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Resources Types: Ebooks & Guides

Frontline Employee Survey 2021

Survey

Global Frontline Employee Workplace Survey 2021

The five challenges holding back frontline workers, and the mobile tools that fix each one.

Key findings

  • 34% of frontline employees feel disconnected from HQ, yet 54% still receive company communications by email.
  • 76% of frontline employees say they would feel more connected if they could access company communications on a mobile device.
  • 40% of frontline employees are trained only once a year or less, and 73% still use paper forms.

Summary

Frontline employees make up 80% of the global workforce, over 2.7 billion people, and business continuity depends on them. Yet investment in tools and technology skews toward office-based staff with computers, email and desks, leaving frontline workers without what they need to feel connected, trained and productive.

Based on a survey of 1,000 frontline employees across the US, UK and Canada, fielded in December 2020, this report identifies five challenges undermining frontline performance: disconnection, insufficient training, unproductive task management, underused mobile devices, and millennial dissatisfaction. It shows how each challenge maps to a practical fix.

What you’ll learn

  • The five challenges preventing frontline employees from performing at their best.
  • How millennial frontline employees differ, with 34% reporting a lack of career growth versus 17% of other age groups.
  • Whether your industry is leading or lagging in overcoming these challenges.
Frontline Employee Survey 2021
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Retail In The Face Of An Entirely New Workforce Model

Benchmark Report

Retail in the Face of an Entirely New Workforce Model

See what separates retail Winners from the rest in workforce technology, talent retention, and store execution.

Key findings

  • 85% of retailers say younger employees feel they have better opportunities elsewhere, and 79% say it’s difficult for young people to envision a career in retail.
  • 72% of retail Winners strongly agree they use consumer-grade technology to maximize employee productivity and engagement, versus 26% of Others.
  • 79% of retail Winners rate mobile devices serving as point of sale a high-value customer-facing technology, versus 46% of Others.

Summary

Post-pandemic retail faces a labor crisis: stores are understaffed and struggle to attract and retain talent, especially younger workers who see better opportunities elsewhere. At the same time, new omni-channel shopping behaviors add in-store complexity, pressuring retailers to raise productivity while cutting labor costs.

This benchmark report, authored by Retail Systems Research (RSR) and sponsored by YOOBIC, examines how top performers respond. It draws on an online survey conducted in Spring 2023 with 101 qualified retail respondents, comparing Retail Winners against Average and lower performers across challenges, inhibitors, and technology investments.

What you’ll learn

  • How top performers tackle retail's most complex workforce challenges
  • How new customer expectations are reshaping in-store processes
  • Which technologies retail Winners invest in to maximize employee productivity and engagement
Retail In The Face Of An Entirely New Workforce Model
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The Digital Workplace: Retail Survey Findings by Coresight Research

Analyst Report

The Digital Workplace: Retail Survey Findings

Retailers adopting digital workplace technology report higher sales conversion, lower costs and better frontline engagement.

Key findings

  • 82% of respondents whose organizations adopted digital workplace applications reported improved sales conversion after introducing the technology.
  • 79% of respondents whose organizations adopted digital workplace applications say they reduced operational costs.
  • 60% of respondents plan to invest more in digital workplace applications over the next 12 to 18 months than in prior years.

Summary

Retailers face a perfect storm: labor shortages, rising labor costs and high turnover. An estimated 721,000 US retail workers quit in August 2021, and 70% of respondents call high turnover and staffing shortages moderately or very challenging. Meanwhile stores are absorbing new roles like online fulfillment, forcing retailers to do more with fewer people.

This report, authored by Coresight Research and sponsored by YOOBIC, is based on a September 2021 survey of 165 retail and restaurant decision-makers across the US, UK and Canada. All respondents operated 100+ locations, reported $100 million or more in annual revenue, and held senior management roles across six retail verticals.

What you’ll learn

  • The frontline challenges retailers rank as their most pressing, from turnover to rising workloads.
  • Where retailers are planning to invest in digital workplace technology, with a breakdown by country.
  • The business outcomes early adopters report, plus best practices for improving employee productivity and engagement.
The Digital Workplace: Retail Survey Findings by Coresight Research
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