Jonny Gatus
Director
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Take Me Back
From Boardroom to Shop Floor: How retail’s workforce of the future can unlock productive growth
Directors
Blog
7 min
8th May 2026
Retail stores are getting squeezed from every direction: customers expect more, costs keep rising and the balance between digital, convenience and in‑store experience is hotly contested. All compounded by a multigenerational human workforce working alongside an ever-evolving digital one.
The senior leaders who are getting ahead recognise that this moment demands more than isolated initiatives or incremental optimisation. It requires a fundamental re‑think of how technology, people and leadership come together to create a store operation that is productive, inspiring, and future ready.
Newton’s ‘Supercharging Retail’ work across the global retail sector shows one clear truth: productive growth only happens when strategy, technology and human behaviour move in lockstep – from the boardroom all the way to the shop floor. Transformation succeeds not through bold slogans, but through deep operational adoption, true process integration, and a repeatable model that scales to every store.
Here, we set out the three pillars of that winning model and how retailers can seize the opportunity to maximise the role of the store as a truly strategic asset.
Pillar 1
The digital workforce: Technology and AI that actually lands at scale
FTSE 100 retailers are rolling out AI to create capacity, support better decisions and enable teams to focus on the most meaningful work. Yet, despite heavy investment, retailers regularly struggle to see meaningful value when scaled across the estate. Why? Because tools are deployed faster than they are embedded, processes haven’t been redesigned around them, and colleagues lack the confidence or time to use them in the moments that matter.
The concept of ‘workslop’ resonates here: tech implementations throwing out unhelpful or unintentional work. Electronic shelf labels and shelf-edge cameras, for instance, can support forecasting, but most of the on-shelf availability benefits for customers come from in-store colleagues responding to technology prompts to deliver customer outcomes. But for this to have an impact, an in-store workforce that is AI-enabled and literate is essential.
Across the industry, we see clear challenges:
- Estates designed for a pre‑digital era still rely on legacy routines the technology doesn’t support.
- Patchy tech adoption, from shelf‑edge labels to task automation, means ROI is rarely realised at scale.
- Teams sit on a wealth of data but lack integrated insight that empowers real‑time decisions.
Retailers pulling ahead are doing something different. They are:
- Redesigning work end-to-end before technology is deployed, ensuring automation, AI and digital tools remove friction rather than add it.
- Using analytics that simulate actual customer behaviour, enabling labour and process decisions grounded in reality, not assumptions.
- Embedding technology into daily rhythms, making it intuitive for colleagues to use, not an extra task.
The digital workforce isn’t about more technology – it’s about technology that changes how people work for the better. And that depends on adoption, simplicity and integration.
Pillar 2
The human workforce: Required skills, processes and capability for a new operating reality
Even with advanced technology, retail remains a people business with customer experience (CX) acting as the primary driver of retail loyalty and 50% of shoppers reporting to have abandoned a brand due to poor service. Colleagues shape service, availability, brand experience and execution – but the labour model most retailers rely on was built for a different world and different customer needs.
One way retailers can adapt is minimising labour allocation in the store, focusing on trusted, skilled colleagues and using flexible workers for basic non‑customer‑facing tasks so they can maintain service levels while testing out or introducing newer solutions. But that is easier said than done.
Today’s realities are:
- Customer missions and services preferences vary dramatically across time, location and format.
- Processes designed 10–20 years ago can’t keep pace with digital‑enabled shopping behaviours.
- Store teams are under more pressure than ever, yet often lack clarity on what “great” looks like.
- Workforce capacity is deployed at the wrong times and in the wrong places.
- People want and expect different things from their employer and the work they do.
In a recent retail transformation programme with a UK high-street retailer, we partnered with them to rebalance activity and invest store hours where it matters most to customer – leading to a 5% increase in customer satisfaction scores. This took a fundamentally different approach, developing a next generation store operating model that is more agile, mission‑based and human‑centred.
This approach helps organisations to:
- Design processes aligned to customer-led outcomes, enabling colleagues to deliver flexibly yet consistently and simply.
- Move from static rotas to insight-driven resourcing, putting people in the right place at the right time.
- Give teams the tools, training and behavioural routines that create confidence and capability, not stress and variability.
- Involve colleagues directly in co-designing new ways of working, ensuring solutions feel intuitive and owned.
When human capability and digital capability reinforce each other, productivity and service cease to be competing priorities – they become mutually accelerating.
Pillar 3
Leadership: Alignment, vision, innovation and cross functional integration
The biggest reason retail transformations stall is rarely the idea – it’s the execution. Pilots succeed but collapse in rollout. Technology lands in isolation. Functions work in silos. Leaders want the new model, but day‑to‑day pressures pull attention back to the familiar.
The retailers setting the pace are the ones that show:
Cross-functional alignment around a single, clear model. Commercial, operations, logistics, supply chain, digital and property teams operating from a shared version of the truth with common KPIs, decision frameworks and a unified view of the store’s role in an omnichannel world.
A leadership layer equipped to lead differently. Store leaders and team managers with:
- Simple decision frameworks
- Real-time insight
- Coaching routines
- Clarity on expectations and ownership
Leadership clarity turns change from something to endure into something they drive.
A culture of innovation and continuous improvement. A culture of innovation and continuous improvement. The ability to test, learn and iterate quickly – not as a one-off programme, but as a core capability. This ensures new models are refined in reality, not theory, and keeps the business responsive to market shifts.
A vision that connects strategy to everyday behaviour. A vision that connects strategy to everyday behaviour. Transformation sticks when leaders at every level believe in the direction, understand the value, and see how their actions directly shape outcomes.
In the US, retail and hospitality industries are struggling with longevity of service, high-attrition and fierce competition. Forward thinking leaders are reacting by investing in their in-store managers to help define a new standard of retail leadership and create a multiplier effect. And as general merchandise stores in particular see a switch to becoming brand hubs, in-store retail leaders have a much larger role to play as brand ambassadors.
“The level of change at the pace it was delivered by Newton has been unprecedented in our organisation, and the positive feedback from our shops has been overwhelming. The improvements have not only enhanced our operational efficiency but also had a significant financial impact, contributing to improved customer experience and profitability. The collaborative approach and dedication to understanding our unique challenges have been instrumental in driving this transformation.”
Head of Transformation at a leading UK retailer Partnering with Newton
Supercharging retail integration and adoption to deliver strategic transformation
Across all three pillars, digital workforce, human workforce and leadership, the differentiator isn’t the strategy. It’s the ability to scale what works, integrate it end-to-end, and ensure adoption at every level to deliver outcomes.
When these elements come together, stores become easier to run, customers receive better experiences, colleagues feel more confident, and the business becomes financially stronger – able to invest and go again. This is the future of retail: agile, insight‑driven, human‑centred and digitally enabled.
What’s next?
This article is the first in a wider programme of retail industry insights and leadership dialogue.
Join our webinar with a panel of expert retail leaders
Newton will be hosting a panel discussion on how retail’s workforce can unlock productive growth. The panel will be made up of leaders from across the industry – Justin King (former CEO of Sainsbury’s), Belinda Earl (former CEO of Debenhams and Board member at Woolworths PLC) and Matt Truman (Founder of TrueGlobal) and hosted by our industry experts Jonny Gatus, Jazz Swift and Kayleigh Brennan who lead Newton’s Supercharging Retail practice.
Contacts
Want to continue the conversation?
Get in touch to find out how Newton can convert your retail strategy into reality and build an end-to-end operating model to stay ahead with our hands-on operational expertise across grocery, fashion and specialty retail.
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