®
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Roadmap to Workforce
Management 2.0: Mobility,
Measurement Tools Create
Smarter Staffing
The current capabilities and future possibilities of workforce management
solutions go far beyond time-and-attendance and scheduling, the basic
building blocks of any WFM solution. Mobile technology is set to play major
roles, affecting everything from making shift assignment processes fairer to
enabling more detailed, more visible task management solutions. Increasingly sophisticated budgeting applications can simultaneously centralize
control of labor expenses while taking into account nuanced, store-by-store
variations in labor requirements. Location-based technology is already improving the specificity of in-store traffic counting, and it could soon make
the concept of employees having to “punch in” at the beginning of a shift
obsolete. This Workforce Management Roadmap will provide mileposts for
retailers who want to not only eliminate the traditional “headaches” around
this area, but who see a well-managed workforce as a powerful customer
service booster and competitive advantage.
SPONSORED BY
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 1
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
Moving to Workforce Management 2.0
The current capabilities and future possibilities of workforce management solutions go far beyond
time-and-attendance and scheduling, the basic building blocks of any WFM solution. As in so many
other areas of retailing, mobile technology is set to play major roles, affecting everything from making
shift assignment processes fairer to enabling more detailed, more visible task management solutions.
Increasingly sophisticated budgeting applications can simultaneously centralize control of labor
expenses while taking into account nuanced, store-by-store variations in labor requirements.
Location-based technology is already improving the specificity of in-store traffic counting, and it
could soon make the concept of employees having to “punch in” at the beginning of a shift obsolete.
These solutions – some already available and in use, others clearly visible on the horizon — can help
retailers in an operational area that’s more often associated with challenges and “pain points” than
with achieving a competitive advantage.
Some of the negative associations with WFM are understandable and stem from long-term structural
issues in the retail industry. Even in a labor market with high unemployment rates, finding the right
people for retail jobs, particularly those that involve customer-facing activities, is both costly and
time-consuming. High turnover rates exacerbate these hiring headaches, soaking up valuable resources
at both corporate and store levels and keeping retailers’ training costs high.
Once a staff is on board, the task of creating schedules is an absolute necessity (and can be timeconsuming without an automated system), but it does little to overtly add value to a store’s operations.
Compliance with labor laws is another necessity that is made more complex by the multi-state, often
multi-country footprints of today’s retail enterprises. Many retailers must devote considerable legal and
risk mitigation resources toward ensuring compliance as well as defending against allegations that
they’ve failed to comply.
These traditional challenges around WFM may help explain the relatively low adoption rate of more
advanced solutions. While the 2011 RIS/Gartner Retail Technology Study indicates a healthy 60% of
retailers already have up-to-date time-and-attendance (TA) solutions in place, less than one-third report
similar levels for labor standards analysis, and less than one-quarter have comparable deployment rates
for task management technologies. Retail executives who see their workforce as a significant cost center
(it’s typically the second-largest retail budget item after inventory), and who see labor issues primarily
as headaches, are less likely to investigate, deploy and use advanced WFM solutions — which is ironic
since many of these solutions have the ability to not only relieve those headaches but to turn the labor
force from a cost center into a valuable competitive tool.
Milepost 1:
Maximize the Value of Your Current WFM Solutions
The basic WFM solutions such as time-and-attendance and compliance may lack the “sizzle” of newer
solutions, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a significant impact on a retailer’s bottom line. It’s
important to remember that any improvement in labor operations, even a slight one, can have a big
impact. It’s the positive side of the multiplier effect at work: even a few dollars saved can add up
quickly, even for small or mid-size retailers.
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 2
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 2
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
According to Bob Clements, senior principal at the WFM consultancy Axsium Group, putting some simple
constraints into a TA solution can have a dramatic impact. He gave the example of implementing a
“punching to schedule” rule. Most retailers create schedules in 15-minute increments, and for payroll
purposes they “round up” at a given point, paying for a 15-minute increment if an employee punches in
for at least eight of the 15 minutes. So an employee scheduled for a 9-to-5 shift who punches in at 8:52
a.m. and punches out at 5:08 p.m. would be paid for an additional 30 minutes of work over and above his
scheduled shift — what Clements calls “pirated time.”
