Developing Front-Line Employees to Manage Negative Customer to Customer Interactions in the Retail Industry: Lessons for Human Resource Development in responding to COVID-19

This paper addresses how Human Resource Development (HRD) practitioners can support front-line retail employees in managing negative interactions between customers arising as a result of COVID-19. Drawing on research into front-line supermarket employees’ management of customer-to-customer interactions undertaken pre-COVID-19, it identifies the limitations of existing HRD interventions focused on customer to employee interactions and the provision of scripts, and recommends development specific to the management of customer-to-customer interactions. In particular, it highlights the need for HRD practitioners to draw upon evidence from front-line employees when developing such interventions, and to empower front-line employees to adapt and develop responses appropriate to the specific interaction encountered.