Canadian retailers spend considerable resources recruiting and training employees, only to repeat the process when those workers leave. For businesses operating with relatively small store teams, the continuing cycle of recruitment, onboarding and replacement creates expenses that extend beyond wages and benefits, while the loss of experienced staff can affect productivity and customer service.
Suzanne Sears, owner of Best Retail Careers, believes retailers need to pay greater attention to retaining the employees they already have. In an interview with Retail Insider, she said businesses frequently absorb the expense of replacing departing workers while overlooking opportunities to improve retention through training and career development.
Sears has been encouraging retailers to explore government-supported training programs, particularly smaller businesses with limited resources for employee development. Her argument comes as Canadian industry research continues to identify retail as a sector facing comparatively high employee turnover and persistent challenges attracting and retaining workers.
Retail Employee Turnover Remains Elevated
Mercer’s 2025 Canada Turnover Survey reported voluntary turnover of approximately 21% among retail and wholesale employers, compared with 10.2% across the industries surveyed. The research covered 1,057 Canadian organizations and provides an indication of the workforce challenges facing the sector, although the figure combines retail and wholesale businesses rather than measuring storefront retail alone.
Sears estimates that employee turnover in retail is approximately 25%, describing the repeated departure and replacement of workers as a significant operating expense. Her estimate is not directly comparable with Mercer’s findings, but both point to the importance of understanding why employees leave and what businesses can do to retain them.
The consequences vary considerably by retail category and the positions involved. A retailer replacing an experienced employee in luxury apparel, electronics or another specialty category may lose product knowledge and established customer relationships that take time to rebuild, particularly in stores where personalized service is central to the business model.
For smaller retailers, employee departures can also disrupt daily operations because fewer workers are available to absorb additional responsibilities. Recruitment becomes another task for owners and managers already overseeing sales, inventory, staffing and customer service.
The Cost of Replacing Retail Employees
The expense of employee turnover extends beyond job advertisements and recruitment fees. Retailers must review applications, conduct interviews, train replacements and accommodate the period during which new employees are learning their responsibilities.
“The constant filling of vacancies, constant,” Sears said, describing the repeated hiring process. She pointed to the time spent reviewing applications and the disruption created when managers or experienced employees must step away from selling to interview prospective workers.
Across a multi-store operation, those activities can become a recurring expense throughout the year. The impact may be particularly significant when departures involve employees requiring specialized product knowledge, technical training or established relationships with regular customers.
Academic research into employee turnover has identified costs associated with understaffing, onboarding and workplace disruption following employee departures. The financial impact varies among employers, however, and there is no reliable universal replacement cost that applies to every retail position.
For individual retailers, a more useful measure may be the total time and expense devoted to replacing employees over a year. Those costs can then be considered alongside investments that might improve retention, including training, career development and improvements to working conditions.
Why Employees Leave Retail
Employee departures are influenced by several factors, including compensation, scheduling, workload and opportunities for advancement. Retail’s reliance on part-time and entry-level positions can also contribute to the perception that the industry offers temporary employment rather than long-term careers.
Research commissioned by the Retail Council of Canada examining Alberta’s retail labour market identified challenges involving starting wages, shift schedules and limited career progression. The study also pointed to gaps in structured training and professional development, suggesting that employers face difficulties demonstrating the longer-term opportunities available within the industry.
Sears believes retention problems can intensify when businesses leave positions vacant after employees depart. Remaining workers may be expected to maintain the same service standards while assuming additional responsibilities, potentially increasing dissatisfaction and contributing to further departures.
“If a store used to have four and now they have three, it might not be perceivable to the consumer,” Sears said. She explained that employees would recognize the difference because the workload previously divided among four people would now fall on three.
The example illustrates the tension retailers face when managing labour expenses. Allowing staffing levels to decline through attrition may reduce immediate payroll costs, but it can also place greater pressure on experienced employees whose departure would create additional recruitment and training expenses.
