Employees increasingly valuing values
Against a backdrop of great turbulence in the retail sector one area that remains firm – and has been growing in substance – is the desire by employees to work at organisations whose values and principles reflect their own.
This was an underlying theme at the recent The Retail Bulletin HR Central conference in Birmingham where Zoe Broadway, store people & culture business partner at Primark, warned a buzzy room full of delegates that “people are now more likely to say ‘this is a company that does not align with my values’” so it is essential that employees and employers understand the beliefs of each other from the start.
Live and breathe our values
She adds: “We make sure every colleague understands how they belong. We want them to live and breathe our values. The business is open and clear on its values. On the careers website everything is seen through the lens of colleagues. These values are deep-rooted, with many managers having been here for 20-plus years.”
But this does not mean that Primark has its values and practices stuck in the past and that it has not changed with the times. Broadway says the company has created a new model whereby every junior leader has been assigned a HR partner. “They work side-by-side. They all believe they are great leaders but times change and there are different climates. We help them on that journey and get them to think differently,” she explains.
Attracting people with the same values as the organisation is integral to the recruitment process at Astrid & Miyu that places great focus on this aspect as it is very much a values-focused retailer. Tamia Mullaney, global talent acquisition associate at Astrid & Miyu, recommends companies find an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that aligns with their values, which for Astrid & Miyu acts as a filter for its values.
Interviewing around values
She suggests retailers assess their careers page and get a long-standing employee to apply for a role and see if the process is sufficiently aligned with the business’s values. The company undertakes interviews around values: “It’s more about values than skills. Having such interviews can highlight some gems. It also means you have higher retention with people who live your values. Experience is great but values are essential.”
In order that people can more easily express their values when applying for a position at Astrid & Miyu the company enables them to supply additional information such as favourite Spotify song, their superpower, and use video applications. “Video is huge. We get 30-40% using it through our ATS. It’s most prevalent with younger people and stylists,” says Mullaney.
Highlighting a retailer’s brand values involves the increasing use of social media, according to Lucas Main, account director for Enterprise Talent Solutions at LinkedIn, who says: “It’s tough to do and so retailers need to bring in marketing and communications. It has to be seen everywhere – Snapchat, TikTok and LinkedIn.”
Thom Smith, senior talent acquisition manager at Lounge Underwear, is certainly using LinkedIn across the recruitment piece, which he says “has been massive for us”. For head office recruitment 74% of applicants are through LinkedIn while for more front-line roles it is a lesser 23% with the bulk coming through job boards.
Front-line workers attracted to LinkedIn
These figures might well change soon as Chris Barron, senior manager for Enterprise Talent Solutions at LinkedIn, says the platform is increasingly home to more front-line workers in retail and is not just a place for individuals in professional services. “There’s a perception only Gen Z and Millennials are on LinkedIn but it’s changed significantly and Gen Z is the fastest growing demographic and is also the most engaged.”
What these candidates increasingly want is flexibility, according to Smith, who says Lounge has preferred a strong head office presence for its employees post-pandemic and has sought to offer incentives to encourage this behaviour. “Flexi hours should be across the board and people should not feel micro-managed. Show them some trust. Not everyone will be able to offer gyms and subsidised canteens so find out what employees want. Talk to them and leverage the in-house platforms that allow you to be connected to them,” he suggests.
Greater safety at work
Another aspect that has risen up the agenda is safety at work – particularly for front-line workers who are facing increasingly aggressive behaviour from customers. Dinesh De Silva, head of sales for UK Retail at Reveal Media – that supplies body-worn cameras, says: “Colleagues are having to deal with these issues and people are then not showing up for work because of it. We have increasing conversations with HR about these issues…and give them the tools for front-line staff to protect themselves.”
He suggests that the company’s customers – especially the supermarkets – have experienced 75% less examples of aggressive behaviour when using the cameras and that there has been a 100% safer feeling among employees using the technology. “CCTV, panic buttons, and body-worn cameras, it’s all about giving them something to help them feel safer,” says De Silva.
Building diversity and community
Feeling safer in the work environment should hopefully engender a feeling of community that is a conduit for employees to more openly speak about mental health. Dave Scholes, conversation starter at Six Connections, says people should be asked every day “how are you feeling?” To have a caring conversation he suggests: “Listen carefully, respond thoughtfully, and resist imposing your own solution.” He adds: “Can we create these conversations of care all the time? It should be an ongoing thing.”
Creating a positive work environment is being proactively pursued at Sue Ryder where various EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) networks have been created for different groups within the charity – across the 10,000 volunteers and employees at its 400 shops. Blue Valentine, head of volunteering at Sue Ryder, says the move has had a tangible impact across the organisation by creating a more diverse workforce that has been a positive: “It’s the right thing to do and this powers it…and the positive impact it has on the business is an added bonus.”
