Is career progression really important for your retail frontline employees?

Career Progression is not a new term in the corporate world. However, it’s not frequently associated with the retail frontline employees. An effective career progression is the need of the hour for retail businesses. It's important for various reasons and we are focusing on the need of career progression due to the high level of attrition and the rapid growth of organized retail businesses across the world. And especially in these uncertain times, retaining the right talent in stores has become the top priority. Retaining talent who are well-trained, who can interact with customers, who are intrinsically motivated; will be an important goal for the HR and L&D teams of the retail businesses.

Career Progression or Career Growth could simply be defined as goals and skills to be achieved within a specific time frame in order to achieve bigger responsibilities and better compensation.

In our conversations with various HR and L&D heads of the retail businesses across the globe, the following are the common themes that have emerged regarding "career progression for the retail frontline employees":

1) It strengthens your business: Imagine a well-planned career progression in place and employees actively participating in it. The outcome will be a group of high-performing employees who have stayed in the organization and have grown in terms of responsibilities and remuneration. This group of employees will then become the foundation of the stores, where they can also help train the next generation leaders. Having a career progression could also help in managing attrition; in this competitive recruitment landscape, it has become inevitable for employers to prove their worth by their willingness to invest in the personal and professional development of their employees.

2) It increases accountability: Having a career progression plan for the retail frontline employees can prove to bring in stronger accountability. Organisations can allow their employees to take charge of their growth and this can motivate employees to do their best and move to the next role. This could be beneficial for their personal growth as well as the business.

3) Manage cost and boost skill levels: Let’s remember that not all employees will progress to the next role and not all can grow into the skills required of them. And this could act as a filter. A business can now hold employees responsible for their growth and only those employees who meet a certain threshold can move forward. Thereby allowing the career progression to bring in a structured mechanism to review employee performance and save cost.

Career progression, therefore, can play a fundamental role for the retail business to retain and up-skill talent and ultimately reduce costs.

We are excited to launch Frontlyne, which digitises the career progression for retail frontline employees. All your frontline employees can now access career progression on their fingertips, whereas HR and L&D teams can have now reach every single employee and have a better view to create career progression strategies for a long term impact. Drop us a line and we will be happy to connect.