“Some employees are intentionally gaming the system, and in other cases it may just be part of the store
culture, but either way it creates a big cost issue,” says Clements. Implementing a punching to schedule
function that matches punch-in times to established schedule start and end times “prevents employees
from clocking in too early for work without a manager’s approval, and it tends to frustrate those that are
gaming the system. Often, the savings end up justifying the cost of a TA project,” he notes.
Milepost 2:
Use WFM Tools to Proactively Address Compliance Issues
Compliance with state labor laws can be as “unsexy” as scheduling issues, but again, simple changes can
bring big payoffs. The situation in California is a good example. Employers in the state are required to
provide employees with a 30-minute break period for meals. If an employee opts not to take the break,
the employer is required to pay for the unused meal time. A major apparel retailer was having trouble
monitoring who was actually taking a break and who wasn’t, thus risking overpayment on one side and
labor law violations on the other.
STATUS OF WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY
60%
Time and attendance
Labor scheduling and optimization
7.5%
39.2%
16.5%
32.5%
Labor standards analysis
Task management
15%
23.8%
0%
Up-to-date tech in place
16.3%
20%
10.1%
5%
10.1%
5% 5%
10%
7.5%
40%
Started but not finished
11.3%
Will start in next 12 months
60%
80%
100%
Will start in next 12-24 months
Source: RIS/Gartner 2011 Retail Technology Study
Up-to-date deployments of advanced WFM solutions such as labor standards analysis and task management remain
low, but retailers express strong future interest in the latter.
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 3
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 3
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
The solution was part of a WFM system that provided the retailer with visibility into who was taking
breaks and who wasn’t. It also allowed employees to sign an online waiver saying they that they were
opting not to take the break time. After the retailer’s legal department audited the process to ensure it
would pass muster, the company was “able to take $3 million out of its legal fund [set aside to defend
labor law violations] and put it into the general fund. That was a big swing in terms of their cash revenue,” says Clements.
Milepost 3:
Use Self-Service to Boost Convenience and Employee Buy-In
Providing employees with a self-service interface that lets them view schedules and request time off or
a shift change does more than improve efficiency and eliminate paper. Use of a self-service interface to
communicate one’s availability (or non-availability) to work a specific shift simplifies managers’ scheduling chores, but it also gives employees a greater sense of control over their own time. It’s a simple
thing that provides a win-win benefit that can boost employee retention rates.
Self-service modules within TA and scheduling solutions automate many of the most basic yet problematic aspects of WFM, including tracking hours for calculating paid time off, maternity or family leaves,
vacations and other requests. According to Clements, a major retail apparel chain had projected that
implementing self-service automated TA would save them one hour per store per week – a time and cost
Continued on page 7
Seven Mileposts on the Road to Workforce Management 2.0
1
Maximize Value of
Current WFM Solutions
Simple rule changes and monitoring functionalities can quickly add up to
significant savings due to the “multiplier effect.”
2
Use WFM Tools to
Proactively Address
Compliance Issues
Improved tracking and communication capabilities can mitigate legal and
financial risks while keeping retailers in compliance.
3
Use Self-Service to
Boost Convenience and
Employee Buy-In
Self-service via online or mobile interfaces cuts down on paperwork and gives
employees a sense of greater control over their time, boosting satisfaction
and retention rates.
4
Use Mobile Technology to
Simplify Scheduling
With mobile devices nearly ubiquitous among employees, they can be
effective tools for communicating schedules and changes.
5
Continually Refine
Labor Standards
Technology changes can shorten the time needed to perform some tasks
or add new ones, so retailers need to review labor standards on an ongoing
basis.
6
Use Mobile Tools to Optimize Task Management
The use of mobile devices makes task management more viable by “untethering” employees from a PC or kiosk while providing real-time data and
reporting.
7
Explore Location-Based
Technology’s Potential
Today’s traffic counting devices can measure conversion rates and help determine if a retailer is missing sales through understaffing, and more advanced
location-based technologies are developing rapidly.
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 4
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 4
5/25/11 4:51 PM
INDUSTRY
INSIGHT
Applying Analytics, Improving Visibility Key
to Effective WFM Deployments
Liz Moughan, Senior Manager, Retail Marketing, Kronos
Q: What kind of impact could retailers see if
they incorporate traffic counting data into
their WFM solutions?
