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In three years, turnover (staff turnover) in organized retail is destined to exceed, on average, a rate of 40%. A forecast that generates considerable concern in large chains, especially due to the ongoing misalignment of job supply and demand which, by now, does not spare any sector. Hence the “increasingly strong attention to organizational issues and the strengthening of human resources management, where today there is a ratio of 15 employees for every thousand employees, therefore equal to 1.5%, fivefold compared to a few years ago when it was 0.3%. With a strong vertical specialization and people dedicated to recruiting, training, insertion”, says Davide Pellegrini, an economist from the University of Parma who together with Francesco Massara, who teaches marketing at Iulm, carried out research for Confimprese and Largo Consumo where work in organized retail is told. This is the most significant subset of trade, where, according to Istat data, there are over 3 million workers.
The criticality of turnover
The research, entitled Retail people track, took place in two phases: the first, carried out by IULM, involved 3,260 workers, trying to understand their age, type of contract and salary. The second, managed by the University of Parma, instead measured the organizational effectiveness and efficiency of the retailing head quarters. The most critical aspect is that of turnover which «requires a paradigm shift in people management: if until a few years ago human resources were considered important but not strategic due to the abundance of people on the market, now this is no longer the case, for multiple reasons ranging from demographics to work-life balance. And this involves greater attention in their management also to aspects of well-being and engagement”, says Massara.
The prevalence of women and young people among workers
Among workers there is a clear female predominance, with women representing 68%. The workforce is predominantly young: 82.39% of workers are under 45 and 53.40% are under 35. From an occupational point of view, 63.19% of those interviewed are employed as sales assistants, 20.28% manage the cash registers and 15.98% hold store manager roles. 60.52% of workers have a permanent contract. Industry experience varies greatly: only 21.20% of respondents have more than 10 years of retail experience. The majority of workers, over 90%, have a net salary ranging between 500 and 2 thousand euros per month. «A wide range due above all to the incidence of part time in the sector – observes Massara -. In particular, however, if we consider those with a permanent contract then the range is between one thousand and 2 thousand and if we only consider full time workers it goes from 1,500 to 2 thousand euros”. It should be noted that 7.48% of the sample is made up of “new Italians”, a figure that shows the cultural diversity that is establishing itself in the workforce and which will be increasingly necessary to deal with the mismatch between job supply and demand.
Changes in stress levels
Through a real barometer of the sales force, the researchers evaluated the well-being and stress of the workers, in addition to their engagement, which also shows a gender specificity: women in fact demonstrate greater motivation than men and third gender. Younger workers are especially affected most by working conditions, while there is a clear improvement among those over 46 or over 11 years of experience in the sector. In the South, work in retail arouses greater interest, perhaps due to a combination of environmental, economic, social and cultural factors, such as unemployment and the cost of living. The highest levels of engagement and the lowest levels of stress are found among store managers, while those who work at the checkouts or as sales assistants feel more work pressure. Furthermore, again with reference to engagement, permanent workers show a higher level than fixed-term workers. Another factor that clearly emerges is that work experience leads to a reduction in stress and an increase in engagement, especially after 10 years of experience. When it comes to stress, it also emerges that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between income and stress: engagement and well-being are optimal between 1,500 and 2,000 euros, but decrease above this threshold. Stressors include managing checkout lines, extending opening hours, store size, in-store congestion, and dealing with customer complaints.
Emerging trends in human resources management
Among the emerging trends, triggered by turnover and the costs involved, Pellegrini indicates «the attention to training and collaborations with ITS in order to deal with the lack of specialized profiles, the mobility between the store and the headquarters creating prospects of career, climate analyzes which were not done in the past but which are now a characteristic of all chains, the simplification of activities, greater time flexibility. Of course in Italy we are far from the experiments on the short week in retail that are being experimented in some Belgian chains and in some Northern European companies, but there is a significant improvement in working hours and, for example, also in the possibility of working split shifts , considering that in the sector people also work on Saturdays and Sundays.”
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Azerbaijan’s strategic foreign exchange reserves reached almost $70 billion
– 2024-04-23 02:42:09
As of April 1, 2024, Azerbaijan’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to 69 billion 027.2 million US dollars.
As Day.Az reported on Saturday, 83.1%, or 57 billion 372.8 million US dollars, falls on the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan (SOFAZ), and 16.9%, or 11 billion 654.4 million US dollars – to the share of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA).
In the first quarter, the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by 1 billion 344.5 million US dollars, or 2%. Thus, SOFAZ foreign exchange reserves increased by 1 billion 303.1 million US dollars, or 2.3%, and the Central Bank – by 41.4 million US dollars, or 0.4%.
Over the past year, the country’s foreign exchange reserves showed an increase of 6 billion 456.6 million US dollars, or 10.3%. Over the year, SOFAZ foreign exchange reserves increased by 3 billion 935.2 million US dollars, or 7.4%, and foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank – by 2 billion 521.4 million US dollars, or 27.6%.
|
SOFAZ foreign exchange reserves, in million dollars |
CBA foreign exchange reserves, in million dollars |
Azerbaijan’s strategic foreign exchange reserves, in million dollars |
|
|
01.04.2024 |
57 372,8 |
11 654,4 |
69 027,2 |
|
01.01.2024 |
56 069,7 |
11 613.0 |
67 682,7 |
|
01.10.2023 |
55 524,0 |
9 775,3 |
65 299,3 |
|
01.07.2023 |
54 915,1 |
9 195,9 |
64 111,0 |
|
01.04.2023 |
53 437,6 |
9 133,0 |
62 570,6 |
Azerbaijan’s strategic foreign exchange reserves reached almost $70 billion – 2024-04-23 02:42:09
Market Gardeners in Auvergne Plains Face Frost and Freezing Temperatures Threatening Produce Loss
Frost and freezing temperatures are back in the Auvergne plains. Market gardeners who had started are worried about losing part of their produce.
Snow falls on the frozen salads of Sébastien Fayot, market gardener in Arfeuilles, in Allier, “It’s 2 degrees and the vegetables I planted don’t like those temperature changes”but he has no choice, to save his produce, he protects his plants as best he can, “It’s up to us to change and not to nature. So we try to capture the sun to bring heat back at night, we use protective sails, but we can’t -save everything. The temperature differences are huge so we’re trying to sort this out a bit.”. In greenhouses, his seedlings are covered and he also uses “tubes, placed on either side of the crop”, which contains water. This water naturally heats the day and it is this heat that keeps the crop at a temperature during the night.
This sudden drop in temperature also threatens the flowering of his fruit trees, explained Sébastien Fayot, “we know we will have damage, about 10%. This season has fragile vegetables and is not easy to manage“.
Sébastien Fayot, a market gardener in Arfeuilles, adapts to the sudden changes in temperature that threaten part of his production. © Radio France –
Anais Martin-Cauvy
In the Puy de Dôme in Crevant-Laveine, Étienne Rey, who was also a market gardener, was surprised by the frost, “I lost part of my harvest with the mild temperature, we rushed to plant the tomatoes and they were doing well in the greenhouse, but with that temperature, growth will be delayed. “. Étienne also lost the zucchini planted outside the greenhouses. To protect his production, he decided to do it “Burning wood chips early in the morning helps keep temperatures mild.” Before you see beautiful tomatoes and zucchini on the markets, they must be alert, at least until the Ice Saints, from May 11 to 13.
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2024-04-23 04:34:42
#cold #trap #work #market #gardeners #Auvergne #France #Bleu
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Market Gardeners in Auvergne Plains Face Frost and Freezing Temperatures Threatening Produce Loss