Employee sentiment in the retail sector has been captured by WorkL, the database that helps organisations measure, track and improve engagement.
WorkL’s latest report compiles employee engagement data in retail between 1 April and 11 June 2023 and features responses from employees in more than 3,000 organisations.
The study captures the trends in wellbeing risk, flight risk and engagement in Q2 across different demographic groups. It also provides advice and support about how leaders in the retail sector can help to mitigate people risk and improve engagement within their businesses.
The survey measures six key areas of performance:
- Reward and recognition
- Wellbeing
- Information sharing
- Instilling pride
- Empowerment and
- Job satisfaction
The retail sector had an overall engagement score of 67% in the second quarter, consistent with Q1, the survey found.
Wellbeing risk decreased from 38% to 37% but the sector’s NPS score decreased by 1.1 to -19, while flight risk increased by 0.17 percentage points to 32%.
However, within the workplace, there was a 1.5 percentage point increase in engagement due to an increase around steps in wellbeing, information and job satisfaction with wellbeing risk decreasing from 33% to 26%. Workplaces’ NPS also increased by 5.3 to -3.1 but flight risk increased by 2.6 percentage points to 31%.
The retail industry scores highest on empowerment with 70% of employees rating the industry in this area. On the downside, the industry scored lowest on wellbeing with 65% maintaining the industry provided a happy and healthy workforce.
By demographic, male employees recorded the highest increase in engagement – +0.8% versus females, whose score decreased by 0.2%. Arab employees had the lowest engagement score across all ethnic groups in Q2 with a 66% rating.
By age, older employees had the highest engagement sore with 55-64 year olds reporting an increase of 6.9% versus decreases of 1.4% and 0.7% among the 35-44 and 19-24 year olds respectively.
Disabled employees recorded an 0.3% increase in engagement, while non-disabled registered a 0.2% decrease in engagement score.
WorkL recommends businesses use engagement data to identify areas a business should focus on and makes use of industry data to provide a benchmarking comparison. The organisation also suggests companies should capture flight risk data via exit surveys to help drive informed retention methods and capture information on new starters in tandem.