LIZ MOUGHAN: Traffic counting tools allow retailers to schedule
to the opportunity rather than to the sale. When creating the forecast
that’s the basis for any store schedule, most WFM solutions will pull
in data on the items that were sold during a comparable period. These
represent the conversions — the actual sales that took place. What
this doesn’t measure is whether there were people that came into the
store during that time period who didn’t buy something because there
weren’t enough associates on the floor to help them.
With traffic data, retailers can schedule to the opportunity: they
can measure how many people came into the store, and then decide
if they should increase the labor complement because the conversion
rate is low.
Q: What are some other ways retailers can get
more from their WFM solutions?
MOUGHAN: Retailers need to use analytics not only in creating
schedules but for monitoring the impact of labor decisions. For example, a retailer might put on more staff at a women’s department a
few days before Mother’s Day. But if the retailer doesn’t have visibility
through their analytics solution, first of all they won’t know if the store
used those extra people in the way they were supposed to be used.
Second, without analytics, if the store did use them in the correct
department, did it have a positive impact? Retailers need to measure
the effects of what they’re doing.
Q: What effects have macro technology trends
had on the WFM space?
MOUGHAN: As in other technology areas, business-to-consumer
technology has had a major impact on business-to-business solutions:
Facebook and Xbox devices are all changing the way technology vendors develop their solutions. Previously, B2B didn’t have to be ‘sexy’ or
cool, but now, especially in retail, where the demographic of the end
users is a lot younger than in other industries, retailers need to leverage that consumer-like experience in their business solutions.
At Kronos, we’ve seen the need to adopt intuitive, easy-to-use
technology to help cut down on training time and costs. All of this has
affected how we’ve designed our user interface (UI). We asked our advisory board ‘If you needed to create a schedule, what would you need
to do next?’ Our UI not only engages users but also helps guide their
decisions to ensure they are meeting customer demand – and then it
lets them get out of the system as soon as possible.
“With traffic data, retailers
can schedule to the opportunity:
they can measure how many
people came into the store, and
then decide if they should increase
the labor complement because the
conversion rate is low.”
— Liz Moughan, Senior Manager,
Retail Marketing, Kronos
Q: What are some other ‘pain points’ that WFM
solutions can help address?
MOUGHAN: The biggest is compliance, because labor law compliance is constantly changing. Retailers struggle to match up their compliance initiatives with laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act and
the Family Medical Leave Act, so they often turn to a WFM solution
to mitigate their risks. In fact, trying to stay on top of this with a
manual system, or even an un-integrated automated solution, is close
to impossible. l
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 5
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 5
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
Advanced Budgeting Tools Reflect
Real-World Labor Requirements
Use of advanced budgeting solutions is certainly a key
milepost, but it’s one that can be achieved at almost any stage
during the move to Workforce Management 2.0. Some WFM experts believe it’s so important that it should be adopted early on,
but it can provide benefits at almost any point in the journey.
As in virtually all areas of retailing, budgets are a basic part
of business operations. All retailers establish a corporate labor
budget, generally basing it on previous budgets and adjusting it
based on either current financial constraints, such as a tightening economy, or corporate initiatives (e.g. plans to open 50 new
stores in the next fiscal year).
Once budgets are established, they must be aligned or reconciled
with the forecasts retailers use to create their labor schedules.
These forecasts, and the schedules based on them, are by necessity detailed and granular.
“Schedules show how many people will be working in a store for
every 15-minute increment of every day, in every department,”
explains Axsium Group senior principal Bob Clements. “What a
schedule doesn’t do is tell the retailer exactly how much money
they’re supposed to spend. Rationalizing budgets with forecasts,
and doing so based on actual needs rather than just historic
trends, can be a challenge for retailers.”
More sophisticated scheduling applications can help address
these gaps, “but the bigger challenge is deploying the top-line
budget numbers across all locations,” he adds. A retailer will
want to establish a different labor budget for a store in Middletown, OH versus one in San Francisco, due to variations in formats, store sizes, sales volumes and average hourly wages in
each area.
