Major savings on labour costs, more control over operational processes and a strong improvement in productivity.
These are just a few of the great results that Scheepers Retail Group (Albert Heijn multifranchise) has managed to achieve with the help of R&R. We spoke with Peter Peels (director retail) about his experiences.
"We started R&R WFM a little over a year ago within Scheepers Retail Groep. First of all, we took the mission, vision and core values of our organisation, so that everyone knows where we want to go as an organisation. The WFM tool then had to be in line with that.
In my opinion, that is where you really have to start. What are our customer promises and the culture values for our employees? How do we want to serve and retain our customers?' How do we help and inspire our customers to make their daily shopping choices?
Serving customers well includes offering a top-notch shop that is well cared for, but also well-trained staff who enjoy their work. If you have that under control, the customer feels at home in 'his or her' shop. Then, with the help of R&R, among other things, we started to manage staffing levels and wage costs. This helps enormously in keeping a grip on what you want to achieve, how you want to achieve it and what it may cost, in order to achieve a good return at the end of the line. It is always a question of finding the right balance between the desired performance of the shop and what it may cost to achieve a certain return at the end of the line.
R&R's workforce management tool provides us with important information to make better choices for the customer experience, employee satisfaction and the company's profitability. We have now been underway for some time and have already managed to achieve many excellent results. We really want employees to enjoy their work. We want to win together. That is one of the cultural values of our organisation."
"R&R's workforce management tool provides us with important information to make better choices for the customer experience, employee satisfaction and the company's bottom line."
"If you work in a focused way and use the system well, savings of 0.5% to 1% on labour costs can be achieved within a year. In addition, more grip on the operational processes quickly leads to a 20% improvement in productivity. We have achieved this simply by focusing on productivity and efficiency, without having to work harder or compromising shop performance. In short: by having the right, well-trained employee doing the right job at the right time at the right cost. The monitoring of progress by the management is, of course, also of great importance.
On an annual basis, this is a very significant saving, so the investment pays for itself quickly and amply. We are proud of the results achieved in this relatively short period. This is also a prelude to further improvements. We believe that there are still many opportunities for improvement.
Another important result that is more difficult to measure is peace of mind in the organization. Through clarity, well-run processes and greater efficiency. This is heavily underestimated. When there is calmness, employees enjoy their work more, and that affects everything. For example, there are fewer fluctuations in store presentation because it all adds up better. With well-run processes and calmness in the organization, store performance becomes more stable and consistent."
"As described, we have achieved good results with the correct use of the tool. What I also really like is that R&R really goes for long-term strategic collaboration and partnership. This is also reflected in the guidance and support provided by Stef van Dijk. You can tell that Stef has a lot of substantive knowledge of supermarkets and WFM from his background, and that inspires a lot of confidence.
In addition to the results achieved, the cooperation and also the aftercare were very good. I find this really distinctive compared to the competition. In addition, forward-looking and strategic thinking is an important strength of R&R. In the end it's the people who make the difference. There's a lot of personal attention and if there are problems, they are discussed quickly and pragmatically. That is why people remain loyal.
In addition, R&R's tool ensures that employees are more involved in the planning process. In addition to ease of use and central communication about rosters, employees can, for example, easily pass on their availability, swap shifts and view hours worked via the Job App on their mobile phone. This gives flexibility and more support to the employees."
"Scheepers Retail Groep has strong growth ambitions. For example, we are going to open our first shop in Belgium in the spring. Of course, this will also bring significant challenges with it. Think about the laws and regulations and cultural differences, for example. But we are very confident that we will make these steps successfully and that - with the help of R&R, among others - we will be able to implement continuous improvements. This should lead to further optimisation of productivity, without this being at the expense of our employees' job satisfaction and an excellent customer experience."
Some facts and figures
Saving on labour costs
Improving productivity
Employees
"We are very confident that we can continue to make improvements in order to further optimise productivity without compromising our employees' job satisfaction and excellent customer experience.
Peter Peels
Scheepers Retail Group
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