It is no secret that one of the most significant expense items for brick & mortar retailers is their store labor budget. Control of this line item is crucial to a retailer’s success. Being too liberal will create serious expense pressure, being too frugal will create serious service and operational issues. Given the labor scheduling software packages that have developed over the last few decades or so, retailers now have valuable tools that will permit them to more carefully and successfully manage the hours and or dollars allocated to their stores.
There are two key truth’s about labor scheduling in today’s retail store environment. These are:
- It’s not a matter of “IF”, rather it’s “WHEN’ you will automate your store labor management process
- There only 2 types of schedules, very good ones and very bad ones – there is no in-between
The process of automating your scheduling process is not overly difficult, it is, however, a rather detailed process and it requires a significant amount of a retailer’s attention. Our experience has taught us the following:
- Most retailers over $300 million have or are in the process of installing advanced scheduling systems
- Some retailers think that calculating “required hours” is enough, it’s a start, but it isn’t enough
- Most schedules are far from optimal due to inaccuracies in the data input or the “use” of the software
- The number and impact of calculated schedule “edits” (made by store management) need to be limited
- The stores group in your company needs to “own the scheduling process”, not your IT group
- Labor Standards are used to mathematically model store tasks and these need to be updated regularly
- Associate lifestyle files need to be maintained at least monthly to be accurate
- Field training needs to stay current – the time requirement tor training is usually underestimated
- Management needs to be an on-going “involved” user
The progression of scheduling techniques employed by retailers span an entire spectrum that includes:
- Doing nothing to improve your manual scheduling process
- Calculating required hours (only)
- Employing a “shift based” scheduling system, and finally
- Utilizing a “dynamic algorithm”
Dynamic algorithm packages are the preferred solution tend to employ a very logical approach to scheduling. They become complex, however, in that they need to be flexible and configurable enough to be applicable to numerous retail formats. While working with numerous retail organizations assisting them with their scheduling challenge, we have repeatedly observed the following:
- Buying a poor package, with a low price and few features, will typically lead to higher costs in the end
- Under-training store management will create user problems and reduced scheduling compliance
- Asking your IT group to install the package when it is a store asset that should be “owned” by the stores tends to diminish store level understanding of the scheduling process
- Not keeping up with your store labor standards and insuring they are matched to actual practices in the stores will decrease management belief that the algorithm employed is capable of generating and accurate schedule
- Utilizing “edit features” in the packages to over-ride best-fit schedule calculations tends to decrease desired salesfloor coverage
We strongly urge you to be careful in your scheduling system planning. The worst scenario of all is rolling out a poorly conceived or poorly installed system to the field. If you think you need assistance with the scheduling process, then you probably do. A significant scheduling dilemma occurs when a retailer attempts to fix their ineffective scheduling process after the entire field organization has lost faith in it. Recommendations to optimize your scheduling process include the following:
- Obtain knowledgeable assistance before you start spending time or money on a new scheduling system (or your application of existing software)
- Purchase a current, well developed package
- Carefully develop your labor standards, remember you are mathematically modeling the tasks performed in your stores. Any inefficiencies that currently exist in your store practices will be reflected in your standards for all stores to follow. The best time to re-engineer your operational practices is while you are setting the standards so that you can reflect “best practices” in your new schedules and drive labor cost lower.
- Plan on investing in a home-office operations team to oversee the use of the software and make sure they are well trained
- The stores team should own this tool and the IT team should support them, not the reverse
- Plan on a significant training effort in the field
- Take your time installing the software and post newly created schedules along with copies of the old manual schedules to show the changes the system may be suggesting before you fully adopt the new schedules. Discuss obvious differences with the associates at (each) store and explain why the new schedules are suggesting staffing changes that your old manual schedules may not have taken into account.
- Make sure you keep the store level “associate lifestyle files” current to reflect real associate availability
- Restrict the number of store level edits that can be made to the calculated schedules
Over time we have noted that approximately 40% of the retail firms who have attempted to install advanced scheduling software without proper (knowledgeable) guidance have had to abort or significantly delay the rollout of the software to the field due to unforeseen issues that could have been avoided. Get expert advice early if you are not fully experienced in this type of undertaking. It is much more difficult to install, configure and roll out a scheduling package the second time. Particularly, if you have alienated the field during an initial (poorly organized) attempt.