Employee surveys have proven the networks have contributed to strong feelings of belonging as well as feelings of being valued and respected among employees. “We shout about our EDI and we pick apart the wording we use [on documentation] to ensure it genuinely means that somebody would want to work here. Our vacancies are the lowest they’ve ever been,” says Valentine.
To ensure the longevity of the networks Eddie Hartley, healthcare & fundraising volunteer manager at Sue Ryder, says line managers allow time to be committed to the networks by volunteers and employees. A certain number of hours per month can be spent on this work. “It’s very important managers give them this time…and each network is sponsored by an executive leader and they are vocal about their support,” he says.
Although Elaine Huttley, partner & national head of employment at Irwin Mitchell, says the “pendulum” has swung away from DEI after the US election – especially from US-based businesses – she believes it will swing back again because “there’s still a commitment to it from companies”.
Empowering employees
For Michael Spataro, chief customer officer at Legion, looking after employees translates into removing uncertainty from their roles by giving them control over their work times: “Let employees determine their own work schedule. Let them have their preferences and the ability to be able to pick up spare shifts.” He also cites on-demand pay as another element that dramatically helps hourly workers who might be struggling going from paycheck to paycheck.
“On-demand pay reduces significantly the financial stress of employees. These two simple things reduce friction in work, drives up productivity, and provides an engaging experience for employees,” he says.
Driving up engagement with employees should be a priority for managements because it can increase productivity. Petrina Carmody, chief change officer at Great Place To Work UK, says this is a result of it generating stronger connections and bonds that leads to greater trust. “People then want to go over and above and innovate [at work]. With interactions management can increase, or decrease, trust,” she suggests.
Such interactions are a positive use of management time whereas some tasks such as scheduling rotas should sensibly be automated. By using AI-powered solutions that are able to leverage great forecasting capabilities Spataro says creating a schedule might have previously taken a manager three-to-10 hours to complete but this can instead be automated. “To some extent leveraging AI is scary but it will reduce the time spent on those tasks and managers can then spend more time with employees and customers,” he says.
Remembering middle managers
The managers creating such rotas will undoubtedly include a swathe of middle managers who can often be forgotten when it comes to L&D (Learning & Development). This is a mistake, according to Ryan Cheyne, former MD of people & culture at Flutter UK & Ireland, who says: “They are the people who get the [senior executives’] high strategic thinking stuff done. And they also carry the culture. People don’t leave a business, they leave a manager. They are an absolutely essential grouping.”
He recalls his time at Pets At Home where people were promoted based on their skills but he says it was a “lucky dip if they survived as a manager”. We then changed things and gave them the management skills they needed before their promotion. “We were helping them prepare…and over time we saw engagement and retention improve,” says Cheyne.
Nicola Marshall, people director at Welcome Break, says there has been a concerted focus on this middle management strata [at Welcome Break] through a mix of podcasts, face-to-face training and conferences: “We’re making sure we give them the skills to be better at managing people.”
She recommends these managers take control of their careers. “We offer them an app for them to take ownership. We connect them with our objectives. We have continuous performance conversations, asking ‘what do you need?’ Part of people’s personal development is encouraging them to join business projects. Unless managers are personally active on their PDP (Personal Development Plan) then they can’t expect anybody else to do so.”
Leveraging AI
The learning at Welcome Break has been juiced-up through gamification involving avatars and AI – utilising ChatGPT and Copilot – that can encompass managers practicing a coaching session. These initiatives have effectively replaced the old school chatbots. “I’d recommend playing around with AI,” says Marshall.
Sophey Layton, human resources director at Shiseido UKI, is also very supportive of the use of AI but recognises that although discussions about the technology can leave you empowered there is then a failure to understand what it can actually mean for a business. “The starting point should be understanding what will work and what is out there,” she says, adding that a complication is that the potential uses of AI fall into all departments.
Layton recommends identifying people in the company who can be used to generate ideas and then create a taskforce to see how AI could be implemented. At Shideido it is being used across recruitment, note taking, L&D brochures, the workforce planning function, writing disciplinary letters and job descriptions. “It’s gaining more visibility in the HR function. Go and try it and see if you can do things differently. There’s a lack of awareness with AI and this unknown scares people,” she explains.
It’s still about people
Despite Layton’s recognition of the opportunities that could be achieved from AI, she says: “The HR function is still about people. There will still be a place for people.” This is very much the view of Rosie Ginday MBE, founder & CEO of Miss Macaroon – that reinvests all its profits into helping unemployed young people gain skills that will help to change their lives. She is wholeheartedly backing people: “AI will not replace middle management [among others]. There will always be a need for the human touch.”
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