‘No growth strategy, tech investment or innovation can compensate for poor human interaction’

Our frontline staff pay ranking this week benchmarks those brands that are rewarding their colleagues with the best hourly pay.

The headline? That retailers are doing all they can to remain competitive, and that this is about genuine reward and investment, rather than a case of simply grappling with wage inflation.

Of the 60 bricks-and-mortar retailers scrutinised, 44 pay more than minimum wage—the median pay which is among 20p above the £12.21 rate at £12.41.

Nearly half offer bonuses, commission, or profit share schemes. Granted, our research doesn’t look at the whole industry, and 16 of the 60 still only offer minimum wage. Nonetheless, it all helps to dispel the historical reputation of frontline retail work being generalised as a minimum wage job.

What’s driving this progress? Competitiveness, mostly. As B&Q’s Andy Moat points out, these are the people who are instrumental in delivering on customer experience. No grand growth strategy and no amount of tech investment or innovation can compensate for a poor human interaction.

Attracting the best people and making sure they want to work for you is essential and self-fulfilling. The rewards are many—retention goes up, sales go up, churn goes down, cost of hiring and onboarding goes down.

The industry has made huge strides in becoming more people-focused in recent years. Uniqlo, for instance, has increased the scope of benefits it offers its staff over the last year. It’s added an equal enhanced pay scheme for parents taking leave for the birth or adoption of a child; an enhanced annual leave allowance of 34 days, including bank holidays; and £300 net pay towards clothing annually.

Uniqlo, like many retailers, is pouring efforts into becoming an employer of choice. Retailers up and down the country are investing in people and are more mindful than ever of their wellbeing and happiness. It doesn’t stop at the softer side of people investment, either. The amount of technology investment being poured into stores to improve working conditions as well as customer experience is skyrocketing.

“No clothing allowance can mitigate the stress and anxiety of being verbally abused by customers”

Take Tesco. Jane Mustoe, its senior technology director, spoke at World Retail Congress this week on people-first transformation strategies. The grocer has 300,000 store colleagues, and its strategy is all about technology that puts people first. It’s investing in solutions that enable people to have more time to serve customers, and data products that enable them to make better decisions in store, for instance.

So all in all, from pay, to perks, to wellbeing, to technology, it’s all very encouraging. Until, of course, you consider the factors outside of retailers’ control that risk undoing much of this highly laudable work around people investment.

Working on the frontline means, sadly, being exposed daily to many of the problems that exist in society. Retail Trust data shows that 90% of frontline colleagues have experienced abuse, and a third are witnessing it on a daily basis. Around 50% say they experience fear of going into work as a result.

No clothing allowance can mitigate the stress and anxiety of being verbally abused by customers. Earning 20p more than the minimum wage per hour is unlikely to feel worth it when witnessing shoplifting with minimal police support. No shiny new technology solution will make people want to turn up to work if, that day, a situation at work has made them feel unsafe.

These problems have always existed, but they’re worsening. One international retailer recently told me staff trauma caused by witnessing store violence is increasing exponentially in London, and it’s spreading fast outside the capital. Disconcertingly, while shoplifting of course exists across Europe, this retailer’s European counterparts simply cannot fathom the level of violence witnessed within its UK stores.

The seemingly unique problem in the UK cannot continue. At a time when retail has to make tough investment decisions owing to cost pressures from the government’s much maligned Budget, it can ill-afford for their people investment to go to waste.

This is not pointed solely at the current administration. This problem has arisen because of decades of underinvestment and underappreciation of the role that retail plays in our society. The erosion of retail as the biggest private sector employer in this country has a huge impact on millions of people.

There are government initiatives being rolled out, and promises and plans afoot. They include dedicated task forces, additional funding on crime prevention, and the mooted removal of the £200 low-value limit for shoplifting.

Perhaps these all add up to some hope on the horizon. But because of the severity of the problem, the government now must over-index on support and do so urgently. Plans need to become concrete. Promises need to be actioned. Retailers and their colleagues working on the frontline need to see positive change. Because there’s only so much the sector can do from within.