Retail frequently graces the headlines. What other industries have such an impact and intimate relationship on our daily lives?

As crucially important as civil engineering, reinsurance or physiotherapy are to our society, these sectors rarely instill the same passions in customers or journalists as their local supermarket or fashion retailer.

Changing the reputation of retail

Changing the reputation of retail

Retail has had a negative reputation reported in the past, but that is changing, and will continue to change, with affirmative action

Little wonder. Customers have a very special relationship with the places they buy from to feed and clothe their families. They want to know that the things they buy are responsibly sourced and that the people who serve them are properly looked after. Uniquely, people care deeply about retail.

Unfortunately, this is a double-edged sword. There’s a wry old expression in the media – ‘good news is no news’ – and while readers of Retail Week will know just how much good is done by our industry on many different levels, it’s the bad news stories that stick.

Building a repuation

Following a steady stream of uncomfortable news about the way some companies in the retail industry have been managed and how they have treated their employees, I think it’s fair to say that the reputation of retail is at something of a low ebb.

“We must acknowledge that the focus on low-paid jobs and the debate surrounding zero-hours contracts and the national living wage has not been completely unjustified”

Of course, the industry has some serious and complex issues to face. We must acknowledge that the focus on low-paid jobs and the debate surrounding zero-hours contracts and the national living wage has not been completely unjustified, even though the vast, vast majority of retailers set an excellent example that other industries would do well to follow.

We also know that there is more work to be done in terms of employer branding if the industry is to attract the ambitious, skilled people we will need to help retail through what will be a period of unprecedented transformation, with a combination of increased costs, intensifying competition and the impact of technology squeezing many people out of the industry altogether.

Equally, we know that retail can offer amazing career opportunities for those skilled and motivated to take them, with progression and benefits that compare very favourably with most other ‘mainstream’ career paths.

So here’s the good news: as a uniquely responsive and dynamic industry we in retail are now much more aware of the issues and are focused on tackling them.

In a few days’ time, hundreds of retail leaders will gather for the BRC Annual Dinner, at which we will launch the third report of our ground-breaking Retail 2020 campaign.

In it, we detail some of the game-changing solutions identified by BRC members to the challenges we will face in ensuring that jobs in retail are rightly seen as attractive, flexible and, yes, special.

And how we make sure more of our colleagues have the training and motivation to develop and grow with technological change in a highly dynamic marketplace.

Creating a better environment

Working together, the retailers involved will chart a course to throwing off the dismissive stigma of the ‘shelf stacker’ and creating more workplaces that not only continue to offer flexible employment opportunities to the broadest range of people, but that can also compete for the very best talent on offer in conventional – but rapidly-changing  retail roles as well as in specialisms relatively new to retail – from app development, digital marketing or even events planning.

We know that not everything is rosy in the retail garden, and that part of the challenge in creating more jobs that are fit for the future is dispelling a legacy where high staff turnover was regarded as an acceptable downside of cheaper labour.

But, as we will demonstrate in our report, we also have some exciting and robust opportunities that will help us all get the reputation of retail back where it deserves to be.

  • Helen Dickinson is chief executive of the British Retail Consortium