Retail’s £6.25 Billion Productivity Problem

Well, welcome to season 10 of the award-winning Retail Tea Break podcast. My name is Melissa Moore, The Retail Advisor. I'm a retail educator, trainer and retail conference MC, and each week as your host, I'll be joined by industry experts, retailers, and brands to dispel the myths, share their knowledge, and give you an insight into the retail industry. There's well over a hundred episodes now for you to listen back to on your favourite podcast platform.

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Today's guest specialises in the intersection of productivity and customer experience, helping retailers understand how colleague time is really being spent, where hidden inefficiencies are quietly impacting both profitability, and of course, the customer journey. With a retail career that started in Boots spanning both stores and head office, today's guest worked across everything from beauty product development to operational productivity, giving her a deep understanding of the day-to-day pressures facing modern retail teams.

Today she leads onsite data capture, insight generation, and workload modelling at ReThink Productivity, working with retailers can make smarter operational decisions and build more future ready businesses. Sue Hedaux, co-founder and head of Insights at ReThink Productivity, welcome to the Retail Tea Break podcast. Thank you Melissa. Great to be here.

I'm really looking forward to having this conversation. I get the impression, and I'm sure you'll tell me differently, that this is an area that that retailers either hits or they don't and they muddle on. So very excited to really kind of pull that apart with your knowledge and of course your expert knowledge. But on that then to kind of kick us off and set the scene, in the time that it takes to boil a kettle which I am of course told is about two minutes, tell us a bit more about your background in the industry.

Well, I started when I was 15 actually working in a shop that my uncle had, you know, as a, a Saturday assistant. And really I've been in retail one way or another ever since, which is quite a few years now. So, I trained as a pharmacist and so that's how I ended up working at Boots. Worked at other places as well, but worked at Boots and I was there a long time and did small stores through to the bigger stores area and regional management, and then diverse to roles in head office as you've talked about.

And, but it was the head office roles that really got me into productivity from a, thinking about it from a corporate perspective. After Boots, I then worked in customer experience, largely working with retailers. So that was a, a really fascinating time as well. And then ReThink Productivity launched about 14 years ago now, so we worked with lots of different retailers in the UK and globally.

So as you've said, trying to help 'em make better decisions about the productivity challenges that are facing them. And I think you said it's one of those things people get right or wrong and you're right. Yeah. And it's really hard because it's different all the time.

So just because you got it right six months ago doesn't mean you're getting it right now. Yeah. It's one of those classic journey things, but actually productivity absolutely is a, is a journey. It's not one and do it once and you're done.

It's a keep going, keep going, keep going. And you know what? You are right actually, kind of phrasing it that way. We need to keep it front of mind as you say.

You know, it's, it's one of those things that has to be agile. And on that then, and I think what really drew me to you is you've recently released this ReThink Productivity retail report for 2026, "Future Ready Retail; Smart Strategies for High Performance Operational Productivity". And again, I think that caught me because you've obviously worked in the industry an awful lot and across an awful lot of kind of different sectors almost within retail. So that operational piece, which me, with my background on shop floor retail, is absolutely what caught me in.

The headline stat though is absolutely mind blowing, 6.25 billion pounds in wasted labour. So what really struck me then was this idea that you talk about in the report of the productivity paradox stores that look efficient on paper. And I'm sure we've all worked for plenty of those, yet the customers are still queuing.

And again, mindful of what you've talked about there, customer journey, customer experience. So what's going wrong, generally speaking, to make this happen? We've had a number of years where, where there's been cost challenges within retail, where both on paper and on real life, you know, the resourcing for stores has got tighter. Though it's, it's on paper, it's there, you can see it.

So the stats look good. So they can look like they're being more productive and efficient. And in reality it means there's fewer hours. And that tightening of resource.

If I think back, going back to when I first started, you know, people say oh, there used to be more time to have a bit of a chat and have a laugh and, you know, do stuff. And the reality is there was, and a lot of that flex time, if you like, has gone because you know, the, the realities of commercial life means it's had to be tightened. With that tightening, that flex didn't just give us the time for, you know, a bit longer chat or whatever we were doing, it also meant that you could cope with the ups and downs.

