Personnel

A recent Clickatell survey showed that the typical customer spends 13 hours a year on hold — hours they would rather be relaxing (58 percent), doing chores (46 percent) or spending with family (36 percent). Additionally, one-third of those respondents said spending even five minutes to nine minutes on hold can lead to negative feelings towards a brand. Even with…

Around half of customers would switch to a competitor after just one bad customer service experience. Just one. That’s not a lot of room for error. To compete in today’s e-commerce world, retailers must invest in robust and talented customer service teams. Unfortunately, a rapid increase in online shopping plus a decrease in the labor…

In an effort to get more of its workers vaccinated against COVID-19, Kroger will eliminate paid pandemic-related leave and charge $50 per month to employees that haven't gotten shots. Kroger stopped short of mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for workers, but said it's "modifying policies to encourage safe behaviors including vaccination." Company officials added the grocer will also…

Retail workers are leaving their jobs at a record pace, with 721,000 workers quitting in August alone, maintaining an industry high for employee turnover since April. What’s more, employers in the retail space that were already facing massive labor shortages are now also preparing for increased seasonal hiring — making employee engagement more critical than…

The COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the importance of frontline workers in many industries — especially retail. These employees currently account for 80 percent of the global workforce. Yet, 60 percent of them are unsatisfied with the technology they've been provided with to do their work. Digital transformation is essential as businesses strategize for a strong "return…

The tide is turning in retail. Despite staff and supply shortages that may burden shoppers and encumber stores during the holiday season, signs of growing optimism for the future abound. While last year the industry underwent a scourge of bankruptcies and closures, mid-year predictions suggest store openings could surpass store closings for the first time…

Americans quit their jobs at record rates in September, and the retail industry was no exception. The Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey showed 685,000 people quit a retail job in September, at a rate of 4.4 percent. While this number is down from the 730,000 people who quit a retail job in…

The Biden administration said on Thursday that large companies (those with 100 or more employees) have until Jan. 4 to ensure that their workforces are fully vaccinated under a sweeping new coronavirus health measure that will cover 84 million private sector workers, including an estimated 31 million workers who are currently unvaccinated. The plan was…

E-commerce marketers have been preparing for the future of work for some time now — and it's not simply because they're digital natives. What do e-commerce marketers know that other pros don’t? I’ll unpack that idea by turning to research Sidecar published earlier this year, the 2021 E-commerce Marketer Survey. A key question we asked…

Why should employees wait for payday to gain access to wages already earned? Turns out that plenty of hourly workers at big-box retailers such as Target, Walmart, and Best Buy don’t have to if they tap into their earned wage access (EWA) benefits. EWA, particularly during the post-pandemic labor shortage in retail, is an attractive…