Store-By-Store Budget Variations
“Labor budgeting applications take the overall budget provided by the retailer’s financial department and answer the
question ‘How do I distribute this X million dollars across
these various locations in a sensible way?’” says Clements.
They provide store operations with the tools to optimize labor
budgets across locations based on past performance, expected future performance and variables such as the cost of living
in a particular region.
Retailers can go even further, however, and achieve better results. Many take a “set and forget” approach to their labor budgets, simply tweaking the previous year’s budget and leaving the
actual management of dollars spent to their operational people.
However, if a retailer’s business is trending upward and doing
well from a revenue perspective, “the stores should get more
labor dollars to account for that,” says Clements.
If there’s an opportunity for more sales in a particular store,
managers may need to schedule additional associates in order
to achieve those sales. Traditionally, however, it’s been onerous
for store operations and management to be able to “flex” pre-set
labor budgets up or down based on fast-changing conditions.
For example, while most retailers have some kind of flex mechanism, they’re generally based on “very crude metrics,” notes Clements. “One cosmetics and personal care chain uses a flex metric
of $150, meaning that for every $150 above or below the pre-set
revenue target, the store will either get, or lose, one hour of
labor time. This may work in a small-box retail environment, but
in a larger store that is generating revenue from multiple departments, this kind of flex metric loses its value.”
However, more advanced, more flexible systems allow retailers to do several things. They can better align established
budgets with actual labor spend; automate many budgeting/
scheduling reconciliation processes; and make budgets both
easier to manage and easier to manage accurately.
Such solutions can provide a “bottoms-up” budget that
works with the same variables and nuances as forecasting
and scheduling systems, providing detail around deployments
to individual departments or individual jobs, with granularity
extending to allocating time to both selling-related and nonselling-related tasks.
“These more sophisticated budgeting systems use the same advanced algorithms as those used by forecasting systems, so
they can account for things like minimum and maximum staffing levels as well as store operating hours that may change
seasonally,” says Clements. “By working in concert with the
store’s established labor model, they ultimately create a much
more accurate picture of what the retailer thinks the store will
need in the next year.” l
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 6
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 6
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
Continued from page 4
savings that would pay for the system within one year. The retailer underestimated the solution’s impact:
the actual time savings were closer to three hours per store per week.
Self-service is also more practical than ever before because WFM user interfaces (UIs) are taking a page
from intuitive, easy-to-use consumer technologies. As more people become familiar with advanced consumer technology, it’s less of a stretch for them to use it as part of their job – a development that can
also help shorten training times and cut costs.
Milepost 4:
Use Mobile Technology to Further Simplify Scheduling
The most common self-service technology has moved from being a desktop PC or in-store kiosk to a consumer’s mobile device – and in this case, “consumers” are also “employees.” Shift-bidding modules are an
example of the way mobility can simplify a common WFM challenge. If an employee calls in sick or can’t
work a shift for whatever reason, that shift is marked as “unfilled.” When this occurs, the module automatically sends a text message to all employees who are qualified to cover the shift, and the first one to
respond gets it.
This type of tool is quicker and more efficient than having a manager call or text employees until he finds
one available to work, and it also eliminates favoritism, even unconscious favoritism. “A manager may
have a natural bias about who to call to get someone to cover a shift, but automating the shift bidding
process creates fairness,” notes Clements.
Milepost 5: Continually
Refine Labor Standards
Labor standards – defined as the average amount of time it takes an average employee to perform a task –
are basic elements of WFM solutions, and play crucial roles in making detailed forecasting and scheduling
possible.
Technology changes are a big reason retailers should make labor standards analysis and revision a part
of their continuous improvement efforts. For example, adoption of a new POS terminal that offers faster
product lookup, or providing associates with handheld devices that allow them to check in-stock availability from anywhere in the store, would shorten the time needed to perform various tasks.
Some WFM experts believe the customer experience needs to be the basis for virtually all retail labor standards. “Retailers should first define what they mean by a customer experience. For a value-based retailer,
it might be as simple as clean, well-lit stores with neatly stocked shelves, but it can go all the way up to
a Louis Vuitton or Polo and the kind of personalization you get there,” says Scott Knaul, vice president of
strategic services at consulting firm Workforce Insights.