So, I mean, you'll know from your time, we used to say that, you know, has a bus just arrived outside. You know, customers don't come in a steady flow, they just arrived in a massive bus load. If you've got a bit of capacity, then you can cope with that. If you haven't and it's all tight, you just end up with a queue and it's kind of, there's nowhere to go, you just have to hang on as a colleague until it's, until you've got through everybody.

And it's the same for the customers. So it's that flexibility and there's so many things operation that can kind of knock your operation. And as it's all got tighter, it's more difficult. So it can be things, I can say that, you know, a sudden peak of customers, it can be, you know, even things like, you know, a sudden rainstorm that sends everybody scurrying into your shop.

Things like, you know, your delivery was due at nine, you've got all your team ready, didn't arrive till 11, and actually your team have now gone. So the people that are left are then having to do two lots of jobs. So it can be all sorts of things that, that really affects it, but it's just this tightness that then means it's, it looks good on paper, but productivity is actually about how much, what the output is for the input. So when you reach a point where it might be affecting your sales, you are not having that productivity benefit that you should be doing.

I think that's a really good point to make and actually leads me onto this idea that higher efficiency, kind of getting it tighter and tighter and tighter again, 'cause it looks good on paper, is the better way forward. But I suppose that's an enormous risk and an efficiency risk, 'cause as you say, you pull one tiny little cog out or you move something slightly, it impacts everything. Yes, it does. And we say in our report that efficiency should free up capacity for better service, not squeeze it out.

Yeah. And you know, that's the challenge, it's getting that right. And it isn't easy. You know, if this stuff was easy, everybody would be getting it right all the time.

But yeah, a hundred percent that if, if everything's, you know, running perfectly a hundred percent of the time, yes you can be super efficient but kind of retail's about people and it's, it's unpredictable... things happen. So yeah, there's the risk that. I think the real, the real challenge with it is that when you get these times when you, you aren't looking after your customers as well as you could be, you are causing a, a challenge to your brand if you like.

So you want your customers to see you at your best and you want them to see you at your best, at your busiest times, 'cause that's when you most customers see. So these things that can knock off your performance if you're, you know, you're not able to, to do your best and deliver your brand commerce that has a real impact for the brand and the customers and, and what they come to expect of you and why they come to, to you or not in the future. That's a really interesting point 'cause I think an awful lot of people think productivity, efficiency, as you said, getting the stock out straight away or getting that queue down.

But that's all very kind of here and now it's very almost shortsighted. Whereas as you said, you bring that brand, you bring that word brand in and suddenly we are thinking long term we are thinking lifetime value of a customer. We are thinking, yeah, we'll serve them today, but actually we want them to come back and enjoy the experience. 'cause we're actually quite calm.

We're not running around like headless chickens. Yes. And that efficiency and productivity drive that, that any retailer does, has to be in service of their overall brand strategy. Now you have to assume the strategy is right and you know, each retailer has their own, you know, purpose and, and what they're doing.

But you, your efficiency, any efficiency work you has to do has to be a same service of that bigger brand. And what that customer experience that you want to deliver is. You know, it's no good being super efficient, but if that's not what your brand's about, you know, customers there for a big browse and a big chat, you know, being super efficient just is a clash. So they've absolutely gotta, gotta fit together.

So you've gotta be strategic as well as tactical. You've got to work at all these different levels. There is a brilliant line in the report about retailers hitting the capacity ceiling. And I, I almost think it took me back to the days of, of scheduling and as, as you said, kind of busy weekends, all the rain's pouring and everyone's flooded in.

How can retailers spot when they've crossed it, but I suppose preempt it? So what are those early warning signs that we should be looking out for? Yeah, for us, capacity ceiling is, is about making sure you deploy your capacity intelligently. So you've got capacity when you need it, and it's really about that you peak times, that's when it really, really matters.

So if you're gonna a spot when you are heading into any challenges, the time to look at is the busiest times and that, and as we've just said, that's when you want your customers to see you at your best, that's when you should be delivering your absolute A game. So really keeping an eye on that busy time. And it depends what sort of business you've got, but you should be looking out for things. Have you got enough colleagues available to serve your customers?

