Read About It: Staff Newsletters

Our sports memorabilia store is located in a mall that's open long hours, so we have a staff of over a dozen part-time and full-time salespeople. Since they work different shifts, it's hard to make sure they all know what is going on in the store. Any ideas?

A: I'm sure every one of your employees looks forward to receiving his or her paycheck, so why not include a store newsletter every payday? It may sound like a daunting task to write, edit, and type a newsletter, but once you get into the routine it should take you less than an hour to produce an interesting, one-page document on your computer.

The first time you do a staff newsletter, you'll want to set up an attractive format. Decide on a basic heading and a two- or three-column structure, and save the document. Then all you'll need to do each time is change the date and the news. Many word processing programs have newsletter templates that will help you get started, and will allow you to personalize the format by adding your own newsletter name and store logo.

In order to be sure that your employees will read the entire newsletter, keep it simple and short. Use white space to help focus on the individual stories, and add graphics using clip art, scanned images, or pictures you've found on the Internet. There are clip art programs with business cartoons that you can use to add a little humor to your newsletter, or you can keep a book of riddles or sports trivia on hand to fill in any empty spaces. If you have a color printer, use bright, attractive graphics, and if you're printing in black ink, consider using colored paper.

One of the regular features of our biweekly newsletter is the birthday and anniversary list. We have a computer document with everyone's birthday listed in chronological order, and it is a simple matter to copy the current ones into the newsletter. This file also tells us the date that each employee started working for us, so we can recognize their work anniversary and the number of years they've been on our staff.

When a new employee is hired, the newsletter always features a brief introduction, with information about the person's background, hobbies, and interests. Employee weddings, babies, graduations, and other personal milestones are also featured. We keep a ring-binder with copies of our newsletters in case anyone wants to read them at another time.

In addition to personnel news, we use the newsletter to convey important product information. As soon as we return from a trade show, we write an article listing the new vendors and merchandise that we are excited about. Major changes in product lines are also written up in the newsletter, along with details of upcoming events, promotions, and contests. We use the newsletter to keep the staff informed about advertising plans, including details about future mailings and ads, and to invite them to attend product training seminars.

Over the years, we've also had some fun with the newsletter, including items such as a crossword puzzle about our store (created using simple software) and "find the mistake" competitions. Short recipes are included from time to time, especially if everyone wants to know how to make a dish from one of our staff potlucks. I can't say that every word of every newsletter gets read, but at least we know that we've given all our staff members equal access to important, current information.

Q: We're looking ahead to the summer tourist season, and wondering how we'll ever find enough workers for our old-fashioned candy and saltwater taffy shop. All the merchants in our area are talking about signing up for a program to bring in students from Poland, the Czech Republic, and other European countries. Have you heard whether other resort communities have had good success with this approach?

A: The shortage of seasonal workers has become a major crisis for the tourism industry, especially in areas where housing is so expensive that hourly workers can't afford to live there. The smaller numbers in the generation following the Baby Boom has also left us with fewer teens and young adults looking for work.

Just as they have throughout American history, foreign workers are stepping in to fill the jobs that others don't want. In this case the workers are not immigrants, but students on temporary J-Visas. The U.S. State Department set up the Summer Work/Travel Exchange program to give students, often from Eastern European countries, a chance to work and travel in America. In 2000, over 56,000 college and university students took advantage of this program.

The biggest problem facing this movement, aside from the workers' lack of English skills, is the difficulty in correlating the number of workers arriving in any one location with the number of jobs available. Some tourist areas using J-Visa workers have found the number of students turning up in their communities hoping for jobs overwhelming. Some motels or dormitories are being converted into summer housing for these workers, but often the facilities prove inadequate, and even unsafe, if more students arrive than can be accommodated.

On the positive side, foreign students coming to the U.S. for the summer are often eager for an opportunity to work, and to learn English. They are usually dependable and cheerful. Work and housing situations that might be unappealing in the long run may be considered adventurous for a few months. The chance to spend the summer in a beautiful resort area, surrounded by young people from a variety of different countries, is probably enough to get many study-weary students packing when their spring semester ends.

Students come to the U.S. through the sponsorship of about 33 different agencies, some undoubtedly more ethical than others. Although sponsoring organizations must provide lists of jobs in the U.S., they are allowed to bring in up to 50 percent of their students without prearranged jobs. Promises of jobs, and housing, are sometimes broken, leaving students in the U.S. with an expensive plane ticket to pay for and no where to stay or work. While jobs are not usually impossible to find, affordable housing often is.

Before you begin to solicit J-Visa workers, talk to the chambers of commerce in several other areas that have had experience with this program. You'll want to plan well for the housing and transportation needs of these young workers, and to try to have enough jobs available. Look for a sponsoring agency with a good reputation, and be realistic about the number and types of jobs your community will be able to offer. Ideally, the student visitors, the community, and local businesses will all reap benefits from this international outreach.

Carol L. Schroeder is the owner of Orange Tree Imports in Madison, Wisconsin. She is the author of Specialty Shop Retailing: How To Run Your Own Store (John Wiley & Sons, 352 pages), which you can obtain for $39.95 plus shipping by calling (888) 245-1860. Direct your staffing questions to Carol at info@orangetreeimports.com.