2025 was a year in which retailers had to fight for stability. The tight labor market, higher costs, and more complex regulations were daily realities. Finding and retaining staff remained a bottleneck, while customers had higher expectations of service and experience. At the same time, trends such as AI support and digital planning tools set the tone for the future. Technical solutions were no longer a luxury, but a necessity to remain competitive.
As a retailer or planner, you felt it: you had fewer people to do more work, you had to think harder about your costs, and you had to comply with increasingly strict rules. This created opportunities for smart tools, automation, and better insights into your planning and costs.
Below you will find the 5 most read blogs of the year, with a short summary and a direct link to the full article.
This blog shows that laws and regulations are not something you "do on the side," but an integral part of your planning. The Working Hours Act (ATW), the WAB, and collective labor agreement rules determine what you can and cannot do. Many planners encounter this on a daily basis when they have to create flexible schedules for different teams. The article provides practical tips on how to make compliance part of your planning and how to prevent errors with automatic checks.
👉 Read the entire blog: Stay compliant with legislation in workforce planning
This article is about gaining insight into and control over your labor costs. Without real-time insight, you are constantly playing catch-up. The blog explains why you should not assess your labor costs retrospectively, but monitor them in real time to avoid surprises. Practical steps help you to plan, manage, and anticipate better.
👉 Read the entire blog: How much control do you really have over your labor costs? | R&R WFM
In this blog, you will see how tight margins, staff shortages, and rising costs are forcing supermarkets to work smarter. Staff planning is no longer an administrative task, but a strategic choice. Technology allows you to link staff capacity to costs and expected traffic in real time. This prevents overspending and wasted time.
👉 Read the entire blog: Supermarket trends 2025: control over staff and costs
Many organizations work with separate systems: planning here, HR there, payroll somewhere else. This leads to fragmented data, errors, and wasted time. This blog explains why an integrated workforce management platform helps you maintain an overview, gain real-time insight into planning and costs, and make faster decisions based on data rather than gut feeling.
👉 Read the full blog: Growth without chaos: why one platform makes all the difference
Budgeting based on gut feeling doesn't work when costs are under pressure. In this blog, you will learn how to budget personnel costs in a structured and task-oriented manner. This will help you avoid waste and ensure that your planning matches actual demand. It will also make your organization more agile and your budget more predictable.
👉 Read the entire blog: Stop gambling: how to budget for personnel costs
2025 has shown that retailers who want to grow must invest in insight and control. Technology and data are no longer a trend, but a basic requirement. Those who start using real-time planning tools, compliance checks, and integrated systems now will have a head start in 2026. We have learned a lot, made many adjustments, and often made changes. With these lessons, we can now look ahead with confidence.
2026 will be the year in which you not only respond to change, but can stay ahead of it.