Training and Career Development as Retention Strategies
Sears believes retailers could improve retention by providing employees with greater opportunities to develop professional skills and advance within the industry. Workers who see a future with their employers may be more inclined to remain, particularly when training leads to qualifications they can use throughout their careers.
“Because they feel that you’re investing in them,” Sears said when discussing the effect professional development can have on employees. She suggested that access to recognized courses could help workers view retail as a profession with opportunities for advancement.
Canadian research provides some support for that argument. A longitudinal study involving more than 5,200 for-profit firms found an association between offering a wider range of formal training programs and lower voluntary turnover, although the relationship varied according to the type and extent of training.
Separate research involving more than 50,000 retail sales associates found that online product training was associated with improved sales productivity. The findings suggest employee development can provide operational benefits beyond retention, particularly in retail formats where product knowledge and customer assistance influence purchasing decisions.
Training does not eliminate other reasons employees leave. Compensation, scheduling, management practices and working conditions remain important considerations, and professional development is unlikely to compensate for persistent problems in those areas.
For retailers investing in more sophisticated physical environments and personalized customer experiences, maintaining knowledgeable employees can be particularly important. The quality of service delivered within those stores depends partly on workers having the training and experience needed to meet customer expectations.
Ontario Job Grant Offers Financial Support for Training
Government funding could make professional development more accessible to retailers with limited training budgets. Sears has been encouraging business owners to explore available assistance, arguing that many may be unaware of opportunities to offset eligible employee-development costs.
The Ontario Job Grant, introduced under its current name in May 2026, provides financial assistance for eligible training delivered by approved third-party providers. Under the program’s published rules, assistance can reach $10,000 per eligible trainee in standard circumstances, while funding of up to $15,000 is available to qualifying smaller employers training newly hired workers who were previously unemployed.
The higher amount does not apply automatically to businesses seeking to train existing employees. Employers must satisfy eligibility requirements, contribute toward training costs where required and obtain approval before the funded training begins.
For businesses with fewer than 100 employees, the standard contribution is generally at least one-sixth of eligible training costs. Employers with 100 or more employees generally contribute half, while qualifying smaller employers training previously unemployed new hires may be eligible for full funding within the program’s limits.
The province is accepting applications from individual employers for training involving 25 or fewer participants. Funding remains subject to assessment and budget availability, and meeting the eligibility requirements does not guarantee approval.
Sears described helping retailers explore opportunities involving courses associated with Toronto Metropolitan University. She said approximately 10 businesses had recently signed up through her efforts, although the specific courses, program arrangements and funding approvals have not been independently confirmed.
For retailers considering these opportunities, the starting point is to determine which training programs are eligible and how much assistance may be available. Employers must also consider whether the courses meet their operational needs and provide qualifications or skills that employees can apply in their work.
Sears believes these programs could be especially useful for smaller businesses, where replacing experienced staff can create substantial disruption. Government assistance may reduce some training expenses, but retailers still need to determine whether the investment supports their longer-term staffing and business objectives.
Retention as an Operating Priority
Independent retailers often have fewer resources for recruitment and employee development than national chains. Owners and store managers may handle hiring alongside merchandising, customer service and daily operations, making repeated employee departures particularly disruptive.
Experienced employees can contribute to store performance through product knowledge, established customer relationships and familiarity with operating procedures. Replacing those capabilities requires time, even when a retailer can fill a vacant position relatively quickly.
The financial case for retention will differ among businesses. Retailers need to assess employee turnover, recruitment expenses and training requirements alongside compensation, scheduling and the working conditions that influence whether employees remain.
Sears believes employers should begin by reconsidering how much they invest in the people already working for them. “If you’re gonna hang on to the people you have, you have to invest in them,” she said.
As Canadian retailers continue investing in store renovations, expansion and customer-facing technology, workforce development represents another area where spending decisions can influence operating performance. For businesses facing repeated recruitment and replacement costs, keeping experienced employees may prove just as important as finding new ones.
