SCMAP Perspective is our fortnightly column on PortCalls, tackling the latest developments in the supply chain industry, as well as updates from within SCMAP. On this column, Henrik Batallones looks at the labor challenges facing the retail sector, and how it reflects similar challenges in logistics.
A happy front-of-house
In the last few months I have seen the Starbucks branch I frequently go to train new baristas for the expected uptick of customers over the festive season. Or, as I’d like to call it, sticker season. Well, digital sticker season, because they now collect them via the app rather than on printed booklets.
That also meant some of the baristas I have come to know move to new branches. Maybe they’re not related, but we’ve had small talk – I guess I’m enough of a regular to be able to have small talk with them – about where some of them are being moved.
They’re still in the area surrounding my home, although I always thought these branch moves don’t happen with regularity. I mean, this is a coffee shop, and you become part of your customers’ routine.
I’ve had that in mind as I headed to the first Wholesale and Retail Trade Forum. This event, held at the beginning of this month, was part of the groundbreaking Section G partnership between the Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippine Retailers Association and SCMAP.
Similar to initiatives bringing logistics and e-commerce players together, we are collaborating to address issues in the greater retail ecosystem – including manufacturing and logistics – particularly by developing a jobs blueprint which should be presented in the first quarter of the coming year.
I was tasked to moderate the panel on labor policy and upskilling, which I realize is a pretty critical panel considering we’re building a job blueprint. So many questions, so little time, not to mention that jobs across the retail ecosystem are vastly different.
Jobs in the backroom – administrative, finance, logistics or marketing functions, for example – tend to be more secure and stable, and can easily adapt to upskilling opportunities and digitalization initiatives.
However, front-of-house roles – cashiers, salespersons, baristas – are different. They tend to work in shifts that change regularly and, being in the frontline, they are exposed to the unique stresses of dealing with customers in their varying moods. Some of the jobs tend to be on a contractual basis rather than regular employment.
A concern raised during our focus group discussions was about how much more difficult it is to attract workers to these kinds of roles. They say younger generations, in particular, would rather get a job that allows them to work at home.
Sure, that’s attractive, but I feel it’s reductive to attribute it all to that. The aforementioned characteristics of front-of-house jobs mean many tend to see it as a temporary job, a stopover en route to a profession more aligned with their interests and passions.
In a way, this is also the case with logistics jobs. Office roles tend to have more stability compared to warehouse jobs, although a key difference is that there are many opportunities for those in the shop floor to upskill, or at the very least, bring their skills abroad.
Ongoing work surrounding the Philippine Skills Framework for Supply Chain and Logistics should make these options more viable and sustainable for the many who are seeking them.
Retail frontliners, though, also now have to contend with digitalization probably coming for their jobs. We have already seen fast food chains embrace ordering kiosks – and yet quite often I see people, not just older ones, looking for help when ordering there. Funnily, it’s the security guard who is often at hand to help.
And sure, new technologies are also “threatening” more manual jobs in logistics, but the evolving nature of the profession means anyone who is displaced can be easily reskilled, provided their employers are keen to do so – and they should be.
One realization I recently had as I prepared for this column – well, technically, it’s a realization that I recalled – is that we all still crave for the element of humanity in our lives. We seek connections, whether it be at work, or at home, or at the coffee shop where you spend a lot of time writing.
I’m sure stakeholders all know the vision of a human-free shop is not on the horizon just yet – although it doesn’t stop coffee vending machines from calling themselves “AI-powered” – so the question is, how will we make sure that the people enabling these connections are happy and willing to stay? What interventions can we do on the policy and regulatory side? And what will be left to employers to implement?