Retailers then take their customer experience and quantify it, applying variables such as store traffic,
number of transactions and overall employee workload. “If you find you don’t have the budget to meet
the defined customer experience, you then need to ask some questions,” says Knaul. “Do you change the
experience? Change some of your assumptions? Or reduce or eliminate some tasks?”
This is much more than a theoretical exercise. Retailers may have hundreds of individual labor standards
that apply to their store employees, and they may spend more time establishing and tracking them than
using them to improve the customer service experience.
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 7
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 7
5/25/11 4:51 PM
INDUSTRY
INSIGHT
Mobility, Real-Time Task Management
Ramp up Workforce Productivity
Dave Andrews, Director of Marketing Communications, Reflexis Systems
Q: Now that business conditions are improving,
are retailers looking to increase staff levels as
well?
DAVE ANDREWS: For the most part, staffing levels are flat. But
at the same time, the number of corporate-driven tasks such as price
changes, new product introductions and promotions is increasing. For
this reason, it’s never been more important for retailers to ensure they
schedule employees in alignment with customer traffic patterns, to ensure target service levels are met and that store employees are doing the
right thing to improve customer service and increase sales.
“Retailers are seeing the role
of the store-level employee rapidly
changing from being transaction
focused – making sure there are
enough cashiers to avoid long
lines or helping customers find
products – to also becoming
trusted customer advisors.”
— Dave Andrews, Director of Marketing
Communications, Reflexis Systems
Q: What have been some of the impacts of betterinformed, increasingly empowered customers
on retailers’ WFM challenges?
ANDREWS: Consumers armed with product and price information are
certainly putting pressure on margins. At the same time, when consumers go into stores and need assistance, they expect to receive great
customer service. For example, a person who goes to a home improvement retailer and is about to spend thousands of dollars on a kitchen
remodeling project expects excellent service. Most retailers are seeing
the role of the store-level employee rapidly changing from being trans-
action focused – making sure there are enough cashiers to avoid long
lines or helping customers find products – to also becoming trusted
customer advisors.
If consumers don’t get the service they want, they will go to another
store or the Internet. Retailers have to ensure store employees are helping customers and suggesting complementary products to increase basket size. This is impossible to do if store managers are stuck in a back
office buried under paperwork and communication from headquarters,
and store associate schedules are not aligned with customer traffic patterns and workload from corporate-driven tasks.
Q: What are some technologies retailers can
most effectively use to improve/speed up employee training?
ANDREWS: High workforce turnover is always going to be a part of
the retail industry, which means that every time an employee leaves,
all the investment in training that the retailer made for that person
walks out the door. That’s where task management combined with KPI
solutions can really help retailers, by institutionalizing best practices.
When an important metric falls below a certain level, such as sales in a
certain department in a specific store, the system can raise an alert and
walk the employee through corrective action. And if sales are exceeding
expectations for a store, say for a new product, it can issue an alert to
order more product to avoid stockouts.
Q: Have retailers been able to leverage mobile
devices to improve workforce management and
store operations?
ANDREWS: We have customers who have deployed our solutions on
a variety of handheld devices including BlackBerry smartphones, Apple
iPads, rugged Motorola devices, and laptops. The advantage is that these
solutions let store managers and associates get out on the store floor
where they can spend more time with the customer. They can also monitor KPIs from the sales floor in real time. When the system issues an
alert, the employee can be assigned corrective action based on best
practices. This enables store managers and associates to respond to
problems and opportunities faster. l
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 8
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 8
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
“A retailer can spend too much time worrying about tiny, tiny details rather than the overall delivery of
the customer experience,” says Knaul, who gave the example of a retail client determined to move the
needle on forecasting accuracy from where it stood, 90%, to 99%. “We thought we needed that extra nine
percent, but the effort level to get to 99% was huge. When we looked at the schedule results, the difference wasn’t significant enough to justify the effort,” says Knaul.
Milepost 6:
Use Mobile Tools to Optimize Task Management
One of the most sophisticated WFM solutions is task management, which occurs at the “intersection” of
workforce management and workforce enablement. WFM is essentially about having the right person in the
right place at the right time, doing the right thing, within an established budget and in ways that meet
all compliance laws and regulations. Workforce enablement involves the tools a retailer provides to its
staff in order to be more effective – most recently, wireless handheld and tablet technology. Task management informed by labor standards occurs where WFM and workforce enablement meet.
