Insights from the Shop Floor

In December, we published the results of the biggest-ever survey on self-checkout (SCO), with responses from more than 6,000 workers across America, Australia and Europe. The key findings include:

• Most SCO supervisors usually work on their own (59%), with the largest proportion having responsibility for seven or more SCO machines (38%).
• 84% of respondents believe that no more than six machines per member of staff is the optimum ratio.
• Most staff receive training prior to working on SCO (74%) although those who work on SCO only when it’s busy are more likely to have received no training.
• Those who received more training were more likely to feel that they could cope with their workload.
• On average, respondents believe that 51% of all SCO losses are caused by malicious customer behaviour.

The participating retailers have a combined annual turnover of €292 billion, with a total of nearly 12,000 stores and together employing around 1.4 million staff. Conclusions from the research include:

• The critical role staff play in managing self-checkout (SCO)
• That Staff training and support is key to customers enjoying a hassle-free experience
• By Investing in more reliable SCO technology will reduce customer delays and friction
• That Staff need more help to identify when things go wrong at SCO
• With Staff safety while working on SCO being a top priority for retailers.

The final report (click here) makes a case for the importance of training and support to help staff negotiate the challenges on the frontline of customer service. It offers guidance for businesses to help their SCO workers as they provide age verification, remove security tags and deal with scanning issues and frustrated shoppers.

SCO staff also shared a series of recommendations on ways to improve their working environment, focusing on guardianship, technology and design. The report explores each of these in detail and concludes with a set of 25 talking points to help retailers manage the impact of SCO on their business and the people who work on it.

Click below to learn more about these 25 points and how you might be able to use them as an agenda for change for your business.