Specialty Retailer
About the company: This specialty retailer employs over 15,000 people in over 1,500 stores in 50 US states. They also operate mall stores in about 1000 shopping center and malls nationwide. This retailer generates just under $2 billion in revenue annually.
Region: Americas.
WFM Challenge: With only a few associates in most locations, per shift, it was critical to make sure associates were working during peak hours. This also meant these associates needed to be focused on selling activities and not administrative tasks, like creating schedules. Having done okay during the recession, this retailer was continuing to look to find ways to contain costs moving forward. They also wanted to find a way to connect labor to sales and customer service. Most notably, they wanted to connect labor to sales increase and improved customer service.
Why Axsium: This retailer had a selected a workforce management software package a few years ago, but there was an overall lack of confidence that the retailer could achieve the needed return on investment. The retailer looked for a workforce management expert that could better quantify the value of WFM for its stores and create a credible roadmap, giving it the impetus to move forward. Axsium was selected based on its reputation for helping other retailers overcome similar challenges, extensive experience with the products under consideration, and methodology and tools that helped accelerate the entire process.
Solution: Axsium developed a Solution Strategy, linking WFM to their overall corporate strategy, considering the impact of WFM software and how that would impact operations. Axsium also evaluated the current labor model, understanding what it looked like and how that differed from what was really happening within the stores. Using Axsium’s Business Case, this retailer had a clear understanding of where they would see returns if they went forward with the implementation. Axsium developed a Balanced Scorecard for this retailer, giving them a baseline of where they were, operationally, and criteria that they could measure against to validate the success of the project – tangible metrics. Axsium led the Vendor Selection, and worked as a blended team during the Implementation.
Project Outcome: Today, this project is still in the final stages of implementation, and this retailer’s investment in strategy before the implementation is propelling them to success. With clear ROI simply based on an improved level of compliance and slightly tighter controls around people clocking to their schedules, the system will pay for itself in 23 months.