“Task management is an important part of ensuring that the customer experience you want is what gets
delivered,” says Clements. “Even if you have the right person in the right place at the right time, how can
you ensure they’re doing the right things, whether it’s on the sales floor or in non-selling roles?”
For this reason, “We see task management as the most mature WFM technology, and mobile devices or
tablets are the natural platform for it, because being tethered to the PC has held people back,” he adds.
Mobile devices can supply associates with role-specific tasks and the order they need to be completed
in, and can monitor when those tasks are completed and how long it took to do so. “Mobile devices can
be extremely important in terms of real-time information, particularly in a department or big-box store,”
where fast-changing events can require quick action that might not be “visible” to managers, according
to Workforce Insights’ Knaul.
In addition, mobile devices equipped with cameras or video technology can improve quality assurance.
For example, if a task involves setting up an endcap display, the store associate can append a photo of
the completed display to the completed task report. A store operations executive can “inspect” the display from his or her office, ensuring consistent execution across multiple stores.
A key recommendation for maximizing task management is to shut off alternate communication methods
used to transmit tasks and other critical information to employees. In most cases more communication
is better, but Knaul notes that if a retailer has an online portal plus e-mail plus other communication
systems, it can be a formula for confusion. “If there are three different methods to get information to
your people including your task management system, it won’t take off,” he says. “Turning off an existing
vehicle isn’t always a popular recommendation, but if you give employees multiple places to go, they’ll go
where they’re comfortable,” rather than where the retailer needs them to go.
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 9
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 9
5/25/11 4:51 PM
INDUSTRY
INSIGHT
High-Tech Training, Talent Management Tools
Keep Retailers Ahead of the Curve
Chris Tratar, Senior Director, Industry Marketing, Saba
Q: With the march of better-informed, increasingly empowered customers, retailers have seen the
need to improve store associate knowledge and
customer service levels. What role is workforce
management playing in achieving these goals?
CHRIS TRATAR: For retailers to stay ahead of the curve, they need
to provide their employees, particularly their front-line employees, with
the proper training on products, services, sales tips and techniques and
customer service policies. That’s because if a customer has a positive experience with a service-oriented associate, they are much more likely to
return to that store.
One strong example of innovative training is Media Saturn. It’s the European equivalent of Best Buy, with 800 locations in multiple countries.
They put together a very intensive training program focused on selling
40-inch flat panel TVs that included everything from product specs and
performance to setting them up in a home theater.
The retailer used a little bit of live training but they delivered the majority
of it in consumable, bite-size ‘chunks’ at the store level. They used Saba
Learning and Saba Centra, a videoconferencing tool that works in limited
bandwidth environments like a retail store. It was a virtual classroom with
streaming video, white board capabilities and live webcams providing images of the audience as well as the instructors. These were highly interactive and compelling sessions that the retailer presented over time in bitesize pieces. The result is they drove double-digit sales growth.
Q: What are some other ways retailers can get
more from their training programs?
TRATAR: Learning programs can be used to target training. As part of
their goal-setting processes, retailers can look at the competency gaps
that exist for their store managers and employees and then use very targeted training programs to really hit the areas that need dramatic improvements in performance.
Another area is succession planning. As retailers increasingly go global,
they need much better visibility into their entire talent pool. For example,
if they are opening stores in new countries, they can identify their people
at the store manager and assistant manager levels, as well as others within
the organization that are ready to play these roles. Then they can determine the specific training to offer these people so that they can mobilize
them to new stores quickly. Retailers can also look into peoples’ profiles
to see what skills they have, for instance if they’ve taken special courses,
have language capabilities or have expressed a willingness to relocate.
Once they have identified internal pools of employees they can also use
tools like Saba to provide efficient on-boarding and new hire training to
new employees as they open new stores.
“As part of their goal-setting
processes, retailers can look at
the competency gaps that exist
for their store employees and
then use very targeted training
programs to really hit the areas
that need dramatic improvements
in performance.”
— Chris Tratar, Senior Director,
Industry Marketing, Saba
Q: What roles are you seeing for mobile technology in the WFM space?
