Comment: Missed employment opportunities
Recruitment is a perennial headache for businesses of all descriptions but especially for retail as it is not only one of the biggest employers but is also a home to many entry-level employees. Despite its large requirements the sector is failing badly in some quarters.
The Female Lead has just released a report – ‘From Labour Ward to Labour Force – It’s not Working’ – that highlights how businesses are missing out on returning mothers. This large and important grouping is often insufficiently supported whereby they leave their former employer, which is a very costly misstep by these organisations.
Edwina Dunn, founder of The Female Lead, says: “In my work founding my agency Dunnhumby, and launching the Tesco Clubcard, we found that keeping a loyal customer was 20-times more valuable than the cost of acquiring a new one. The same is true of employees.”
This appears to have been lost on many company managements judging by the survey undertaken by The Female Lead and Peanut, which found 54% of women felt unsatisfied or neutral about the support they received at work. These sorry circumstances have resulted in 35% of returning mothers feeling their work situation is unsustainable and 47% of those unsatisfied with their work plan to leave within the year.
As many as 54% simply wanted to be asked what they needed. So what exactly have they been asking for? Apparently it’s not that much really. A hefty 77% require flexibility around unexpected caring responsibilities, 75% want flexible hours, and 49% want hybrid working. The latter two are just the sort of thing that Gen Z seem to be demanding and, in many cases, getting so how come it does not seem to have filtered down to returning mothers.
Losing this group is certainly a costly exercise for companies because the mothers who leave will not be making it into senior positions within those organisations or helping shape the cultures of these businesses. An interesting point to note is that, according to McKinsey, businesses with women on their leadership team are 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability.
For those progressive companies who provide the necessary support then the reward is greater loyalty from 70% of returning mothers, while 68% speak positively about their employer, and 67% feel more confident at work.
The one thing returning mothers have in their favour is that they will avoid also falling into that other grouping that is given insufficient support and undervalued in the workplace. We are talking about the over-50s. And again this represents a seriously missed opportunity for businesses.
A recent survey by Robert Walters found 73% of over-50s feel overlooked by employers. While as many as 65% of people – of all ages – believe including their age on a CV actively hampers their chances of securing a new position.
Robert Walters has found many employers consider the over-50s as ‘difficult’ hires despite the fact they bring an incredible amount of experience into organisations. Such ageism is clearly a significant issue in the UK workplace that is leading to retailers and other sectors from missing out on tapping into this knowledge base and leveraging value from a seriously large and under-appreciated chunk of the workforce.
Whether it be returning mothers or the older end of the workforce retailers can clearly do better with it comes to their people policies. Having the objective of creating a mixed and varied employee base that is well supported is not only a recipe for a more successful organisation but also goes some way to solving both the perennial vacancies issue in the industry and boosting retention levels.
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