Retail is one of the UK's biggest employers, and one of its most diverse. But being diverse and being inclusive aren't the same thing. That distinction matters particularly in retail, where people's experience of work can look completely different depending on where they sit in the organisation. Someone in head office may have considerable control over where and when they work. Someone on the shop floor may have very little. A senior leader may experience a customer as a source of revenue; a frontline colleague may experience that same customer as someone they are expected to tolerate abuse from.
And that is where some of the most interesting DEI conversations in retail are happening in 2026. The latest BRC/MBS research shows a sector increasingly looking beyond representation towards inclusion, belonging, wellbeing and culture. That's a welcome focus and change. But the next, more uncomfortable step is to look more closely at the structures underneath them that create an equity gap: who gets flexibility, who gets protected, whose needs shape the workplace and who gets to progress?
Flexibility: but for who?
Flexible working has rightly become an inclusion priority. But we don't talk enough about who actually gets access to it. For many head-office workers, flexibility means being able to work from home or adjust their day around the school run. On the shop floor, flexibility can mean something quite different: variable shifts, changing hours and being expected to accommodate what the business needs.
The 2026 Frontline Workforce Index identified schedule stability and predictability as a particular weakness in the experience of frontline retail and hospitality workers. That matters because control over your time isn't distributed equally.
An unpredictable rota is inconvenient for everyone. But for a single parent trying to arrange childcare, a disabled employee managing fatigue, someone attending regular medical appointments or a worker reliant on public transport, it can determine whether a job is sustainable at all.
At FAIRER, we encourage organisations to look at flexibility through an equity lens, and to consider whether different groups have genuinely equal access to the forms of flexibility that work for them. An inclusive approach to flexible working therefore can't stop at a hybrid-working policy. Retailers should be asking who gets autonomy over their working lives and who doesn’t.
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Practical first step: Review rota data to identify who gets schedule predictability and flexibility, and who doesn't, then address any gaps between employee groups.
AI isn't neutral just because it's automated
Retail is embracing AI rapidly, from recruitment and workforce planning to scheduling, customer service and performance monitoring. There are obvious opportunities here, but there is also a danger in treating automated decisions as inherently objective.
Every system has been designed around assumptions about what good performance looks like, what behaviour matters and what should be measured. Those decisions involve power, even when the eventual output comes from an algorithm.
A productivity system might reward speed without recognising the employee who spends longer helping a confused customer. Performance data might interpret a disabled colleague working differently as being less productive. Scheduling technology might optimise staffing beautifully for the organisation while repeatedly giving individual workers hours that make their lives harder.
At FAIRER, one of the biggest conversations we’ve been having with clients recently is how to use AI responsibly within the workplace. As organisations move quickly to adopt AI, it’s important to consider where the technology could create new risks, reinforce existing inequalities or produce unintended consequences. As more employment decisions are influenced by technology, workers need meaningful ways to understand and challenge decisions that affect them. Human oversight shouldn't mean putting a human face on a decision nobody feels empowered to question.
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Practical first step: Introduce regular reviews of AI-driven decisions, giving employees a clear way to question outcomes and ensuring human oversight can genuinely challenge, not just approve, what the technology recommends.
When the customer isn't always right
Retail workers are experiencing extraordinary levels of abuse. Government figures estimate around 590,000 incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers in England and Wales in 2024–25, and the Crime and Policing Act 2026 has now created a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker.
But there is a DEI dimension to customer abuse that can get lost when we talk about it solely as a safety issue. A Black colleague experiencing racist abuse, a Muslim colleague targeted because of their faith, or an LGBTQ+ employee subjected to homophobic or transphobic comments isn't simply dealing with a “difficult customer”, they are facing traumatic and unacceptable abuse around their identity.
And there can be a power imbalance in how organisations respond. Retail workers are often expected to remain calm, polite and customer-focused even when the person in front of them isn't extending the same basic respect.
Strengthened protections around third-party harassment coming into force in October 2026 make this particularly timely. Retailers should be asking a simple question: when the interests of a customer and the dignity of an employee come into conflict, who does the organisation instinctively protect? Employees learn a lot about an organisation's values from the answer.
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Practical first step: Train managers to respond consistently to customer abuse, with a clear policy that empowers staff to end interactions and prioritises employee wellbeing over customer appeasement.
Who gets a first step onto the ladder?
