New study highlights massive issues around staff retention
A recent study has found that 320,000 UK frontline workers across retail and hospitality are underemployed, seeking an average of 15 additional hours per week.
The report, by Retail Economics and Legion Technologies, surveyed 2,000 frontline employees (1,500 in retail and 500 in hospitality) in April of this year, to get a better picture of where the economy and employers are missing the mark.
Against the fact that hundreds of thousands of workers are underemployed, it also found that some staff are overemployed. The report suggests that rebalancing shift hours from overemployed staff (103,000 workers wanting ~11 fewer hours per week) to underemployed staff represents an immediate £0.9 billion wage reallocation opportunity before resorting to external recruitment.
One of the biggest weaknesses identified was on the subject of scheduling, with the majority of workers (52%) saying that they receive final rotas only 2–3 days in advance, and 89% had shifts altered or cancelled with less than 48 hours’ notice over a three-month period.
The results also showed that large retailers score lower than smaller businesses as they struggle with execution consistency at scale. High street and shopping centre staff experience far higher schedule friction than rural standalone sites, the report says.
The issue of staff retention is one that has come up time and time again as part of Watch Insider’s TALKING SHOP series of interviews with high profile UK jewellers. In luxury watch retail, sales advisors aren’t easily replaced. Product knowledge, clienteling skills, and customer trust can take years to develop.
The work by Retail Economics and Legion Technologies reckons that replacing an experienced worker costs £4,000 per person in direct onboarding and lost productivity — and higher in specialised roles like watchmaking or high-end luxury sales.
