Retail businesses are seeing profits eaten away by the rise of employee absenteeism in Australia, which is estimated to cost Australian retailers $600 million over the Christmas period according to research from workforce management firm Kronos.

Within the retail industry, 13 per cent of rostered retail hours are wasted; with 7 per cent are scheduled but not worked, and 6 per cent worked but not needed.

“[That 6 per cent] can be attributed to ‘just in case scheduling’, which is common practice in the retail industry, to cover workers who many not show up for work or who call in sick or unable to attend at the last minute,” Kronos head of retail APAC Steven Volz told IR.

“These hours can be reduced by improving your labour forecast to match customer traffic and sales, followed by rostering team members to match this customer demand.”

Volz notes that, while data analysis can find the trends of absenteeism, the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning can analyse these trends and then suggest changes during the rostering process.

“This not only reduces overall cost to the business, but also increases team member engagement,” Volz said.

According to employment agency Indeed, approximately 67 per cent of Christmas job opportunities are found in the retail industry.

The National Retail Association noted that casual employment will always be a part of retail, attributed to the demographic of employees and flexibility it provides both employees and employers.

“However, in advance of any Christmas recruitment strategy, employers will need to ascertain whether casual employment is the most appropriate arrangement that fits their business’ needs over the busy Christmas period,” the NRA wrote in a blog post.

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