Personnel

How Retailers Can Solve Workforce Challenges
April 12, 2023 at 8:58 am

Retailers are facing a major conundrum: consumers are flocking back to brick-and-mortar retail while the struggle to adequately staff stores has never been greater. High turnover in retail isn’t new. According to McKinsey & Company, annual employee turnover among frontline retail workers has been at least 60 percent for a long time. But record inflation…

Beyond the Resume: 3 Hidden Characteristics of Valuable Employees
March 1, 2023 at 3:28 pm

The question of employee engagement has never been more pressing. Coming out of the pandemic, there has been a shift in employee expectations about both pay and working conditions. With potential economic headwinds — e.g., debt becoming more expensive because of Federal Reserve policy — it’s becoming more important to maintain stability wherever possible, and no…

The Home Depot to Invest $1B to Raise Hourly Employee Wages
February 21, 2023 at 3:38 pm

The Home Depot on Tuesday said it will spend an additional $1 billion to give its hourly employees a raise, as retailers and restaurants compete for workers, reports CNBC. The home improvement retailer announced the wage investment as it reported fourth-quarter earnings. It didn't disclose the new average wage for employees, but said every market’s starting wage is…

Amazon to Require Employees Be in the Office at Least Three Days a Week
February 20, 2023 at 12:10 pm

Amazon.com is instructing corporate staffers to spend at least three days a week in the office, CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo last week. The decision marks a shift from Amazon’s previous policy, which left it up to individual managers to decide how often their employees would be required to work in the office. Jassy said he and…

How to Snag Top Talent and Gain a Competitive Edge
February 15, 2023 at 5:11 pm

After the past few difficult years it seemed the tough times might be coming to an end, yet I believe too many are beginning 2023 with more trepidation than hope. They have fears of a recession and see headlines filled with news of various organizations laying people off. While there are businesses that are struggling…

The Not-So-Surprising Answer to Employee Retention Challenges
February 14, 2023 at 12:12 pm

The “quit rate” in retail and hospitality now outpaces the national rate by 70 percent. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that hiring seasonal employees is a challenge retailers face every year. After the holidays pass, retailers are also tasked with the challenge of not only understanding how to improve internal processes, but also…

3 Ways to Address Frontline Employees’ Pain Points to Reduce Churn
February 6, 2023 at 11:12 am

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the expectations of frontline retail workers, and they’re more willing than ever to leave companies that are still clinging to outdated corporate cultures. Consulting firm Korn Ferry recently surveyed more than 100 major retailers in the U.S. and found that turnover in the industry, long notoriously high, was up significantly…

Wayfair to Announce Second Round of Job Cuts
January 19, 2023 at 8:46 pm

Wayfair plans to announce on Friday its second major round of layoffs in less than six months, as the online retailer continues to deal with falling sales and supply chain tangles. The expected cuts follow a 5 percent layoff by Wayfair in August. The earlier round of cuts was part of a $500 million cost-saving plan, but Wayfair executives…

Amazon Warehouse Workers Get ‘Big Win’ With New York Law on Quotas
January 2, 2023 at 4:28 pm

A new law in New York will require companies that operate distribution centers to be more transparent about their work requirements, aiming to protect warehouse workers from possibly unlawful quotas. Gov. Kathy Hochul last week signed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which is modeled after a similar, first-in-the-nation law signed in California last year. The New York…