Retail HR Central review – busy and exciting times for HR
We are living in times of seismic change within the retail sector and this is having an increasingly profound impact on employees in the industry, which is placing HR in a position that is concurrently critically important and mightily challenging.
Setting the scene at The Retail Bulletin Retail HR Central 2026 conference in Birmingham Darren Sanderson-Williams, general manager at Specsavers, highlighted the levels of uncertainty we all face from the likes of a constant stream of new prime ministers over recent years.
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This contrasts with the certainly that emanated from the lengthier spells of PMs from Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s through to the Tony Blair years up to 2007. “We’ve had five prime ministers in recent years…that leads to a feeling of uncertainty, anxiety and stress,” he says.
Liz Jewitt-Cross, founder & advisory partner at Future HR & The Coaching Solution, agrees that HR is having to steer through lots of change and the turbulence of 2025 led to 200,000 redundancies in retail while 120,000 vacancies exist at the same time.
“This reflects the start of an era of new skills. There is a gap between outgoing skills and what’s needed in the future. There are less net roles but there is an opportunity to think about new structures and ways of working. This can lead to creativity.”
Simon Wells, former people/human resources director at Poundland & Dealz, also believes this is an exciting time and although there have been lots of big changes in the past he suggests the difference is that the gap between the changes nowadays has shortened and the time to recovery between them has all but disappeared.
“The challenge for HR is how they can look at role design early on. If they get ahead of the curve then they can do redesigns of roles. Those organisations that are doing well are doing ongoing re-designs of roles rather than changing headcounts,” suggests Wells.
More employee metrics needed
He believes there is understandably a focus in retail businesses on customer metrics but that there should also be more use of employee metrics. This is all the more relevant in a period when AI has seemingly taken over the narrative.
“We can be optimistic that retail is still a human business. Technology changes the landscape but trust, judgement and connection comes from the people we employ. HR needs to be authentic and also embrace AI because it won’t take your job, it will change your job. People who use AI will thrive,” says Wells.
This undoubtedly requires a serious commitment to the technology and represents a serious challenge for many retailers. Ebony Quow, organisation design & technology professional at Tesco, recommends taking a step back and thinking about AI as a product: “What’s the value it is creating, what are the processes/workflows where it could add value, and what outcomes are required? You don’t need to be a techie to be able to think about products.”
She highlights that many organisations are using AI to streamline customer services, with AI agents sorting queries quicker. The technology has the power to help people in these areas make decisions faster but Quow advises that the output must be seen through a critical eye.
Introduce safeguards
“We need to think about putting safeguards in place. AI can be biased and needs sense checking. It can be used to screen people for recruitment, to streamline this, but watch out because what are the demographics that could be missing? Do not just take what AI has picked,” she explains.
Rob Savin, co-founder of Super Infinite, also warns about the potential issues from relying on AI: “AI tools such as ChatGPT asks lots of questions and control the conversation and this is leading to a leadership issue. It’s happening to businesses all over. AI responses are very quick so there’s very little thinking time [for leaders]. It is stealing thinking time. AI raises the minimum level of work in an organisation but it is bringing the top level down.”
When using AI tools Quow suggests HR needs to be close to the tech teams in order that the relevant data can be protected. Nicky Bliss, people director at Sainsbury’s, agrees that HR needs to be working increasingly closely with the technology teams. Whether it involves AI or other initiatives she says: “There are 3,000 tech people in Sainsbury’s and we need partnerships across the organisation. We should not work in silos…we need to be able to use what they produce.”
One area where tech is proving important to HR at Sainsbury’s is with enabling its 140,000 people to work in a way that fits into their whole lives through systems that let them choose shifts and have flexibility alongside predictable schedules. “We’re in development on this. We know it’s critical to our success. Our retention is high due to our culture but we know there is still work to do on data analytics,” says Bliss.
Bridging skills gaps
There is also work being undertaken in the company to identify exactly what skills people have now and what they can do. When this has been mapped out the plan is to bridge the gaps by focusing on the relevant career development,” she says.
Bliss suggests that the friction needs to be removed from learning and development (L&D) programmes by giving the stores the necessary hours and to offer intern programmes to current employees: “It’s often the communications that are lacking with this.”
Communicating to employees generally had been a major problem for Carrie Westwell, chief people & culture officer at Bensons for Beds, who says it had been a problem to get through to all the members of all the teams – including stores and warehouses – and this was solved with the WorkJam app.
“It’s a brilliant solution, not just for communications but it can also show people’s earnings [including commissions], the company’s policies, and give access to benefits. It’s one source of the truth. We’ve also just rolled out the LMS (Learning Management System) onto WorkJam and we are seeing upsides. This includes colleagues taking up benefits,” says Westwell.
