When it comes to hiring, a sore spot for many jewelry retailers across the country, Susan Priolo of Sofia Jewelry in Mill Valley, Calif., considers herself fortunate. While Priolo admits she once had trouble finding staff who supported her family-owned store’s mission, those days have largely passed. With a capable and engaged team, Sofia Jewelry is thriving. “Our business is growing under the leadership of our son and daughter in ways that we could not have imagined when we opened in 1994,” Priolo says. Of course, not all jewelry shops are so lucky. From unreliable, culture-draining sales associates to uncompromising designers, many jewelry retailers can swap horror stories of poor hires—though it need not be so. 1. Hiring out of desperation Far too often, retailers hire out of desperation, eager to ­simply fill the position so they can remove the task from their to-do