A labor model is the combination and interaction of your labor standards, workload drivers, store profiles, and staffing requirements. The resulting calculations of these inputs produce the expected workload for a given task, job, department, or store.
An organization’s labor model may consist of simply a few labor standards and a basic minimum coverage assumption, or it can be quite complex, with highly detailed engineered labor standards, workload drivers, and staffing requirements.
Generally, small specialty retailers have simpler, more consolidated labor models. This is either driven by a lean operation (at or near base coverage) or by a business model that depends heavily on customer service (which is more difficult to measure).
On the other hand, complex specialty retailers, grocers, and big-box retailers generally err on the side of more granularity and store-specific labor models. In these cases, the skillsets of their teams are more specialized, and the volume of work has a larger impact on overall workload.
Whichever camp you’re in, the accuracy of your labor model is a critical enabler of your efficient use of labor. All organizations can benefit from more detailed measurements of their processes and more granular tracking of store-specific drivers of labor volume. Axsium’s productivity experts can help you do exactly this, deploying labor more cost-effectively and delivering the level of service your customers want.