Does working with labour standards limit local entrepreneurship?
In fact, the opposite is often true. Labour costs are the largest controllable factor in retail. So why would managing them restrict local entrepreneurship? Competitive advantage isn’t just about the budgets or workload calculations. It’s primarily about how the team presents the store locally to the customer.Labour standards can actually support this. When the foundation of your organisation is solid and actively managed, your team can focus on core local tasks. This leaves more time and energy to make a real difference for your customers.
What if you take last year’s performance as your target?
That largely depends on how that performance was achieved. Moreover, how do you account for factors such as inflation, regulations, and increases in labour cost per hour from the collective labour agreement? For many retailers, this is precisely why it makes sense to establish solid labour standards. They allow you to set well-founded targets for each store, contributing to a healthy operation both locally and across the organisation. In short: using last year’s performance as a benchmark is a shaky foundation. It is questionable whether this actually gives you the control you want.Is it a good idea to set your own ‘Sales Per Hour’, for example per store?
It can be done, but it immediately raises an important question: based on what? In our view, sales per hour or productivity is not a starting point, but a result.If there is currently no management based on key metrics, tracking the realised sales per hour is a good first step. You will notice that sales per hour fluctuates (that’s completely normal). However, if you try to take this further and use that sales per hour as a budget, it becomes more challenging. The figure cannot be properly justified. So what do you do when questions arise about how the sales per hour was calculated?
What if you prefer to manage by labour costs rather than hours?
That is certainly possible, as long as the labour cost targets per store are realistic and achievable. Keep in mind, though: past labour costs alone are not enough to set a future budget.A reliable and well-founded labour cost budget starts with a solid workload calculation, combined with an ideal staffing plan. This gives the store manager concrete guidance to manage effectively and take full responsibility for their store.
Are labour standards relevant for small stores?
For stores with minimal staffing, an activity-based hour standard might seem unnecessary. However, this is often a misconception.First and foremost, working with hour standards isn’t just about controlling labour costs, it’s also about creating the best possible schedule to maximise revenue. Bottlenecks in planning can hold back sales growth. You wouldn’t be the first to find that, at certain times, you actually need more staff to give your revenue a boost.
From a cost perspective? The calculation is straightforward.
As mentioned earlier, working with hours standards requires an investment. But as an organisation, the benefits far outweigh the costs! Of course, using our software, database, and the knowledge and advice of our experts isn’t free. Yet you don’t need to worry about overpaying for our expertise. We are cost-effective because we have developed our software in-house since day one and serve many clients. Our experts also get to the core quickly.When you look at the cost per week or per store, the calculation is simple. We’re confident that for that amount, you wouldn’t want to miss out on the insights and management information (or be able to do it cheaper yourself).
Labour standards offer many benefits, not just for local stores, but also for the central organisation:
- Consistent management across all stores.
- Insight into differences between stores (benchmarking).
- Helping stores create the best possible schedule, ensuring all tasks are actually carried out.
- Uniform policies and processes in every store when it comes to workforce management.
- A well-founded approach to establishing the ideal staffing plan.
- A solid foundation for determining labour cost budgets.
