When I think back to how the management of people in retail has changed, in say the last 10 years, I recall a number interesting observations. The one that sticks in my mind and is still a hot topic of debate, is how store managers and retail businesses manage the process of scheduling their workforce. I believe that it should be more scientific as there are so many tools to enable effective workforce management. Let me explain...
Riding the waves
Take the grocers. The big supermarket chains. They have always focussed their initial investment at the front end where customer service is key. This has been the driver for working out the right number of people at certain times of the day. The right number of people is calculated on till transactions (the POS data) and seeing where the peak periods are in the day. You’ll understand what I mean if you visualise a wavy sea (bear with me!). Waves peaking up and then crashing down, changing day by day, week by week. From POS data, store managers can see where they need to schedule staff to meet the customer demand. Nice and calm
On the other hand, clothing retailers manage their workforce scheduling slightly differently. A more static approach. Not like rolling waves but like a calm, canal with lock gates. Staff are scheduled perhaps for the duration of a season or for a sale period and there is little flexibility in working hours. Forecasts of workforce requirements are based on sales figures, not necessarily by number of customers. However, it is important to base forecasts on customer demand because then you can improve sales conversions. It's all about turning browsers into buyers.Stale water
In both these scenarios the scheduling of staff is a weekly task which is set in stone until the following week. Last week’s rolling waves or calm canal were reviewed, and Vera was plotted in for 10-2 on Wednesday just as always, and the staff rota is left to collect dust on the staff room wall for another week. Is this the best way to manage the workforce and provide the best customer experience? In our water analogy, the customers are the current and retailers need schedule staff in order to meet the needs of the customers. If water doesn’t move or get refreshed it becomes stale. Retailer’s don’t want to become stale but how many retail units have we seen close in Q1? Could meeting customer demand have helped? I invite any comments on whether you think it could have...
We all know that the customer is king and providing the best possible shopping experience is essential. I truly believe it does comes down to having the right skilled staff available at the right time to help customers make their purchases. And this is the science bit.
The future of workforce management
A new dawn is emerging where technology can provide retailers with efficient and productive workforces. With so much access to data via POS, cameras, and behaviour studies, store managers can schedule employees down to 15-minute intervals based on the needs of the business and the skills of each individual. Grocery and apparel store managers can embrace more intelligent ways to schedule their workforce taking into account multiple variables – not just the peak trading periods or fashion seasons but skills sets, customer demand etc. See the science in action at Dutch DIY retailer Praxis, who did just this and optimised their 4,500 employees [catch this short video]. The result is a more efficient and productive workforce, which is delivering better customer service and in turn a better shopping experience for customers. And above all more cost-efficient business.If you are a store manager or staff planner, in any retail sector, and have different ways of scheduling staff I would love to hear from you and see whether you agree or disagree with my thoughts. Leave a comment below, tweet or email me at John.Bailey@redprairie.com
Hope to see you next time when I will be discussing what synergies are there between workforce management in distribution centres and in-store. Again if you have any thoughts on this, let me know and I will add them in my blog!
John Bailey
John is RedPrairie's EMEA Retail Industry Director and has been an acknowledged thought leader in the field of workforce management solutions for over 20 years.
Email me at: John.Bailey@RedPrairie.com
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