Communicating with frontline colleagues in times of crisis

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Panellists:

• Louise Stonier, Chief people and legal officer, Pets at Home
• Dave Lancefield, senior vice president of EMEA, Reflexis
• Sarah Carlucci, regional manager, the Co-op
• Bridget Lea, managing director North, Sainsbury’s

During times of uncertainty, where there is no blueprint for success, it has never been more important to listen to your peers and gain insights and ideas into how they are managing with the new pressures, challenges and opportunities that are presenting themselves.

This was a rich discussion where key leaders from across the retail ecosystem shared actionable insights into how they are communicating with their frontline colleagues, what is working well, what their biggest learnings have been and what they are taking with them moving forward.

The key learnings from the conversation included:

• Having open lines of transparent daily communication across the business and with frontline staff has never been more critical
• It is also important to ensure that internal communications are aligned with external communications
• Encouraging a constant two-way dialogue enables fast decision making
• Hiring processes have been accelerated and streamlined due to recent pressures
• Flexible working is having tangible business benefits
• Video is most effective to maintain the tonality of the message you are communicating
• We are likely to see an acceleration in technologies such as gamification, as well as an increase in the gig economy within retail after this period

This event took place on Tuesday, April 28 at 3.30pm.