What is the most effective way to determine staffing levels in retail workforce management?

Historical data can be useful in setting a baseline if that is the goal. In retail no two days are the same from one year to the next and just because you accomplished something one year doesn’t mean you will the next. Using historical data doesn’t help anticipate increases either.

In my experience, demand forecasting is often manipulated to produce the lowest number of staff members. It doesn’t accurately predict the needs based on real life scenarios.

La previsión de la demanda es fundamental para cualquier empresa en estos tiempos, existen diversidad de métodos que pueden servir para realizar la predicción, es importante tomar en cuenta que la calidad de la predicción depende de la calidad de los datos, por lo que antes de utilizar cualquier modelo se debe poner especial atención al procesamiento de los datos. Asimismo, la generación de una predicción de demanda debe ser realizada por un analista que conozca el "negocio", pudiendo identificar patrones históricos y las variables claves que pueden ser utilizadas en la proyección de demanda

Workload analysis is one of those techniques that sounds good in theory. In reality you aren’t gathering true data and many times the information gathering is done in a bubble of sorts. Even if it is down in the field it doesn’t account for true nuances. For example, a return may take you 1 minute or it may take you 10. So even if they account for that, you at best get an average. If you are staffed on averages, it doesn’t account for the ups and downs. You can very easily end up under staffed some days and over staffed others.

Efectivamente, el análisis de la carga de trabajo es fundamental para la asignación de la dotación del personal, se deben generar ratios de productividad en base a la data histórica, estableciendo mínimos niveles de atención que debe cumplir cada empleado en las diversas tareas de la empresa

In my experience these have never worked. They don’t account for any real work life balance and create inconsistent shift periods and shift lengths which will upset staff very quickly. When using this is when I have had the highest turnover.

Employee feedback is a vital data point in understanding how well your organization is balancing the business needs with those of it's most valuable asset, it's people! And while some experts will have you trying measure all kinds of buzz-word metrics like "Engagement", the truth is much simpler. Happy employees=Happy customers=Great bottom-line. So listen to your customers and your employees. Especially valuable is the feedback of the employees who are on their way out. I know no one wants to hear what their ex has to say about them, but if you're wise enough to ask and you're fortunate enough to have them tell you, LISTEN!

Something missing from all of this is the human capital aspect. Your staff is not a statistic or an employee ID. They are people and as such companies need to move away from trying to find the perfect staffing system based on statistical models alone. Companies need to see staff as an investment in their business like an asset versus an expense that is only meant to be minimized and reduced. There is no silver bullet to staffing perfectly. The sooner companies realize that, the sooner they can work on growing their business.

Effective retail organizations with mature Workforce Management operating models will use some combination of all 5 of the points mentioned. With economic inflationary pressures reshaping consumer buying habits and the constant evolution of the business landscape (i.e. competition, supply chain challenges, tight labor markets), now more than ever, Workforce Management is being called on to help organizations do more with less!

En resumen, los dos aspectos básicos para determinar correctamente el nivel de dotación es el pronóstico de demanda y el análisis de carga laboral, se deben analizar los dos procesos a la vez, analizando la carga laboral se obtiene la oferta que puede ofrecer la empresa con su personal y ello analizado junto a la demanda debe dar el equilibrio de dotación de personal "personal óptimo"