Analyzing Your Local Labor Landscape

By Sarah Hamaker

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Today’s limited labor market place has created it even more difficult for stores to seek the services of fantastic staff. Added to that are a new wave of employees quitting in what some are contacting the Fantastic Resignation.

“Wages have long gone up, producing more levels of competition about hourly charges primarily,” claimed Jayme Gough, market place investigate supervisor for NACS for the duration of the NACS webinar, “The Using the services of Landscape.” “And COVID-19 accelerated some of these most sought-following staff positive aspects, like overall flexibility, peer coaching, teamwork, range and do the job/existence equilibrium.”

With overall flexibility topping the listing of what staff want, she reminded retailers that they can build flexibility into their schedules for hourly workers. “Flexibility can be how long an in-keep shift is, what times an personnel desires to work or not perform, what store area they want to do the job in, etcetera.,” Gough explained. “There are extra options for flexibility out there on the frontline than shops understand, and it is an asset for a organization to give that overall flexibility for hourly workers.”

As Travis Kistler, principal at Oliver Wyman, pointed out all through the webinar, “The worth of the customer knowledge is also in the rise not just for prospects but also for possible workforce. If they do not like the consumer encounter, they are not going to utilize for a career.”

Kistler gave the case in point of a retailer with the buyer expertise of their retailer getting neighborhood-oriented and treating personnel like spouse and children. “Retailers require to make sure the staff expertise and the shopper working experience continue to be complimentary,” he claimed.

Each Gough and Kistler reminded stores that wage earners want much more than aggressive pay. “The fantastic information is that there are a lot of good possibilities for merchants to generate an appealing and powerful do the job package, as corporations are testing a ton of diverse points to see what is the most successful in retaining personnel as effectively as bringing new workers in,” Kistler explained.

1 matter any retailer can do to determine out how to keep and seek the services of staff is to discover out the factors men and women stay in the occupation with a stay interview. “Conduct keep interviews with extensive-phrase employees to come across out why they remain with you, then take into consideration how to emphasize all individuals positives to equally new and current workers,” Kistler stated.

The up coming webinar in the NACS Labor Landscape Webinar Collection is “Attracting and Hiring Group Customers in the Subsequent Typical,” on Tuesday, August 3, from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. EDT. Signal up for this totally free webinar to study how to meet the difficulties of hiring workers in today’s restricted labor market place.

Sarah Hamaker is a freelance writer and NACS Everyday and NACS Magazine contributor centered in Fairfax, Va. Go to her on line at www.sarahhamakerfiction.com.