Have you got customers that are, you know, if you've got customers walking out, you do see that. Then obviously that's a, you know, a big red flag. So that's, you know, a good warning sign to spot for, but have you really got the number of customers available at the right time? The other thing that's really important, obviously if you're gonna sell things is to have your stock available on the shelf.

So whether that's fashion, you need all your sizes and kind of are you monitoring that again, going into peak times, but I say it's just having those products available. So it is easy to think about capacity as just having enough people available, but you've got to have been planning in advance so that you've got your stock available when your customers are there as well. The other thing I'd say to look out for is if you catch yourself making excuses regularly why it's not quite perfect yet, oh, well we've had somebody off sick or somebody was on holiday or this hap and if you kind of regularly making excuses about why you are not quite delivering what you want to, that's a good sign to say is something more systematic that I need to look at than just think it's just a series of things that have happened to me.

So, yeah, because it's customers want that brand promise. That's really interesting on the excuses thing. I feel like I've been transported back like 10, 20 years. But we, we do, I think we all know what good looks like, but to come back to one of your points there, and I I'm sure you hear this a lot, we'd all love to have all the people that we need on the shop floor.

It's either a matter of we think we can't afford it or we can't find them. And are you, I suppose, are you hearing not excuses from retailers? But that's the lived reality for an awful lot of retailers out there right now. They actually don't have enough bodies to serve their customer.

Yeah. And it's a challenge because as we've had this tightening of resource, you need to start thinking more about can of your full-time part-time mix. And that's a really easy thing to say from an academic point of view. Mm-hmm.

If the reality is you've got a well established team that have worked with you for a long time and they've all got full-time contracts, you know, you can't then say, actually I need you to work just over lunch times, or, you know, the world doesn't work like that. So it, it is a real challenge to both retain people that have got the skills and the experience and deliver what you want. And actually having that flexibility of resource, you know, it's, it's one of those balances that people are trying to navigate all the time I think.

Does it become then almost like a chicken and an egg scenario? Because someone, and I've definitely heard it, you know, even in the past week, people thinking that they can't afford to recruit or do you know what, they actually can't find the bodies to bring in to train up to recruit, but yet if they don't have them, they're not making that money. They're not fulfilling the need that the customer has. That money's not in the till.

And then of course they can't pay for the staff. So it feels like a really strange scenario that some retailers almost find themselves in right now. Yeah, you're right. And it is, that's where we think that capacity piece is so important because you've got to get it right when you're busiest' cause that's when you have the biggest impact potential on your sales.

So by getting that bit right, that's the bit that means you are getting your sales. ' Cause otherwise you can circle down and down, you know, if you cut and then you don't make your sales and then you cut again. You know, it's, it's a really difficult place to be. And it does happen to some, you know, businesses on the high street, you know, that we, we see it happening.

Yeah, and I, I like that idea, that actually worst case scenario, look at the busy times, figure that out and then almost build out around that to get this kind of solid look to, to what good looks like. Because again, I think a lot of us think of, as you said, what it looks like 10, 20 years ago, but actually right now our customers shop differently, their needs, they almost want to be more efficient. Yeah. So it's almost like moving those hours around as you say, to, to what today looks like, what this year looks like.

Absolutely. Hidden drains. I found this kind of phrase fascinating. You highlight a lot of them in the reports.

So things like tagging, click and collect, self-checkout interventions. If you are a retailer listening today, where should they first, I suppose look to for quick wins that are actually freeing their people up? You know, we've just talked about them not having enough maybe people or hours, but how are we putting them in the right place? So therefore taking them away from those, those jobs that are actually maybe wasting their time.

I hate to call it out like that. Yeah, no, there's, there's lots of them. So I think there's two bits I would say to this is one where businesses have invested in things to help them be more efficient, really check are you getting the most from that investment. And self-checkout tills is one of those that I regularly see as not being optimised.

So it's a relatively big investment because you've got to buy the software, but usually there's some sort of refit involved to get your tills involved, in the right place and that sort of thing. So in the report we talk about the fact that we've even seen at times where one in three customer transactions requires an intervention. So is your software set up 'cause you can imagine, that's so annoying for customers as well as being such a drain on, on colleagues times. And self-checkouts working well, they're brilliant at freeing people up, freeing up your colleagues and actually giving customers the choice of, some of them, you know, I'm always quite happy to breeze through if I've picked the stuff.

