Productivity
This coverage explores productivity in the UK retail industry, focusing on workforce effectiveness, operational efficiency, process innovation, and cost control. Reporting provides insight into how retailers optimise resources and performance to remain competitive — supporting executives, managers, and professionals driving improvement initiatives.
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Mar- 2020 -24 MarchBusiness Bites
The furloughs and loans are useless to small businesses
The small business community has been watching with great hope to see if the government will introduce measures that are useful for them to survive this period. Alas, those announced are absolutely useless for small companies, which make up an extremely significant portion of the UK economy. Coronavirus Business Interruption…
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4 MarchComment
Three tip for warehouse transformation
It wasn’t very long ago when fulfillment was described as: “Just logistics.” How times change. And with the speed and accuracy of deliveries enabling competitive advantage, warehousing is high on boardroom agendas. While this change is good news, it comes with challenges. Along with consumers’ expectations for ever faster delivery,…
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Feb- 2020 -21 FebruaryBusiness Bites
Barclays as Big Brother, storms batter insurance companies, Redcar steels itself for renewal
The TUC says Barclays’ surveillance of its employees is ‘dystopian’ after it was revealed the bank uses software to monitor how long employees spend at their desks and issues warnings if they are away for too long. Bosses have been running a test of the system in the London office…
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20 FebruaryComment
Mindfulness in omnichannel retail – the key to a successful future
Mindfulness and being more conscientious about the impact of retail operations is fast becoming a top business priority for online brands, and one we will continue to see develop in 2020. With 88% of consumers wanting retailers to help them make a difference, being aware of the implications that retail…
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Jan- 2020 -3 JanuaryPeople Moves
More than a quarter of retail staff look for new job in January
New research has found that nearly 30% of employees in retail customer service roles are most likely to look for a new job in January, due to a “seasonal slump” in engagement and motivation. The survey by quality assurance improvement platform, EvaluAgent, found that 38% of retail customer service staff…
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Dec- 2019 -11 DecemberAdvice
Preventing seasonal staff from becoming the Nightmare Before Christmas
As we approach the busiest shopping months of the year, many retailers will look to hire additional staff on short-term contracts to allow for the anticipated customer demand. In fact, a cursory search on one of the UK’s top job sites indeed.co.uk shows no less than 5,000 “Christmas” jobs advertised…
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Nov- 2019 -1 NovemberHigh Street
Mike Ashley’s holding company sees profits plunge 80% in 2018
Mike Ashley’s holding company, Mash Holdings, saw pre-tax profits plunge by 80% to £20.9m in 2018, according to recently filed accounts on Companies House. The group attributed the profits decline to its performance during the 2017 financial year, when the company saw increased profits from the sales of Dunlop and…
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Oct- 2019 -31 OctoberEconomy
Treasury Committee urges MPs to reform ‘broken’ business rates
The government has been urged to fix the “broken” business rates system as it is continuing to affect high street retailers, a Treasury committee has said. An influential group of MPs has asked the government to examine alternatives to property tax, which puts more pressure on high street retailers than…
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24 OctoberPeople Moves
85,000 retail jobs lost in the last year
Third-quarter retail employment fell by 2.8% year-on-year, the equivalent of around 85,000 jobs, marking the 15th consecutive quarter of decline in the retail workforce. According to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), full-time employment saw a decrease of 4.5% compared to the decrease in part-time employees of…
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23 OctoberComment
How the barcode is continuing to impact the retail world
In our daily lives we hardly give the barcode a second thought. We only really come across it when we’re shopping and even then, it’s merely a ‘bunch of lines and spaces’ that helps us process the transaction and buy an item. But the barcode is so much more than…
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