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🎥 On-demand webinar discussion
What workforce planning leaders can change now to get ahead of hidden risks in 2026.
Why waiting for certainty quietly increases cost, scrutiny, and leadership exposure
A senior panel discussion for operations and workforce leaders navigating volatility, scrutiny, and rising accountability.
What this session invites leaders to consider now
This isn’t a product demo.
It’s a senior conversation about how workforce risk shows up across core functions and key area of decision-making - beyond surface-level features or benefits.
These are the three workforce realities we’re bringing into focus for leaders in the months ahead:
1. The cost of waiting - and the value of earlier action
2. The visibility problem - and what stronger insight unlocks
3. The adoption gap - and how alignment strengthens performance
Short on time?
Skip to...
00:47 What the session will explore: hidden workforce risks in 2026
05:22 Poll 1 – Where is workforce risk emerging?
07:54 Sarah Cowen: “If the plan is 80% right, that’s a healthy place to be”
12:11 Cost of change vs cost of waiting – discussion begins
12:42 Heather Weaver: Rising labour costs and why waiting carries risk
14:21 Sarah Cowen: Balancing business change with human capacity for change
19:31 Chris McCullough: “Be clear on what you're not going to do”
21:42 Poll 2 – When workforce issues become visible
23:10 Chris McCullough: Managing change fatigue and shifting priorities
25:26 Sarah Cowen: Why transparency builds trust during change
28:25 Poll results – When workforce issues usually surface
30:10 Heather Weaver: Why “peak trading” isn’t always what people think
31:00 Sarah Cowen: “Separate the reaction from the review”
34:38 Chris McCullough: Insight is only valuable if you can react to it
36:19 Sarah Cowen: “Not all insight needs to drive an immediate response”
38:25 Adoption reality on the ground – workforce systems vs real operations
40:29 Sarah Cowen: Best-case workforce plans vs operational reality
42:29 Sarah Cowen: Why newly trained skills fade if they aren’t scheduled quickly
43:51 Chris McCullough: Psychological safety and learning from mistakes
44:30 Sarah Cowen: Why decision-making needs to sit closer to the frontline
47:23 What leaders can do now to reduce workforce risk
Why hidden workforce risks are rising for today’s workforce leaders
Labour is your largest controllable cost – yet many organisations enter 2026 with limited visibility across forecasting, scheduling and compliance.
In stable periods, this rarely feels urgent. Schedules exist. Costs feel broadly under control. Nothing appears broken enough to force change.
But in volatile environments, small inefficiencies compound and visibility gaps widen. What looks manageable on paper can shift quickly when demand changes or disruption hits.
Across conversations with senior leaders in retail, hospitality and other high-variability sectors, a consistent pattern is emerging:
- Plans look right on paper – until conditions change
- Insight arrives after decisions matter
- By the time issues surface, cost has already landed
In this senior panel discussion, we explored:
- Where workforce risk often becomes visible too late – during peak trading, after payroll, or when leadership scrutiny increases
- The gap between workforce plans and operational reality, and why many teams now aim for “80% right” plans that can adapt quickly
- The cost of waiting versus the cost of change, and how rising labour costs are increasing the impact of delayed decisions
- Why insight timing matters, and how separating immediate reactions from longer-term review helps teams improve future cycles
- How operational feedback and leadership judgement play a role in navigating workforce uncertainty
This session brought together practical perspectives from workforce and operations leaders on how organisations can improve visibility, respond earlier to emerging risks, and stay in control as workforce conditions evolve
The speakers featured in this session
This session brings together senior leaders with direct experience and expertise in navigating workforce pressure - from both sides of the table.
Heather Weaver
Workload Manager
Our Coop
Heather leads workforce management strategy across a diverse, multi-site retail business. With over 14 years at Midcounties, Heather has built extensive experience across retail, healthcare services, and operational leadership.
Sarah Cowen
Change Control & Activity Planning Manager
Currys
An experienced Change and Operations Leader focused on improving colleague and customer experiences through continuous improvement, technology enablement and removing barriers to getting it Right First Time.
Andrew Busby
Founder
Redline Retail
A retail industry expert, speaker and writer with over 30 years’ experience, Andrew is a former retailer specialising in retail technology, customer experience and emerging trends. He is Senior Industry Adviser at BOXTEC, Board Adviser at The Industrious, and founder of Redline Retail Consulting.
Rotageek
Key takeaways from the session
- An executive lens for diagnosing and managing workforce risk in complex operations
- Practical language leaders can use to pressure-test their current workforce management approach
- The early signals that often appear before cost, service or leadership scrutiny escalates
- A clearer view of how earlier workforce insight can support cost control without adding operational friction
- Perspectives on how earlier visibility can create competitive advantage - not just tighter oversight
Who this session is for
This discussion is designed for senior decision-makers, including:
- Operations and workforce leaders responsible for revenue, margin, and operational performance in fluctuating conditions
- Executives responsible for resilience, delivery and risk exposure, leading teams through uncertainty and increasing scrutiny
- Leaders managing complex, hourly and volatile labour environments
If you’re responsible for outcomes - not just plans - and accountable for protecting operational performance across the wider business, this session will resonate.
