Retailer roundtable 3: How natural health retailers are fostering motivation, engagement, and resilience among employees
By Alexa Everett
Following a successful debut at CHFA NOW Vancouver in 2024, the Retailer Roundtable—hosted by Bruce W. Cole, editor emeritus and founder of CNHR—returned to last year’s trade show and was met with an overwhelming response from retailers.
At the 2025 CHFA NOW show, retailers were encouraged to participate and share their experiences in an idea exchange during a retailer roundtable.
Attending retailers were split into five groups and each group was asked a question about the following pressing issues impacting the natural health retail industry: navigating tariffs and supply chain challenges, enhancing customer experience to drive sales, building and motivating high-performing teams, creating collaborative partnerships to boost growth, and innovating and adapting in a changing market.
In the third part of our roundtable series from 2025, we’re sharing insights from retailers about the approaches that have been the most effective in fostering motivation, engagement, and resilience among their employees—especially during periods of rapid change and economic uncertainty.
Finding staff with the right mindset
During the COVID-19 pandemic, securing staff was a main pain point for Canadian business owners. As an article from McMaster University states, “[It] disrupted Canadian labour markets on a scale not seen since the Second World War.” When asked by Bruce if this issue had improved, retailers shared that while finding workers was easier than in previous years, securing skilled staff wasn’t.
And roundtable attendees aren’t alone in feeling this; research backs it up. According to a 2025 report from The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), 44 percent of SMEs reported that a shortage of skilled labour is directly limiting their ability to increase sales or production. For natural health retailers, one of the most valuable skills they point to is the right approach to work.
“You can’t train attitude, but you can train knowledge,” says Jordan Dolson from Legacy Greens in Kitchener, Ontario. “I try to find staff that embody my values, which is to serve the customers and be a good human being—people want to come to the store for that.”
That indescribable feeling after visiting her store is exactly what Jordan wants every patron to experience.
“Customers say, ‘Wow, I come here, and I can feel the energy, and I feel good.’”
Fostering intrinsic motivation
Hiring for attitude is only step one. Once an individual becomes an employee, how can retailers maintain motivation?
Explaining her roundtable team’s conclusions, Dawn Matte from Ave Maria says, “Motivate them by giving them a sense of ownership and pride in their work. Engage them in the decision-making process and support them in making the right choices—because as a store owner, you don’t want to be the one making every decision all the time.”
Making employees feel supported, understood, and that they can communicate without repercussions was brought up as another important factor. It’s also a key principle of psychological safety, which is defined by McKinsey & Company as “an environment where people feel encouraged to share creative ideas without fear of personal judgment or stepping on toes.” The firm’s 2025 report states that when psychological safety is present in the workplace, it “creates a more innovative, stronger community.” And employees agree—89 percent of the business’s survey respondents said that psychological safety in the workplace was essential.
The ability to share ideas openly also depends on employees understanding the business’s vision, a level of transparency Dawn emphasized as key to motivating staff.
“Share your vision with staff so they feel involved in it; share sales information with them so they know what the target is,” she says. “For managers, share where you want to get to, but not necessarily how to get there. Let them pave that path with you so they have that sense of ownership.”
Additionally, these supervisors—including district managers for stores with multiple locations—can act as important touchpoints for employees and facilitate communication. Similarly, technology was also identified as a tool to bridge the gap between teams.
Monetary incentives
Health benefits, quarterly bonuses, and in-store coupons were some of several monetary incentives that attendees listed as ways to motivate employees.
One speaker shared that she calculates a percentage of profits to distribute to staff on a quarterly basis, while Randy Kuz of Hedley’s Health Hut recounted how a rep suggested he give employees a credit to purchase a quality pair of shoes since they’re on their feet all day. Currently, he offers all staff a one dollar raise when they complete alive Academy training and has set up RRSP matching for certain employees he doesn’t want to lose. “We pay well but we retain well, and we get a lot more out of staff by paying them probably higher than industry standard,” he says.
Training is also rewarded at another roundtable participant’s store. “For every course that our staff does, they fill out a form telling us what they learnt from it and how long it took them,” they say. “Then, we pay them that many extra hours as an add-on to their paycheck. For me, it works really well. We used to do in-store training, and I could get maybe 50 percent of my staff to participate, but now I’ve gotten about 90 percent engagement from my team when they get paid for it.”
Still, financial compensation is a juggling act many stores contend with. A 2025 report from CFIB found that nearly 57 percent of small business report a disconnect between what candidates expect in terms of pay or benefits and what the business is offering.
Ultimately, when it comes to sparking motivation, engagement, and resilience among staff, Dawn offered a simple rule of thumb: “Really take that time to do what you want to do with customers, but with staff.”
In the next issue: How do natural health store owners identify and structure successful partnerships that drive sales, increase brand visibility, and provide mutual value?