Personnel

After the past few difficult years it seemed the tough times might be coming to an end, yet I believe too many are beginning 2023 with more trepidation than hope. They have fears of a recession and see headlines filled with news of various organizations laying people off. While there are businesses that are struggling…

The “quit rate” in retail and hospitality now outpaces the national rate by 70 percent. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that hiring seasonal employees is a challenge retailers face every year. After the holidays pass, retailers are also tasked with the challenge of not only understanding how to improve internal processes, but also…

The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the expectations of frontline retail workers, and they’re more willing than ever to leave companies that are still clinging to outdated corporate cultures. Consulting firm Korn Ferry recently surveyed more than 100 major retailers in the U.S. and found that turnover in the industry, long notoriously high, was up significantly…

Wayfair plans to announce on Friday its second major round of layoffs in less than six months, as the online retailer continues to deal with falling sales and supply chain tangles. The expected cuts follow a 5 percent layoff by Wayfair in August. The earlier round of cuts was part of a $500 million cost-saving plan, but Wayfair executives…

A new law in New York will require companies that operate distribution centers to be more transparent about their work requirements, aiming to protect warehouse workers from possibly unlawful quotas. Gov. Kathy Hochul last week signed the Warehouse Worker Protection Act, which is modeled after a similar, first-in-the-nation law signed in California last year. The New York…

The retail industry is facing a labor shortage, and companies are thinking creatively about how to solve staffing challenges. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are more unfilled jobs than unemployed retail workers and many employees left the retail and hospitality industries for good during the pandemic. The natural seasonality of retail adds…

The events of the last few years — Brexit, the pandemic, The Great Resignation, a cost-of-living crisis — have caused evolving challenges that continue to ripple through the retail industry. One of the biggest causes for concern for businesses today is a mass shortage of workers as people switch to remote or at-home working, decide…

Quiet quitting is a trending topic across corporate America. And the retail sector is experiencing its own wave of workers eager to set boundaries with employers. Whether you call it quiet quitting, coasting, or plain old checking out, unmotivated employees aren’t new. Workers who lack support, resources, and work-life balance also lack incentive to go…

SHEIN, the global fast-fashion e-commerce company, said it would commit $15 billion to "improving standards" at suppliers' factories in the wake of allegations of labor exploitation among its factory workers in China. The Chinese company, which was founded in 2008 by entrepreneur Chris Xu, was recently the subject of a U.K. documentary that claimed employees…

The Great Resignation. The rise of e-commerce. The supply chain squeeze. These are just the latest in a string of challenging issues facing the retail industry, with a possible recession looming on the horizon. Retailers have rebounded from economic downturns before, however, relying on an economic recovery will not be sufficient without a workforce ready…