Today’s post is by Mark Davis; Vice President of Operations and CTO at SafeSourcing. Mark asks "As companies shift focus to improving workforce management how will they get creative with their sourcing to achieve better results?"
The May issue of RetailSolutionsOnline.com has an article by Erin Harris about the shift that is occurring in the retail industry “from focusing on labor just as a cost center to viewing their labor pool as a valued asset to drive customer centricity.”
When you think about all of the elements that contribute to the employee life cycle, you begin to see many opportunities for creative sourcing that can allow a retailer to really get the most out of their workforce. Today we will be looking at a few of these to better understand how they can be positively affected by a good sourcing strategy.
Recruiting – The process of recruiting employees is such an important first step in getting the right employees for your business. With so many local, regional and national players in the recruiting space and because so many retailers have the recruiting process happening in different ways all over the company, this is a spend category that may initially begin as an RFP. A quality RFP can not only help to understand the offerings of the vendors themselves but also to help you collect and understand what your own company is doing in this area.
Task Management – Some categories such as Task Management solutions are a little more focused and understanding the side-by-side features as well as how your company is handling the process is a little easier. As a result, Task Management may a little easier sourced and is something that a strong competitive bid collection to compress the vendors’ pricing is all that is needed. If it makes sense, this is a good path to follow because it allows you tighter, more competitive pricing, provides a detailed list of where these prices are coming from as well as a realization of savings and services that can start within weeks of the event.
Performance monitoring – One thing that is often overlooked in the process of improving the management of your workforce is the overseeing channel that monitors how you and your company and employees are doing. Understanding the options for Customer Satisfaction monitoring and how they should be integrated into your WFM processes are important pieces to this puzzle. These services can be sourced as many of the other items of your business are and should be part of how you evaluate how your associates are handling your customers.
Regardless of which pieces of the employee lifecycle you choose to address first in improving your workforce management, know that there are companies who can help you research and collect the information you need to make the most out of your selection decisions.
For more information on SafeSourcing and how we can assist with this process, please contact a Customer Service Representative for more information.
We look forward to and appreciate your comments.
