An employee shortage may put a strain on an already challenging holiday retail season. According to a recent survey from MultiMediaPlus, executives are scrambling to address staffing and wage issues on top of supply chain challenges. 

For the past 3 years, the retail industry has faced significant product shortages due to COVID-19 cutting off the supply chain. This, compounded with staffing shortages and employees reluctant to return to the workplace, employers are increasingly worried about keeping up with demand. 

Executives were asked what their focus has been heading into the fall season. Fifty percent responded that staffing and wage issues were their greatest focus this fall, with supply chain issues coming in at 28 percent and global events and gas prices coming in at 15 percent. 

“As we have seen in the past surveys, industries that rely on customer service must have the best talent in place to deliver that expected level of service and communicate the brand’s vision,” said David Harouche, CEO and CTO, Multimedia Plus. “Stellar customer service is related to human interaction, and we see that no matter what is going on around the world, senior executives are focused on that personal experience as an important growth factor.” 

Participants indicated that recruiting new staff remains a challenge, with onboarding new associates and scheduling also creating concern. 

“After two years of adjusting to a new normal, retailers and hospitality executives are scaling for pent-up demand,” he said. “Getting enough trained staff in place is a major focus and is more important than other issues that we have seen in the past.”

More than 45 percent of respondents noted that employee training will be their Q4 focus. Task management for employees came in at 25 percent. 

“We are seeing here that employers are optimistic that they will be able to secure good talent and want to have technologies and systems in place to have staff trained and provide that quality service customers are seeking,” says Harouche. Respondents indicated they are also making strides to stay connected to staff in more practical ways such as employee chat at 12 percent and associate mobile apps at 9 percent. 

Employers will be making strides to improve their employee development with 27 percent noting that operations training is their top priority in 2023 followed by leadership development and product knowledge. 

“While so much has changed over the past two years, companies understand that their ability to grow and attract new customers is in their staff,” said Harouche. “The better the talent and the better they are trained, the better the ability for the organization to do business.”