Investing in tools to manage labour during busy holiday season

Leading rota, people and payroll tool provider S4labour has urged independent convenience and forecourt operators to invest in tools that can help them manage their labour throughout the busy holiday season.

Some of the challenges facing retailers will include requests for time off or additional hours, as well as scheduling according to big events that are likely to see people get together, like summer sporting events, barbecues and local fetes.

“Walking the line of having enough staff whilst not overspending on a labour budget can be difficult,” Garry Craft, S4labour, managing director for convenience stores, said.

“The first step for successful labour management is to use tools and insights that give visibility of historic sales data and labour spending. Looking at week-by-week and day-by-day labour spending will give more insight into how retailers should be planning rotas, compared to just looking at quarterly totals.”

It can become increasingly difficult to balance the needs of shoppers and teams as well as thinking about profits and compliance when experiencing different patterns of trade. So, for independent retailers, it is well worth investing in tools that can help them do the work efficiently, cost-effectively and without stress, he added.

The rota, people and payroll tool provider also stated that having this visibility of labour spend, particularly before it is spent, will avoid unexpected costs for retailers.

“Circulating rotas earlier will help employees visualise shift plans easily, and as a result, any problems are much easier to spot. Synchronising rotas with the holiday calendar allows managers to see staff availability on key dates,” Craft said.

“Maintaining effective communication with staff regarding rotas is an important follow-up step. This can be made simple through an app or system that serves as one point of truth. Managers can organise shift patterns and staff can volunteer for open opportunities, which ensures demand is always met and everyone is on the same page.

“We appreciate that location will affect holiday planning, as those in tourist locations will be up over the summer, and different stores will trade in different ways. We S4labour recommend having tools in place that work around individual business needs.

“There are tools out there that make it easy for owners to manage holidays, create balanced schedules and check rotas against time and attendance clock-in and out times.”

Pete Patel, winner of the Convenience Chain of the Year at the 2021 Asian Trader Awards, uses S4labour in running his five Costcutter stores and a Bargain Booze outlet, and he says the solution makes the job easier for him.

“S4labour creates my payroll, it’s so simple, confirm the hours once a week and that’s it. Everything is then automated thereafter. For me, the real advantage of having S4labour is that it just takes care of everything, from staff rotas to the payroll systems,” he said.

“The investment into S4labour was well worth it because it saves me a lot of time and makes it more accurate as well.”

Five steps to successful holiday management from S4labour:

Get visibility of what you have been spending so that you can start to see the areas you might be overspending. The only way to do this is with a system that gives week-by-week and day-by-day insight into what you are spending, rather than just looking at totals for the quarter.

Get visibility of what you are spending before you have spent it, so you are not burdened with any unexpected costs. Seeing your costs as you build the rota has a significant impact on efficiencies, and you can avoid finding out too late from the accountant that you have overspent.

Ensure you are paying for actual hours worked. Benchmark data shows that the introduction of digital time and attendance saves on average 15 minutes per employee per week, compared to relying on inaccurate timesheets.

Make time savings where you can. S4labour are experts in reducing admin, which can save hours when taken out of the back office and management, and returned to the shop floor.

Ensure holiday calculation is fair, accurate and compliant. Give your teams transparency and visibility of holiday accrual using a team app.