In the face of slow consumer spend and the rise of competitive cross-channel shopping alternatives, retailers are under pressure to increase labor management visibility and effectiveness on an organization-wide basis. Forty five percent (45%) of top performing retailers are using an organization-wide workforce management approach to formulate strategic long-term workforce management decision-making. The impetus for this centralization comes directly from the desire to enhance the customer shopping experience in the face of increased competition (55%), according to the Aberdeen Group report, Enterprise Workforce Management for Retailers: Enhanced Customer and Operational Productivity. The research from Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company, details the business benefits derived from upgraded enterprise workforce management-based internal process optimization.
According to Aberdeen data, as a means to increase margins and customer retention, as well as decrease labor turnover rate, core workforce management functions are being driven from the HQ level. In fact, 82% of top retailers are working to make time and attendance a multi-departmental initiative, compared to 58% of average, and 17% of lagging organizations. Additionally, 64% of these same out-performing organizations are making scheduling a multi-initiative compared to 46% of average, and 16% of lagging organizations.
Aberdeen data also shows that more than two thirds of top performing retailers are sharing store-level demand data with the entire enterprise (70%). Additionally, 60% of these same top retailers are reversing this process to provide the store-level with access to important fulfillment data, such as product date of delivery and shipment order status.
More information on CRM can be found at www.CRMindustry.com.
