Why Making Good on Green Promises Can Be a Win for Retailers

Evolving labor expectations have forced retailers to reassess long-held beliefs about employee values and contemplate their cultures. Along with a fair wage, employees seek employers whose values are consistent with their own. Providing a clear purpose, offering flexibility, and making authentic commitments to diversity and sustainability are important means of engaging a growing part of the workforce. For instance, 40% of employees across industry sectors said they would consider leaving their job if they couldn’t trust their employer to fulfill its diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments, and a quarter (26%) said they would consider switching jobs to work for a more sustainable company. This reflects employees’ growing demands of their employers, particularly around openness and authenticity. Given that there were 1.1 million unfilled jobs in the U.S. retail market as of April 2022, cultivating an attractive work culture is no longer a “nice to have.”