How do your managers schedule?

During a presentation recently at NRF (National Retail Federations) BIG Show, I heard a case study where Michael’s Craft stores had implemented Workbrain across their organization and had amazing results.  Within 1 year of full implementation of an automated clocking solution, Michael’s had saved 458,000 hours of employee time!!  At an average cost of $10/hour, Michael’s saved $4.5 Million in one year in labor costs, just because they implemented the Workbrain Time & Attendance solution.  That is a significant ROI!

The part of the presentation that stuck with me was a comment about “How managers schedule”.  The concept was that if you let your managers schedule employees on their own, they schedule based on tasks.  What tasks do I need to get done at the store to keep it running.  Stocking shelves.  Cleaning.  Cash.  Customer Service.  The manager will often schedule the right amount of staff to complete these tasks.  At first glance, this makes a lot of sense.  But what if Michael’s shifted the focus from tasks to customers.  What if managers were able to schedule to meet the needs of their customers…to maximize the revenue from the store because customer service levels were based on sales, traffic, and other valuable information.

Michael’s also implemented the Labor Forecasting and Schedule Optimization (LFSO) module from Workbrain.  This module uses a number of inputs to determine an optimal level of staffing based on historical information.  Point of sale data.  Store traffic.  Seasonal information.  All of this is inputting into the algorithm, and an optimized schedule is created.  My role here is not to promote Workbrain, but to highlight a different perspective on how to schedule.

For those in the retail sector and financial services who struggle to find the right formula for meeting the customer needs, and minimizing the labor costs, an optimized scheduling solution will often have a strong return on investment. 

Next time you have a manager meeting, ask how your managers schedule.  Do managers schedule to meet their needs or the needs of the customer?  The answer will often cause a paradigm shift in thinking, possibly resulting in new ways of operating.

Thanks for reading.

Craig

Reduce Labor Costs using Automated Scheduling

As companies look to find ways to emerge out of the economic slump stronger and leaner in 2011, one of the places they can look is to their scheduling procedures.  Are your managers manually creating schedules on a weekly basis?  Are your payroll costs rising because of overtime?  Do you know why your organization is paying overtime? 

Automated scheduling solutions help companies with complicated scheduling needs reduce the manual labor needed to produce these schedules.  Store mangers who work in organizations without an automated solution can spend 20% – 25% of their time producing and managing store schedules.  This is time taken away from being on the store floor helping customers, training staff, or ensuring store operations are effective. 

These automated scheduling solutions lower labor costs and reduce risk of non-compliance as they can take into account variables that are important for each company.  These include reducing overtime, taking into account seasonal labor needs, and collective bargaining agreements that impose seniority rules on employers.  It is hard to imagine a single employee being able to manage all of these variables without some technology to help.

Versult has put together a top 5 question list for organizations that are looking emerge from 2010 stronger and more profitable.  The link is provided below.  If you answer yes to these 5 questions, then it is time to seriously look at investing in an automated scheduling solution.

http://linkd.in/gqTJHP  Go to Versult’s slideshare presentation on Automated Scheduling Solutions.

Thanks for reading.

Craig Haney

Use Workforce Management to Save 5% of Payroll

Workforce Management (WFM) means many things to different people.  But for everyone looking to purchase or upgrade a workforce management solution, ultimately it is designed to save money.  When implemented properly, a WFM system can save about 5% of gross payroll costs, compared to a manual system.  These numbers are approximate, but they do come from the American Payroll Association (APA) and are well documented in literature.

So where do companies save with a WFM system?  Here are three main components:

1. Leave Management – Improved tracking of vacation and leave balances saves a company approximately 1/2 day of vacation per employee.  This can amount to 1% of gross payroll

2. Improved Scheduling – Putting the right people in the right job at the right price lowers overtime costs, improves compliance, and can significantly increase revenue by increasing the amount of shift coverage.  This can account for 2% of payroll with a manual scheduling system.

3. Clock Rounding – Clock rounding, buddy punching, and improved visibility of workforce trends are all available with an improved clocking system.  It’s more than putting a fingerprint scanner on the wall, integrating it with a scheduling application and pay rules automates the workflow which is often done manually, increasing the risk of errors and being non-compliant.  These “golden crumbs” can account for up to 2% of gross payroll costs when compared to manual timesheets.

There are many more ways which a WFM system can improve your bottom line.  We will be posting some specific examples early in 2011 explaining the advantages in more detail for different industries.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Thanks for reading.

Craig Haney