Reduce Holiday Stress for Retail Managers with Intelligent Automation Powered by Legion WFM

Holiday staffing is stressful for retail managers. This year, with economic uncertainty, it’s more difficult for managers to staff appropriately and navigate supply chain issues, creating even more stress than usual. Plus additional factors, such as inflation, reduced consumer spending, and lower employment rate projections. When asked about all of these factors contributing to the “Anxiety Economy,” almost 90% of surveyed managers reported they are stressed or more stressed about the upcoming holiday season than last year, according to a recent 2022 Seasonal Hourly Workforce Report commissioned by Legion.

Creating and Managing Employee Schedules is a Top Stressor

Managers are saddled with too much administrative overhead. They spend tremendous time and effort on routine tasks, such as creating and managing employee schedules – up to 10 hours per week – as reported in the 2022 Seasonal Hourly Workforce Report. Creating employee schedules contributes to high-stress levels around the holidays, as 60% of managers still use paper-based processes or spreadsheets for scheduling.

The most challenging aspects of creating holiday schedules include:

• Matching employee preferences and availability with the needs of the business (70%)
• Creating fair, equitable schedules (59%)
• Ensuring enough staff for all customer touchpoints (56%)
• Staying within the labor budget (50%)
• Incorporating seasonal employee schedules into the mix (35%)
• Ensuring compliance with labor laws and company policies (30%)
• Cumbersome processes and tools (11%)

Using the right technology can automate this manual process. Managers need a workforce management (WFM) solution that is intelligent, automated, and employee-centric – with tools to make their jobs easier.

Using Intelligent Automation Powered by Legion WFM to Generate and Manage Optimized Schedules

Managers navigating the “Anxiety Economy” can have a happy and profitable holiday season with less stress using Legion WFM, which enables intelligent automation to help managers maximize labor efficiency and employee engagement simultaneously. Managers who use Legion WFM to automate forecasting, scheduling, time and attendance, and compliance management tasks are freed up to focus on what matters most, like growing the business, serving customers, and developing employees.

With Legion WFM, managers feel empowered because they’re always kept in the loop with automated actions and alerts, so they can intervene anytime. They can directly oversee and control scheduling and make edits as needed. Legion Automated Scheduling warns managers immediately if their edits introduce compliance and coverage risk. And the enterprise application automatically learns from optimal edits to continuously improve the schedule, so Legion WFM gets smarter – and schedules continue to improve. Watch this short video, Intelligent Automated Scheduling and Time and Attendance, to see how Legion WFM quickly manages callouts, shift swaps, and time-off requests – three time-consuming scheduling tasks for managers.

The Benefits of Intelligent Automation for Managers

Think about workforce management that enables intelligent automation like a self-driving car. A self-driving vehicle can free drivers of specific responsibilities with its intelligence to handle corners and curbs and parking automation. Legion WFM enables intelligent automation to free managers resulting in unprecedented productivity and business process automation. Here is how managers benefit from intelligent automation powered by Legion WFM:

• Better at their jobs
• Spend more time with customers and employees
• Require less administrative overhead
• Make better decisions
• Manage optimal schedules that are generated automatically
• Reduce bias and compliance risk
• Uncover actionable insights through the automated data synthesis

Learn More

Request a demo to see how Legion WFM enables intelligent automation to help managers feel less stressed while simultaneously maximizing labor efficiency and employee engagement.