EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

The Importance of Employee Engagement in Retail & How to Overcome Engagement Challenges

Employee engagement and retention are front-of-mind for HR teams across all sectors to ensure their people power is maximised. But, as consumers are increasingly prioritising a brand’s character and values beyond their products, this has placed growing pressure on HR leaders within the retail space. In a sector known for its demanding, ‘revolving door’ workplace culture, businesses are now more than ever required to rewrite this narrative with a positive environment that empowers every employee – from shop floor to head office – if they want to attract and retain their best people. And, in turn, optimise their reputation to buyers in a world where consumer awareness is only growing.

But, how can employers design and deliver an engagement strategy that achieves this? First, they need to identify the barriers currently in place before implementing meaningful solutions that turn strategy into reality. Here, we explore every area of this. Let’s dive in.

What Is Employee Engagement in Retail?

Let’s begin with what employee engagement looks like specifically within the retail sector. Firstly, engaged teams feel valued, seen and heard for their contributions. After all, we know 82% of employees believe effective recognition is a key predictor of their happiness at work, and happy teams are more productive and more likely to offer discretionary efforts within their roles.

Secondly, when a retail workforce is engaged, colleagues are more satisfied with their roles and feel aligned to the values behind their organisation’s culture, enhancing and exemplifying this for others to emulate. This also, of course, does wonders for a retailer’s employer brand when their teams are authentically happy to support the business and would recommend it to their peers.

And after all, engaged teams are more likely to bring their full potential to work, in turn reducing absenteeism and turnover rates seen in disengaged, unhappy employees. This not only creates a productive and retained workforce, but inspires new ideas, colleague learning and progression and teams who are willing to support one another in their roles. In the retail sector, this not only sharpens the employer brand but contributes to wider commercial success measures including sales and revenue growth.

Why Employee Engagement Matters in Retail

Before we explore the key engagement challenges facing the retail industry, let’s take a look at why an effective strategy is so important for businesses and their people.

Optimising communication.

By nature, the Retail industry comprises frontline, hard-to-reach teams which rarely have access to a corporate device. An effective engagement strategy will bridge this gap, ensuring from head office to shop floor, employees feel connected to and empowered by their business. With clear lines of communication, businesses ensure important information is relayed to inspire, track and reward team outputs.

Elevating employer brand.

An effective employee engagement strategy will empower all areas of employee wellbeing, in turn resulting in happy and supported teams who want to remain within the business. This works wonders for a business’ employer branding, with a razor sharp reputation for putting its employee’s wellbeing and happiness first in a competitive market where candidates seek people-first cultures.

Increasing customer satisfaction.

Did you know, 96% of consumers say the service they receive is important in their choice of brand? This has a direct impact on the retail industry, where consumers come into direct contact with shop floor employees who can have a significant influence on their buying behaviours. With an effective, human-led engagement strategy, employees will deliver a positive experience to a retail business’ customers, increasing their loyalty and satisfaction.

Incentivising productivity.

With a clear engagement and reward strategy, employees will have a clear understanding of the business’ overall strategic goals as well as their own individual or team targets in line with these. Meaningful engagement should build on this with meaningful incentivisation to inspire increased productivity, maximising the people power behind a brand to reach revenue and sales goals.

Key Engagement Challenges in Retail

Latest figures demonstrate concerning gaps in employee engagement across the industry. In the UK, the average employee turnover rate is estimated at around 15% – whereas in the retail sector, this rises significantly to 57.3% in the UK and 60.5% in the US. So, what are the key engagement challenges in the retail sector leading to this?

Teams are disconnected.

The deskless divide between head office and shop floor creates a key barrier in communication, recognition and engagement routes, leaving frontline teams feeling overlooked and undervalued, with 41% of teams reporting to ‘hardly ever’ look forward to going into work. This widening gap in the engagement strategies is leading to over a third (34%) of employees feeling disconnected from their company, looking for their next opportunity.

Wellbeing is overlooked.

The Global Report of Frontline Workers found that the most common reason for retail workers leaving their roles was burnout (58%). By nature, retail employees face demanding environments, alongside typically lower compensation. As a result, their health and wellbeing often goes overlooked, with little focus placed on total rewards packages or financial remuneration from industry employers.

Workforce planning is outdated.

Research shows that less than a third of information cascaded to retail stores from HQ is executed correctly. As a result of outdated communication routes, retail sector employees face unpredictable shift patterns and unforeseen changes that are often given at late notice, causing implications to their personal schedules and responsibilities, including planned childcare. Traditional, low-impact communication channels such as printed rotas on staffroom walls don’t reflect the modern needs of the workforce.

How to Overcome Retail Engagement Challenges

So, what steps can retail industry employers proactively take to break down these barriers and implement meaningful change within their employee engagement strategy?

