WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT 27
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT MANAGES COMPLEXITY
intensifi es this year, retailers will be looking to wring extra effi ciencies from their operations. Despite the emergence of e-commerce, with its less labour-intensive processes in recent years, the workforce is still likely to remain a retailer’s most signifi cant capital asset. As Retail Technology’s annual look at workforce management (WFM) technology demonstrates, retailers today are looking to optimise their human capital management in line with increasingly complex business models and strategies. Barney Quinn, chief executive of WFM provider WorkPlace Systems said retailers
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DEMAND SOARS Demand for retail IT professionals is growing, according to business and technology staffi ng company, ReThink Recruitment, based on the number of new instructions it has received. ReThink late last year said that
RETAIL IT STAFF
the resurgence in demand for IT skills in the retail sector was a result of retailers investing in or replacing their core e-commerce platforms, as well as upgrading core merchandising and supply chain systems to become truly ‘multichannel’. Iain Blair, director at ReThink, commented: “Competition among retailers is leading to a shortage in the supply of candidates with key skills. We actively have to seek out well over a third of the project managers and business analysts we now place with retailers. A year ago candidates were knocking on our door. It’s been a dramatic turnaround. “We are seeing an increased
demand for candidates who have specifi c experience in e-commerce personalisation projects, as well as those who have helped retailers achieve the ‘holy grail’ – one single view of stock and customer.”
s margins tighten under infl ationary pressures and competition for shrinking consumer budgets
are looking for systems that help them manage and reduce staffi ng complexity. “Many retailers are no longer interested in creating complex forecasting models, optimising their staffi ng schedules through perceived employee fl exibility and forcing out new, often impractical schedules. They would rather take existing schedules to provide visibility of resource deployment
across the estate and allow store managers to make small changes to improve effi ciency. By making these quick and simple changes to match the shape of business, retailers are improving customer service and reducing wasted labour hours,” he said. “In today’s highly competitive and
uncertain economic environment this practical approach delivers a quick and clear return to retailers, and provides the stepping stone for a more sophisticated phase which includes forecasting and optimisation of schedules,” Quinn added. Simon Macpherson, operations director at WFM solutions provider Kronos, agreed that retailers want less WFM complexity, but not at the cost of tight controls. “We are certainly seeing retailers deploying more complex forecasting algorithms, but they are looking for solutions that are self-learning. These solutions can track the difference between forecasts and actuals and adjust staffi ng schedules accordingly. In the past, labour costs used to be measured according to a certain proportion of sales, but that old method just doesn’t tend to refl ect actual customer demand.”
EDENRED WARNS ON ENGAGEMENT
In the current economic climate and in the face of high staff turnover, it is now more important than ever for businesses to ensure managers maximise the performance of their people by optimising employee engagement across all areas of the businesses, including the call centre, warehouse and store, according to Edenred. Recent research it commissioned confi rms this, showing that employee engagement
levels in UK business as a whole are worryingly low and that the proportion of staff feeling engaged has dropped by half since 2005. Research focusing on the call centre industry, for example, has found that customers
who have an exceptional experience dealing with a call centre are 72% more likely to do more business with a company than customers who merely have a satisfactory experience. Andy Philpott, marketing director from Edenred, which helps organisations engage and motivate people for enhanced performance, commented on the importance of incentivising staff, commented: “Companies that have an effi cient rewards programme in place are likely to in a position to gain competitive advantage and move ahead in their sectors over the coming years.” He advised investigating what rewards will motivate all members of staff and ensuring that they do not concentrate on rewarding top achievers – instead retailers should use incentive and motivation strategies to increase employee engagement and lift performance at all levels within their organisations. He added that rewards could take the form of multi or single chain retailer vouchers, gift or incentive cards, or experiences.
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
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