This week, the Olympia in London hosted the Retail Technology Show 2024 – a major conference for all things retail tech. While much of the show had its eyes on AI, increasing basket size and sustainability, we did find a solid representation of people-focused visitors, vendors and speakers. For anyone who didn’t get to go, here are some of the highlights for people-tech in retail this year:
The retail economy for 2024 is looking ‘cautiously optimistic’
Between Covid, the cost-of-living crisis and global political tensions, the past several years have felt like one disaster after another, leaving consumers feeling far less comfortable with their spending. However, there are signs that this is easing and that interest rates and spending will begin to even out.
This is especially true of brands who cater to either a Gen Z or Baby Boomer audience. Unfortunately for Millennials and GenXers, they’re the most likely to still have financial tensions to contend with. And, because of that, the luxury retail market will have to approach the next few years carefully to see success.
What that means for HR is that budgets for transformation projects are likely to open back up again in the second half of this year. If there is a project you’ve been wanting to achieve (like a new HRIS), it may be good to start laying the groundwork in Q2.
Learn more: The ultimate guide to an unbeatable business case [+ free template]
Employee well-being is evolving in the digital age
The Retail Trust, a charity founded in 1832 dedicated to the well-being of retail workers, demonstrated the impressive potential of data. They use data to help businesses identify which parts of their well-being initiatives are working, how their employees are feeling and how to simultaneously uplift teams and provide return on investment.
This theme of employee-centric planning was carried through with a presentation from PureGym and Yoobic. Yoobic helped PureGym create an internal hub that improved comms, reduced waste and created a more connected environment for their teams. With notoriously tight margins, PureGym was able to increase employee well-being and engagement without straining their resources.
Both of these talks revealed that the standard approach of throwing well-being products at the wall and hoping somethings sticks can’t continue. It’s unsustainable and ineffective. Instead, using data-led insights to tailor your well-being services and software to what your team actually needs is the way forward. Of course, that relies on having accurate data that is stored in a way you can really use.
Not sure how ready you are for this? Check out our Digital HR Maturity Model to discover how far along the journey you really are.
Workforce management in retail is still heavily paper-based
Talking to HR tech vendors throughout the event, the main challenge driving conversations was still the reliance on paper-based (or Excel-based) processes. In both cases, it seems retail businesses are using heavily manual activity to manage their workforces.
Not only does this mean retail teams are spending far too much time on things like creating schedules and managing attendance, but they are also not using tools that could help them make better decisions.
Workforce management tools have advanced significantly and can be used to both make HR and management jobs easier and increase satisfaction and engagement. They can also help standardise processes so that the employee experience isn’t vastly different from one store to the next. Speaking to Legion, UKG and Workforce.com, the solutions are widely available and retail teams aren’t taking advantage of them.
Overall, the Retail Technology Show 2024 was an interesting and busy event where a real who’s who of attendees geared up to find the next best way for tech to help them. What retail leaders ought to consider is how impactful the employee experience and HR practices can be for both saving time and money and for improving the customer experience. After all, an engaged employee is a lot more likely to make a happy sale than one who’s struggling.
Want to get your retail HR practices streamlined and digital? Reach out today and we can help you plot your best path forward.
