Is Mentoring Feasible on Retail’s Sales Floors?

A study from Harvard professors found that an often-missing ingredient to reducing retail’s high turnover rate is investing in the career development and mentoring of low-wage frontline workers.

A key finding was that a majority of low-wage workers want to keep their jobs to avoid disruption in their lives, according to a penned article by the researchers led by management professor Joseph Fuller in the Harvard Business Review.

On a recent HBR on Leadership podcast, Fuller said that once the low-wage worker gets comfortable with their role and co-workers, “they will actually go to pretty great lengths to avoid putting themselves at risk by going to another unfamiliar environment where the workers there might not be receptive to them coming on board, or where the supervisor might demonstrate behaviors that are objectionable or frightening or otherwise demotivating to people.”

Over 60% wanted to stay with their employer if there were some opportunities for them to advance.

One challenge to mentoring low-wage workers is that employee-to-supervisor ratios are typically high, which makes it “hard to provide workers with regular, usable feedback; to identify gaps in skills and suggest relevant training; or to offer individualized career mentoring and coaching,” according to the study. Among those surveyed, the average number of workers under one supervisor ranged from 11 to 20.

Many workers were also hesitant to broach a pay raise or a promotion over fears of losing their jobs.

Suggestions from the researchers included offering reimbursement programs that may help workers attain degrees or new vocational skills, even to embark on careers outside retail. However, the core advice was setting up mechanisms for hearing directly from workers about their career aspirations and better understanding the barriers they may face — such as childcare responsibilities — in pursuing them. The study states, “The more that organizations communicate information about career development opportunities, the more trust workers will have in the process and their employers.”

A McKinsey study from 2022 concluded that improving manager satisfaction was critical to reducing retail turnover. Managers interviewed in April 2022 as the pandemic was ongoing were found to be 1.75 times likelier than non-managers to consider leaving their jobs (63% versus 36%).

Career development was found to be the primary reason non-managers were looking to leave their jobs, although compensation, workplace flexibility, and inspiring leadership were close behind. According to McKinsey, these factors are all within a manager’s influence, with managers themselves especially valuing greater workplace flexibility.

McKinsey’s suggestions included providing options for all store employees to increase or decrease their hours to accommodate their other part-time jobs, allowing them to work at other store locations on certain days, and giving them more control over how their work gets done. The consultancy further urged retailers to “invest to build strong managers” and lean on their on-the-ground perspective in guiding the execution of any new employee strategy.

McKinsey wrote, “Clearly, the importance of investing in the manager role cannot be overstated; it will have a cascading impact on the rest of the organization.”