Identifying relevant benefits
Offering benefits has been recognised by Laura Mannick, people & culture manager at Popeyes UK, who says as the fast food business has grown there has been a realisation that retention of staff has become increasingly important. A salary sacrifice car scheme had been identified and Tusker chosen as a partner – helped by the fact it handles all admin and management of the contracts.
Although the scheme is not of value to all employees – notably those on National Minimum Wage – it has been used as an incentive to all staff via a competition for employees involving them winning a car for two years. Phil Gillespie, head of commercial partnerships at Tusker, acknowledges that this initiative “created a buzz for a benefit that can be under the radar”.
Such a scheme saves Popeyes UK £4,389 in National Insurance Contributions (NIC) for each of the 35 employees that have taken up the benefit and Mannick confirms that this money is passed back to each of the participating individuals. She suggests the programme has contributed its part in the company becoming one of the best places to work.
For Sarah Wheatley, HR & ESG director at ProCook, the key value to running a great place to work is “doing the right thing”. As the company has transitioned over the last five years into a larger organisation it has tried to retain this same mindset. It includes having employee groups, advisory panels and newsletters – basically lots of communications – along with a D&I (Diversity & Inclusion) policy.
Employing all ages
“D&I is all about how we include it in all our policies. We go through our policies to see if they are fit-for-purpose. We’re doing a lot of right things especially around inclusion,” she says, adding that this is helped by the fact the company employs a wide range of ages and people at many different life stages,” she explains.
There is a similar broad array of people at gaming company Kwalee, according to Jo Regan-Iles, group human resources director at Kwalee, who says: “We have a real mix of people who want to be themselves. There is no D&I policy, but for us it’s around everyone being accessible. There is the chance to speak to the CEO any time of the day.”
The company also actively ascertains the needs of candidates at interviews by asking what requirements they would have if employed by the company. “I was surprised how many colleagues had specific needs – from being neurodiverse to ADHD,” says Regan-Iles.
Jade Gibbons, people & culture business partner at Bravissimo, says her company also encourages its employees to be themselves because “this helps with them making genuine connections with customers”. Having a multi-generational team is also a benefit as this helps them to deliver the same level of personal service to all shoppers regardless of age.
“There are no dress codes as we want to see people’s personalities. That’s why we employ them. We are passionate about service to our customers and that’s only possible if colleagues are comfortable,” she says.
Let’s talk about wellbeing
Having employees comfortable within the work environment absolutely includes their wellbeing and Jane Clifford, people director at Brewers Decorator Centres, certainly regards it as important but expresses surprise that it is not really talked about enough. And while it is invariably HR that are the front-line for dealing with employee wellbeing she asks: “Where do HR professionals go for a safe space?”
The uncertainty in the retail industry, and more broadly economically and politically, is putting increased strain on HR and company leaders in the sector, according to Emma Cater-Elliot, HR business partner at Watches of Switzerland Group, who says: “We need to ensure we equip leaders so they can support ongoing wellbeing discussions rather than it being formulaic [one-off conversation] in order to build levels of trust. We need to up-skill leaders to have the confidence to have these conversations and to have them ongoing.”
Part of the wellbeing discussions for many people will no doubt involve the work/life balance issue and this certainly includes HR professionals who clearly have the same challenges as other employees. On a personal level for Gemma Davies, head of HR business partnering at Card Factory, it has changed since having children. “There’s got to be flexibility but this has to fit in with the colleagues who I’m leading. You have to be mindful of this. Be human and authentic.”
Legislation on the agenda
On top of dealing with all the issues and uncertainty currently in the market retailers and their HR teams also have to contend with the introduction of the Employment Rights Act 2025 that Stuart Lawrenson, partner & head of the Solent office at Shoosmiths, says is a “seismic piece of legislation”.
The 300 pages that the Act currently runs to includes key areas of impact for the retail sector including the rights of workers to join a union and the harassment of employees in the workplace being extended to include things perpetrated by third-parties in-store, which obviously includes customers. This will likely lead to a big rise in spurious claims, according to Lawrenson, who says there is also an extension to the time limit in which claims can be brought.
Zero hours contracts also feature, with this part of the Act due in 2027, before which more details will be revealed. Although there will be no ban on zero hours contacts there will be new complex rules introduced around their use. Finally, the unfair dismissal rules time-frame is to be reduced from two years to six months thereby giving employers less time to assess the performance of new recruits. Lawrenson says this should prompt a review of probationary procedures by all retailers.
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