But what about the Retail Employee experience?
For the few people reading this blog post who aren’t aware, every year the National Retail Federation, the United States’ largest retail association, holds their annual conference in New York in January.
They bill it as Retail’s Big Show, and it really is. World Class speakers, a gigantic trade show, networking opportunities, the works. This year was their 100th convention and over 20,000 retail professionals attended. Yes, 20,000.
Every major retailer participates at some level and, of course, many retail consultants of all stripes attend. Most of the senior executives attend. I have never attended and regret that and will try to rectify that in 2012.
For those of us unable to attend, however, we were treated to a steady stream of updates on various sessions, seminars, new introductions, etc. Using blogs, Twitter, and LinkedIn either individuals or groups kept those of us back at home well informed. Many bloggers came home and expanded on what they saw.
Or what they didn’t see. I read two blog posts that disturbed me from two retail social media connections I admire and respect – Doug Stephens, The Retail Prophet and Carol Spieckerman, a retail genius from the merchandising side. This blog discussses Doug’s view, Carol’s comes next.
Readers of this blog know Doug Stephens The Retail Prophet Doug went to NRF’s Big Show and took a different approach to attending. He attended some sessions but interviewed other attendees as well. Read all about it here
Doug makes the point in one of his posts from NRF ‘Our Greatest Assets’ as he refers to the NRF overall program that everything under the sun for the consumer was covered and lots and lots on the latest social and technological advances, but just about nothing about engaging, retaining, and developing retail employees. Just about nothing.
“What was conspicuous by its absence however was any meaningful mention of the value or importance of the retail employee in actually delivering or supporting this experience.”
Doug interviewed Caitlin Kelly, the author of Malled – my unintentional year in Retail We can’t get the results of the interview until the book is released April 14th, but Caitlin will reveal what she sees as being the fatal flaws in the industry’s staffing paradigm. And why companies so often refer to sales staff as their greatest assets but so rarely back it with action. I have already pre-ordered my copy.
From the time I worked in HR for the now-defunct Woodward’s Stores Limited in Western Canada in the ’90′s until today, there has ALWAYS been talk of the working experience in retail, particularly at the hourly level. Some aspects of working in retail will not suit everyone. If you work on a Merchandise Allocation crew then yes, you have to stock shelves all your shift. BUT, does anyone ask if you have other aspirations? Would they listen if you had a better way to do some of the stocking? Can other skills be learned a portion of a working week so that the move up could be more easily achieved?
It’s not an easy topic, and there are definitely retailers – large and small – who have worked hard to improve the working experience in retail. But why, in a conference with 20,000 attendees, weren’t there more sessions and emphasis this crucial area???
Particularly in Canada, we talk a great deal about Retail as a Career. The labour shortage is again beginning to return with a vengeance. Why not more time spent on employee relations, retention, and training and development and a little less on ‘engaging’ immigrants?
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