This leads to our final takeaway:
Management’s Biggest Obstacle Is Themselves
While there are plenty of differences that vault Retail Winners over their competitors, this RSR Report has found something that consistently predicts which organizations succeeds and which don’t: How much importance the organization places on employee-supporting technology. Ninety percent of largest retailers (>$5B annual revenue) assign high value to employee portals, while only 54% of retailers overall do. Eighty percent assign high value to real time employee performance while only 51% overall do the same. When it came to mobile communication devices for store employees for customer engagement, high value was assigned by 67% of high retailers and 55% of all others.
Consistently, the top performers place more importance on these areas of improvement. While it is understandable for underperforming businesses to be hesitant about investing in new technologies, it appears these employee supporting platforms could be just the thing to improve their standing. By repeatedly passing on new improvements, these managers find themselves in the same “chicken and egg” paradox that was mentioned in the last entry. While others have better opinions on these technologies, philosophies of empowering employees, and implement them to find greater success, the average and under-performing “laggers” undervalue and underprioritize the very tools that could be improving their fortunes right here and now.
The majority of retail respondents indicate that they are moving quickly to address shortcomings that they may have in empowering their store employees. But the numbers don’t lie; those who commit and follow through to supportive empowering technologies become the leaders of their market. Those that hem, haw, wait, and procrastinate find themselves floundering; unable to compete with the market leaders, and unwilling to make the changes necessary to thrive.
Don’t be a “Chicken or the Egg”, it’s time to shake a leg! If your organization is ready to pull off the band-aid and become a “Retail Winner” by engaging with your workforce using mobile employee supporting technology, read the full report, Has the Era of the Empowered Workforce Finally Arrived?, and learn how to get involved in this exciting new future for the retail industry.
