The Hidden Costs of Post-it Notes: Overcoming the Limits of Traditional Scheduling

By Joe Olson, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Workforce Management, Empower

Read Part 1 | Part 2

Post-it notes. They’re some of the best reminders for to-dos and deadlines. But when it comes to scheduling in a retail environment, a post-it note can be an indicator of limitations and hidden costs. In the finale of this three-part series examining retail workforce management, I will review why post-it notes can help you recognize shortcomings in your labor scheduling process, and explore how automatic scheduling can help eliminate the constraints that lead to unnecessary expense.

Unpleasant Reminders

Whether they’re framing a computer monitor, in a notebook, or covering a manager’s desk, post-it notes are a common sight in a retail store; and they can seem like a manager’s best friend. Likewise, some store back offices may be covered in request and availability forms and paperwork in lieu of post-it notes. In any case, these little bits of paper have become a critical tool for many of the administrative tasks that store managers are responsible for, not the least of which is scheduling. When it comes to store scheduling however, these post-it notes are frequently an indicator of poor process, or a lack of automation. They represent a sign of the limits that traditional scheduling puts on stores and store management.  And they signal the potential for negative impact on profitability and productivity.

The most frequent post-its we see in stores are for time-off requests, future availability changes, special tasks that need to be completed in a given week, and new hire start dates. But these are all regular parts of the schedule creation process.  Or at least they should be.

Often the root cause of the problem is that the schedule was not built correctly the first time, which results in the manager editing the schedule after it’s already created.  And while this may sound like a simple enough thing, making a change to the schedule, it’s anything but simple.  In our experience, one request to change the schedule generates about five additional schedule edits.  Each seemingly simple request that is documented on a post-it note results in a literal cascade of additional work, even after a schedule has already been created.

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