 H.R. Summit Reveals Employee Woes
By: Rachel Strugatz
WWD - New York - Thursday, October 11, 2007.
Workers in the apparel and retail industry are not feeling the love from their bosses. And from the corporate human resources perspective, the difficulties of
recruiting and retaining workers – especially the younger ones- have
never been greater.
According to the job satisfaction survey
conducted and sponsored by WWD, 24 Seven Inc. and C-suite Corporation, and
presented at the first WWD Human Resource Leadership Forum this month,
just 12 percent of the respondents said they felt valued by their
employers. Speakers at the conference said the challenge of recruiting
and retaining talent was enormous. Dissatisfied employees, high
turnover and generational differences in the workplace as well as aging
workers among the issues facing companies.
The unhappiness of
many in the workforce, depending on age, appears to stem from the
struggle to balance work and lifestyle, a sense that the talents of
individuals aren’t being properly used and that they are underpaid and
a bad match with their firms, Barbara Marchetti, president of C-suite,
said in an interview.
“We’re talking about various components
of the job, from concept to store,” Marchetti said. “Some facet of a
role or department, whether it is production, design, manufacturing or
logistics will either be augmented or replaced by technology.”
“What we gathered from this survey is that change, change, change is
clearly the theme of the day, the week, the year, the decade,”
Marchetti said during the conference, which was attended by human
resources professionals from all aspects of the industry, including
designers, retailers, and suppliers.
“I think its very
telling to see that technology was the number-one factor [impacting
careers] and if you look at it, technology actually drives other areas
[such as consolidation and operations],” Marchetti said. “Technology
clearly affects retail consolidation, outsourcing and manufacturer
consolidation. So technology has played into each of these areas.”
The survey also showed that 91 percent of employees in a
retail/e-commerce/store level position would consider switching jobs if
offered a more competitive salary. Additionally, at the retail level,
61 percent of employees are in pursuit of better quality of life, which
explains why there is such a high turnover rate in the retail sector of
the industry, Marchetti said.
In addition to the presentation
by Marchetti, the half-day conference, held here, included
presentations by Larry McClure, senior vice president of h.r. at Liz
Claiborne Inc., Casey Priest, vice president of marketing at The
Container Store, and William Cody, chief talent officer at Urban
Outfitters.
*Should you be interested in receiving a copy of the job satisfaction survey, please email
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