On board: Tips on winning the talent war

For grocery retailers, attracting and retaining front-line staff remains a top priority. Wilson Leung, principal at Mercer Canada—a consulting firm specializing in human resources, health benefits, retirement planning and investment management—discusses how grocers can stand out in a competitive retail market, prevent turnover and identify engaged workers. This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

What are some of the primary staffing issues facing grocers?

Grocers are competing for the entry-level minimum wage workforce with restaurants and with other retail. So, it becomes important for grocery retailers to understand what their differentiator is in terms of attraction. With minimum wage going up, payroll is going to be a huge concern. Most leading retailers are thinking about ways to differentiate themselves from a branding perspective, employee discounts, additional benefits. But I think the biggest differentiator for grocers is they can offer a discount on an everyday need. This becomes an important benefit for a large majority of employees that are looking for some of this part-time work.

Aside from discounts, what are some other differentiators?

Some will offer bonuses. Oftentimes, for the hourly worker, it’s not that significant a sum of money; however, it is one of these things that helps the organization reinforce their culture, reinforce their overall strategy and encourages hourly front-line employees to care about financial metrics and what they’re trying to achieve. Others are thinking about benefits, even for part-time hourly workers. That’s important for some of the employee base that you often have—particularly in major city centres where it’s new immigrants, some of them holding two and three jobs—even if they do need to pay into the plan. Overall, culture and community is important as well. Many grocers are active in their communities—volunteer work, cleaning up roads or rivers—and that’s important to certain cohorts of employees.

Are there key questions managers can ask to try and prevent turnover?

Having an eye to proactively measure engagement is important. Managers can monitor engagement in a few different ways. Are employees aware of what’s important to the company and to the store? Are they participating in all your offerings? Are they aware of all your offerings? If they are participating in the company’s benefit programs, that’s a hook to stay. If I’ve been working for this company for a decade and I’ve been building up retirement savings and I don’t want to switch providers—and I see this is a path that helps towards my retirement—again, that becomes more of a hook.

READ: How to spot and prevent employee burnout

How can companies map out career progression for front-line workers to keep them engaged in the long-term?

This is one of the frequent projects I've been working on with a couple of grocers—basically reviewing their store structure to ensure that it's modernized and fits within their current store operations but making sure there's more clear pathways from a career perspective. Traditionally, a larger store had 150 employees with seven or eight different levels within the store. So, as an entry-level hourly employee, you're looking at seven or eight steps to [becoming] store manager. Now, a lot of retailers are looking at a flatter structure. So, instead of seven or eight, it's four very clear levels and there isn't a lot of overlap in terms of responsibilities. In terms of a promotion, it's a lot more clear with fewer levels and what skills are needed to qualify for the next level. Also, from a compensation perspective, it isn't just a 5% jump between levels, it's a substantive 15%, 20%, 25% jump if you’re promoted. 

If automation continues to replace basic tasks, what does the “career ladder” look like for a grocery store employee?

Automation and the impact of AI is obviously top of mind. Hourly workers aren’t necessarily going to be replaced; they’re just going to be doing different things. Grocers leading the pack in terms of automated checkouts and additional automated processes aren’t necessarily hiring less people. Staff is maybe doing different things, more things. And different companies have different philosophies. For some, roles are expanding: a cashier might also stock shelves, offload trucks, support in-store marketing. Others are expanding skillsets because they’re expanding into apparel, into seasonal items, into more cosmetics or financial services. So, there is a little bit of re-skilling that’s required to make sure they have the appropriate talent to service those additional products and services. But, to be honest, it’s not everybody. You have 80% to 90% of the store staff that still needs to stock the shelves and make sure everything looks good for their customers.

What does an engaged front-line grocery worker look like in 2026?

It’s a bit more difficult in a larger market, but an engaged worker will go beyond just stocking the milk cartons. This is how you build brand loyalty and customer loyalty—it goes beyond pricing strategies or marketing strategies. An engaged worker is friendly with your customers, knows your customers and is aware of what products to promote. And that’s why customer service and customer satisfaction stats are important in terms of evaluating whether there’s engagement within the stores. 

This article was first published in Canadian Grocer’s June/July 2026 issue.