Episode 59

Retaining Hourly Employees

with Atif Siddiqi

Brought to you by your hosts:

Hannah Brenner
L&D Specialist

Derek Smith
L&D Specialist

With special guest:

Atif Siddiqi | CEO, Branch

Atif Siddiqi is the founder and chief executive officer of Branch. Branch is the only mobile-first technology that helps hourly employees grow financially. Empowering employers of all sizes with the ability to attract and retain hourly talent, Branch’s platform offers the most seamless way to significantly reduce turnover, overtime costs, and management time. Hundreds of thousands of hourly employees at Fortune 1000 enterprises use Branch every day. Branch was selected as one of ten companies to participate in the inaugural class of the Techstars Target Retail Accelerator program. After previously building software for retailers and seeing firsthand the day-to-day communications challenges that employees and managers face, Atif founded Branch as an EIR at Idealab, the leading technology incubator behind hundreds of innovative companies. Atif holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California. He volunteers as a business coach for Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, providing entrepreneurship education to low-income communities.

Description

This week on The BizLibrary Podcast, we welcome Atif Siddiqi, the CEO and founder of Branch, an app that allows hourly employees to budget and access their earnings, and offer a way for employees to earn more money by picking up shifts within the platform.

Branch has done a lot of research into what causes turnover in hourly employees, and he shared a lot of insight with us during our interview.

Atif mentioned that apart from pay, retail and hourly employees need stability if you want them to stay. That means offering consistent scheduling and offering an easy way to gain or give up shifts.

Additionally, Atif tells us that offering distinct career paths and opportunities for development is important for retaining hourly employees. This can be a challenge in busy locations where time and staffing are in short supply.

There are many ways to overcome this, but a mixture of microlearning and mobile delivery allows employees to quickly access training from their devices, and quickly learn new skills that will prepare them for future roles.

Retail employees often face major challenges with multi-generational workforces. It is not uncommon for locations to have employees who are as young as 16 and some who are working post-retirement to stay busy.

Helping employees understand the values and motivations of various generations through training is a great way to solve issues that may arise due to generational conflicts.

Ultimately, by offering stability in scheduling, competitive pay and flexibility through technology, you can improve your turnover rates. Atif tells us that on average, Branch has helped clients lower turnover by 13%!

Employee turnover is a costly business challenge that affects almost every organization. If you’re in retail and looking to reduce expenses, building a plan to reduce turnover is a great way to increase your organization’s profitability!

Thanks for listening to The BizLibrary Podcast! When you’re done listening, be sure to download this week’s related resource to help you knockout employee turnover!