Nowadays, there is a huge variety of products and services available on the market. This requires brands to stand out from their competitors, namely through customer experience. One way to satisfy your customers is to provide them with excellent service, but this is only possible if your employees are also satisfied.
Employee satisfaction is increasingly associated with the popular idea of work-life balance, but this balance depends on the organization's schedule management. So, in order to ensure "the right person, in the right place, at the right time", here’s how you can optimize your teams’ schedule management in just 6 steps:
1. Needs modeling
Knowing organizational and business models, based on historical information, in order to identify the key drivers and variables that impact workforce need. These drivers vary from business to business and may include customer arrivals at the store, article transactions at the stores’ front office, produced cubic meters at the Distribution Center, received calls at the Call Center, etc.
2. Needs forecasting
Needs forecasting, adapted to the reality of each business, using historical data, which reflects the activities identified in the previous stage, and different predictive algorithms. The forecasted activities are then converted into human resource needs.
3. Resource allocation
Schedule definition according to the availability of human resources, contracts’ specificities, labor laws, business rules, and the forecasted needs.
4. Application of polyvalences
Maximizing the efficiency of resource allocation, while minimizing excess workforce in one department and lack thereof in others. Polyvalent movements allow you to allocate an employee to a department that is not their priority, adapting the schedule management to the variation of needs throughout the day.
5. Measuring and monitoring needs
Extraction of information, in the form of dashboards and reports, in order to simplify analysis of results and support decision making.
6. Staff adjustments and contract mix
Estimation of the ideal staff and respective mix of contracts, which responds in an efficient and balanced way to the identified needs of each department or business unit.
What are the benefits for your business?
· Improved customer experience à Store operations, such as replenishment and price updating, and customer service are executed at the right time. In addition, employee satisfaction leads to increased employee productivity, making them attend to customer needs in a better and faster manner.
· Cost reduction à It ensures that there is no excess or shortage of resources, and that employees are allocated where they are really needed. This minimizes not only the opportunity cost, but also the cost of excess resources.
· Increased sales à Having the resources to execute all store operations at the right times ensures that the necessary tasks for an effective store operation are carried out, ensuring more availability to accompany the customer during their buying journey. The improvement of the customer's shopping experience translates into an immediate return and the guarantee of a recurring return.
The best part is that all these processes are available in the Tlantic Workforce Management solution. It may seem like a complex issue, but we are here to help you. Talk to one of our experts and find out how we can add value to your business!
Hugo Nogueira, Director Product Manager