Kylie Terrell
Retail leaders are facing rapidly evolving recruitment and retention challenges, coupled with lower wages and challenges connecting employees across numerous locations. The Australian Bureau of Statistics points to average retail turnover rising nearly 5% just in September through October of 2021. We’ve seen the monthly turnover at some retailers reaching as high as 28% in clothing retailers, and more than 12% at cafés, restaurants and takeaway services.
With the right tools to attract, engage and retain retail employees, companies have the opportunity to stand out as an employer of choice by adapting their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) to fit the needs of today’s workforce.
A great EVP showcases what differentiates your company from the next to give you the ability to secure great talent, no matter what the market is.
We’ve brought together a few examples of retailers that we’ve helped to inspire you to find new ways to boost your attraction and retention strategies in a crowded market.
Building community with technology
Euro Garages Australia is part of the global EG Group, which has over 6,000 fuel, convenience and food services sites around the world. After acquiring the Woolworths brand, an immediate priority was to unite a dispersed and disenfranchised workforce under a clear purpose, shared company values and culture, which was especially difficult because the majority of the workforce worked part-time and independently. EG Australia partnered with Reward Gateway to design and launch its employee engagement platform 'Booster,' which was created to connect all employees, irrespective of their role in the company.
Since launching Booster, 89% of EG’s employees are actively using the platform, and it’s become the go-to place for accessing existing and new employee benefits, as well as a primary channel for communications. The team later added employee reward and recognition to the platform, with peer-to-peer eCards and manager-led monetary awards to further boost connections across the business, and a Wellbeing Centre to provide extra physical, nutritional, financial and mental health support. The first ten months of launching the platform delivered over $288,000 worth of savings through its employee benefits hub and distributed 5,356 monetary awards to its hard-working Australians all around the country!
Peter Fotheringham, Chief People Officer at EG Australia says,
We’re a very engaged community, but this added value. When you deliver a program like this, it raises the spirit and before you know it, people are using it and they realise that the organisation is making an effort to deliver something that adds value to themselves and their family. They feel valued, and that’s very important.
Increasing communications engagement
Dunelm is a leading home furnishing retailer with 10,500 staff across 169 superstores, head offices, call centres and warehouses. Communication has always been a top priority for Dunelm that was only heightened by the pandemic, but the organisation was struggling to find the perfect way to connect every member of its dispersed workforce.
Many of the shop floor and warehouse staff didn’t have an email address and rarely used a computer as part of their day-to-day role, but the extra focus Dunelm has placed on employee communications and content has yielded fantastic results.
Dunelm already had existing engagement tools with Reward Gateway but there was no central hub for employees to securely log into and get the information they needed within a few clicks so, they decided to build more initiatives into the platform – internally known as 'Home Comforts' – including a company-wide news feed that was used to communicate vital information, a Wellbeing Centre, employee benefits, peer-to-peer recognition through eCards and employee surveys.
Communications engagement increased by 600%, driven by their commitment to posting regular company updates, wellbeing content and videos from senior management. On average, each employee logs into Home Comforts 169 times per year, which works out roughly to once every two or three days. The company’s eCard system has also been rapidly gaining popularity with over 8,600 eCards sent during the past 12 months alone.
Ben Waterfield, Internal Communications Manager at Dunelm says,
I just wanted to say that having Home Comforts has been absolutely critical during this. Following the lockdown news, it was great to get out such an important message from our CEO in one go to reach all our employees.
Evolving a reward and recognition strategy
Missguided is a popular retail organisation with more than 300 employees. The reward and recognition programs introduced were meant to achieve a variety of goals, such as making employees feel valued, increasing retention, improving engagement and helping reinforce Missguided, led by Internal Communications and Engagement Partner Glenn Grayson. To kick off its strategy, Missguided’s team relied on employee feedback to determine the direction of its reward and recognition initiatives.
Employee feedback showed that bigger prizes didn’t always equate to more significant recognition – people wanted to be recognised for their individual and team contributions to the greater success of the business, and needed it to be customised, cost-effective and agile. The team then introduced the 'Awesome Human Being' portal, where employees could nominate each other and award badges for 'Flock Star award.' If nominated, there is a chance to win a small prize like 'a cheeky day off' (a full day off) and or a bottle of champagne.
Missguided's new recognition strategy, along with other engagement initiatives, has contributed to a 30% reduction in employee turnover over the last 12 months. Feedback from the team’s most recent employee survey revealed that 92% of staff care about the company, 86% are proud to work for Missguided, 79% are usually happy and positive at work and 80% would recommend it as a good place to work.
Through more than 13 years of experience, Reward Gateway has partnered with leading retailers around the world to help them bring the best of the best to their people and build an unbeatable EVP.
Still looking for more ways to get started? We've pulled together a resource hub, full of tips that will help you enhance your EVP and support your employees both now and in the future.
