Running a retail operation is hard enough without even the thought of managing your workforce. You have office and shop-floor staff working different shifts, some full-time, others part-time, and additional seasonal staff when required. All that time and attendance and payroll tracking is time intensive for the retail manager, taking you away from important other duties that might help you increase sales and profits.
The good news is game-changing, hi-tech help is at hand for progressive retailers. Keeping on top of your sales and workforce has never been easier thanks to modern time and attendance management software and HR systems. Now, you can pull all your key information into one central database, allowing for easy scheduling, reporting and forecasting. You’ll spend less time but get more out of your workforce management, a win-win situation that no retailer can afford to miss.
How can time and attendance software help retailers?
The benefits are many, but here are the top six ways time and attendance systems will drive efficiency and profit.
1. Meet workforce demands – Nothing about retail is consistent. You have peaks and troughs in your trading. A shop, for example, will have busy days like Saturdays dwarfing a quieter Monday or Tuesday. Further, you have busier times of day, such as mid-week lunchtimes for town or city centre stores.
Time and attendance software keeps track of everything for you: when your team is working and for how long. It’s scalable to adjust automatically for your peak periods, tailored to the unique needs of your business.
2. Reduce payroll errors – Undertaking payroll work is time-consuming, but you have to be 100% accurate, or it could impact the morale or financial welfare of your staff.
Our time and attendance software integrates seamlessly with our payroll solution, working for salaried or hourly full-time and part-time workers.
3. Centralize management – Using HR software means all of your workforce data is centralized so you can handle all your HR issues in one place, even if you have multiple outlets.
Simplify your tasks, from managing training requests to scheduling staff holidays.
4. Customized reports – Even in retail, no two businesses are the same. Using time and attendance software, you can monitor your labour costs, configure your dashboards, indicators or alerts to display what you need, when you need it.
5. Accurate forecasts – Using historical data, you can accurately predict your staffing requirements during busy periods. In retail, for instance, you can quickly establish what staff numbers you’ll need over the build-up to Christmas and the optimal working patterns.
In turn, this helps you forecast your finances better.
6. Faster decision making – Having all this key data at your fingertips means you can make important decisions correctly and quickly, even when you’re under pressure.
Faster action is better for your workforce and frees up some of your valuable time to spend on growing your business.
Get started today
If you’re a forward-thinking retailer looking to modernize your workforce management, bringing crystal-clear accuracy to your planning and reporting while saving you time, get in touch with Mitrefinch today to find out more about our time and attendance solutions and HR systems.