Improve Communication

In the modern world, connecting and communicating with the retail workforce should also be modernised. Typically, frontline teams don’t have access to a corporate email address or device, but this shouldn’t present a barrier that can’t be overcome. Implementing an employee engagement app places a central hub of communication in employees’ pockets, wherever they are, without the need for a corporate sign-on process. This not only streamlines communication into one place, but creates a social community where employees feel authentically connected and engaged to the wider business.

Recognise and Reward Good Work

Effective recognition and reward should be centrally embedded within a competitive engagement strategy. This is fundamental to bridging the deskless divide and ensuring every person, from head office to shop floor, feels valued, seen and heard and like they truly matter. Importantly, recognition shouldn’t be exclusively delivered by managers, but a culture of recognition should be championed by all – with wins celebrated by leaders and peers.

Prioritise wellbeing

To overcome the employee engagement challenges within the retail sector, industry employers need to proactively and meaningfully demonstrate their commitment to their team’s wellbeing through a comprehensive perks and benefits package. This should encompass every pillar of wellbeing, championing physical, mental and financial health, but also reflect the unique needs of each workforce – and to do this, they must first be assessed. Businesses can leverage financial benefits to enhance their compensation offer to employees through discounts, savings, offers and access to support services.

Amplify ideas and feedback

Those working on the frontline of a business often provide the most insightful and innovative improvements. This can span every process behind the organisation, from sales experience to product offers, as well as of course the overall employee experience. For retail employers to truly engage, inspire and reward their people, they need to amplify their voices at every level to implement an informed engagement strategy that’s unique to the needs of their business.

Track employee engagement and retention

For businesses to truly overcome the employee engagement challenges they face, visibility of key improvement metrics need to be identified. This is another area in which the power of technology comes in to enable transparency around current engagement benchmarks across the business, and how retention is reflected in those who are engaged vs disengaged to evidence the impact of your engagement strategy.

Improve Retail Engagement with Employee Recognition

At Rippl, we don’t believe in average employee engagement strategies. Our purpose is to create meaningful workplace connections, so every employee feels valued and empowered to thrive. We streamline multi-dimensional features under one roof and into employees’ pockets to keep teams engaged around the clock, from head office to shop floor, through:

Your very own branded employee engagement app, available on desktop, iOS and Android.
Multi-level recognition and global rewards that reach teams wherever they are.
Tailored benefits to reflect each pillar of wellbeing, so employees can be their best both in- and outside of work.
Customisation to switch features on and off and evolve your engagement strategy in line with your business needs.
Dynamic feedback features including live polls, surveys and an idea management hub to gather insights and innovations.
Wider engagement including a social timeline, internal award nomination campaigns, incentives and competitions to take engagement to the next level.

That’s why Rippl is the engagement platform of choice, empowering employers to build a workplace where every person matters and is empowered to thrive. We specialise in supporting businesses with disconnected and deskless teams achieve just this, and have already made waves in employee engagement within the retail industry.

Rippl

Improve Your Employee Recognition with Rippl

See how Rippl can improve your employee engagement . Get in touch to find out more or book a Rippl platform demo today!

FAQs on the Importance of Employee Engagement in Retail

Effective communication, employee wellbeing, and a people-first culture are integral to an engaging retail environment. Employees who feel valued provide high-quality service, a key element for 96% of consumers in brand selection, increasing customer satisfaction and retail business performance. Well-understood business goals and empowered, supported teams are key for elevating a retail brand above the rest.

Employee engagement is critical in retail to facilitate effective communication, ensuring a connected and empowered workforce. It influences employer brand, fosters happier teams, prioritises wellbeing and attracts new talent. Clear engagement and reward strategies also offer insight into the business’s strategic goals, inspiring productivity and commercial performance from teams. Essentially, effective engagement in retail enhances communication, reputation, customer satisfaction, and productivity.

Employers need to modernise their engagement and communication approaches to maximise their retail teams. Tools such as an employee engagement app can be used to foster an authentic connection with the wider business. Recognising and rewarding good work is also crucial, creating a culture where colleagues at all levels feel valued. Prioritising wellbeing is key, with perks and benefits reflecting each workforce’s unique needs. Lastly, amplifying ideas and feedback from those on the shop floor provides critical insight around improvements and innovations for a retail brand, whilst ensuring every person feels valued.

The Importance of Employee Engagement in Retail & How to Overcome Engagement Challenges

What Is Employee Engagement in Retail?

Why Employee Engagement Matters in Retail

Optimising communication.

Elevating employer brand.

Increasing customer satisfaction.

Incentivising productivity.

Key Engagement Challenges in Retail

Teams are disconnected.

Wellbeing is overlooked.

Workforce planning is outdated.

How to Overcome Retail Engagement Challenges

Improve Communication

Recognise and Reward Good Work

Prioritise wellbeing

Amplify ideas and feedback

Track employee engagement and retention

Improve Retail Engagement with Employee Recognition

Improve Your Employee Recognition with Rippl

FAQs on the Importance of Employee Engagement in Retail

What is employee engagement in retail?

Why is employee engagement important in retail?

How can you engage employees in retail?

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