A recent AT Kearney survey shows that store associates are being overlooked structurally in investments. The focus of many retailers lies purely on new technologies and social media.
Not a good thing.
A good long term (retail) strategy keeps an eye on all aspects of the operation. If you focus on new technologies and social media you run the risk to overlook other, equally important, elements. Even the more so if that other element is human capital; if employees do not longer have the feeling that they are on top of the company’s priority list, they will definitely become unmotivated.
In the current retail climate it is necessary to use the possibilities and opportunities that come with innovation. ‘Same day delivery’, even ‘one-hour shipping’ is maybe not something that is being demanded by most consumers right now. However, this will change soon; consumers get spoiled easily.
This is the reason why companies like Coolblue are doing well and companies like V&D leave the market. Retailers will have to keep innovating since companies like Amazon and Alibaba are ready to ‘attack’ the Dutch market.
Service is a decisive factor. Good service cannot be delivered by new technologies alone. We therefore advise retailers to involve their employees completely in their innovation and social media activities. If employees are being offered the opportunity to fully embrace these new developments, this will lead to an enhanced technological progress and shopping experience while maintaining the desired service level. Building a satisfied customer base will be the result.
Apart from that the practical results from this survey fit with Dutch labor law. The core idea behind the Dutch Work and Security Act (Wet werk en zekerheid or WWZ) is increasing employability and labor market participation. The training of employees is a very important aspect in the Act. Employee training does not only lead to better results during the employment but also plays an important role when an employer wishes to terminate the employment of an employee; an employer who has not offered his employee training in order to increase the employee’s performance, will almost surely not succeed if he requests the court to terminate the employment with this employee.
This results in the rather strange situation that the employment will continue and the employer has to offer the employee training after the lawsuit. A fruitful continuation of the cooperation will be very difficult because the lawsuit has most probably ruined the relationship between parties. In our practice we see that such ´forced marriages´ are undesirable for both parties.
Budget for employee training should therefore take an important place in the budget of retailers that wish to survive
