The Container Store strongly believes that having the right associates in its stores is critical to its success. In addition to its extensive training programs, the retailer uses advanced workforce management (WFM) tools from the Kronos for Retail suite to more effectively manage staff.
In particular, The Container Store's recent adoption of the Kronos Scheduling with Optimization module has sharpened its ability to have the ideal mix of people working in any store at any given time, both to meet customers' needs and maximize sales. Prior to deploying the optimized scheduling module, The Container Store set its schedules to run in six- to 12-week cycles, with the time frame varying depending on the time of year and seasonal sales campaigns taking place.
While the retailer had some ability to set store schedules based on its history and forecasts, the standard scheduling tool didn't really take into account the needs of the business. Employees might have been scheduled to work Saturday mornings, but often they weren't serving any customers.
