On why optimised scheduling is key to operational performance.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… or rather, what one might call Christmas. This story begins with two store managers in the crux of the busiest period in the retail calendar. Let’s call them Richard and Charles. Both manage very large and well-known storefronts for the same retail giant in West (Richard) and East (Charles) London.
At Rotageek, we create scheduling technology. Importantly, we’re trying to figure out how to make shift work fairer for employees (which will benefit employers, too!). In this article, I take a deeper look into what schedule fairness truly means. I also speak to Dan Chamberlain, Rotageek’s Head of Data Science, because really, fairness in scheduling is a delicate balance of logic and humanity, held together by data science.
With almost three million workers, the retail industry is the UK’s largest private sector employer. But retailers face a number of challenges when it comes to recruiting and retaining the best staff.
Experience is everything in retail right now. Online shopping offers the ultimate in convenience, meaning brands are using their bricks and mortar stores to provide a spectacular, immersive experience.
Flexible working* is trendy. There are countless articles telling employers that, if they want to attract millennials, they need to offer them flexibility. The reality is more nuanced. Stability is just as important for some members of staff.
Creating, editing and disseminating schedules can often feel like a time-consuming, hurried and reactive process. However, by utilising data-driven scheduling you can accurately forecast far into the future; empower employees to have greater input into their schedules; and be proactive in making important business strategy decisions.
The first step to productivity is efficiency. But so many businesses are held back by outdated processes and systems.
How can employee scheduling help? While it used to be simply a task on the to-do list of individual stores, today it’s a function that brings together a multitude of factors.
In-store retail is no longer solely about sales. That’s what online is for - convenient, effortless, simple. In-store, however, is about brand immersion, experience, and customer service. And who delivers all of this? Well, in the first instance, it’s your store teams.
