A Roadmap For Supporting Women In Frontline Retail Roles

When it comes to running a successful retail business, leaders know there are few more important aspects than the frontline workforce. Yet despite the significant role they play in our economy, many workers still feel undervalued and under appreciated.

Let’s not forget the crucial role frontline retail workers play. They help keep shelves stocked, they help advise and guide customers as they shop and, increasingly, they’re also relied on to initiate safety protocols. There is no better value to the business than having happy, fulfilled workers on the frontline driving sales and creating memorable experiences for customers that keep them coming back.

With peak holiday shopping season upon us, half of retail executives surveyed by Accenture
ACN
report their companies have undertaken extraordinary measures regarding the workforce this year to deliver the holiday season.

After all, you can have the best merchandise, the best store layout, the best ad campaign, the best pricing. But everything comes down to that connection between the store employee and the customer. Happy store associates can help ensure happy, and returning, customers.

Frontline retail can be a wonderful working experience. But it can also be a challenging one, not just because of the tasks involved, but also because of dealing with people – and all their different personalities, wants and needs – all day, every day.

Women on the frontline

The just published report, titled “Women on the Front Line: Enabling Them to Thrive, Stay and Perform,” by Accenture and Catalyst, a nonprofit that promotes gender equity and workplace inclusion, analyzed interviews with women in frontline workforce roles and their direct managers in retail, hospitality and manufacturing and found frontline women’s physical needs, safety, and well-being “are often unacknowledged or ignored.”

They feel that scheduling policies are rigid and practices often overlook or ignore the needs of women, who are disproportionately responsible for caregiving. For example, store shifts may be variable and often include hours outside the typical Monday to Friday working week.

So, there’s work to be done.

The path forward

Focusing on practical next steps, initiatives, technologies, and practices that can form part of a realistic roadmap, the report outlines core areas retailers should action, so that women frontline workers can perform at their best, balance work and personal responsibilities, and in return, build real and lasting value for the business.

It starts with leaders recognizing the critical role female frontline workers play in their operations and then asking themselves how best they can support them to do their best work. After all, a safe workplace that is conducive to women’s safety and well-being will benefit all workers and create tangible value for the business.

It also means investing in the physical and mental well-being of employees by taking a holistic view of the contributing factors that can have a negative impact on women. For instance, ill-fitting or uncomfortable uniforms that can impact the physical pressure of the work, or not being properly equipped with security tools to mitigate against threats to safety, to name a few.

Then there’s irregular hours and stress of seemingly never-ending negotiation and logistical hurdles caused by last-minute staffing changes. Successful retailers will be those who remove sources of instability and rigidity from scheduling systems to account for life outside of work.

An important role for technology

The good news is that digital tools and platforms are transforming employee experiences. Just look at the way retailers are starting to develop workplace platforms that offer consumer-grade digital experiences into the hands of frontline employees.

Take Unilever’s new app for its 53,000 factory-based employees, My Unilever. The app digitally connects employees across the globe, enabling them to tap into the company’s digital resources from any location or device so they freely communicate and collaborate with one another.

Another good example is Amazon’s
AMZN
WorkingWell. This employee-developed program provides workers with advice on physical and mental exercises – especially important in retail operations roles – plus advice on general wellness and healthy eating. Easily accessible via a user-friendly mobile app, it’s a great example of reimagining workplace health and safety in a very human and digitally enabled way.

The human side of retail

Retail work is becoming significantly more adaptive, digital, data fluent, and diverse. It makes it even more important to consider the “human” side of the new workplace.

That means ensuring that all frontline workers have the skills and opportunities to grow, as well as the resources they need to take care of their mental health and find the right balance between their home and work lives.

It calls for leadership to both bold and sensitive in driving these changes forward. It also calls for transparent and properly communicated opportunities for growth and advancement that are designed to meet the needs of women. After all, let’s not forget, today’s shop-floor associate could be tomorrow’s CEO.

Making women’s well-being a business priority

As leaders continue to navigate uncertainty, they should remember that women in frontline roles are going through uncertain times as well. Just as companies are talking about how to drive growth and satisfy customers, they also need to focus on supporting frontline workers in and out of the workplace.

Lorraine Hariton, president and CEO of Catalyst, says it well: “While women in frontline roles are often the public face of a company, they are also people with personal needs. These last few years have been tough for them. As companies push through the unpredictability of today, the well-being of women cannot be an afterthought. If attracting and retaining women in the workforce is a priority, women’s voices, concerns and contributions must be central to that focus.”

Bold and inclusive leadership is key

Rigid structures and working practices can get in the way of frontline managers making empathetic decisions that foster supportive work environments. And while it’s not always easy to get it right, it’s important they to create an environment that everyone can thrive in.

By taking an inclusive and digitally enabled approach, it’s possible to build a retail frontline workplace that works better for everyone — workers, customers, and retailers alike.