Member Article

Top benefits to attract retail workers revealed

As seasonal recruitment ramps up, new research reveals the top benefits that motivate retail workers to change jobs.

Better pay tops this year’s list, but is closely followed by provision of flexible working hours and employee wellbeing and assistance programs.

According to Deputy’s annual State of Shift Work report, retail workers would be motivated to change jobs for:

• Better pay (43%)
• Flexible working hours (38%)
• Wellbeing programs (gym membership, meditation subscriptions etc.) (37%)
• Employee assistance programs (access to a psychologist, counselling etc.) (34%)
• Health insurance (33%)
• Free meals and drinks (31%)
• Retirement savings programs (28%)
• Paid time off (26%)
• Immediate access to pay after working a shift (25%)

With retail vacancies at 81,000 between June and August 2023, the labour market for the retail industry remains tight. In fact, 44% of retail workers who took part in the Deputy survey said their company had had difficulty hiring in the last 12 months.

For a third of workers, this has had a negative impact on them, with 35% reporting that staffing shortfalls had made it harder for them to take time off. 34% said they had been required to work more shifts and 31% believe their work/life balance had suffered.

However, some felt that the difficulty in recruiting had had a positive impact on their career, with 39% being given new responsibilities, 23% receiving a pay increase and 22% being promoted.

When asked what would create a more positive working environment for them, retail workers were most interested in employee wellbeing, a culture of trust and feeling valued and recognised:

• Focus on employee wellbeing (44%)
• A culture of trust, openness, and compassion (42%)
• Being valued and recognised for my contribution (41%)
• Clear role definition and expectations (38%)
• Building relationships with my peers (35%)
• A compassionate manager (34%)
• A company with a reputation for success (33%)
• A clear and inspiring company mission (32%)
• A culture of diversity, equity and inclusion (27%)

Deputy SVP, Jon Wilson, said: “It’s clear that wellbeing, mental health and working in a caring culture are all important to retail workers. If retailers want to attract the best talent to join their teams, they need to have a thriving workplace and demonstrate they genuinely care about and invest in their people.”

Deputy is used in more than 10,000 UK retail and hospitality workplaces for communication between frontline teams and decision-makers, to control schedules, collaborate intuitively, and help employees plan their lives around work. Now, as the retail industry gears up for its seasonal recruitment drive, the business has announced the launch of Deputy HR to offer a complete one-stop recruitment and HR system for businesses with shift workers.

“By integrating the power of AI, Deputy HR provides a seamless experience for businesses and job seekers that haven’t typically had access to mobile-based recruitment and onboarding like this,” says Jon Wilson. “Adding the new HR component to Deputy enables businesses to attract, onboard and retain talent in a much more engaging and user-friendly way. From an employee perspective, candidates can go from applying to clocking in for their first shift all in the palm of their hands.”

The platform helps employers to write job ads faster, automatically shortlist candidates based on qualifications, conduct pre-screening assessments, automate scheduling of interviews, and even enables applicants to record video introductions on mobile to support their applications.

In addition to the recruitment process, the system integrates contract signing along with all critical onboarding details (bank details, right to work records,etc.) and manages them on an ongoing basis.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Thomas .