If you’ve been finding it hard to communicate with your retail workforce effectively and notice dwindling productivity, you probably need to revisit your communication mechanisms. In this blog, we explore communication challenges common among today’s retail workforce and share ways to connect and engage with them more effectively.
The retail business world is experiencing rapid change. Customers constantly demand improved shopping experiences, interactions with workers who know their stuff, and top-notch service at every touchpoint. Juggling schedules, keeping shelves stocked, and ensuring customers are happy is a constant hustle for retail workers. How do you ensure seamless employee communication in this scenario? With an employee communications app.
On the business side, the hourly rates of retail workers are growing consistently. Nearly 10 million retail workers across the United States will likely have their paychecks grow this year owing to the minimum wage hikes and increased starting pay amidst low unemployment rates. These economic factors make obtaining optimum worker output much more critical for businesses to ensure stable and growing bottom lines. However, getting them to be productive has become more complicated than ever.
A prime reason is improper communication, which creates difficulties in sharing critical information, providing adequate training, etc. Research suggests that nearly 50% of workers feel their productivity suffers due to ineffective communication. But what exactly causes these issues, and how can they be tackled?
To begin with, it’s common to see internal communication challenges in the retail industry. This may happen because of small gaps like you’re not providing a company email address or an approved device using which they can communicate without security concerns. As a result, managers and supervisors are the ones chosen to cascade down information. This way, inputs are not always timely and reliable. For instance, managers fail to communicate with one another before sending messages or instructions. This results in inconsistencies, leaving workers confused about which direction to take.
Another problem is the inconsistency in the channels used. Sometimes, instant messaging apps like WhatsApp for Work are used, while in other instances, they are verbal or on bulletin boards. This leaves workers with no unified place to go to for instructions. Supervisors also lack insights into whether their messages are read or resonating with the workers.
This problem is further amplified when workers do not benefit from the training and development opportunities provided. Despite investing adequately in learning and development, your workers can’t upskill adequately to deliver the needed service. This aspect is especially important as the retail space becomes more complex and competitive.
Further, if your workers use too many tools, it increases the chances of errors and poor performance and causes tech fatigue. One-third of a survey’s respondents said that they feel overwhelmed by the amount of technology they have to use.
These communication challenges end up hurting not just your workers but also damaging your retail business. Inadequate upskilling hampers performance as the retail space turns complex and worker wages rise. Moreover, without clear direction and chaos, employees become stressed, dissatisfied, and disengaged. Research suggests that stress and burnout affect nearly 82% of retail workers. This triggers disengagement and productivity loss, the global cost of which is estimated to be $8.8 trillion. These also result in rising turnover and difficulties in hiring new talent.
Unfortunately, as much as we’d love it, no magic pill can immediately solve all communication problems for every retail company. However, some strategies can help you improve how your team connects and collaborates.
First, you must prioritize implementing a mechanism that provides workers secure, two-way communication channels. This channel must be easy to use, with a smooth learning curve to ensure they can use it. It must also support communicating on the go. After all, you can’t expect your retail workers to sit at a desktop instead of being on the move to complete their duties. Ideally, implementing mobile-friendly solutions that incorporate robust security would work best.
Next, try to look for something that aligns with your existing tech stack to avoid another tool in the sea of tools that causes tech fatigue. Integrations with existing tools are a great feature to look for.
Finally, prioritize seamless support availability, as your workers may encounter teething troubles when using any technology. If their queries are resolved promptly, they’ll be more confident and inclined to use it.
Using robust, centralized employee communication platforms is the answer to overcoming retail worker productivity challenges related to communications. Instead of multiple tools, a unified employee app like Speakap can resolve most retail workers’ communication challenges.
By implementing a unified solution, you can tie different functions together, from onboarding to training, task management, workplace messaging, scheduling, and more. This will help you simplify processes and reduce confusion. At the same time, with integrations, you don’t need to do away with your other tools. You can simply connect everything and make it all work in sync. This boosts efficiency and clarity, especially in large organizations with hundreds of employees across several locations.
The benefits of such unification are immense. When there is a universally agreed-upon source of truth within the organization, workers and managers know that’s the place to visit for all communications. It gets embedded in their daily routines. As a result, they’re more inclined to access it and take advantage of all available information, training, and resources. Moreover, centralized platforms update data in real-time. This ensures consistent and timely information flow for all. Company updates, announcements, news, and new learning materials never get missed. With accessible communication, employees can also share knowledge and best practices more efficiently. This creates a learning culture, builds a community, and spurs engagement and organizational success. At the same time, managers can monitor communication and measure the exact impact. Gaps, if any, can be addressed to improve performance.
NS Retail manages several retail and refreshment stores at train stations across the Netherlands. Although the company is popular among travelers, it was experiencing high employee turnover rates. To continue serving travelers, it needed to figure out how to engage and retain staff and attract new employees. It ran a survey and found that its communication was viewed negatively. Employees felt messages were unclear, uninspiring, and sometimes too much. The organization needed to improve its internal communication strategy and app, Stations, to boost engagement and turnover.
They started sharing snappier, more engaging text at well-paced intervals to boost engagement. NS Retail also revamped its Stations app with Speakap’s capabilities. They started using the app’s features to increase engagement. For example, they divided employees into groups and shared only what was relevant to them on a single interface on their devices.
Retail workers face several difficulties while performing their tasks. Not having a suitable employee communication tool results in fragmented communication and poor productivity. It also results in employee disengagement and high turnover rates, which have severe business impact on organizations. The solution is to implement a centralized employee experience platform that provides a holistic solution to employees and managers.
Curious about how Speakap can help?
Get in touch to learn more about our holistic employee experience platform and how it can enable precise, consistent communication in your retail organization.