It's like, it works for everybody, but is it really working for you? So it's worth standing and watching what happens at those tills because there can be so many things that mean slight tweaks. I just mean you are not getting the benefit from the investment and you are not delivering the customer experience that you'd want to. And then the other thing I'd say is look at all your processes that you do.

So you know, have a list of them. You know, things like, are you doing lots of stock counts? Why are you doing them? What happens if you stop doing them?

You know, what can you stop? What can you automate? What can you just do differently? We've seen things when we've been out and about studying it in stores, things like supervisors signing and checking refund receipts.

Well, it's all on the journal role. If the till balances, why? Why do all those things? You know, there can be all sorts of admin that people have got into and it might have been 'cause there was a risk in the past and something's gone wrong.

So they put this big process round to stop it ever happening again. But you reach a point where those processes just are too much of what the risk is. But I think that's really good advice. It really is.

There were definitely moments we're wasting, and I think this is probably the issue is none of us feel like we're wasting hours or days, but it must be all those minutes. And as you say, you see this a lot being on the floor with the retailers. It's all those moments that each person is wasting actually by the time you, you finish their working week, are then adding up into the hours. Yes.

The other one that we see a lot is, um, I call it taking stock for a walk. So we have the real tendency in retail to think we have to be busy all the time. So if I've got two minutes Oooh I can just fit that one hairspray, I think I might have one of those in the back. I'll go and have a look, bring it out.

Oh no, it doesn't fit. I'll take it back again. And actually you want to get to a stage where you are not, you want to touch your stock as few times as possible, but it's that, you know, we see people bringing things out just to see if it fits. And it's like, is there a better use of that time?

Sometimes just waiting to be available for a customer and delivering them the best experience is a much better use of time than bringing stuff in and out that doesn't work. 'Cause from a customer perspective, if there's a gap on the, if there's a gap, you want to do something about it, but actually there's five on the shelf, but you might have one in the back, five on the shelf is plenty. It's like, you know, so don't do that. Look after your customers instead.

Oh my goodness. I wanna scream this louder. I, I think we've all gone through a phase and I'm sure you were the same, that you had to look busy now looking busy and being busy or foolishly busy got two completely different things. And as you said, nowadays, are we not better off serving the customer in the best possible way as opposed to kind of having our heads down.

And I love that kind of scenario that you've just talked about of the one, the amount of of retail colleagues I have seen do this or, or part kind of packing, you know, as you said, bringing half a carton out or half a box out when actually, do you know what, as you said, if they just waited, you could fill the whole shelf. Yeah. And you touch it once you touch the box once touch the product once it's way more efficient for everyone. But yeah, we've, we've got into this weird mindset that we have to be faffing with things to make ourselves feel like we're getting paid to do a job.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah, we can often see when we're doing, we call them time filling tasks. So it's like, yes, your team are busy, actually, how much is time filling tasks?

And it is, it's things like tidying shells, pulling forward, going and fetching stock just in case, you know, all those sorts of things. The just in case has to go. I think that's a really big message. You've got six golden rules, in the report that are super practical.

I loved reading these, but if you had to pick just one lever that would make the biggest difference this year, where do we start? Anyone listing right now? Where should they start? I think it, for me it would be that capacity.

So, it's the number one really is the capacity lever, which is that back to looking at busy times, you know, and it, there can be practical things you can do to free up your team at practical times and it's standing back and looking and seeing what's happened. So, you can't always magic up more people. Can you have different work patterns. Even things like are breaks taken at the right time.

You know, the number of times we'll be studying, you see everybody's off for break between one till two and actually the customer peaks one till two. But you can do innovative patterns, you know, you can give people a break. You can even say, well actually, you know, have a shorter break and then go home earlier 'cause actually we're quieter then, you know, there's things that you can, that you can do with breaks. And then, you know, making sure the number of times we see stock tasks being done while it's still at peak times, you know, it's creating those windows of this is pure customer time and being realistic about it and making sure you've got the right people available.

