Workforce Management

By Liz Moughan, Kronos Incorporated

Sometimes uncertainty causes us to put off things we should do now.

This is true when it comes to retailers and their preparation for complying with the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In fact, 56% of organizations reported that they hesitated to initiate any changes in 2012, preferring instead to wait until the Supreme Court decision and the 2012 elections before they took any major actions.

WESTBORO, Mass. — BJ's Wholesale will leverage Micros-Retail's loss prevention and business analytics solution, XBR Ingenium, to increase its asset protection team’s investigative capabilities and productivity.

Micros-Retail XBR Ingenium will allow BJ’s to generate flexible and behavioral exception reports, so it can focus on key areas of fraudulent activity. The business solution offers an interactive dashboard, so field users can quickly spot high-risk areas in their stores and districts.  

Westboro, Mass. -- MICROS-Retail, a division of Micros Systems, announced BJ's Wholesale's successful launch of Micros-Retail's next generation loss prevention and business analytics solution, XBR Ingenium.
   
As an existing user of MICROS-Retail's XBR, BJ's launched a pilot of XBR Ingenium.  After a successful program, BJ's is now deploying Micros-Retail XBR Ingenium company-wide, seeking to increase the investigative capabilities and productivity of its asset protection team.

Duluth, Ga. – Shake Shack has implemented the NCR Pulse Real-Time smartphone application. The app provides real-time, segmented performance metrics and notifications to employee smartphones, generated by a SaaS-based mobile analytics engine and can be integrated with NCR POS platforms.

“NCR Pulse Real-Time is a great tool,” said Giancarlo Fiorarancio, director of information systems, Shake Shack. “It gives you information that you can use right now to improve your results for the rest of the day.”

Westborough, Mass. -- Sporting goods retailer Modell’s is launching Micros-Retail’s Xstore Point-of-Service, Relate Customer Relationship Management and miStore mobile POS solutions. Modell’s says it intends to transform the customer experience, modernize IT for the stores, reduce training time for IT staff, and streamline day-to-day functions, as well as use miStore to provide quicker customer service with more detailed product information.

DALLAS — HoneyBaked has entered into a software licensing agreement with PeopleAnswers. Under the agreement, the food retailer will leverage the PeopleAnswers HR-focused business solution to upgrade its recruiting process and increase employee retention and performance in its 111 company-owned stores.

Managing labor remains one of a retail company's biggest challenges — and most untapped opportunities. JDA Software's Scott Welty talks about workforce management trends with Chain Store Age.

What are some common mistakes retailers make when it comes to managing labor?

The use of mobile devices by sales assistants and other associates presents retailers with new opportunities — and new challenges. Of the latter, one of the most critical has do with managing and maintaining the devices. According to one expert, the help desk can't be expected to do it all.

"Every device needs to be configured and supported and managed in some way," said Alan Dabbiere, chairman of AirWatch, a provider of mobile security and enterprise mobile management, in a presentation at the National Retail Federation Conference & Expo.