As a TL, I just cannot wait until this new automated schedule writing tool rolls out here in the FL region! My years as a TL have been filled with many things that the wise men at the top have delivered unto us to make our lives easier. Perhaps now that we won't have to write our own schedule, my ATL and I will have the time to better brainstorm up some new innovations that we can share with the company! And we also will have more time for increased paperwork and more meetings and more trainings and more conference calls. And since they slashed our labor budget beginning of FP1, I really appreciate these technology advances as they are making our office time in the store so much more efficient so that we can spend more time on the sales floor satisfying and delighting. Ahhh, what a fine world we live in...we are truly living the dream. If this schedule tool is anywhere near as good as Workday or myjourneylearningconnectionsuccessfactorsSAPsucksassorwhateveryouwanttocallit then we really have something to look forward to. But enough about me, what do you think?
9 replies (most recent on top)
Except that WFM uses it to write their schedules.
The tool itself, Kronos, was developed by independent company and has been around for a while. They mainly focus on retail scheduling and shift work scheduling for large corps. The program is in no way affiliated with WFM.
Did they use a producer team member to develop the scheduling tool instead of getting a real IT qualified person to do it?
It's effective once you work out the kinks. It scheduled based on sales per hour. It even breaks people for you. Honestly not a big deal. And making your pt individuals come in for 4-5 hour shifts to cover a rush makes sense. I also am in a city with quite a few colleges and universities, so we've made it to where we hire college kids for pt work. It works well with their schedule. It keeps everyone at their hours. If you're full time you can count on it giving you 36-39 hours a week.
ENoWaLp-anp, MA (ohio)
What region are you in?
Yes our front end team is using it. The TL gets a red face anytime it's brought up, and the person writing the schedule says that they're spending more time tweaking the tool than if they just wrote the schedule from scratch. It's been pretty unpopular at our store. Can't wait until all the team are required to use it. Should be interesting.
We have it now for a customer service team. What It has produced is Part Work in 5 days. Meaning 4 hour shifts. Not sure if it would be the same for other departments? In the long run, that is what Whole Foods wants. ALL PART TIME WORKERS, NO BENEFITS! What that produces is, PART TIME WORKERS THAT DON'T GIVE A SHIT!