So it, for me, it's, if you're gonna look at that one, maybe it's how do you make capacity when your customers really want it? Because that's when they're gonna buy more and that's gonna hopefully fuel growth, which means you can take more people on and, you know, everything works better when you're growing. It really does. And actually, you, you remind me there, I worked for an amazing retailer who banned senior management from having lunch between one and two for that very reason.

And they were very transparent about the fact that hour is paying your wages. So again, you get used to it, you plan your day around that, and actually on, on top of that, then it's, it's a really interesting idea that, do you know what? It's so much easier and quicker to pack out stock when it's quiet. Like again, surely this is a no brainer that we shouldn't be touching our stock when there's, when we're full of customers, actually it's so much quicker and handier for the colleague to be packing out the beginning of the day, the end of the day people aren't in their way, like, let's call a spade a spade here.

It's much more efficient for everyone and easier too. And it's so frustrating for the colleague to be Yeah to know you are not doing either thing well. So if you constantly trying to keep an eye on till you're not being as efficient with the stock. And actually if you wait until a customer gets the till and then you're, well, you know, you're not looking after the customer as well either.

You know, it, it puts colleagues in quite a difficult position to be expecting them to do both things and knowing they're not doing either to the best of their ability. Yeah. It's frustrating for sure. Well, look, one question I'm asking every guest on the podcast this season, what are you most excited or most curious about when it comes to the future of retail?

I'm really curious about how AI is going to impact retail and not just because I'm a retailer, you know, background and think about productivity. Actually, I, I love shopping too. So what difference is it gonna make? And how's it gonna inform, what's the, the people impact?

'cause to me a lot of retail is still about people. So, you know, I can really get that AI will help with forecasting and making stock there. Actually, what difference will it meet to those makes those conversations that we have? You know, will it get used in a way that really helps people?

There's a lot of shopping journeys where customers are looking for advice and help. How's AI gonna be used in that? It's not a clunky way, you know, I think it's gonna be really interesting to see how it really impacts that, that human side of it, because I'm sure it will do something. What that's gonna be, I'm, I'm really interested to see.

That's a really good one as well, isn't it? It's supporting everyone. Have you seen anything, Sue at all that you, you think might, or even parts of the, either the shopper journey there or even the colleague journey where they, they're starting to plug in AI that you think eventually will work really well for them? There's a few retailers that use sort of information with when they're, you know, talking to customers.

So you, you know, for example, Holland and Barrett have a tablet that they can, you know, make sure they're giving the, all the best information to, to when they're having those conversations with those customers. And, you know, there's other retailers. So some of the you know, telecoms retailers, again, they've got such a wide range of products and narrowing them down so they've got various tools that help them. So those sorts of things have been around for a while.

I'm kind of wondering, well what's the, what's the next step? And I remember years ago there were things like wine selector things in, in the supermarkets, which, you know, they're not there anymore. You know, there was screens and things. So it's like we've, we've tried with things that, how you do it in a way that doesn't really interrupt that human connection that's happening, I think is, is gonna be the, one of the really interesting bits.

Oh, it's exciting. And also then I'm still mindful of what you said almost at the beginning that let's not put these things in for the sake of it. You know, is it adding extra, an extra step either to the shopper journey or to the colleagues, because that in itself, and I, I'm very mindful that AI is, is being utilised in some retailers, unfortunately for the sake of AI's sake 'cause they're very excited for the new shiny thing. But yeah, really grounded in what you've said that actually it should be, it should be saving time, it should be making everyone more efficient that we're not double jobbing or adding a layer in to everyone's day.

And it's, that's that brand piece. So it actually has to be in service of delivering your brand promise. Because actually if it's, if it's like you say AI for the sake of it, or it just makes it clunky or it's, you know, takes it to a whole different feel of the whole interaction, then that's not in service of your brand. It's kind of, you know, the smart retails that we're really good at at weaving that in.

So it comes the right way. And I think there's another challenge thinking about AI coming in in terms of if you're giving people another system or another platform to have to use, you know, we've seen businesses where you have colleagues that jump between three or four different systems. Now the customer won't necessarily see the busy tapping away and actually get very good at chatting while they're doing what they need to do. But actually, if they didn't have to do that jumping between systems, you know, they wouldn't have to have the filler chat.

