How Digital Task Management Helps Grocers Combat the Labor Shortage

In March 2024 Steve Kramer, WorkJam’s co-founder and CEO, presented at Groceryshop in Las Vegas about the undeniable importance of frontline employees. As he mentioned:

“Your frontline workforce is the single biggest human capital investment you make in the grocery industry. On top of that, they are the last, most critical piece of the customer experience.”

The Frontline Labor Squeeze

The only problem is that this essential piece—frontline workers—is lacking in quantity these days. According to a recent survey from Gartner, almost 70% of frontline organizations say labor shortages and employee turnover are the biggest obstacles they’re facing right now. Since grocers are a key part of the frontline category, they’re obviously feeling that pinch.

Orchestrating the Grocery Workforce

Grocers can win this battle by orchestrating their workforce with a digital frontline workplace like WorkJam. This powerful all-in-one app includes multiple solutions, including two-way communications, training, and scheduling, as well as something essential for any grocery organization: Task Management.

Grocery stores are large, complex environments where employees can easily get lost—both literally and figuratively. Connecting your frontline to a prioritized list of what they need to do and when they need to do it, all on an easy-to-use device, makes everyone’s job easier.

Goodbye Clipboards, Hello Digital Harmony

WorkJam allows you to say goodbye to analogue clipboards and hello to digital harmony. With a digital frontline workplace, you have instant access to data that helps you understand how productive your frontline is, what tasks have been completed, and by whom. Store managers can create tasks on the fly for their own locations, or HQ can handle the heavy lifting for the entire enterprise.

Real-Time Verification and Agile Learning

Better yet, frontline workers can quickly take pictures of completed work. These images can be checked with real-time feedback to ensure that you’re compliant across all activities and locations. And if an employee doesn’t know how to do something, these tasks can easily be linked back to a document or micro-learning video that explains exactly how it’s done.

With grocers and other frontline organizations struggling through the labor shortage, automating tasks only makes sense—both in terms of productivity and your bottom line.