Workforce Management

Johannesburg, South Africa -- RedPrairie Corp., a global supply chain and retail technology provider with a local office in Johannesburg, has been selected by Woolworths South Africa to provide a workforce management solution (WFM) to help improve the in-store customer experience.

RedPrairie’s WFM solution leverages engineered standards and demand-based forecasts to optimize scheduling, task assignment, and performance measurement as well as compute and pay incentives.

Compared with most other industries, retail companies face shorter time horizons and tighter metrics. The pressure to perform is great, which perhaps explains why many retail firms are having trouble holding onto their top executives.

For example, one major U.S. retailer recently suffered the departures of a senior marketing executive, a division president and another executive VP, all within the space of a few months. One of those executives had lasted only five months, while another had a tenure of less than two years.

Richfield, Minn. -- The interim CEO of Best Buy told shareholders Thursday that the company is committed to changing its fundamentals in order to operate closer to its potential.

Mike Mikan is trying to right the electronics retailer’s ship as it attempts to recover from the sudden – and unseemly – departure of CEO Brian Dunn as well as the ensuing resignation from chairman and founder Richard Schultz over the last two months.

The Container Store credits its “employees-first” culture as integral to its success, believing that if you make employees your highest priority, they in turn will take better care of customers. It’s a business model that extends to all facets of the chain’s operations — including the decision to deploy a voice-directed warehouse picking system.

LAKELAND, Fla. — For the eighth consecutive year, Publix has been named as one of IDG’s Computerworld top workplaces for information technology professionals, the grocer announced Monday.

CINCINNATI — Macy's Inc. has invested in the future of America, by hiring more than 1,000 college and university students for its Executive Development Program and for summer internships nationwide.

FULLERTON, Calif. — A store-level workforce reduction is planned for Albertsons' Southern California division.

New York -- Supervalu plans to cut as many as 2,500 positions at its Albertsons unit. The reductions, which will occur across all 247 Albertsons stores in California and Nevada, will begin the week of June 17 and should be completed around July 1, according to a statement.

“A decision of this nature is never easy, but it is the necessary step for us to take to help improve our business and accelerate our turnaround," Dan Sanders, president of the Albertsons Southern California Division, said in a statement.