Industry
Retail
Omnichannel CX and Intelligent Innovation – The Future of Retail
Solution
TCS cognitive supply chain consulting
Building Resilient Supply Chain to Overcome Modern Retail Challenges
Highlights
- The success of retail organizations depends on their ability to integrate the contingent workforce with permanent employees to create a unified team and enrich employee experience.
- Employee experience is at the core of HR transformation and is crucial for delivering superlative customer experience, which ultimately translates to business growth.
- Retailers must leverage artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and emerging technologies to empower employees and prepare themselves for the future of work in retail.
On this page
Retail workforce dynamics
The success of the retail industry depends on the success of the golden quarter.
This is essentially the last quarter of the calendar year, which is the peak season when consumers go on a shopping spree for holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas. Retailers across the globe from all segments – grocery, fashion, electronics, home improvement, and luxury – measure their annual business performance based on this critical period.
A key driver of the golden quarter's success is a motivated workforce, comprising both permanent employees and the contingent workforce hired for the peak season. Joining a retailer’s contingent workforce often appeals to Gen Z and millennial workers who prefer flexible work options and value work-life balance over traditional work structures. This shift demands that retailers adapt to the changing needs of their workforce to attract and retain top talent.
Chief human resources officers (CHROs) and HR directors must focus on integrating the contingent workforce with permanent employees to build a unified team.
This integration is crucial for driving seamless and immersive customer experiences, ultimately leading to outstanding business results. The contingent workforce values the overall experience of working, making it imperative for retailers to provide a work environment that promotes a sense of belonging and engagement. Employee experience is a key element in a retailer’s growth ambitions.
Four pillars of employee experience
The key challenge for CHROs today is to establish the right framework for the future of work for their enterprises.
The HR transformation pyramid (see Figure 1) starts with employee experience as the foundation, which ultimately leads to better customer experience and robust business growth. When employee experience and customer experience are at their highest levels, business performance reaches a peak. This is the point at which businesses can confirm that they have embraced the right workforce framework for their enterprise.
Figure
HR transformation pyramid
Figure
Retailers need an empowered, connected, diverse, and talent-focused workforce. As the four tenets of employee experience, these aspects are critical to ensuring a happy and invested workforce that aims to delight customers.
- Empowered: Employees from the Gen Z and millennial generations are empowered to drive customer engagement.
- Connected: Collaboration and collective intelligence are at the core of retail business transformation.
- Diverse: Employee diversity forms the basis of a continuously evolving work culture.
- Talent focus: A focus on talent is the key to unlocking business value because even in a digital world, the human element is crucial.
The future of work powered by these four essential pillars of employee experience is the key for enterprises to stay relevant and grow in today’s disruptive ecosystem.
AI and automation to play a pivotal role
By using AI-powered solutions, retailers can enhance workforce management, improve employee engagement, and drive better business outcomes.
AI can help retail CHROs tap into the potential of the next-generation workforce by enabling them to attract and retain the right talent to establish enterprises of the future. CHROs must drive faster talent acquisition with reduced onboarding time and lay the foundation for a motivated, satisfied, and digitally equipped workforce.
In today’s dynamic retail work landscape, AI and Generative AI (GenAI) have the potential to take employee experience several notches up.
By using technology to improve workplace communications, harnessing AI-powered solutions, and embracing the latest innovations in GenAI, retailers can drive significant advancements in areas such as employee engagement and retention, talent acquisition, and operational efficiency.
AI is a force multiplier for human intelligence and productivity. It is a means of production that will empower one to do the work of many and bolster operational efficiency at retail organizations. In the retail sector, AI can be an invaluable partner in fighting against employee burnout, providing on-demand schedule access, tackling issues related to employee fatigue, and fostering career development. By providing on-demand access to schedules and work-life balance management tools, organizations can alleviate the burden on colleagues and encourage a focus on mental health and well-being.
AI has the potential to automate, personalize, and fine-tune thousands of processes in the retail industry. Retailers are increasingly turning to AI-driven platforms to rethink how they source, hire, manage, and develop talent. With AI systems, talent leaders can make more informed decisions about hiring or internal mobility, which reduces bias, improves transparency, and cultivates a more diverse workforce.
GenAI is expected to contribute significantly to the future of work in the retail industry. The technology will drive faster business value, improve productivity, enhance candidate and employee experience, and streamline HR processes. One immediate use of large language models (LLMs) is that they will significantly reduce the number of processes and touchpoints needed in the end-to-end retail value chain of plan-buy-move-sell. This will significantly improve a day in the life of a buying and merchandizing associate, a store salesperson, a warehouse manager, or a logistics technician, enhancing their productivity and resulting in a higher degree of employee experience. When trained on large language models (LLMs) in a controlled fashion, GenAI can generate content and suggestions that reflect the organization’s unique language and culture, thereby safeguarding sensitive and proprietary information.
Principles for responsible AI adoption
Driving digital transformation and adopting AI to enhance employee experience will require retailers to develop a robust adoption plan.
They must chart out an adoption roadmap and a clear business architecture where technology applications are strategically aligned with organizational goals. Understanding the practical implications of AI on the workflow and recognizing the critical role HR plays in this transformation is essential.
Six key principles are essential in creating a responsible and trustworthy AI framework for HR functions.
They include accountability, inclusiveness, reliability and safety, fairness, transparency, and privacy and security. These principles will guide every HR decision and will help CHROs in making the right decision for the implementation of AI solutions.
When business leaders are equipped with AI solutions to help drive productivity and enable the efficient working of retail employees, it allows them to focus on strategic growth. AI-driven tools can free up time for leaders to concentrate on achieving the organization’s vision and strategic objectives.
Conclusion
The strategic adoption of AI is a crucial part of preparing for the future of work in retail.
AI will not only drive innovation and productivity in retail organizations, but will also support the better use of human resources. By harnessing the potential of AI, retailers can deliver superior colleague and customer experiences, driving sustained growth and success.
AI assists in organizing co-creation forums, identifying optimal workgroups with reliable track record and ensuring compliance with company policies. As retailers and the modern workforce adopt AI-driven strategies, they can unlock unprecedented productivity, well-being, and engagement, creating a future where human potential and technological innovation thrive together.
The world of tomorrow will revolve around the role of AI in enhancing human potential. The future is rooted in how retailers embrace the future of work driven by a people centric approach.
