[December 18, 2018] |
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Retail Absence is Corrosive to Employee Engagement, Say Store Managers
While four out of five retailers worldwide (78 percent) say employee
engagement is important to organizational success, many are challenged
by the corrosive impact that rampant unplanned absence has on staff
productivity (58 percent), manager stress (55 percent), and team morale
(46 percent). And it's a vicious cycle: more than half agree that poor
employee engagement causes increased absenteeism.
These findings come from the second installment of the Global Retail
Absence survey, "What Came First: Retail Absenteeism or Low Engagement?"
issued by The
Workforce Institute at Kronos
Incorporated and conducted with Coleman Parkes Research, which
analyzed responses from 800 retail managers across Australia, Canada,
France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. Part one examined the
impact of absenteeism on store operations, while part two explores
how absenteeism degrades employee engagement - and causes more absence -
revealing opportunities for intelligent scheduling technology to solve
the problem.
News Facts
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A vicious cycle: Unplanned absence and poor engagement fuel chaos,
drive turnover.
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Retailers worldwide estimate that 7 percent of labor hours are
scheduled but not worked, and many view unplanned absence as one
of their organization's most difficult, complex, and
time-consuming issues.
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Retail managers in the U.K. (63 percent), U.S. (63 percent), and
Germany (61 percent) feel strongest that poor employee engagement
has a big impact on unplanned employee absence.
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More than half of retailers worldwide (52 percent) see a direct
correlation between poor employee engagement and increased staff
turnover1, with retailers in the U.S. (61 percent) and
U.K. (55 percent) seeing the strongest connection.
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Employee engagement can drive - or degrade - store success.
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Retailers worldwide believe absenteeism has a big impact on
customer satisfaction (47 percent) and store revenue (42 percent)
- which are the top two metrics retailers say they use to measure
productivity.
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Retailers recognize that a greater focus on work-life balance (62
percent) and workforce scheduling technology (59 percent) would
have a positive impact on productivity.
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Globally, nearly half of all retailers (43 percent) are not using
an automated solution to manage individual work preferences and
availability. Lacking an intelligent solution, retail managers in
the U.S. (50 percent), Canada (42 percent), and the U.K. (40
percent) struggle most with managing employee preferences, citing
this as one of their biggest workforce management challenges.
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Shift-swap technology can solve absence woes, yet only half of
retailers use it effectively.
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One-third of retail managers (34 percent) say managing shift-swap
requests is one of the biggest workforce management challenges
they face as an organization.
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France (59 percent) and the U.S. (53 percent) lead the way using
shift-swap technology, but elsewhere adoption falls short -
especially in the U.K. (44 percent) and Canada (40 percent).
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Only 23 percent of retailers worldwide enable self-service shift
swapping on a mobile device.
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Shift swapping without manager approval is most common in France
(32 percent) and Germany (30 percent), though, overall, one in
four retailers manage shift swaps this way.
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Retailers remain optimistically open to change: Many expect that
an innovative shift-swapping solution would have a positive impact
on employee and store productivity (67 percent and 65 percent,
respectively), work-life balance (64 percent), staff motivation
(58 percent), morale (55 percent), turnover (53 percent), and
customer experience (50 percnt).
Supporting Quotes
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Joyce Maroney, executive director, The Workforce Institute at Kronos (News - Alert)
"When
making allowances for unplanned employee absence by over-staffing or
over-scheduling - as 88 percent of retailers worldwide do - you react
to the problem rather than correcting it. This reactive nature creates
unnecessary work for managers and poses a risk to customer
satisfaction. Best practice suggests retailers leverage advanced
scheduling software to improve labor forecasting and proactively
enable associates to pick up, drop, or swap a shift, giving them more
say over when and how often they work. When automated with
intelligence, this practice dramatically reduces the number of
last-minute call-outs, no-shows, and vacant shifts, and effectively
removes the need to schedule additional labor to cover for anticipated
absences."
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Pauline Bennett, retail labor and planning manager, Sainsbury's
Supermarkets
"The business impact of absenteeism can be
felt at all levels - from individual store results to the corporate
bottom line. Sainsbury's is addressing the issue by analyzing its root
cause through labor analytics. We look at what factors can be driving
unplanned absence - Is consistent understaffing leading managers to
overwork employees? Do colleagues feel they lack flexibility in their
schedules? - and work to address those factors one by one. With the
ability to track absence patterns at each location, store managers can
take swift action to reduce absenteeism, improve employee morale, and
meet the forecast - turning a would-be problem store into a model
store."
Supporting Resources
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Note to editors: Please refer to this research as the second
installment of the Global Retail Absence survey, "What Came First:
Retail Absenteeism or Low Engagement?" issued by The Workforce
Institute at Kronos Incorporated.
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Part one of the global survey is available
here. A special episode of The Workforce Institute Radio podcast
also recaps the findings: "Corrosive
Effects of Unplanned Absenteeism on Retailers."
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Download the white paper, Absence
Management: The Last Easy Money for Retailers, which examines how
effective absence management and workforce planning can foster
financial gain.
-
Subscribe to follow The
Workforce Institute at Kronos for insight, research, blogs, and
podcasts on how organizations can manage today's modern workforce to
drive engagement and performance.
-
Check out Kronos CEO Aron Ain's new book, "WorkInspired:
How to Build an Organization Where Everyone Loves to Work."
-
Connect with Kronos via Facebook,
Twitter,
LinkedIn,
Instagram,
and YouTube (News - Alert).
About The Workforce Institute at Kronos The Workforce
Institute at Kronos provides research and education on critical
workplace issues facing organizations around the globe. By bringing
together thought leaders, The Workforce Institute at Kronos is uniquely
positioned to empower organizations with the knowledge and information
they need to manage their workforce effectively and provide a voice for
employees on important workplace issues. A hallmark of The Workforce
Institute's research is balancing the needs and desires of diverse
employee populations with the needs of organizations. For additional
information, visit www.workforceinstitute.org.
About Kronos Incorporated Kronos is a leading provider of
workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions.
Kronos industry-centric workforce applications are purpose-built for
businesses, healthcare providers, educational institutions, and
government agencies of all sizes. Tens of thousands of organizations -
including half of the Fortune 1000® - and more than 40
million people in over 100 countries use Kronos every day. Visit www.kronos.com.
Kronos: Workforce Innovation That Works.
Footnote 1: The current rate of global turnover reported by retailers
in this survey is 22 percent for part-time associates and 18 percent for
full-time associates. France reports slightly-above-average turnover
rates at 23 percent and 19 percent, respectively, while the U.S. reports
the lowest rate of full-time turnover in retail at 13 percent.
Survey Methodology Research conducted on behalf of Kronos
Incorporated by Coleman Parkes Research, an independent U.K.-based
research company. Survey data was collected between June and July 2018
from 800 respondents using an online quantitative methodology. Survey
participants were sourced from multiple global markets, including
Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S., and
represent a variety of retail sectors, including grocery, department
stores, warehouse, specialty, convenience, and discount. Survey
participants included retail managers, store managers, and head of store
operations from retail organizations with more than 1,000 employees. For
further questions about survey methodology, contact [email protected].
© 2018 Kronos Incorporated. All rights reserved. Kronos and the Kronos
logo are registered trademarks and Workforce Innovation That Works is a
trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. See a complete
list of Kronos
trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their
respective owners.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181218005103/en/
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