Shopko Invests in its Workforce and Future
"We conduct customer surveys to measure our progress and we believe that this system is one more tool to help us deliver on our long-term commitment to customer satisfaction," says Jim Anderson, director of store systems for the retailer.
The system he is referring to was recently rolled out to the stores. It is a point-and-click labor management, scheduling, human resources software program that interfaces with financial systems at the corporate level.
The software, developed by TimeCorp, a VeriFone Inc. company, is a new way for ShopKo's associates and managers to balance service levels and budget targets. And although Anderson says it's too early to quantify the success of the implementation, "We have seen some positive results."
The findings he hints about are in the efficiencies gained at the store level by forecasting — simply by being able to better match customer traffic patterns with associates' schedules.
"What we are really trying to do is have the right labor at the right time to meet our customer service needs. Having the right number of cashiers, for example, is one of the biggest challenges [we face]," he says. He emphasizes however, that beyond basic scheduling efficiencies and forecasting capabilities, ShopKo expects it will be able to reduce payroll dollars without compromising customer service. "While it's too early to know the results, we hope to translate the payroll savings into better value for our customers and increased profitability," he explains.
With the previous system the retailer had in place, certain functions were not possible. "We had been doing time and attendance, and capturing the time-clock data for several years, but it was nonintegrated software," he says, adding "The labor management portion of the software was a different process altogether. We also had multiple software systems for labor planning, human resources and payroll. Today, we are running fully integrated labor management software."
Corporate management and store associates are very pleased with the new system, according to Anderson. "Associates like that we are better able to schedule their work according to their preferred times and accommodate their requests for time off. Corporately, there will be many benefits to having store payroll and human resources systems linked with financial systems," he says.
"What we are really trying to do is have the right labor at the right time to meet our customer service needs… there will also be many benefits to having store payroll and human resources systems linked with financial systems," he says.
In fact, Shelley Johnson, project manager for the labor management initiative at the company, says that with a little training, store managers and associates who had never used a PC found the TimeCorp labor management applications easy to use.
So far, the implementation also has reduced workforce turnover and has improved retention rates, according to the executives. The next phase in implementation of the TimeCorp Labor Management suite of products will take ShopKo to even greater heights and a full company-wide roll out, says Anderson.
"We are looking forward to the corporate planning systems as well as the budgeting component. We will be implementing total store scheduling from our pharmacy to our optical center. Then we will also bring on distribution centers, the return center and the ProVantage division," he explains, noting that by keeping the associate happy, you keep the customer. "And the third component, the shareholder, will also be kept happy," he predicts.
Isabelle Sender