Most leaders aren’t ignoring workforce risk.
The challenge is that it often doesn’t appear urgent until pressure increases.
This discussion offers a chance to sense-check your current position and explore the signals, decisions and operational practices that help organisations stay in control before workforce pressure limits their options.
Where workforce risk - and opportunity - shows up first
- Assumptions around coverage, skills availability, and availability holding longer than they should
- Delayed visibility into labour variance and cost across teams
- Local decisions made by managers that scale before leadership can intervene
- Fragmented use of time, people, and resources as conditions shift
Why waiting for certainty can increase exposure
In volatile environments, certainty rarely arrives before decisions are made.
When insight lags reality, leaders can find themselves managing outcomes rather than shaping them - limiting their ability to make informed decisions and increasing exposure across cost, compliance, and delivery.
Webinar transcript and key insights
Prefer reading to watching? Below is an edited and structured transcript from our on-demand webinar, The Hidden Workforce Risks in 2026. The discussion explores workforce planning risks, operational realities and what leaders can change now.
Welcome to The Hidden Workforce Risks in 2026. In this webinar, Andrew Busby is joined by Sarah Cowen (Currys), Heather Weaver (Our Co-op) and Chris McCullough (Rotageek) to explore the workforce challenges leaders need to prepare for now.
The discussion focuses on three themes: the cost of change versus the cost of waiting, why insights often arrive too late to influence decisions, and how leaders can close the gap between central planning and operational reality.
“The way leadership views the workforce - as a cost, a risk or a strategic advantage - shapes everything that follows.”
— Andrew Busby
The panel begins by discussing why workforce planning rarely matches reality perfectly. Data and planning are important, but local conditions, external disruption and operational nuance often change the picture quickly.
Leaders need to balance strong planning with the flexibility to respond when circumstances shift.
“If the plan is 80% right and we're reacting to the other 20%, that's often a really healthy place to be.”
- Sarah Cowen
“Data gives you a direction, but it doesn't always tell you what is actually happening in a store or operation.”
- Heather Weaver
A key leadership challenge is deciding when to act. With labour costs rising and operational pressure increasing, delaying decisions can carry just as much risk as making a change too quickly.
The panel discusses how organisations need to reassess priorities continuously, balancing business objectives with the human capacity for change across teams.
“Change isn't something that happens every few years anymore. It's constant.”
— Sarah Cowen
“What we say no to is just as important as what we say yes to.”
— Chris McCullough
Workforce challenges often surface during high-pressure trading periods, when leaders have less time to react. The panel highlights the importance of separating immediate response from longer-term learning.
Not every signal requires instant action, but the right insights can help organisations improve planning and resilience over time.
“It helps to separate reaction from review. In the moment you solve the problem - afterwards you learn from it.”
— Sarah Cowen
“Insight is valuable, but only if the organisation can actually respond to it operationally.”
— Chris McCullough
Even the best workforce plan must work in real operational environments. The panel discusses how skill mix, training confidence, scheduling and local conditions all affect how plans translate into action.
Strong stakeholder relationships and communication between central teams and operational leaders are critical for spotting issues early and improving adoption.
“Even with great data, you still need the people on the ground to tell you what's really happening.”
— Heather Weaver
“Training someone once isn't enough. If they don't use that skill quickly, their confidence drops.”
— Sarah Cowen
To close the discussion, the speakers share practical advice for leaders preparing their workforce strategies for the coming year. The conversation focuses on embracing uncertainty, strengthening cross-team collaboration and building systems that surface insight earlier.
These shifts help organisations respond faster to change while keeping teams aligned and supported.
“Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
— Sarah Cowen
“Stay close to your stakeholders - most workforce problems are shared problems.”
— Heather Weaver
The webinar concludes with questions from the audience about workforce metrics, employee experience and system improvements.
The panel discusses how customer satisfaction, employee engagement and retention can act as early indicators of workforce health, helping leaders identify issues before they escalate.
“Customer experience is often the clearest signal that a workforce change is working - or not.”
— Sarah Cowen
The discussion closes with a reminder that workforce risk rarely comes from a single issue. Instead, it emerges from how organisations respond to uncertainty, how quickly they act on insight and how closely planning reflects operational reality.
The most resilient organisations stay close to their people, remain adaptable and keep learning as conditions change.
“The organisations that perform best aren't the ones with perfect plans - they're the ones that adapt fastest.”
— Chris McCullough
Rota Geek Limited is a company registered in England and Wales with the company number 06783810 and registered address of Unit 6 & 7, Foundry Court, Foundry Lane, Horsham, West Sussex, England, RH13 5PY
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