New Realities Of Retail Workforce Management: Myths Vs. Facts

Retail has enjoyed impressive expansion over the past two decades, reaping the benefits of growth in consumer spending, gross domestic product, free trade, offshore production, cheap transportation, credit availability and IT innovation. But analysts including AT Kearney are coming to regard the entire period as unprecedented, predicting that as the recession wanes it will be replaced by a "new normal" of slower growth and substantial shifts in demand and sourcing strategies.

While it can be difficult to think kindly of a recession, it can be considered an opportunity. Retailers are seizing this transformational moment to re-engineer and rewire the way they manage and leverage their workforces, a basic pillar of retail. Deploying workforce management (WFM) can help retailers successfully address today's most pressing needs, including cost reduction, ROI and measurably improved performance, while instilling practices that will serve them tomorrow and beyond.