Trends in Labour in Dutch and European Retail

On the first day of the LFRA Overseas Study Tour, the LFRA headed to FTI Consulting’s head office in Amsterdam to meet the team and discuss and compare current market trends in the Netherlands and across Europe.

FTI Consulting, a large global business advisory firm founded in 1982, helps clients address their most significant opportunities and challenges, manage change, mitigate risk and enhance market position by combining decades of deep subject matter expertise with functional and disciplinary experience. Currently, FTI operates across 88 different cities and 30 countries in total.

Their comprehensive services which include financial, operational, legal, political, strategic and communications services, contribute to the company’s diverse knowledge of market trends, influences and prospective future.

Through their extensive experience and expertise, FTI Consulting began with some general trends in labour and workforce challenges that were presenting to the retail sector and impacting the broader labour market across the European retail sector.

Firstly, there were significant labour shortages that were impacting the sector with low unemployment rates, high vacancies and understaffing which was driving overworking for many employees in retail.

This was dually impacted by high inflation which was having a particular impact on forced increases to wages which is driving selective employee behaviour and risking a wage-price spiral.

Furthermore, the post-covid workforce has an increased desire for flexible working conditions, meaning staff are expecting an increased share in remote and part-time working arrangements.

Continued automation drive in a post-covid world has also fast tracked the need for more urgent automation drive in a high-inflation environment. This has subsequently also caused the need for upskilling with the required need to meet changing customer behaviours and the growing automated environment.

Overall, while retail leaders are noted to be weathering the storm short-term, cyclical trends including low unemployment and inflationary challenges and longer-term structural changes require new approaches to managing an evolving workforce in a new, post-covid environment.

This article is apart of a ten part series from the LFRA Overseas Study Tour 2023.