WorkL, the employee experience platform which measures, tracks and improves employee engagement and employee happiness at work, reveals that the average Wellbeing Risk score for employees working in Retail has increased significantly to 38% in Q1 of 2023, up from an average score in Q4 of 2022 of 36%. In contrast, this is compared to an average global decrease in Wellbeing Risk over the first quarter to 33%, down from 34%, meaning that retailers must focus on their employees’ Wellbeing over the coming months to get it in line with the global average.
News from the Q1 2023 Retail Insight Report by WorkL, which includes data from over 3,000 UK Retail employees within the first quarter of 2023, shows that Reward & Recognition, Job Satisfaction and Instilling Pride, three of WorkL’s Six Steps to Workplace Happiness, have decreased in Q1 compared to 2022, resulting in an overall decrease in Retail’s Engagement score, of 0.5% to 67%, the global average is currently 71%. Put into perspective, globally WorkL has seen a 0.7% drop in employee engagement scores, which is due to Reward & Recognition and Wellbeing.
In contrast, Retail workers are scoring high in Empowerment (70%), the only Six Step which has seen an increase this quarter.
The Flight Risk of Retail Employees has increased by 2.1% to 32% in Q1- this means that nearly a third of employees working in this sector are at risk of leaving their current role in the next 9 months. This figure bucks the average global Flight Risk trend, which has seen a decrease of 0.2% in Q1.
When the results are broken down into demographics, retailers have seen a decrease in both male and female employee engagement scores (women 67%, men 66%). BAME employees have seen an increase in their employee engagement score of 2% to 68% compared to White workers who have decreased by 1% to 66%. Employees aged 45-54 have seen the biggest increase in engagement at work, jumping 2.2% to 67% compared to those aged 55-64 whose scores have dropped by 12% over the last two quarters.
Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL comments on the findings; “My advice to Managers within the Retail sector for the next six months is to make use of industry data to benchmark and compare where and what needs improving in employee engagement. As well as this, ensure to capture information about employees who leave, exit surveys give valuable advice to businesses on how they can reduce Flight Risk, so get this set up and you’ll be in better shape by the end of the year.”
