All you need for effective Workforce Management (WFM)

SWL provides a comprehensive suite of solutions for productivity improvement and Workforce Management that are solely focused on improving operational effectiveness.

By effective we mean a better financial return from your workforce, of which several factors heavily contribute including being more productive, more lean, more consistent, more certain, and better aligned to both corporate strategy and customer demand.

Simper, lighter solutions

Being simpler, ‘lighter’, and typically with lower investment fees than traditional Workforce Management systems, SWL’s solutions enable almost instant implementation, faster acceptance through ease of use, and in return quicker benefit achievement and return on investment.

Going one step further to deliver greater effectiveness

SWL is able to go further than modelling, budgeting, and planning your staff shifts and activities and then measuring their compliance; we also help customers identify what the direct financial consequences are of their activities and in-store events... and then help them analyse the results and plan to make further productivity improvements, with all opportunities sized and forecasted in financial terms.

It’s a continuous cycle of effectiveness improvement.

Measure

Firstly, using the SWL-EN3RGISE suite of productivity improvement services, we help customers understand how all the time is spent in their stores. We measure and quantify how long it currently takes to do operational tasks. We help customers understand which tasks add value to the business and which ones don’t. Next we review and remodel all key processes to ensure service consistency.

Model

Drawing on the labour standards derived from the ‘Measure’ phase, we then devise comprehensive labour models that are used in the optimisation of labour budgets and profiles.

Budget

Through SWL-SMARTBUDGET, quickly devise demand-based estate-wide labour budgets, built from the top-down or bottom-up. Hours and cost budgets are produced at enterprise level and can be broken down to individual tasks as required. What-if models are included to view the effects of business change, as is the conversion of budget by month and week so stores have clearer guidance on how to split the allocated hours. Equitable budgeting is assured through the consideration of relevant influencers specific to each store, from trading profiles through to key characteristics.

Furthermore, the budget can be imported into the capacity management system within SWL-EVENTMANAGER, so management are always aware of resource availability for the execution of various in-store events.

Profile

With weekly hours and costs generated for all stores, through SWL-PROFILER these hours are then calculated into workloads by week / day / time of day and sent out to store managers who can then plot staff against these ideal workloads in order to get an accurate staff-to-workload fit. The system has a simple interface that enables instant identification of where store colleagues are above or below the workload, and by how much.

Through the staff profiler, workloads can also be re-forecasted by store management if deemed necessary.

Execute

With accurate ‘business as usual’ activity budgets and profiles in place, central teams can then enable clear planning, smooth communication and effective execution of all non business as usual store tasks, for example in-store promotions set-up, via SWL-EVENTMANAGER. All event plans go through a common governance process to ensure only the most profitable and strategically-aligned events are approved. The solution includes a real-time feedback loop to report store event compliance, and facilitate learning and improvements.

Report

Rather than just reporting on in-store compliance to event plans, SWL-EVENTMANAGER also reports on financial consequences by site to (a) understand how much non-compliance will cost the business, and (b) enable fast recovery.

Additionally, via SWL-T&A, we gather data on actual staff attendance and report exceptions against the previously devised staff profile. This delivers fast cost savings through a more accurate staff payroll and reduced admin time.

Sustain

Finally, to help customers consolidate competitive edge, SWL’s productivity experts can visit stores and assess the execution of all in-store operational activities to check they have been carried out as effectively as possible, that they truly added value to the business, and that they stayed within the correct budgeted amount of time. Based on the findings, the labour model is reviewed and amended in order to further optimise the budget and protect the staff-to-workload match, whatever the economic terrain.

Quick solutions links:

• Retail Productivity Improvement
• Staff Profiling
• Labour Budgeting
• Event Management
• Time & Attendance
• Age Checking Compliance