PARSIPPANY, NJ--(Marketwire - February 2, 2011) - Increasing sales and delivering superior customer service while managing a diverse and fluctuating workforce continues to challenge retail organizations. In CyberShift's latest complimentary white paper, "Specialty Retail Workforce Management," the global provider of workforce management and expense management software and services, shares strategies to help specialty retailers manage their second largest controllable expense after merchandise -- their payroll/labor spend.
As specialty retailers strive to be leaner and more efficient, workforce management technology initiatives are necessary to achieve greater operational and service efficiencies. Dependent on front-line labor, specialty retailers look to workforce management solutions that integrate automated scheduling along with time and attendance, absence and leave management, analytics and compliance features. Efficient retail workforce management focuses on optimizing the workforce to maximize store efficiency while minimizing budget variance and providing a positive shopping experience. As detailed in CyberShift's white paper, by focusing on efficient workforce utilization that features accurate labor forecasting and demand scheduling as strategic requirements, retailers can keep their customers happy, which is a key driver of profitability.
"As a result of the economic climate, consumers are being more practical in their spending habits, with a focus on what they need rather than what they want. This means that specialty retailers have to differentiate themselves from mass market stores by delivering more personalized service at exceptional value, which goes beyond just having the lowest prices," stated Morné Swart, CyberShift's vice president of Product Management. "Specialty retailers must adjust and respond to this change in consumer behavior by ensuring that the most qualified employees are available to spend face or phone time with customers on demand."
As the white paper explains, trends based solely on past sales performance are often no longer indicators of future performance. Through the use of workforce management solutions, retailers can use established metrics, such as average sales per hour, units sold and average dollar transactions per employee, to determine the right employee mix, which can boost productivity and reduce costs. By integrating information such as the number of in-store customers at any given time or the phone and online orders expected at certain hours, automated solutions enable specialty retail organizations to optimize schedules to achieve greater productivity and deliver higher levels of customer satisfaction.
To be competitive, specialty retailers must take advantage of scheduling and time and attendance solutions that can create more efficient operations. Regardless of an organization's size, these two workforce functions are critical to creating efficient operations throughout the organization. As examined in the white paper, effective workforce management solutions integrate selective labor scheduling with sales forecasting, time and attendance capture, absence management and workload allocation, which work together to meet the needs of managers, employees and, ultimately, customers.
With the continued growth of online shopping -- U.S. shoppers spent $21.95 billion online during the first 40 days of the November/December 2010 holiday season, according to data from comScore -- specialty retailers must be able to effectively and proactively manage online and in-store relationships to remain competitive. To capitalize on this growing channel, retailers must implement proper staffing initiatives and an efficient workforce management system to handle the additional tasks and requirements of running a successful online operation in addition to their brick and mortar store locations.
CyberShift's white paper also includes details about automated solutions' ability to minimize risk by ensuring compliance with federal wage and hour laws and variations at the state level on everything from the timing and frequency of breaks to how many minors can be scheduled. The self-service aspects of a workforce management system also empower managers and employees while enabling more rapid and widespread adoption of the system and immediate productivity gains. A best-in-class workforce solution that is intuitive and easy to use with little or no training helps deliver a better return on the technology investment, according to the white paper.
"Many specialty retailers are under-invested in technology that can help them deploy, manage and optimize their workforce. The retailers that have already automated their scheduling and time and attendance systems have achieved better cost control and an optimized workforce that better meets shopper demand," commented Swart. "CyberShift has developed cutting-edge solutions that are uniquely suited to meet the needs of retail organizations, no matter the size of the operation. Our approach helps companies improve overall performance and profitability, achieve rapid time-to-benefit, and increase both employee and customer satisfaction."
To assist specialty retailers with their workforce management challenges, CyberShift has made its complimentary Specialty Retail Workforce Management white paper available for download at www.cybershift.com/specialty_retail. For additional information about CyberShift, please contact: 1-877-274-4381 or email sales@cybershift.com.
About CyberShift
CyberShift specializes in providing leading organizations with best-in-class workforce and employee spend management solutions to reduce costs, mitigate compliance risk, and increase productivity. CyberShift solutions help organizations of all sizes address complex policies and increase the effectiveness of their workforce in delivering products or services to their customers every day. CyberShift's comprehensive product suite is unique in providing multi-national capabilities for employee scheduling, time and attendance, contingent labor management, absence management, expense management and solutions for the mobile workforce. CyberShift manages over 1.5 million transactions daily through our highly secure SaaS delivery model, and is also available as an On Premise license, putting the power of choice in the hands of the customer. For more information, please call (877) 274-4381 or visit www.cybershift.com.