They're very good at it, but maybe, you know, the transaction could be over a bit quicker or it could be doing it more focusing on the customer rather than half an eye while they're also, you know, the customer's spending a lot of time looking at the top of their head while they're typing away. That's a really good point. a really, really good point. And actually now that you say it, I, I'm very much more aware of, of this happening too.

Yeah. It's, it's frustrating for everyone actually. It's not a great way to be. So that's a, a really good insight there as well.

And I'm sure in time as we're building and rebuilding tech stacks for AI that some of these things hopefully will be reduced. But look, last question then, obviously the report ReThink Productivity Retail Product 2026 is out and it is a fantastic read. But upon that then what's coming up next for you and the team this year? Well, we're out and about as always in lots of different retailers, different clients.

So helping them make those better decisions about productivity. And that's, you know, we've got team across the globe. I think we're in, four continents at the minute. So we're at definitely out and about.

And we've got another thing happening this year is we've launched our productivity, some new courses of our productivity. So we're conscious that there's things that we've learned on the way and top tips that we can share with people. So we've launched a course that's an introduction to productivity. So it's really aimed at people that are perhaps moving into productivity departments in head office or process improvements or in their starting there.

It's kind of to give them some frameworks to use when they're getting used to working in those new environments. And also a sister one to that, which is for people that are working in workload planning teams, so the people that do the budgeting, that work out that store needs x amount of hours and cost each week. So there's the one that's about planning as well. So they're happening.

And then the other thing we're really excited about is every year, for the past 10 years, we run a productivity forum. So this, this September, on September the 10th, it's going to be our 11th. And we get together a load of retailers, hospitality, lots of different clients, and we share best practise. We talk about all things productivity.

And it's really good because when you work in productivity, you tend to be in kind of a bit of a corner of the operation. So you work with lots of other people, but you know, when you've got your productivity head on, you know, you're, you're a part of a small group usually. It's really great to go and spend time with other people that are doing that same job and lots of other organisations. So I say it's lots of chance to, to chat, share ideas, network, build links, share about, you know, common problems and that sort of thing.

So that's a, a free event for retailers. If people want to go to it, they can sign upon our website. There's a link there. So that's a ReThink Productivity website.

So we're looking forward to that. That sounds fantastic. 'cause as you say, sometimes you kind of either need to hear or, or be safe in the knowledge that it's not just you. There are other retailers going through the same thing.

But I love that idea of sharing best practise, sharing problems. It's a really safe space for people to come together and say, look, these are the issues we're having this year. But also learn from retailers who might be a couple of steps ahead. So it's such a great idea to have that.

When I was, when I worked at Boots, we were working on something where I was, we were introduced to another retailer that had gone through the same process beforehand. And actually it saved us a whole, I'd probably say it saved us about a year of experimentation because we said we thought we were gonna do this, this, and this. It's like, yes, that's what we think this is. Yeah, we've tried that and this is what we found.

So actually we're doing this now. It's like, great, we'll just do this then. So, you know, it's those sorts of conversations. They just add so much value.

Oh, fantastic. And as you said, that networking piece, meeting together with people, you know, like-minded people, it with those same issues is absolutely brilliant. So really excited for that coming up in September. And look, if you've enjoyed today's episode, please do share it from any of the podcast platforms with your network.

And if you're on social media, tag me, Melissa Moore and the Retail Tea Break podcast. You can of course listen back to previous seasons, I think we're up to over 120 episodes now. So catch them on any of your favourite podcast platforms. And of course, while you're there, hit that follow button so that you get to listen first every week.

Sue, I'll obviously share the website details in the show notes. Where can people find you as well? On LinkedIn, you find me at Sue Hedaux and also through the website, you can contact us there too. Oh, fantastic.

Sue, it's been an absolute pleasure and as I keep saying, this report, I think spoke to me so well as, as, as someone that's been a store manager and someone that's worked my way up through throughout retail 'cause it pulls on so many different avenues there. It isn't just productivity for the sake of kind of HR or people. There's so much in it. Thank you for sharing your report and delighted to have you on today.

Thank you so much. Great. Thank you Melissa.