‘Wellbeing of one in three retail employee at risk’

One in three retail employees has their “wellbeing at risk” while at work, making it the highest when compared to other sectors, a recent report has stated.

According to WorkL, the employee experience platform which measures, tracks and improves employee engagement and employee happiness at work, reveals that the average Wellbeing Risk score for employees working in retail sector is now 11 per cent points above other workplace averages which have dropped from 33 per cent to 26 per cent.

The Flight Risk for the sector is at 32 per cent, implying that nearly one in three employees are at risk of leaving in the next nine months. This is on par with the global average of 31 per cent, which has increased by 2.6 per cent points compared to Q1.

Q2 2023 Retail Insight Report by WorkL, which includes data from over 3,000 UK retail employees within the second quarter of 2023, shows that Empowerment and Wellbeing, two of WorkL’s Six Steps to Workplace Happiness, have increased in Q2 compared to Q1, now at 70 per cent and 65 per cent respectively. This has resulted in the overall engagement score of 67 per cent, which has stayed the same when compared to Q1.

When the results are broken down into demographics, retailers see that male workers are now scoring 78 per cent, an increase by 0.8 percentage points and now 5 per cent points more than female retail employees. Retail employees aged 45-64 are the happiest in their roles, scoring an engagement score of 69 per cent.

Employees aged 55-64 witnessed the largest increase in engagement scores by 6.9 percentage points in Q2 when compared to Q1. Employees in Retail with a disability still score 3 per cent points lower than non-disabled retail employees (64 per cent vs 67 per cent) but disabled employees saw an increase by 0.3 percentage points during this period.

Lord Mark Price, Founder of WorkL, comments on the findings, “This halfway report for retailers indicates how the remainder of the year will look in terms of employee engagement. Monitoring the engagement of key demographics allows organisations to create a diverse and inclusive workforce that fosters equal opportunities and allows employers to proactively address any potential disparities.

“That’s why a quarterly employee experience survey is so important, especially within a sector that has seen continued low engagement scores over the last few years.”