What You Can Learn from Coles About Managing Casual Employees (and Cutting Turnover Costs)
- Roe Medina
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
If you’re running a business that relies heavily on casual staff, whether it’s a café, a retail store, a farm, or a medical clinic, you're probably already familiar with the cycle:
People come.
People go.
You advertise again.
You cross your fingers and hope they stick around this time.
But what if I told you Coles figured out how to cut staff turnover by thousands, and saved $15 million in hiring costs without spending big on advertising and gimmicks?
And the strategy wasn’t about hiring better people.
It was about understanding why they were leaving in the first place.
In this article, we’ll explain what Coles did, and how business owners like you can apply the same principles (without the budget of a major supermarket chain).
The Big Shift in Managing Casual Employees: From “Hire More” to “Keep Who You Have”
Coles noticed that casuals were leaving faster than they could be replaced. After looking into the data, they discovered something simple: people weren’t getting the hours they wanted.
And when casuals feel like they’re always “on call” but rarely on the roster? They leave.
So Coles flipped it around, and changed the way they were managing their casual employees. Instead of defaulting to recruiting more people, they asked:
What hours do our current staff actually want?
Are we matching our rosters to their real availability?
Can we stop hiring for the sake of hiring?
Once they made this shift, attrition dropped dramatically, and so did their recruitment bill.
Lesson 1: Your Casuals Want Security Too
Just because someone is a casual doesn’t mean they want unpredictability. In fact, many people choose casual work for flexibility, but they still want a predictable income.
What you can do:
Ask your casuals how many hours they’d like to work. Do this quarterly.
Match the roster to that wherever possible.
Be upfront in interviews about how many hours you can realistically offer.
This simple step builds trust, and loyalty.
Lesson 2: The Real Cost of High Turnover
Coles saved $15 million in hiring costs alone by reducing turnover. Now imagine that on a smaller scale.
Let’s say it costs your business $1,000 to advertise, onboard, and train each new casual (a conservative estimate). If you replace 10 casuals a year, that’s $10,000, often for preventable reasons.
What you can do:
Treat retention as seriously as recruitment.
Put systems in place to check in regularly with casuals.
Offer incentives for staying through peak periods.
Don’t make your casuals feel that they are ‘just casuals’
Lesson 3: Use Your Own “Data”
You don’t need fancy software to know your data (and use it).
Data doesn’t have to mean spreadsheets and graphs. It can be as simple as:
Keeping track of why people leave (and asking them directly)
Noting how long casuals stay (is there a pattern?)
Spotting trends in complaints about hours or shifts
If 3 people in a row have said they left because they weren’t getting enough hours, believe them, and fix the problem at the root.
Lesson 4: Empower Your Managers to Have Real Conversations
At Coles, part of the change came from store managers being encouraged to talk to their teams. Not just about availability, but about what staff wanted from their jobs.
Small businesses often forget this. You’re so busy firefighting that the idea of a 5-minute check-in with your weekend casual just doesn’t happen.
What you can do:
Build this into your manager’s weekly routine.
Create a simple “How’s it going?” check-in script or form.
Make sure casuals know you’re open to hearing what’s working, and what’s not.
I know some of you will read this and think, “Sure, but Coles has systems, money, and a full HR team. I’m just trying to keep up with the payroll and get through the week.”
If your business relies on casual staff, then casual staff are your business.
Ignoring their experience is like ignoring your customers, it costs you more than you think.
Even small changes, such as having a quarterly “hours check-in,” or giving your manager a simple checklist for casuals, can make a real difference. Better People = Better Business.
If high turnover is draining your time, money, and energy, get in touch.
I work with small and medium businesses to make HR easier, safer, and less stressful.
Book a free discovery call today. Let’s make managing casual employees the least of your worries.
Need help? Contact us today - sandra@hrconsultingtas.com.au or 0408 408 225
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