With nearly half (44%) of managers planning to hire more seasonal workers this year, Axonify’s research reveals the top issues they’re facing and the impact on manager burnout

WATERLOO, ONTARIO – Oct. 3, 2024 – With the holiday season quickly approaching, many companies are looking to seasonal frontline workers to help prepare for an influx of consumer activity.

In a recent survey of 450 U.S. retail, hospitality and food service frontline managers, Axonify found that nearly half (44%) are hiring more new workers this year because they need additional support, or their current staff lacks specific skills needed to support seasonal demand.

“Retailers, hospitality and food service companies are gearing up for what is expected to be one of the busiest holiday seasons to date, and they’re feeling the pressure to ensure frontline teams are set up for success by adding the right talent and providing proper training,” said Carol Leaman, CEO and Co-Founder at Axonify. “With another expected increase in seasonal hiring this year, these industries continue to be challenged when it comes to attracting qualified workers to ensure a smooth holiday shopping season.” 

To help attract seasonal talent, frontline managers are continuing to utilize several recruitment tactics, including promoting a safe and secure work environment (77%), providing more training / upskilling initiatives for new employees (53%) and offering higher salaries this year for the same positions posted last year (49%). 

Despite these recruitment efforts, 3 in 5 (61%) frontline managers admit that the quality of applicants is worse this year when it comes to skill set, professionalism and job-related experience. The recruitment and training of new seasonal workers often falls on the shoulders of frontline managers, which is leading to increased burnout as nearly two-thirds (65%) of frontline managers say they struggle with overwhelm leading up to peak work seasons, like the holidays. 

Additional findings from Axonify’s 2024 seasonal hiring survey reveal:

• Understaffing is the number one issue keeping frontline managers up at night. It’s not easy to juggle everything at once, which may be why frontline managers report “understaffing” is the number one issue that keeps them up at night. Inventory issues (#2) and volatile customers (#3) are other top issues causing frontline managers to lose sleep during busy seasons. 
• Seasonal staffing challenges have multiple business impacts. According to frontline managers, this includes delivering a consistent experience (75%), reducing burnout (70%), delivering a memorable customer experience (64%) and their ability to control customer issues like theft, safety and violence (51%).
• Upskilling, reskilling and de-escalation tactics are priority focus areas for training and onboarding. This year, frontline managers say they are most focused on upskilling / reskilling seasonal workers (43%) and training seasonal workers on customer de-escalation, like managing conflict and disagreements (29%).

When compared to Axonify’s 2023 seasonal hiring survey, the following was revealed:

• Frontline managers are still juggling a lot this time of year. When seasonal hiring comes around, frontline managers in 2024 are responsible for: anticipating staffing needs (83%), interviewing applicants (78%), onboarding new hires (77%), and recruiting applicants (70%).
  • This represents an increase from 2023, in which 64% of frontline managers said they were responsible for anticipating and solving staffing needs. Three in five were also responsible for onboarding new hires (59%), preparing training and new hire materials (63%) and recruiting applicants (61%).
• Managers are still planning to quit their jobs, but there is some improvement. More than a third of frontline managers (38%) have considered quitting their jobs over the last two months, down from 47% in 2023, and almost 1 in 10 (9%) plan to leave/quit their jobs by the end of 2024. 
• Disengaged workers are still the biggest barrier to training new hires. Of all the barriers to training that frontline managers encounter, disengaged employees (26%) was the biggest barrier selected by frontline managers, up from 25% in 2023. A lack of time to prioritize training (19%) and outdated training methods (10%) are some of the other issues they say they face this year. 

“Our data shows that seasonal hiring remains a complex challenge for frontline managers,” said Leaman. “They are tasked with a laundry list of responsibilities when it comes to seasonal hiring, with everything from recruiting and interviewing new applicants to assessing any worker knowledge or skills gaps. At Axonify, we aim to offset some of the additional seasonal pressure on frontline managers by providing stronger training and employee engagement resources, ultimately ensuring new hires are properly prepared and customers continue to receive a consistent experience.”

For additional Axonify survey findings and retail, hospitality and food service breakdowns, visit https://axonify.com/blog/seasonal-hiring-survey-2024/.

Survey methodology: Axonify surveyed 450 retail, hospitality and foodservice frontline managers above the age of 18 in the U.S. using the online insights platform Pollfish. This survey was completed in September 2024.

About Axonify

Axonify is the frontline-forward learning and enablement platform used by companies like Walmart, Kroger and Foot Locker. Over 3.7M users in 160+ countries use Axonify to onboard and train in five minutes a day, no break room Intranet required. With bite-sized gamified microlearning, custom training content, embedded communication and more, Axonify is revolutionizing the way frontline workers learn, connect and get things done. Axonify is headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario Canada. For more information, visit axonify.com.

Media Contact:
SHIFT Communications for Axonify
Axonify@shiftcomm.com