Fighting what’s different differently

Retention in the Grocery Frontline

Report

Grocery is an industry with high employee turnover. The problem is not new, but has been accelerating. The grocery employee turnover rate has grown twice as fast as the average U.S. industry in recent years.

In a low margin industry, this is a challenge we cannot afford. It absorbs as much as 10-20% of the industry profit. The current model is not sustainable.

The challenge is not a market one. The postcovid ‘great resignation’ is largely over, although older workers have come back to the workforce more slowly. What is different is that there are more opportunities out there, and they are
easier than ever to find.

The world has changed around grocery faster than grocery has changed as an industry. Grocers have been slow to acknowledge the challenge that the growth of gig work and work from home has had on worker expectations.

Fixing this requires acknowledging what’s different and tackling it differently, while also attacking some long-standing problems in a more effective way.

In our latest report, in conjunction with the Coca Cola Retail Research Consortium, we look at the current landscape in more detail and outline the five key things grocers can do to make a real difference to employee retention.

We have also created a simple diagnostic test that grocers can use to understand how these issues apply to their stores, regions, and banners and start to identify improvement areas. These are questions any CEO should be asking of their HR team.