Amid Retail Labor Issues, Employee Retention Is Essential

Arthur Zaczkiewicz
·3 min read

Retailers’ labor woes are not going to disappear anytime soon, according to industry experts who also said merchants need to focus on retention efforts. That means upgrading your employee engagement strategy and execution, which requires the right tools and an understanding of the attributes of different generational cohorts.

Kelly Pederson, a partner at the merchandising practice at PwC, told WWD that while turnover occurs at all levels, “it is especially the junior level to middle manager range that will be most impacted, and includes Millennials — which organizations have been working to court and support for years.”

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Pederson said many of the same principles “around work-life balance, recognition, upskilling, and workplace well-being remain important perks in addition to overall compensation.”

Regarding technology solutions, Pederson said in the store environment, “workforce technology is absolutely critical, especially around communication, shift scheduling, issue resolution, and employee recognition.” He also said it is important to “consider the tools and systems all members of the organization use, laptops, portable monitors, headsets, etc. for corporate employees, and handhelds, mobile devices, and other store tools in the store environment.”

Digging deeper into strategy and tech, Chris Matichuk, general manager of StoreForce and a retail industry veteran, told WWD that while recruitment is still important, “retailers should be putting equal energy and focus on retention.” She said the first step “should be to review your current employee engagement policies and programs. Are your policies and programs aligned with the needs and wants of your workforce? Recognize that not all employees want the same things — some are looking for the opportunity for more hours, others more flexibility and control of their schedule.”

Matichuk said merchants need to consider offering flexibility “through systems like Shift Exchange, flexible availability and sharing employees across stores. Each of these provides employees with more control and opportunity.”

She also said retailers should consider introducing or actively promoting “collaboration and a sense of involvement.” This includes discussion boards, employee surveys and polling that “creates a greater connection to the team and your brand.” Matichuk said specialty retail “should be fun — leverage social engagement tools like the ability to post responses and reactions to posted messages.” She also noted the importance of developing an employee engagement strategy “to create a culture that employees want to belong to — and feel like they do.”

Matichuk said in today’s retail climate, communication and collaboration tools are essential. These are systems and programs that promote a sense of involvement, she said, adding that “gamification is also a great tool to help employees feel valued — celebrating team and individual successes drives future performance and assists in employees feeling valued.”

It’s also essential to provide employees “with more opportunities to share ideas and be heard.” Matichuk said this can be accomplished through “simple day-to-day tools like discussion boards — these provide a more immediate response than employee satisfaction surveys of the past. And, if you ask for input — ensure you are sharing the results.”

Discussion Boards are a standard feature in the StoreForce workforce management solution. In a case study of Duluth Trading Co., Marina Rodriguez, senior manager of retail operations, said the Discussion Board feature “is a vehicle to have teams interact with each other. We don’t have to use email for individual answers. This is a way for everybody to have eyes on what’s going on at one time versus just a one-off email stream.”

Dilanjan Abeyawardane, Duluth’s dedicated client engagement manager at StoreForce, said in the case study that Discussion Boards “also allowed store teams to communicate visually, through pictures. For example, if a single item was found in the back room and it was missing the sku number, rather than trying to describe the product, teams could just snap a photo and attach it to the discussion board for help with the sku number.”

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