RespectX client research shows that preventing sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination can boost your bottom line significantly. As workplaces drive down bad behaviour, and increase everyday respect, the flow on effects for engagement, productivity, retention and even customer retention, are felt across the business.
The ANROWS report “just another day in retail” describes how the retail workforce – mostly young, women, and casual staff – face sexual harassment and customer aggression on a daily basis. The prevalence rates in retail are double that of the general population.
50% of Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association members have experienced sexual harassment in the past 5 years, compared to 25% national average. Only 13 per cent reported the latest incident.
At this year’s ARA conference retail leaders unanimously agreed that as the biggest employer of young Australians, retail must do better. Not only does this kind of behaviour destroy young lives, but it also hurts the retail industry. Lost productivity, absenteeism, recruitment costs, direct legal costs and reputational damage all have a direct hit to the bottom line.
Ted Tolfree is the CEO of Crisp Salad in Melbourne, a fast food retail outlet with 5 CBD locations employing 85 younger people. He shared his story about how he had almost fully eradicated bad behaviour in his business in 12 months, and made significant impact to his top and bottom line as a result, by partnering with RespectX.
“When RespectX was implemented 12 months ago, the prevalence of sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination was high: 35% of my team had experienced or witnessed bad behaviour in the last 12 months. That number is now 6%. 84% of my team now say that at Crisp, people treat each other with respect. And 100% of them said they would make a report on RespectX if they did experience something.”
This is an astounding result, in an industry that is scrambling to find a way to improve safety. Retailers like Country Road have seen a direct decrease in sales as a result of recent allegations of poor behaviour.
Ted also sees the direct impact on productivity and profit. “My people are more engaged, working better together, and the impact on productivity is noticeable. Our turnover is down to 5%, which in this industry is unheard of (turnover in retail is 23% on average). This means we save money on recruitment and training. Our cost of wages is the lowest it has ever been.” Crisp is having its best financial results to date. “Retail is detail, and the safety and wellbeing of our staff is no small detail for us”.
“RespectX has paid for itself many times over.”
We dug a little deeper behind the numbers to understand how RespectX supports retail workers and front line Managers:
- RespectX is simple to use: “My people are all under 25, they expect to be able to engage via message, chats and technology. With RespectX they can make a report on their mobile phone in under 30 seconds”.
- RespectX is safe: “I’d love to think my people would tell me if something was not OK, but history has proven that they don’t. The fact that people can make an anonymous report is the number one driver of use.”
- RespectX is a deterrent for both staff and customers: “Everyone knows that it is easy for someone to report them anonymously if they step out of line. It makes them think twice. And the branding is so powerful.The RespectX stickers on the door and at the till make a difference. Some customers will ask about it, others have used the QR code to find out more. But more often, it is a very quick, almost subliminal message that respect matters here”.
- RespectX training is ‘just enough’:“It takes 15 minutes to onboard staff, and the training is simple and practical. It makes our expectations clear. The posters and the materials we get for our staff meetings really resonate.”
- It gets the problem of bad behaviour of your desk: Ted was looking for a simpler way to manage internal reports of bad behaviour, after a sexual harassment incident consumed his and his team’s time and energy over the many weeks it took to resolve. A recent informal report completed in less than half the time and with a much more transparent and trusted process.
Ted’s story shows that the technology exists, it’s simple to use, people trust it, and it works – and there is an opportunity for every retailer to achieve the same results.
And what’s next for Ted? “I’m moving past preventing bad behaviour to eradicating it. I’m determined to chase down that remaining 6% at Crisp, and I have just implemented RespectX into my other business, SNAP fitness which has over 1300 members and a team of staff.”
See more about the Crisp story here. Connect with RespectX here.
