We engage in regular discussions with retailers who are at the point of investment for a labour management solution. For the most part, their objectives are clear and sensible with regards to reducing and optimising labour spend. We do find however that in relation to scheduling, particularly automated scheduling the business objectives needs to be more realistic in line with the maturity of the labour model currently in the business.
It is essential to clearly understand the ability of the business to adopt an automated schedule based on various parameters. If reality gets in the way of realising these schedules and the store manager has to make significant changes, then this automated process adds little value and only serves to frustrate the operational team. It is essential that you have a highly flexible workforce and a reasonably complex environment to gain full benefit from a complex scheduling solution.
At RMS we work with our customers to help them define their current and also aspirational labour models by using simple productivity drivers to generate schedules that highlight the need for change. From this baseline, it is then an ongoing business process to work towards optimising labour by adding more complex productivity drivers over time as and when the business can realistically adopt them.
To find out more about our labour management solutions, go to our WFM page.
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