Disabled workers are underrepresented in the retail workforce and there is a need for insights into how retailers can employ disabled workers in the organisational frontline. While tasks such as cleaning and re-stocking items have traditionally been associated with disabled workers, retailers may need more insight into where, when, and for which customers, disabled employees in the organisational frontline result in the most positive outcome.
Research on consumer responses to disabled frontline employees is limited. Literature suggests that this is an important area for inquiry, and this is something that the Australian Retailers Association Consumer Research Committee intends to respond to. The committee has recently funded Queensland University of Technology researcher Dr Frank Mathmann, to undertake a study into how customers react to disabled frontline employees and more importantly, how retailers can facilitate social integration and opportunities for disabled employees.
Over the coming months, Dr Mathmann will be undertaking a series experiment-based surveys, to develop insights and recommendations for retailers.
“We expect that customers may generally react positively to disabled employees and show a more positive perception of the retail brand after such interactions”, said Dr Mathmann.
“Research on how consumers react to disabled frontline employees in the retail domain is limited, and there has been no research on how disabled frontline employees shape key retail metrics such as consumers’ positive perceptions of the retail brand, or how consumers react to frontline employees specifically”
“This is a major oversight, given the importance of this group and the underrepresentation of this group in the retail workforce”.
The findings of these studies are expected to be finalised and reported by mid-August 2021, and will be of interest to not only retailers, but also governments and advocacy groups.
Researcher
Completed research
Find out more about our other funded projects.
