Injection of tech-savvy employees needed to tackle ‘productivity shortfall’
Retailers need to attract more digitally skilled staff to address the sector’s “productivity shortfall”, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) has said.
The report, Sector insights: Skills and performance challenges in the retail sector, said that as retail becomes increasingly digitalised, with more people shopping online, different workforce expertise is required to keep pace with this trend.
Online shopping now accounts for 12 per cent of the total value of retail sales and, according to data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), £37bn worth of sales were made via the web in 2014. And innovations, such as Apple Pay, are expected to drive up demand for tech-savvy workers.
In the report, UKCES suggested that retail’s employer brand was failing to attract more employees with high-tech skills because they don’t see the sector as a good career prospect. It said that the sector, which employs more than three million people, has work to do to revitalise its image. For example, employers could do more to promote the opportunities retail offers people with technology-based skills, the report said.
UKCES said employers were also finding it difficult to recruit people with customer service skills and that existing staff also needed more training. In the 2013 UKCES Employer Skills Survey, 55 per cent of retailers with skills gaps identified customer service abilities as a challenge, compared to 47 per cent across all industries.
As well as attracting more candidates with desirable skill sets, the report urged employers to develop existing workers. The 2013 Employer Skills Survey found that 61 per cent of retailers provided their staff with some form of training, which is slightly below the UK average of 66 per cent of employers.
“The wholesale and retail sector is the largest sector in the UK economy by employment, but sector productivity is relatively low,” said Dr Vicki Belt, assistant director at UKCES. “There is scope to improve productivity by making full use of existing talent and ensuring that workers have the opportunity to build their skills and experience, and progress within the sector.”
A BRC spokesperson said: “As the largest private sector employer the retail industry invests heavily in its people. Training sees an investment of £1,440 on average per employee to upskill staff to meet the needs that the UKCES report identifies. Digital skills will become increasingly in demand as online growth continues and retail technology has to adapt to the needs of consumers. Recruitment of people with technical skills and developing the existing workforce’s customer service and digital skills will continue to be a focus of the industry.”