AI Helping More Small and Mid-sized Retailers Gain Edge
in Staff Retention and Operational Efficiency
-In few industries are competition and staff retention as challenging as they are for retailers. And even more so for small to mid-sized retailers.
But an increasing number of savvy businesses are finding ways to spend more time on their product offerings, marketing, customer experience and staff engagement and retention than administrative tasks by taking advantage of the latest technology – including AI.
But is there really a place for AI in the retail industry?
According to Ximble, the answer is a resounding “yes.”
Ximble, by the way, is an app: one that helps employers spend less time on HR administrative tasks.
More specifically, it’s an intuitive, cloud-based scheduling and labor management solution which provides benefits by reducing labor costs, improving communications and maximizing productivity.
The company – which was named a 2018 top workforce management solution provider by both HRTech Outlook and GetApp - recently introduced AI – specifically, facial recognition - to its suite of services.
“Smaller retailers work very long hours and often experience a higher rate of staff turnover than other industries. They are one of the key groups we had in mind when we developed our facial recognition time clock,” said Peter Swaniker, Founder & CEO, Ximble. “It quite simply eliminates a tedious area of employee oversight for them and frees up their time for more business-essential functions. Not to mention the cost savings.”
Their facial recognition time clock ensures that employee timesheets are accurate to reinforce accountability and data precision, tracks PTO and provides compliance reporting. It also gives employees more autonomy and control over their schedule and schedule changes which leads to higher collaboration and engagement and improved communication.
The numbers show the positive effect Ximble’s scheduling tools have had on employee retention for its clients: 70% saw a rise in attendance & punctuality through use of AI and scheduling tools; and time employers spent on administrative tasks was reduced by 40%.
So how does it work? Upon arrival at work, enrolled employees clock in by a simple photograph. And then do the same at the end of their shift. The app’s AI identifies who it is and clocks their time accordingly.
Because employees must be present at work in order to clock in, it eliminates the common occurrence of “buddy punching”, which, in turn, hurts an employer’s bottom line because they are paying employees for hours they are not doing their job.
And Ximble says the set-up and user functions are as easy for the employer as signing in is for the employee. It also integrates with HR tools like Quickbooks so that employers can streamline scheduling, payroll and administrative functions with just a few clicks.
“We excel in the services and retail industries for clients with large part-time and seasonal staffs as well as businesses that see high turnover. We count outstanding brands like Starbucks, Wegmans and Ben & Jerry’s to our client family and have recently seen great growth with clients in the flourishing cannabis industry,” added Swaniker.
“Obviously any employer has to monitor employee attendance and hours worked. But AI goes far beyond that. It helps owners to have meaningful insight to their operations by giving them a view to labor costs as well as tracking breaks and the start and end times of particular work assignments,” he added.