Lure and Skill

Faced with an aging population, competition from the lucrative resources sector and a fickle Gen Y, fashion retailers must offer plenty of perks if they want to attract and retain good staff. Melissa Gulbin reports.

Once upon a time scoring a frontline gig at a fashion store was enough to make your shelf-stacking and burger-flipping mates insanely jealous. But today, the competitive lure of the resources boom combined with an aging-population makes for a dwindling talent pool right across the retail sector. What's more, demographic projections suggest the trend will only going to get worse.

Last month an apparent skills "crisis" forced fast-food giants McDonald's and KFC to look overseas for managers to staff outlets near mining towns such as Mackay and Mt Isa.

Tough crowd

While things aren't nearly as dire in the fashion world, retail employers are still feeling the pinch according to Doug Downer, general manager of Frontline Recruitment Group. "It's certainly a tight candidate market out there. We're finding Perth the most difficult area to find candidates, which may largely be caused by competition from the mining sector."

While it continues to be tight in all major cities, Downer says Sydney's retail skills shortage is second only to Perth. "It's much tougher to find suitable candidates in Sydney than Brisbane or Melbourne." Traditionally working class areas such as Newcastle and Wollongong, however, are still very candidate-rich, adds Downer.

Things may be tight, but Downer claims that the media's portrayal of a "skills crisis" is a tad overblown. "There is always a slowdown from June onwards. It's is a perennial trend." Fashion is also somewhat immune to the skill shortages suffered by the rest of the retail sector given its undying appeal to young females.

But while retailers struggle with staffing issues, it's a boom time for recruitment companies, which, according to Downer, are filling their books with retailers that had previously favoured in-house human resources.

Retailers, he says, are now recognising that specialist recruiters are needed to best fish a drying talent pool. "What is needed these days is a long-term recruitment strategy and knowledge of best industry practice - something only a recruitment specialist can give."

More than ever a competitive recruitment strategy is needed to attract and retain Generation Y, says Downer. "Gen Y are very fickle. They tend to have quite high expectations of what they're worth. In the first instance they want money but will compromise if given [roster] flexibility. In our experience flexibility can often offset salary.

"The most sought-after employers are now those which understand the importance of work-life balance. The days of saying, 'You must work Thursday night and weekends' are over," states Downer.

Retailers, he says, must also think outside of the Gen Y square. "We're seeing more mums returning to the workforce in part-time roles. Providing that group with work-life balance is essential.

Middle-management, however, are a different breed than entry level sales staff and need to be treated as such, says Downer. "Salary is a key driver for them and we're seeing a trend toward staff being retained with counter-offers of increased pay." Retail management wages, however, are barely keeping up with the Consumer Price Index CPI.

Pushing the perks

Findings from PricewaterHouseCooper's 2008 Retail and Consumer Outlook report reinforce Downers observations. The report suggests that in this tight labour market, retailers will need smarter people strategies to engage a young, mobile workforce.

According to PricewaterhouseCooper director Lisa Eccleston, one  way leading organisation are meeting staffing challenges is by applying a framework to determine what sort of people they need and what they must offer to achieve those goals. Key to a good workplace strategy is the development of an Employment Value Proposition (EVP) that will attract, engage and retain the right employees to produce the desired performance outcomes.

EVP refers to the benefits an employee receives in return for their performance on the job and is usually made up of tangible benefits like staff discounts and intangible ones like a fun working environment.

EVP's must be generation-specific say experts. According Pricewaterhouse research, Gen Y'ers see far more value in training and performance-based pay than Baby Boomers who are largely driven by salary and superannuation.

Luckily for smaller employers, the most effective EVP - honest communication - requires no financial investment. Although the promise of free gourmet food, a 24-hour gym, in-house doctor and bio-diesel shuttle busses seems to work for Google, which receives over 3000 unsolicited job application per day.

Deal sweeteners

Closer to home, Myer identified that work-life balance was of particular importance to its female-dominated staff and in April 2008 introduced six weeks paid maternity leave to encourage staff to stay.

For rival David Jones its appeal is strong, aspirational branding that appeals to a diverse set of employee target markets, says Paula Bauchinger, group general manager human resources. DJ's new recruitment campaign, 'A career like no other', delivers the message to both staff and the public that it is a career-oriented employer. This message is followed through with extensive on-the-job-training, opportunity for fast-tracked career advancement and a pay-for-performance philosophy.

Leading fashion retailer Sportsgirl is a Gen Y-aligned brand that pays particular attention to staff retention - not only by offering flexible rostering and perks such as magazine subscriptions, concert tickets, travel vouchers and cash, but also by succession planning strategies. It offers a twelve-month career development program for top performing 2ICs and new store managers. This program is designed to improve and refine people management skills. It covers eight modules conducted over one half day every month.

Sportgirl earns further brownie-points by aligning itself with causes that are of concern to employees. Last year Sportsgirl staff were surveyed to vote on the issue that was most important to them. Staff voted eating disorders and negative body image as the top area of concern, which led to the development of the partnership with The Butterfly Foundation, a group that helps raise awareness and funds to assist those suffering from eating disorders.

Involving staff with issues of corporate responsibility is a growing trend in the US and the UK, where retail heavyweights reward employees with green schemes. UK grocery chain Tesco, for example, offer staff green travel plans to reduce the number commuting by car while senior-management bonuses are given to those who deliver on waste reduction targets.

A major future challenge identified in the PriceWaterhouseCooper report is the generation gap between the grey-dollared consumer and Gen Y frontline staff. Retailers need to respond to the lucrative older market not only with new store formats but with staff who best fit their customer base. Seniors-friendly German grocery chain, Kaisers, for example has employs a high proportion of people in their fifties.

By Melissa Gulbin