True Workforce Optimization Requires Going Beyond The Vital Signs

By Joe Olson, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Enterprise Workforce Management, Empower

Read Part 2

Managing a retail operation in today’s hyper-competitive market place requires visibility to key performance indicator (KPI) metrics that serve as the vital signs of operational health.  In this first in a three part series we will examine one such KPI, and explain why taking things at face value may lead to some unexpected and undesirable results.

Just as a doctor checks your vital signs to conduct a basic diagnostic of your physical health, store operations management rely on KPI’s to signal if a particular store or district is suffering an operational illness that needs to be treated.  Without visibility to these KPI vital signs, retail operations managers would be about as effective as a doctor with no stethoscope, thermometer, or sphygmomanometer (that blood pressure cuff thing.)  But as is the case with physical vital signs, KPI’s serve as only a broad and relative indicator of health.  Occasionally, vital signs can look OK, but the patient has symptoms which indicate that more testing and analysis is required.

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