There is no doubt that in the retail industry a bad workforce scheduling generates inefficiency and a hidden cost that should not be ignored if you want to take care of your business profit and margin.
As we can see in this article, 91% of retailers recognized that customer-facing employees are what differentiates the store experience from the online experience. In conclusion, the most powerful asset that retailers have to influence the customer in their purchasing decision are the employees working on the store floor.
That’s why getting employee engagement is crucial in the retail industry. And to achieve that engagement, employees must feel comfortable in the company and be happy with their work schedules. Workforce Scheduling is very important for employee engagement, especially for hourly staff. In fact, their shift schedules are among their highest concerns.
According to Outmoded Scheduling Tools Result In Short-Staffed Retailers, 57% of retailers still establish hourly employee schedules manually, and 56% of employees receive their schedules a week or less in advance. Making it impossible for them to balance their working and personal lives.
Moreover, 75% of employers say the most difficult part of workforce scheduling is assigning shifts that accommodate both their staff’s availability and business needs. This difficulties handing the complexity is reflected in the result, 29% of employees say they rarely receive consistent work schedules.
More than twice as many 18-25 years old left their last hourly job due to receiving inconsistent schedules than people between the ages of 46-60 (35% vs. 16%). With Millennials recently claiming the largest share of the first world workforce (34% compared to Generation X’s 32% and Baby Boomers’ 31%), addressing these workforce scheduling deficiencies will become imperative to retailers bottom lines.
If you want to solve the problems raised about workforce scheduling in the retail sector, find out more about our intelligent workforce planning solution. A tool that seeks to combine employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and business profitability.