TRATAR: There are some tactical mobile solutions that spell out a store
associate’s responsibilities and also provide real-time tracking and evaluation of how they perform these tasks. This real-time feedback and on-thejob observation can then be built into the employee’s performance profile.
In general, whether you’re looking at training or talent management in a
retail environment, it’s increasingly critical to have these work on mobile
devices, particularly with the bandwidth issues retailers have to deal with.
And because there’s not a lot of physical room for classrooms or even PCs
in a store, it’s helpful if an associate can view a quick video on a mobile
device that helps them be more productive during the day. l
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 10
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 10
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
Milepost 7: Explore
Location-Based Technology’s Potential
Newer location-based technologies, such as those used in social media/mobile applications such as
Shopkick and Gowalla, are grabbing the lion’s share of attention in retail. However, in the WFM sphere,
basic traffic counting solutions that measure how many customers are in a store at a given time currently
provide much more utility.
When coupled with sales data, these solutions provide retailers with sales conversion rates for stores and
individual departments, feeding analytical solutions that help retailers determine if they are overstaffed,
understaffed or simply have their employees placed in the wrong parts of the store.
However, retailers should keep abreast of advances in location-based technology, both to understand
more about shopper movements and traffic patterns and to monitor employee activities. “Five years from
now, we may not even be talking about punching in to a clock on the wall, because employees will be
‘clocking in’ via mobile phones and GPS location-based technologies,” says Clements. Such tools “open up
an incredible world of possibilities, such as seamless or transparent WFM and automation throughout the
retail enterprise.” He adds that while neither the retail industry nor WFM technologies are at this stage
yet, “this is the direction we’re moving in.” n
RIS Roadmap Series | Roadmap to Workforce Management 2.0 | 11
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 11
5/25/11 4:51 PM
RIS ROADMAP SERIES
Workforce Management 2.0
About Kronos
Kronos helps organizations across a variety of industries manage their most valuable, and expensive,
strategic asset – their workforce. How? By giving them the tools they need to help them control labor
costs. Minimize compliance risk. And improve workforce productivity. The easy-to-own workforce
management solutions from Kronos make complete automation and high-quality information a reality.
Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring and labor
analytics solutions give Kronos customers the edge they need to compete in the global marketplace.
With thousands of installations in organization of all sizes — including over half the Fortune 1000®
— we’re proving workforce management doesn’t have to be so hard. Put Kronos for Retail to work for
you: (800) 225-1561; www.kronos.com/retail.
About Reflexis
Reflexis workforce management/task execution solutions help retailers execute their strategy flawlessly
and uncover profit. The integrated Reflexis platform of labor budgeting/forecasting/scheduling, time and
attendance, task management, vendor management, and KPI/compliance solutions enables retailers to
align store labor/activities to corporate goals and institutionalize best-practice response to real-time
metrics. Reflexis customers, many of which are Top 250 global retailers, have reported dramatic improvements in store-level compliance with corporate strategies; higher productivity of merchandising, field,
and store management; and increased sales and profitability. Reflexis Systems, Inc. is privately held
and headquartered in Dedham, Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.reflexisinc.com. Follow
Reflexis on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
About Saba
Saba (NASDAQ:SABA)provides a unified set of People Cloud Applications including enterprise learning,
talent management, and collaboration solutions delivered through the Saba People Cloud. Today’s peopledriven enterprises are using Saba’s solutions to mobilize and engage people around new strategies and
initiatives, align and connect people to accelerate the flow of business, and cultivate, capture, and share
individual and collective knowhow to effectively compete and succeed. Saba’s premier customer base
includes major global organizations and industry leaders in financial services, life sciences and healthcare,
high tech, automotive and manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, packaged goods, and public sector
organizations. Saba’s solutions are underpinned by global services capabilities and partnerships encompassing strategic consulting, comprehensive implementation services, and ongoing worldwide support.
Headquartered in Redwood Shores, California, Saba has offices on five continents. For more information,
please visit http://www.saba.com/saba-people-systems/solutions-by-industry/retail.aspx or call
1-877-SABA-101 or 1-650-779-2791.
RoadMp_WFM_May23.indd 12
5/25/11 4:51 PM