Are you pouring money down the drain?

We wouldn’t pour money down the drain, however, when it is disguised as staff time, we often do it without realizing it.

A survey earlier this year identified that on average, retail staff members spend 14.6 hours per week executing inventory-related tasks (counting, receiving, finding, transferring), with some respondents reporting as many as 36 hours a week on such tasks.[i]  This means that for some businesses, managing inventory is almost equivalent to a full-time job for a member of the team.

Last week we welcomed a Ukrainian woman and her son into our home. Having fled the war in Ukraine, they have waited 3 months for the right papers to enter the UK. 3 days after they arrived we took a walk into our local high street to see if there were any vacancies available in local shops, as she has previously worked managing a retail shop in Ukraine. I was staggered. I snapped a total of 15 different job adverts in shop windows.

Having made applications to several of them, she has, on the same day received opportunities for multiple interviews.

I guess it isn’t surprising when we understand the UK unemployment rate, having briefly increased from its long-term 3.8% pre-pandemic rate to 5.2% in November 2020, is once again back down to 3.8% - the rate associated with full employment.

Like many sectors, retailers are struggling to recruit and the staff who work in the sector are feeling stretched thin and overworked – they are unable to provide the great customer service that their employers and consumers now demand. Not only is this a downfall on the employees' end, but this also isn’t great for businesses looking to grow and recruit additional staff.

Too many businesses are consuming a disproportionate amount of staff time on the wrong things because their processes are not up to speed. Having the equivalent of a full-time member of staff managing inventory-related tasks is not fulfilling or rewarding for the staff member/s and is certainly not productive for the business.

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 [i] SML RFID State Of Retail Insight Report Part 2 Jan 2022