Labor Shortage or a Labor Shift? 7 Reasons Why Automation Empowers Retail Workers.

The labor market is a swinging pendulum, and for the past few years, it has swung wildly toward too many vacancies and not enough people. While the challenges with short staffing and employee resignations are real, describing the current employment landscape as a labor shortage may be too simplistic. It may be more accurate to describe the broader story as a shift in labor. The difference in language may seem small, but it’s critical. The diagnosis has implications for the treatment. In this case, the solution to a “shortage” of workers is relatively simple—hire more employees! But a shift in labor requires a different strategy than simply hiring more people. It invites employers to prepare for, and participate in, a broader industry transition. With these staffing difficulties, retailers are looking to get more done with fewer employees—and they’re turning to automation to do it.  Automation isn’t just becoming more common; its popularity is expanding at a blistering pace.

7 Reasons Why Automation Empowers Retail Workers 

So, what will automation mean for the retail industry? Automation is expected to reduce the need for manual labor roles. While automation may eliminate jobs, it will also create entirely new ones. Automation technology requires staff to maintain the technology and use it. It also creates the opportunity for higher-touch service roles, both in-store and for online shoppers.

Here are some of the reasons that automation supports employees and creates better working conditions. 

1. Redefining Retail Career Paths 

Automation creates several additional, more advanced roles within retail organizations. It creates the demand for much more highly skilled employees—analytics experts, data scientists, robotics experts, and more. Digital talent will be increasingly important to succeed in the grocery market in the next few years and provides opportunities for employee advancement. These jobs typically empower workers with better working conditions, such as higher wages, more flexibility, telework, and even more purposeful tasks.  

2. Upskilling and Redeploying 

Employers can fill the new roles that automation will create by redeploying their existing staff. But those staff will need to learn new skills. Companies will have to invest to retrain and upskill their employees to be successful in these novel, more advanced roles. A McKinsey & Company survey of 300 corporate executives with more than $100 million in annual revenue found that 82% of respondents agree that companies will have to retrain and reskill their workforce to meet future skill gaps. When retailers invest in upskilling employees, those employee benefit.

3. Reduced Strain 

Retail workers feel the strain of a labor shortage more than anyone. Existing staff are asked to work longer hours to compensate for staff shortages. This can cause burnout and dissatisfaction. As automation increases efficiency, it also eases the strain on workers and can boost engagement.

4. Greater Diversity of Work 

Grocery retail work can be monotonous. Automation aims to reduce or precisely eliminate those tasks that are most tedious and repetitive. Automation creates fewer layers in the employee hierarchy and makes workers responsible for a broader range of more varied tasks. 

5. Build Relationships with Customers 

Employees that spend less time on tedious, repetitive tasks can spend more time providing customer service. Offering excellent customer service and resolving customer problems is more rewarding than the tiresome tasks that automation will replace, creating more satisfactory work environments for employees. 

6. Improving Communications 

Automation can be used to create and send relevant internal communications to keep employees in the loop. For example, you can automate targeted chat alerts to your store employees about products that are top sellers online. They can then use that information to boost in-store sales for that product. Better, targeted communications empower employees to perform better at their job.  

7. Improving Product Knowledge 

In addition to having more time to help customers, automation gives employees time to learn more about the goods they’re selling. This can be especially useful for pharmacies or companies that sell beverages with complex profiles, like wine and beer. Automation can help give staff the time they need to become product experts and help customers find brands they will enjoy. 

How Retailers Can Envision a New Future 

Even though automation technologies can deliver hefty rates of return on investment, many retailers have been hesitant to jump on them. The bad news is that if you’re not implementing automation, you fall behind. But here’s the good news: The current labor challenges provide a unique opportunity to make the shift toward greater automation.  

To implement automation, retailers need to overcome mostly internal barriers. They need to adjust such that they can do more with less while also supporting their employees to be successful in working alongside automated processes. Here are some of the ways retailers can adjust to successfully scale up their automation: 

1. Invest soon. The fight for automation is on, and early movers have significant advantages. The earlier stores adopt new automation technologies and work out the kinks, the better.
2. Develop a clear digital strategy. Digital transformation projects are most successful when they’re properly planned. A clear strategy helps stores ensure that new innovations are impactful and ensure that employees are prepared.
3. Invest to reskill your workforce. Create the HR infrastructure necessary to re-skill current employees so that they’re able to support retail automation.
4. Clarify new career paths. To retain employees as you roll out automation initiatives, explain new opportunities for advancement in the organization, including newly created analytical roles. 

Choose Software that Supports Automation 

Perhaps the most critical element to retail automation is the digital infrastructure and software you choose. The ECRS CATAPULT^® Retail POS uses a Unified Transaction Logic^® across your point of sale, self-checkout terminals, web orders, and even smartphone apps. It connects all critical areas of your retail operation in real-time: your POS, inventory and supply chain, loyalty and marketing, payments, and reporting and analytics all together. 

Contact us to learn more about how our CATAPULT^® Retail POS system can support your move towards automation and help future-proof your business against labor shortages.