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In a tight labor market in which wages are rising, food retailers have an especially acute challenge when it comes to hiring the right talent for increasingly tech-heavy jobs. Here’s a look at the workforce challenges that food retailers will need to overcome in 2020 and beyond: Recruitment Grocers must take steps to empower their staffs to make bigger business decisions that could have a bigger impact on the bottom line. So what can grocers and other food retailers do as they head into this labor maelstrom? Of course, implementing the latest in-store technologies and optimizing selling channels are good places to start, but there’s an important opportunity that shouldn’t be missed: empowering workers - many of whom will be Zoomers, or Generation Z - to deliver a superior food shopping experience that puts your brand above the competition. All of this amounts to a tidal wave of workforce challenges for food retailers that must be overcome in 2020 and beyond. Meanwhile, unemployment is at a 50-year low, and many of the (younger) workers who are ideal candidates for these tech-oriented, multifaceted jobs are as demanding as the new generations of shoppers crowding grocery stores with requests for one-hour delivery of hot vegan chili. As we enter a new decade, those same workers might be expected to troubleshoot shipping delays for online orders, load groceries into car trunks in the middle of a snowstorm, earn five-star Google reviews for good customer service, deliver pizzas to shoppers’ homes, or even grill a perfect porterhouse steak for a diner in a store restaurant. When Kroger hired workers in 2010 for retail jobs, those workers might be expected to operate cash registers, clean bathrooms or slice turkey in the deli. Many of these jobs still involve old-fashioned tasks in physical stores, but the reality is that today’s food retail industry is a collage of full-time employees, gig workers and artificial intelligence performing an ever-widening range of tasks. Nearly 5 million people are employed in retail jobs, and almost 3 million of those people work in grocery stores.
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“The power of creativity” is surely one way to define (redefine?) America’s food retail workforce in 2020. These aren’t always stories that make headlines, but they add up to a big impact.” “There are many examples where we are seeing the power of our associates’ creativity and how that’s helping our customers. “We believe this is the key to winning the future of retail,” says Drew Holler, SVP of associate experience at Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart.