‘Retail’s best employers will be retail’s best performers as the world adapts after Covid’

Dixons Carphone rode out the turmoil of the pandemic well, so he had a few options to choose from as he reflected on the year gone by.

There were market-share gains, climbing profitability and he expected the retailer’s specialist technology market to continue to grow post-Covid. But in his deck of slides there was one which he was “almost most proud of” – and that was the leap in staff engagement.

Data from the retailer and employee engagement specialist Glint showed an eight-point rise on its staff engagement index, which put Dixons Carphone ahead of the retail industry benchmark, above the general global benchmark and on the cusp of being ranked among the global top 20%.

“Like other prominent retailers from Morrisons to M&S, Dixons Carphone has walked the walk when it comes to looking after its people”

All in all, a pretty impressive result at a time when staff would have been under the combined pressures of health concerns, the need to switch overnight to an online-only model and learning new skills, such as advising and selling over video, to service a huge surge in demand for technology products as people were forced to stay at home.

Like other prominent retailers from Morrisons to M&S, Dixons Carphone has walked the walk when it comes to looking after its people.

There was a special bonus for supply-chain staff and from October the retailer’s average wages will rise by 9% to £10.85 an hour in London and £9.50 outside the capital, to come into line with the Living Wage Foundation’s recommendation.

Over the year, a further 7,000 staff were awarded shares, giving them a greater personal stake in the company’s success.

Despite the challenges of coronavirus, Dixons Carphone employees completed 600,000 hours of training during 2020, equipping them with some of the skills needed in a changing retail industry and a changed world, setting them up as surely as possible for future success.

For retailers, especially in discretionary categories, engaged, committed and customer-centric staff will increasingly be a factor in putting clear blue water between the winners and the losers. 

Doing the right thing by staff will therefore not just be about altruism, but become an even more critical component to commercial success.

“Finding the right ways to engage people is only going to become more important, particularly as companies and industries compete for the best people in the face of labour shortages”

As Baldock put it: “Our big investments in colleague wellbeing, skills and reward have meant more engaged colleagues, and in turn more satisfied customers.”

And more satisfied customers tends to mean more satisfied shareholders as the sales and profits roll in.

Finding the right ways to engage people is only going to become more important, particularly as companies and industries compete for the best people in the face of labour shortages already leading to closures in retail’s neighbouring sector of hospitality. This has been exacerbated by the departure of overseas workers in the wake of Brexit, as well as the ravages of the pandemic.

Radical change is evident all around. John Lewis, for instance, has become the first British retailer to introduce 26 weeks of equal-parenthood paid maternity and paternity leave, so that it is “a place for everyone and for people from all walks of life to feel valued so they can thrive in our business”. 

And Asda has recognised the reality of transformed expectations about work in the wake of the pandemic by embracing a hybrid-working model permanently.

The grocer said: “We believe this approach will help us attract and retain the best talent, and will continue to position Asda as an employer of choice.”

That’s it in a nutshell. The best talent at every level – whether the top, bottom or middle of the retail hierarchy – will want to join the best businesses, which, through their engagement and expertise, are most likely to deliver the best results in the post-pandemic world.

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