Retail has traditionally provided an important route into work for young people, people without degrees, people returning to employment and those looking for part-time work, which matters from a social mobility perspective.
But entry-level work is changing. Automation and self-service technology are reshaping frontline roles, while digital capability is becoming increasingly important. We should be careful about what happens next. When organisations redesign jobs, they also redesign who can access them. Adding qualification requirements, previous experience or increasingly complex digital recruitment processes may seem like a natural and sensible business decisions, but it can create larger equity gaps.
The more useful question might be: who could do this job if we gave them the opportunity and support to learn?
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Practical first step: Review job requirements and hiring processes regularly to remove unnecessary barriers and focus on skills that can be learned on the job.
Neuroinclusion needs to move beyond awareness
One of the more encouraging findings from the 2026 BRC/MBS research is that 70% of retailers now explicitly include neurodiversity within their D&I strategies. This is a needed step. Retail environments can be noisy, brightly lit, socially demanding and unpredictable. Recruitment can favour candidates who interview in particular ways. Workplace norms can reward one style of communication while interpreting another as disengaged, difficult or lacking confidence.
So the next phase of neuroinclusion can't simply be teaching managers what ADHD or autism are, but examining the environment. Who decided what “professional” communication looks like? Which parts of a recruitment process genuinely test someone's ability to do the job? Which sensory demands are necessary and which have simply always been there? Inclusion is adapt themselves to systems and start asking whether some of those systems could change.
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Practical first step: Review recruitment, onboarding and workplace processes with neurodivergent employees to identify and remove unnecessary barriers, rather than expecting individuals to adapt to existing systems.
Representation is only the beginning
Retail has made genuine progress. The 2026 BRC/MBS research found gender parity at board level and that 88% of retailers now have a coordinated D&I strategy. The Government has also confirmed its intention to introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay-gap reporting for employers with 250 or more employees. For large retailers in particular, looking underneath organisation-wide figures will matter.
A workforce can be highly ethnically diverse while employees from minoritised backgrounds remain concentrated in lower-paid frontline positions. Women can represent the majority of employees without holding the majority of organisational power.
So alongside asking 'who works here?', organisations need to ask: Where are they? Who progresses? Who is considered leadership material? Who leaves? Whose work is rewarded? Who gets listened to?
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Practical step: Track progression, pay, inclusion survey and turnover data across different groups to identify where representation drops off and target action where inequalities emerge.
The next stage of retail inclusion
The most important DEI decisions in retail won't necessarily have “DEI” written on them. They will happen when someone designs a rota. When a new piece of technology is procured. When a customer abuses a member of staff. When recruitment criteria are agreed. When performance is measured. When a colleague asks for an adjustment.
Top 5 Tips for Retail Leaders in 2026
1. Rethink flexibility through an inclusion lens. Don't just ask whether flexible working exists. Ask who actually has access to control over their time. Focus on fair scheduling, predictable rotas, notice periods and genuine autonomy for frontline colleagues, not just hybrid working for office-based teams.
2. Put people at the centre of AI decisions. As AI becomes more embedded in recruitment, scheduling and performance management, make sure technology reflects inclusive values. Regularly review systems for unintended bias, involve diverse voices in their design, and ensure employees can question decisions that affect them.
3. Protect employee dignity as fiercely as customer experience. Create a clear culture where abuse, harassment and discrimination from customers will not be tolerated. Employees should feel confident that when respect and revenue come into conflict, the organisation will stand behind them.
4. Keep opportunity accessible. When redesigning roles or introducing new technologies, consider whether you're accidentally raising barriers to entry. Invest in apprenticeships, skills development, accessible recruitment and internal progression pathways to ensure talented people aren't excluded before they get started.
5. Move beyond representation and focus on who thrives. Diverse workforces are important, but inclusion is about outcomes. Track who progresses, who receives development opportunities, who leaves, whose voices are heard and who holds influence. Equity is achieved when everyone has a fair opportunity to succeed, not just a seat at the table.
How FAIRER can help
We help organisations turn inclusion into practical, measurable change. Our work spans DEI strategy and roadmaps, inclusion and culture assessments, inclusive recruitment, leadership development, employee listening and tailored DEI training.
If you’re looking to understand what the next stage of inclusion should look like in your workplace,get in touch with the FAIRER Consulting team to discuss your priorities and book a complimentary consultation.
