Retail Technology January/February 2008

The scheduling system is supplied by Kronos, forming part of the Kronos for Retail solution and integrates with IKEA'S existing Kronos solution for time and attendance.

The application is a fully automated employee scheduling system that analyses historical trading data, projected sales figures, labour standards, and employee availability before creating the optimum staffing schedule for each department.

Optimising schedules at the checkout

Store optimisation continues to be a priority for IKEA and the checkout was an obvious place to start the process of creating optimised schedules. IKEA has already started using Kronos' scheduling application in the checkout areas of some stores. Historical trading data at 15-minute intervals, dating back five years, has been transferred from the point-of-sale (PoS) system into Kronos, along with labour standards data and projected sales figures for the store. Staff availability and shift preferences have also been input directly into Kronos, enabling the optimised scheduling tool to create the best fit schedules for each store.

Using the Kronos system, IKEA will be in position to ensure that, not only does it have the right number of staff over the week, but also that staff are always in the right place at the right time to match the unique trading patterns of each store.

Significant benefits as a result of optimising schedules

The project has some way to go before rollout is completed in all stores and all appropriate departments, yet IKEA has already noted a number of other benefits.

The company's existing Kronos system gives IKEA complete visibility to employee working hours and the scheduling application takes this one step further by highlighting things about the business that were previously more difficult to view. For example, "October Half Term" is a busy trading period and IKEA can now more easily see where the staffing gaps are. This was difficult before Kronos.

The systems were selected following a thorough vendor search and based on it being intuitive, easy-to-use and able to support IKEA sales managers to free up their time to concentrate on the business.

Shorter queues and ability to match staff to store demand

Queue times are shorter, there have been improvements in the productivity of checkout staff, and it is easier to see any problems with under- or over-staffing. Schedules are optimised to take into account peak and quiet times and Kronos allows the organisation to now consider employee preferences when creating the schedules. Some unnecessary shifts have been removed in the goal to achieve schedules that mirror the unique trading environment of each store. IKEA has also been able to move staff more easily between departments such as checkout and returns when required.

Remote access benefits

Kronos also allows remote access and greater visibility to store operations information. Under or overstaffing can be spotted immediately, where the optimised schedule has not been followed to the letter, and the manager can take remedial action immediately.

Overall, the feeling is that scheduling at IKEA has become more of an exact science, supporting the company's goal to create a highly efficient store environment that is able to meet customer needs effectively.

A number of benefits have been noted so far: