that prohibit job discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.
Your notice can simply say that you are an equal opportunities employer, which will imply adherence to anti-discrimination laws. However, we recommend delving into the meat of what that means, so that candidates have a better understanding of your commitment to anti-discrimination in your hiring and company practices.
Retail Associate Qualifications & Requirements
There are a number of qualifications that you should look for when you are hiring a retail associate. These include:
- Prior experience: For high-end stores, you will typically want to find someone with three or more years of experience in retail or related customer service fields. For stores that have less advanced customer service and operational needs, you might not require any prior experience. In this case, you should still include an experience requirement listed as “no prior experience required” to make it clear this is a true entry-level role.
- Verbal communication skills: A retail associate will need strong verbal communication skills both to deliver customer service and to work as part of a team.
- Language requirement: To ensure that your associate can communicate with customers, you should list a language prerequisite that requires fluency in the language of your customer base.
- Ability to work effectively on a team: Associates should be prepared to work with people on each of their shifts to complete tasks effectively and without conflict.
- Ability to provide top-notch customer service: Retail associates will work with customers every day and should have the ability to deliver on their needs effectively and with a good attitude.
- Physical requirements: A retail associate position requires some physical capabilities, including the ability to move around a store and lift heavy items above your head
- Basic math skills: Occasionally, employees will have to perform basic math skills like calculating a discount price, adding up a shopping total, or counting and subtracting inventory.
- Ability to use relevant devices: You should list the devices that employees will use on the job each day, like a computer, scanner, mobile device, etc., and let candidates know that they will have to be able to use them.
- Dependability and promptness: To ensure that your store opens and closes on time and that your sales floor is adequately staffed, you need an employee who is dependable and prompt.
The qualifications above are just a starting point. There are likely other necessary skills unique to your brand that you should list, as well as listed skills that are not relevant to your needs. Consider the day-to-day operations of your store and where a retail associate would be helpful or necessary, then, be sure to include any necessary skills your retail associate will need to get those tasks done as well.
Retail Associate Compensation
In general, there are two ways to pay retail associates: hourly and commission-based.
For hourly pay, the rate will largely depend on the location of the store where they work, their years of experience and expertise, how many hours they work per week, and the caliber of the store—with higher-end stores typically paying more and lower-end retailers paying less.
You can also use the minimum wage in your state to set your hourly rate. For most retail associate positions, you will want to offer somewhere between 30%–50% more than the minimum; high-end stores typically offer double or even triple the minimum wage. You should also consider how much comparable retailers are paying their employees.
Then there is the commission bonus structure, or when an employee is paid based on their sales. There are several different retail commission structures that you can use, from ones used in tandem with an hourly wage to ones where commission is the complete basis for their compensation—but all are designed to encourage employees to sell more by rewarding them for every sale.
Learn more about how to offer a commission pay structure with our guides to:
- Retail Commission Structure: Everything You Need to Know
- 7 Best Commission Tracking Software
- How To Pay Commission on Sales in 6 Steps
- Comparing Salary vs Hourly vs Commission Employees
- What Is a Sales Commission Structure: 10 Types (+ Calculators)
Marketing Your Position
To recruit the best talent for your retail store, candidates have to be able to find your listing and it has to stand out from the rest. To ensure maximum visibility and efficacy of your retail associate job description, try these marketing strategies:
- Job boards: List your opening on job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn, Google Jobs, and ZipRecruiter.
- Social media: Advertise your position on social media and keep an application link in your profile description. You can even “pin” your job opening post to the top of your profile until it is filled.
- In-store: Advertise your job opening on your cash wrap and store widows. Keep physical applications available in-store and be sure to provide a QR code to your job application page on your advertising materials so people can download it virtually as well.
- Flyers: Hang fliers in places like coffee shops, college campuses, parks, or other places where you might reach relevant candidates.
- Referrals: Use your current employees to find new talent by introducing an employee referral system that incentivizes your staff for helping you fill openings.
- Lead with compensation: At the end of the day, when it comes to a job, the most important thing to the majority of people is their pay. Keep your compensation information at the top of your description to attract the most eyes and ensure you only get candidates that will be satisfied with what you can offer.
- Highlight your perks: Perks are another way that you can attract talent. Make sure job perks are listed on your description, especially those employee discount rates.
- Include your brand logo: In many cases, you can include your brand logo on the job description and it will appear next to the opening’s description. Including a logo will not only make your job description appear more professional, it will also help it stand out and be more memorable.
- Make the application simple: If you have your own application for candidates to fill out, keep it as short as you can as a long application will drive potential candidates away.
- Allow for resume uploading: Some employers want candidates to fill in a separate resume rather than uploading the one they already have. While this can simplify things on the backend, this extra step can deter candidates. Instead, let them upload their own resume and skip this step.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Click through the questions below to get answers to some of your most frequently asked retail associate job description questions.
Retail associates are responsible for assisting with the daily operations of a retail store and providing customer service to shoppers.
You should include a general description of the role, specific responsibilities they can expect in the role, qualifications of qualified candidates, compensation and benefits information, and instructions for how to apply.
Retail associates are typically paid an hourly rate, but some are also (or exclusively) paid on a commission structure.
Bottom Line
Whether you are just starting your retail business or you are well-established, writing effective retail associate job descriptions is a key part of curating a great staff and keeping your store running smoothly. Using the template above along with the tips outlined in this article, you have the tools you need to start finding talent, leveling expectations, and getting the best retail associates in your area.
