22
FEATURE
Tackling staff shortages As retailers have been struggling to fill vacant positions throughout the pandemic, Julia O’Reilly asks how retailers can combat staff shortages in an increasingly competitive market
W
ith the Covid-19 pandemic came a host of new challenges for retailers. Certain issues, such as the enforcement of mask-wearing or implementation of health and safety protocols, were much discussed in the public arena. Others caused a greater stir behind the scenes. It’s no secret that the grocery retail industry experienced hefty growth last year. Research from Kantar found that the average Irish household grocery bill increased by €1,000 over the last year, with €2 billion more spent on groceries in the year to February 2021.
Demand increase As retailers worked to meet rapidly increasing demand, maintaining adequate staffing levels has proven difficult. For months, staff shortages have been pushing strained retailers into tight spots and forcing stretched workers to pick up the slack. While not a problem that’s wholly unique to retail - ManpowerGroup recently found that 75% of businesses in Ireland are finding it difficult to track down the right candidates for jobs – the sector’s unique cocktail of conditions has left retailers particularly vulnerable. Filling fresh food roles has proven to be the most taxing, and deli roles are particularly hard to fill. “Our retailers are experiencing real challenges around their fresh food areas
ShelfLife July 2021 | www.shelflife.ie
– butchers, bakers, and deli employees of all levels,” says Barry Whelan, CEO of Excel Recruitment, talking with ShelfLife. Demand for full-time floor staff, trainee managers and supervisor positions is also lagging. In fact, store management roles are the only positions which have been immune to the instability the rest of the sector is experiencing, according to Whelan. “It seems these candidates view the jobs as a career and have held firm with their employers over the pandemic, guiding their respective stores through the storm.”
is a lot of extra stock to push through stores and requires additional manpower, that frankly, is not readily available.” Hand-in-hand with this demand increase was, what Whelan calls, a “mass exodus” across the sector that came from three areas. “Firstly, many retail workers have returned to their countries across Europe to wait out the pandemic with their families. Secondly, a proportion of retail workers felt uncomfortable
Unqualified applicants Speaking with ShelfLife, John Eivers, managing director, Spar Irishtown Service Station, said that while recruitment during the pandemic has been challenging, the last nine months have been particularly fierce. Although Eivers and his team have advertised available positions, those that are applying are often not sufficiently qualified for the work. “We have placed several ads since January of this year and the calibre of people that we’re looking for are not applying.” How did we get to this point? In Whelan’s view, supply and demand issues played a leading role. “Demand has gone up – Irish consumers spent an extra €1.85 billion on food groceries in 2020 compared with previous years,” he said. “Some of our retailers were reporting increases in sales of up to 30%. That
Vincent Jennings, CEO of the Convenience Stores & Newsagents Association, says there is no doubt that in some areas, there are “very real difficulties in getting staff, both full-time or part-time”
