Empower 1 Store Associate, Gain 2x Profit Free
Ram Subramanian
Global Head, Human Capital Business Unit | Top 100 HR Technology Influencer
“As we look into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others” – Bill Gates
My previous blog discussed the overall importance of employee experience for the Retail Industry (see here: https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/retailers-add-employee-experience-your-cart-ram-subramanian/). In this section, I will highlight the experiences of the Store Associate and the seemingly mundane problems faced by them that have a heavy impact on the daily operations of the store.
Consider a regular day in the life of a front-end store employee, the Store Associate. He or she gets to work at least two hours before the store opening time. Often, this is around 6 a.m. in the morning. Once they have swiped in, they begin their routine tasks, which range from changing labels to checking expiration dates and disposing expired items. Since it is difficult to estimate the number of items that might require their attention with a reasonable level of accuracy, they cannot predict the estimated time it will take to complete their tasks as well. In such a scenario, everyday becomes an unknown for the Store Associate.
To make it even more frustrating, this information is available elsewhere – sitting in systems and logs far away from the Store Associate, who needs it the most.
“An integrated time entry system which not only captures the swipe in but also provides a preview of the day and workload is essential to empower an employee and create a better workplace experience”
Take another section of retail employees – the Inventory Specialist, who has to ensure the correct stock of items and their delivery. He works with the supply chain employee, who has to source and deliver the products to the warehouse. Both these employees are under constant stress, trying to make sure that the delivery has been dispatched, the right amount of products have been packed, and the truck reaches the warehouse on time.
This reminds me of a painful experience that I witnessed during last Sabbath at local bakery section of a large retailer. The bakery manager, a remarkable woman called Jane, started weeping at her inability to provide Challah bread to her Jewish customers. She was unable to contact the delivery vendor and had no idea when the scheduled truck would reach her store. She wasn’t even able to provide information on how much bread she could promise to her customers. Her frustration finally ended in tears, not being able to help her customers. This could have been an entirely avoidable scenario – if retailers looked at employee experience from the point of view of their employees.
The final example is the case of the Store Manager. I am often surprised by how many employees complain about their manager being frustrated and that, in turn, affecting the store morale. While there could be many reasons for this, my experience with speaking to retail employees tells me that this is often due to the extent of stress faced by the Managers. Poor workforce planning often places too much responsibility on the Managers who have to manage with limited resources while delivering exemplary results.
A change in employee experience cannot be solved by simply changing HR systems — it is about taking a re-look at the daily processes an employee goes through and identifying areas that can be modified to make their work more efficient and their lives easier.
For example, tracking the check-in and check-out times may be good for an organization, but it does not add any value to the employees. But if the system also gives the Store Associate information on how many items are close to expiry and in which aisles they can be found, at the time of check-in, it will simplify the Associate’s task and add a positive experience.
In the previous bakery situation, Jane (the bakery owner) could have been provided constant updates on the delivery of her bread — time of loading on to the truck, the quantity of bread loaded, and the estimated time of arrival of the truck. The Store Manager’s workforce forecasting would be more accurate, if he were also given regular updates on the work projected for the day. This would help him plan better and arrange for the required number of resources, leading to an overall less stressful work environment.
“Herein lies another deep-seated conundrum — despite all the brouhaha surrounding employee experience, very few companies have cracked it successfully.”
Poor employee experience is not merely a Human Resources problem, but also a customer problem and eventually, a business problem. When we empower our employees, we provide them with tools that translate into a better experience for customers. The numbers to support this statement are staggering! 82% of employees at companies with strong financial results are “highly” or “moderately” engaged, compared to 68% at underperforming companies. We can clearly surmise from this that a good employee experience translates to good business numbers as well.
Herein lies another deep-seated conundrum — despite all the brouhaha surrounding employee experience, very few companies have cracked it successfully. Among those who have seemingly solved this problem would be Best Buy, Home Depot, and Nordstrom. I talked about Best Buy in my last blog update
Home Depot has introduced several employee-centric initiatives to make their employees feel more like family. For example, they offer support for associates in financial emergencies through the Home Fund, tuition reimbursement for associates pursuing higher education, and support for veteran and active-duty associates. Nordstrom’s mythical employee handbook states: “Rule #1: Use the best judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules. Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.” Nordstrom believes in empowering its employees to take decisions as they see fit.
While all these are specific interventions designed to help employees be better engaged at work, it is also important to consider the role that technology plays in aligning the expectations of the company and the employee. By technology, I do not necessarily mean automation. In this era of rapid technological advancement, the power of a human being has become undeniable. While we are moving towards automating processes, it is important to look at the experience of the people involved.
This is where the necessity of creating and crafting personas comes in. In the traditional way of shortlisting and bringing in new technologies, the HR department, IT department and the CXOs were usually involved. The whole process lacked a vital component – the employee’s voice. If a company’s priority is to provide a seamless employee experience, it is important that critical personas within the organization be identified and focused group workshops with all the identified personas be conducted, to help build individual use cases for the product. These use-cases can then be mapped against the products and functionalities selected, and can be used while shortlisting the final technological intervention.
While all of the above may seem a bit daunting and will definitely require more time commitment from retailers, it is critical that the organizations of today understand the power of the employee voice and utilize it appropriately to enhance employee experience, from store associates to store managers and more.
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Great piece, Ram!
Ram this was very interesting, and has broad application! thank you!