In retail, managing a dynamic workforce efficiently is crucial for the smooth operation and success of your stores. As the business grows, so does the complexity of creating rosters, handling timesheets, managing leave requests, clocking breaks and capturing allowances. These challenges can become overwhelming for store managers, especially when relying on outdated systems or manual processes.
Many retailers struggle with common workforce management issues that lead to inefficiencies, increased costs, and reduced employee satisfaction. If you've found yourself dealing with frequent rostering errors, struggling to manage necessary allowances and breaks, or spending too much time on manual scheduling and payroll corrections, it may be time to consider a new approach.
In this article, we'll explore the key signs that indicate your retail business is ready for a new workforce management system. Let's dive into the most telling signs that it's time for an upgrade.
You’ve had under or over-staffed shifts due to rostering errors
All too commonly you find that you’ve got too many or not enough team members rostered for a particular shift. which can impact employee morale as well as your earnings for the day. Perhaps you’re using an outdated rostering template, or you’ve been given the rostering template from another store. Whatever the case may be, having consistent overs and unders can certainly impact the bottom line of the business.
In Rosterspace for example, you’re able to integrate your POS sales revenue, allowing you to run reports to see which shifts are likely to require more manpower. This data, along with forecasted labour costs and budgets can help when building out profitable, sustainable future rosters.
You find yourself struggling to figure out when to apply various rates
In retail, specifically under the General Retail Industry Award (GRIA), there are various allowances and penalties an employee may receive depending on the business operations, their type of employment and the shifts they have worked. Using a manual system or a simplistic workforce management system could mean that applicable penalties and allowances are not calculated accurately leading to underpayments or avoidable overpayments. Furthermore, the time taken to manually calculate the applicable rates would be immense, as each unique rostering or timesheet scenario would need to be reviewed against the award.
A good example of this is overtime, which is based on the number of shifts being worked across multiple weeks. It is almost impossible to identify, let alone calculate the required payments without a fit-for-purpose system which can factor in shift data from the current payroll period as well as past periods.
Using advanced workforce management systems like Rosterspace, penalties, overtime and allowances are configured during implementation, allowing the award interpreter to apply them automatically where needed by factoring in not only the award itself, but crucially the business’ own policies and operations standards.
Overlapping annual or sick leave requests have inadvertently left you short-staffed
The larger your retail operation, the more employees there are to oversee. In turn there is a higher rate of deviation from the standard roster due to planned and unplanned leave, leaving the operations team to fill more vacant shifts. It’s a constant balancing act to ensure that staffing levels are accurate. If you’re managing this process manually you may lose track of relevant paperwork and roster shifts to unavailable team members. Compounding this further, you may struggle to find an adequate last-minute fill-in for someone who has called in sick.
Enabling staff to submit their leave requests via multiple integrated channels and feed directly into the rostering tool enables approved annual leave requests to be visible when creating future rosters. It also shows managers what leave requests have been submitted but not yet approved. Add to this the ability for staff to specify their availability (and unavailability), and you begin to cut down on a large number of manual tasks.
You’re wasting time manually coordinating shift swap requests between workers
It’s common for people to not be able to work shifts. What shouldn’t be common is a time-consuming process to find a replacement. The ‘vacant shift workflow’ feature in Rosterspace enables store managers to simply fill vacant shifts with available and cost-effective alternatives. Eligible workers are sent a notification about a vacant shift and the first to respond and accept is rostered accordingly. Communication is handled via email or SMS so there is no calling around.
This also eliminates the need for workers to find their own replacement, which can have significant financial implications if the person who accepts the shift is pushed into overtime or is on a higher rate than the original worker.
Managers spending too much time on manual scheduling and timesheet approvals
Store managers or area managers in retail have a lot on their plates. Creating rosters and approving timesheets should be completed in an efficient and timely manner, but depending on the system being used, these tasks can eat into their workday and distract from other pressing tasks.
In Rosterspace, the roster template is a great place to start for scheduling. Simple drag and drop functionality allows you to quickly develop a roster or a variety of roster scenarios. You’re also able to create rosters in advance with accurate cost control, which gives store managers the flexibility to batch their roster development work.
Furthermore, the ‘approvals by exception’ function means that managers must only review timesheets that deviate from the roster, which significantly cuts down their workload.
You’ve had to spend time fixing a payroll error that resulted from paper-based time-keeping practices
Referring to the issue of manually calculating penalties, overtime and allowances, it’s a perfect recipe for creating underpayments that the payroll team will later need to find and fix to ensure payroll compliance. The time and resources required by the payroll team to remediate issues can be immense and can take focus away from other tasks.
Payroll teams know what to look for in a workforce management system, and they understand the challenges faced using current systems. Leveraging this knowledge is key to sourcing and implementing a new workforce management system. To find out why it’s important for payroll to be involved check out this article.
You're using a group messaging app to communicate with staff about store rosters
There are several reasons why using a group messaging app to communicate with staff is ill-advised, but a major reason is that they simply aren’t built for business-based scheduling. It’s also incredibly easy for staff to not see messages and therefore miss shift assignments. This can happen when multiple conversations are happening at once and when there are too many people in the chat leading to lengthy threads and people disengaging.
An employee self-service portal enables each employee to see their roster, accept last minute shift requests, apply for leave and update their availability. In Rosterspace, when a store manager builds a roster, all the relevant information about an employee's availability is considered by the system, leading to an efficient and informed process for everyone involved.
If you’ve taken the time to read this far, it’s likely a sign that your organisation is ready for a new workforce management system. One that understands not only the retail sector in Australia, but also the nuances of the General Retail Industry Award.
Rosterspace is an Australian workforce management software made for advance award interpretation and complex rostering needs. To find out more head to www.rosterspace.com.au.
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