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Importance of navigating cost management in the retail Industry
In April, the NLW (National Living Wage) will increase by 9.8% with an actual increase of around 11.5% to retailer’s annual labour spend when the increases to younger worker’s pay are taken into account. Without effective cost management efforts in place, this increase will have a big impact on retailer’s bottom lines.
Finding the right tools to save time and money is crucial, and S4labour are here to help.
Why is investing in cost management tools so important?
The ACS Local Shop Report for 2023 revealed that only 29% of retailers are investing in technology that can help drive efficiencies and better cost management in their stores.
These numbers indicate that over 70% of businesses are not saving time and money by optimising their workforce and operational efficiency using tech, despite labour being the second biggest cost.
With S4labour, businesses can streamline their people management, from H.R., to rota creation and through to payroll, which handles holiday pay and actual hours worked through our time and attendance system.
Effectively managing costs with the help of technology will not only reduce spending, but it will also allow retailers to focus on growing profits by getting more out of each hour worked.
Hear from leading independent retailers already using S4labour:
Rav Garcha, Nisa retailer: “It’s an affordable and efficient technology solution that is driving us further, and it is allowing us to invest in people.”
Ian Lewis, SPAR retailer: “It really has changed the way we work, and certainly saved on costs.”
Guy Warner, Upton on Severn, together with Morrisons: “In terms of efficiencies, it has driven costs down managerially. It is helping us manage our labour, control our labour costs and it is taking managerial time out of the process.”
How will S4labour work for your business?
S4labour’s tools provide visibility and control of rota cost before the money has been spent. Unexpected costs, such as NI, pension and holiday pay are included in a fully-costed rota, as well as accurate time and attendance, so there are no surprises in payroll.
Planning and scheduling teams is made simple, with rotas in one place that can be shared with staff on the employee app. There’s no more multiple versions and time-consuming rota-writing processes. Holiday accrual and requests are also managed from this single platform, saving you time on admin and allowing you to focus on activities that drive profitability.
Ahead of the NLW increase in April, finding ways to better manage and therefore reduce labour-related costs will be a gamechanger.
For more information, or to talk to one of our experts, please contact us:
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Like-for-Like Hospitality sales experience decline in January
Data from S4labour has revealed that year-on-year sales were down 2.6% in January across the hospitality sector, compared to the same month last year.
Sales saw a decline of 1.3% in London and a slightly bigger drop of 2.9% outside of the capital. Wet-led sites were the driving force behind the decline, with sales falling by 8.1%, in comparison to the 0.4% uplift in dry-led sites.
S4labour’s Chief Growth Officer, Richard Hartley, commented: “Despite high inflation levels, and therefore high prices, sales are in decline, indicating that volumes are down. Operators up and down the country are feeling the strain of rising cost pressures, as people’s disposable income is not what it once was.”
S4labour grows momentum in forecourt and multi-site sector
Following success in the single-site market, S4labour have expanded into multisites and forecourt businesses, picking up Gardner Garages, PriceWatch and Midland Motor Fuels. Businesses can now oversee the performance of multiple sites on one screen and manage rota creation and communication, as well as holiday management and payroll.
The end-to-end solution is designed to help operators manage rotas, payroll and HR across multiple stores, saving them time and money, as well as ensuring accuracy and compliance. The news comes after the company announced their partnership with Nisa Retail in September this year, which saw them working with multisite retailers, such as Rav Garcha and Siva Thievanayagam.
Speaking about S4labour, Nisa retailer Siva Thievanayagam, commented: “Our people are now managed in one end-to-end process, making it easier to onboard, keep track of shifts and pay our teams accurately.”
Garry Craft, Managing Director of Convenience Stores at S4labour, commented: “In the past year, we’ve begun working with single-site stores across the UK, as well as multisites and now, the forecourt industry too. We’ve seen our customers grow in size, and we’re thrilled to be able to support all of their stores. When Zola first started using S4labour, they had 6 stores, and now they are at 10.”
Emma Gardner commented: “The implementation of S4labour made a big difference to our operational procedures at Gardner Garages. The speed of response and support whenever queries arose was great. Now, we’re not just saving time; we’re maximising efficiency and improving the way we work.”
David Chapman, Pricewatch Compliance Manager, said of S4labour: “It’s unified all of the stores so we can see what’s going on. S4labour has given us the ability to see rotas and payroll much clearer across multi-sites, and from a compliance point of view, it’s given us consistency and accuracy in the data.”
Paul Salvidge, Pricewatch, said: “As a petrol forecourt business with multiple sites, investing in S4labour has helped us to better manage our people, from rotas through to compliance and payroll, improving communication and simplifying operations for us.”
London Shuffle Club – Technology Partnering at its Best
Case Study
London Shuffle Club’s
Suite of Technology
London Shuffle Club Overview
Located in the heart of Shoreditch, London Shuffle Club is the home of the supercharged game of shuffleboard. A brilliant competitive socialising concept that serves a range of customers.
The only UK venue with both lane and table shuffle under one roof, meaning there’s a game for everyone.
“I think S4labour has totally revolutionised our path. It literally meant going from what is a basic system to a system. It does all our needs.”
As a unique competitive socialising concept with multifaceted needs, London Shuffle Club needed to deploy the right technology infrastructure across all partners so they can easily replicate as they grow as they have big plans to grow across Greater London and other major cites within the UK.
Before S4labour and partnering technology:
“Before we used S4labour, we used a different system that was very basic. So we’ve to do the rostering and have a very, very painful and long payroll procedure.”
The Now, using integrated technology to the maximum:
“We use S4labour to manage all our interactions in terms of human resources.
So the onboarding, the deployment, the reporting, the performance management, and also to get data because of integration with Tevalis allows us to get good data per person in terms of how individuals may be performing in the business, it has brought significant efficiencies to our business.
Payroll has been reduced from a couple of days to a couple of hours and the reporting and the visual reporting of it, because you can see data hour by hour has allowed the managers to make better and more effective deployment decisions.
We wanted something that was the right fit for where the company is at our time as well as in the future, so that would allow us to grow organically. So having the correct employment data, simplifying payroll, simplifying time and attendance and the business reporting being very visual to allow our managers to make decisions was critical. S4labour did that really, really well as far labour has made us more effective, so it has saved us time and money but also made getting reliable data very, very fast in an automated way so we don’t have to use sign-in and out sheets.
I think S4labour has totally revolutionised our path. It literally meant going from what is a basic system to a system. It does all our needs.”
More Case Studies
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December brings an 11.1% boost to sales
December 2023 vs. December 2022
Recent data released from S4labour shows an 11.1% increase in overall sales in December, compared to the same month in 2022.
In London, sales were up 14.2%, whilst areas outside of London saw 10.5% growth year-on-year. Dry-led sites were the driving force behind the overall increase, with sales up 13.9% compared to a more modest uplift of 7.3% in wet-led sites.
Richard Hartley, Chief Growth Officer at S4labour, commented: “In part, this increase is due to the train strikes that took place at the end of 2022, which impacted December sales and left a lower base point. Nonetheless, this consistent growth across the country reflects our industry’s dedication to customer satisfaction, even in challenging market conditions. Christmas has brought a much-welcomed boost to sales, which is a positive start to offsetting costs as operators continue to battle inflation, as well as the upcoming wage increases in April.
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