republic case study final
Background Republic is a fast growing multi brand fashion retailer that has enjoyed significant growth over the last 5 years. As part of a review of its store operations, Republic decided to develop an updated salary budget model and looked for an experienced partner to support them. Republic’s aims were to understand and quantify the workload in their stores and identify best practices to support appropriate allocation of salary budget by store. Activity ReThink recommended undertaking a work study programme across a representative sample of stores and building the standard time outputs into a budget allocation model. In addition, ReThink highlighted opportunities for process improvement based on their extensive, cross industry experience and activity time benchmarking. Over 7 weeks, ReThink undertook: • • • •
Direct work study, to measure time taken for every task in store Rated Activity Sampling (RAS) to evaluate wasted time in store “Day In The Life Of” monitoring for key roles to quantify how time is spent Observational process review
ReThink helped Republic use the information from the study to identify over 200,000 hours of achievable efficiency improvements that could be re-invested into customer service. ReThink used the work study outputs to build a customised salary budget model enabling Republic to equitably allocate its budget based on workload and customer service delivery intentions. The model uses a number of inputs including transactions, items delivered, number of floors in the store, number of changing rooms and store type to ensure the output was fit for purpose and store specific. Benefits Republic used the salary budget model to gradually redistribute salary spend across the store estate which included cutting back on unnecessary activity spend and providing additional investment into stores where needed. The easy to use model allowed Republic to explore a number of ‘what if’ scenarios around costs, task and store structures.
Combining the identified efficiency improvements with the quantified workload by activity from the model provided Republic with some hard values to prioritise delivery of initiatives over time. New and current store processes will be re measured on a regular basis to ensure the budget model remains current. Simon Singleton – Retail Director “The project has provided us with a robust basis to understand the workload by store giving us a fair and equitable way of allocating wages. Going forward, it will underpin our workforce management solution enabling us to schedule our people at the right time and place, delivering efficiencies and liberating time for service.” Sarah Chitty – Senior HR Business Partner “ReThink not only provided us with a workload driven wages model but also a significant amount of retail knowledge and experience which benefited the project overall. ReThink integrated well within the team, supported and challenged where needed and were always on hand to assist with any queries or questions.” ReThink Productivity Consulting Ltd offers a range of services relating to Workforce Management. For more information, visit www.rethinkproductivity.co.uk or e-mail [email protected]
Direct work study, to measure time taken for every task in store Rated Activity Sampling (RAS) to evaluate wasted time in store “Day In The Life Of” monitoring for key roles to quantify how time is spent Observational process review
ReThink helped Republic use the information from the study to identify over 200,000 hours of achievable efficiency improvements that could be re-invested into customer service. ReThink used the work study outputs to build a customised salary budget model enabling Republic to equitably allocate its budget based on workload and customer service delivery intentions. The model uses a number of inputs including transactions, items delivered, number of floors in the store, number of changing rooms and store type to ensure the output was fit for purpose and store specific. Benefits Republic used the salary budget model to gradually redistribute salary spend across the store estate which included cutting back on unnecessary activity spend and providing additional investment into stores where needed. The easy to use model allowed Republic to explore a number of ‘what if’ scenarios around costs, task and store structures.
Combining the identified efficiency improvements with the quantified workload by activity from the model provided Republic with some hard values to prioritise delivery of initiatives over time. New and current store processes will be re measured on a regular basis to ensure the budget model remains current. Simon Singleton – Retail Director “The project has provided us with a robust basis to understand the workload by store giving us a fair and equitable way of allocating wages. Going forward, it will underpin our workforce management solution enabling us to schedule our people at the right time and place, delivering efficiencies and liberating time for service.” Sarah Chitty – Senior HR Business Partner “ReThink not only provided us with a workload driven wages model but also a significant amount of retail knowledge and experience which benefited the project overall. ReThink integrated well within the team, supported and challenged where needed and were always on hand to assist with any queries or questions.” ReThink Productivity Consulting Ltd offers a range of services relating to Workforce Management. For more information, visit www.rethinkproductivity.co.uk or e-mail [email protected]
