From The Editor

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By Erin Harris, associate editor

When asked to identify the steps of the employee life cycle that present the greatest opportunities to ensure the workforce is aligned with customer service strategy, retailers typically list the following:

• Recruiting
• Hiring/On-boarding
• Budgeting/Planning
• Forecasting/Scheduling
• Time and Attendance
• Task Management
• Skill and Training Management
• Labor Analytics
• Retention

Indeed, the above list of opportunities is critical to managing your workforce effectively. With regard to employee retention, the more invested you can make your employees into the business by giving them visibility into their statistics and their productivity, the more loyal they become. Workforce management (WFM) solutions aid this process by allowing retailers to create schedules and track time across the portfolio of stores. Keeping your employees happy is no less important than a satisfied customer as the latter is often the result of the former. Visibility and closeness to information makes managing your single largest controllable expense easier. Yet, somewhat surprisingly, a large number of retailers have not yet embraced the value of technology to support scheduling and managing the workforce, which are crucial keys to keeping your workforce happy and on your roster. Big-box supermarket retailers have made the strongest inroads with WFM technology by embracing automated scheduling, task management, etc.

Whether you're a GMA (general merchandise and apparel) retailer, a grocer, a specialty retailer, etc., you know that retail has been forever plagued with a revolving-door workforce. Ask yourself what you're doing to retain your employees. The list of features and opportunities available in WFM solutions work symbiotically in that proper recruiting, hiring, and training mechanisms should render longer-term employees. And, employee retention is just one of the many facets of workforce management. The May 2011 issue of Integrated Solutions For Retailers will feature a special report on workforce management. I don't want to give away the store here, but the report will detail how WFM has expanded beyond time and attendance to include customer relationship management (CRM), absenteeism, workload planning, engineered labor standards, and a slew of others in the form retailers need (on-premise and on-demand). In the meantime, if you haven't already, familiarize yourself with the benefits of employee training and retention programs, and let technology support your efforts.