18 July 2022 – LONDON – Almost all UK retail leaders (99%) are worried about talent shortages in their business, with larger retailers most likely to have concerns, according to market research by the leading global software provider for the retail and hospitality sectors, Fourth.
Overall, larger retail businesses are more likely to have concerns about talent shortages, with 63% of retailers with 3,000-3,999 employees and 40% of retailers with 4,000-4,999 employees ‘extremely worried’.
The findings, revealed in Fourth’s latest whitepaper Cost of living: Supporting your retail workforce as the crisis deepens, show that retail leaders’ concerns have increased since 2021, where previous Fourth research found that 94% of retail leaders were worried about talent shortages.
The news comes as the UK faces fresh pandemic-related challenges as Covid infection rates increase across the country and more employees require sick leave. However, when asked for the top factors creating talent shortages in their business overall, 39% of retail leaders cited a lack of available people in the sector as the primary reason, compared to only 24% in 2021.
| What is causing talent shortages in your retail business? | 2022 | 2021 |
| Lack of available people in the sector | 39% | 24% |
| People making career changes out of retail | 37% | 38% |
| Lack of correctly skilled people in the sector | 37% | 37% |
| Salary expectations are too competitive/high | 32% | 36% |
| People experiencing burnout or poor mental health as a result of the pandemic | 23% | 37% |
While there is no silver bullet solution to resolve talent shortages, retail leaders are using workforce management technology to help improve their talent attraction and retention. More than two-thirds (69%) of retailers say they are using various different technologies to attract, recruit, manage and retain talent.
Alongside this, some 62% of retail leaders say they are using a HR platform for candidate management to help eradicate hiring biases, as well as ensuring a diverse range of people interview candidates (32%) and removing personal details such as age and gender from applications received (30%).
“With coronavirus cases rising again in the UK, we will see continued instability in retail workforces as talent shortage problems combine with staff being off sick. With a lack of available people in the sector being a key issue, retail leaders need to consider how they engage and reward their employees to limit turnover, how they can diversify their recruitment and talent processes, and consider candidates with translatable skills from other industries. An applicant-tracking system (ATS) can help retail HR teams find the most qualified candidates, allowing them to search, filter, screen, and manage candidates in one place while also immersing applicants in the company brand and culture. Likewise, applicants applying through an ATS become a pool of contacts that internal recruiters can refer back to as new roles come up or other staff leave the business – a key value-add in an industry facing hiring challenges and turnover.”
This new whitepaper is built on insights from two surveys. One was a survey of 502 retail workers in the UK, and the second survey was of 251 HR, digital transformation, IT, finance and operations decision makers at senior manager level or above in retail sector firms of 500-6,000 people. The surveys were conducted by Fourth in collaboration with Censuswide in April 2022.
This release refers to 2021 market research. That data came from two surveys: one was a survey of 2,021 UK consumers (nationally representative sample), and the second survey was of 251 HR, digital transformation, finance and operations decision makers at senior manager level or above in retail sector firms of more than 500 people. The surveys were conducted by Fourth in collaboration with Censuswide in September-October 2021.
Fourth is the leading digital workforce management, payroll and HR solution for the global retail, restaurant, and hospitality industries. Fourth’s various solutions give businesses oversight of how they can control costs, scale profitability, improve employee engagement and maintain compliance through its leading data and analytics suite. It serves more than 7,000 customers across 120,000 sites globally.
Our cloud-based, proprietary technology platform and fully mobile applications power the world’s leading brands, including Holland & Barrett, Robert Dyas, Ryman, Boux Avenue, Selfridges, Tesco Family Dining, Gail’s Bakery, Corinthia Hotels, The Dorchester, The Ivy, The Ritz, Soho House, Burger King, Pizza Express, The Wentworth Club, and Sodexo.
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