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By Erin Harris, associate editor

The May 2011 issue of Integrated Solutions For Retailers featured a special report on workforce management (WFM). The report highlighted how WFM has matured greatly in recent years thanks to improved tactics and solutions, which provide many opportunities for retailers to drive operational excellence. Our report referenced research from RSR and Aberdeen Group and detailed how WFM has expanded beyond time & attendance to include scheduling, forecasting, customer relationship management (CRM), on-boarding, absenteeism, employee training, workload planning, engineered labor standards, etc. When conducting my own research for the report, I interviewed a few executives in the WFM space to get their unbiased take on how WFM shapes retail. Their responses were thoughtful and offered points that you should consider when creating or updating your own WFM strategy. Here's a sampling of the Q&A sessions.

Why should C-level executives be aware of the store-level's day-to-day tasks, and why is WFM crucial to making that happen?

David Andrews, director of marketing communications, Reflexis: In discussions with analysts and retailers, it is apparent that at many large retail chains, C-level executives such as the CIO and the CFO are not aware of how difficult their companies make it for stores to execute their retail strategy. At many large retail companies, functional areas such as marketing, loss prevention, merchandising, HR, and others communicate tasks to stores through email, voice mail, and even the fax machine. The company lacks visibility into the overall workload being sent to the stores, but you can bet that each functional area thinks that their task ought to have priority. The store and department managers get bombarded on a daily basis by these communications, which are not prioritized in alignment with overall company strategy. So the store managers, who have too much work to do, pick and choose tasks, resulting in uneven execution across the chain.

Meanwhile, back at HQ, the people who have spent significant time and money planning a new product launch, for example, have no visibility into which stores have done the launch correctly and which have not. This is no way to run a company. Never in the world's history have consumers been better armed with product and pricing information. Yet many retailers still force their stores to use out-of-date email, fax, paper, and phone systems, which are totally incapable of letting headquarters view overall store workload, shift low priority projects to less busy times, measure compliance levels in real time, respond to exceptions and KPIs (key performance indicators) using best practices, and automatically generate workforce schedules that factor in all the work that has to be done in the stores while complying with employee preferences, labor laws, and business/union rules. C-level executives are asking their store managers to bring a knife to a gunfight. This approach is unsustainable, and quite frankly, unfair to the store employees. The information consumers have at their fingertips is going to increase. If retailers don't give consumers what they want, consumers are easily capable of finding an alternative. And, this is true of any retailer, whether grocery, every day low price, luxury, apparel, car parts, and so on. I can't think of a single category of retail that is immune to this trend.

What are the benefits of absence management?

Charles DeWitt, VP enterprise marketing, Kronos: There are a number of benefits of absence management, as it allows companies to manage the employees who are not there.

A. The creation of a fair and equitable employment atmosphere. When certain employees are chronically absent or late, it takes a toll on the rest of the employees who have to pick up the slack. However, many retailers do not have absence policies in place because they have no way of tracking or enforcing them. In addition, store managers often do not take action against late/absent employees for fear that employees will claim they are being treated unfairly — that other employees "get away with" being sick or late. Absence management flags potential problems, which makes it easy for managers to track them. It also automates the process and paperwork associated with corrective action. This allows retailers to uniformly address absence-related problems across their organizations.

B. Improved customer satisfaction. There is often a direct correlation between employee absence and customer service. Those employees that are most often out sick or arrive late typically provide a level of service that is subpar to what their employer and their customers expect. Managing absences allows retailers to take corrective action against chronically late/absent employees. These employees will either course-correct their behavior or look for employment elsewhere. This ensures that only the associate who want to be there are there to help your customers.

C. Reduction in systemic overscheduling. Often retailers with a large number of employees per store, such as in grocery or big box retail, will simply overstaff by as much as 10% to accommodate expected but unpredictable call outs. It is easier for the store manager to overstaff like this than it is to rush around at the beginning of a shift to try to call a spare person in. Absence management ensures employees with unjustified call outs are held accountable, call out levels fall, and managers can reduce systemic overstaffing.

D. FMLA-related leave tracking. Tracking intermittent leave associated with the Family Medical Leave Act can be extraordinarily difficult, and as a result, the policy is often abused. An automated absence management system streamlines the leave tracking process and automatically handles the complex rules associated with administering FMLA. This not only has hard administrative related savings, but also has the softer benefit associated with ensuring fairness and equity in the workplace.

How does WFM aid other aspects of retail (i.e. inventory, warehouse management, etc.)?

Noel Goggin, senior VP and GM, Retail, RedPrairie: Let's begin with conversion rates and transaction sizes. It has been proven that if you have exactly the right people in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, you can have a significant impact on converting a shopper to a buyer — and moreover increasing the transaction value (i.e. the buyer buys more and has a better customer experience). Another area is compliance and alignment with strategic initiatives. Workforce management includes task management, which drives strategic initiatives for execution in the store. Managers know exactly what needs to be done within their store, contents are personalized by store, and the compliance or execution can be tracked from corporate and from the field. Depending on the retailer, this will drive execution levels around merchandising initiatives, inventory, and customer service among others that ultimately result in increased customer service levels, reduced costs, and higher revenues.

Why is CRM so important in WFM?

John Orr, chief strategy officer, Dayforce: CRM and WFM solutions have the capacity to provide a tremendous compliment to each other and provide exponential value. Consider the outbound programs as well as the customer centricity capabilities and levels that we have not seen before. For example, consider a promotion that is complimented by visuals and merchandise. These programs can be launched and executed using outbound CRM programs targeted very specifically at a segment of the consumer market. A key component of the programs' success are the people that have to create the visuals, set the floor, and be available with the skills and coverage to service the demand that the program generates. The integration of CRM with a comprehensive WFM solution, which includes task management, ensures store execution, and optimizes the coverage to the traffic, will enable organizations to capture the conversion levels optimally.

We'd like to hear how your retail operation handles workforce management. Email me at erin.harris@jamesonpublishing.com.