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The What, When, Why & How Of A Workload Labour Model

The What, When, Why & How Of A Workload Labour Model

3rd April 2025

What…is a workload labour model?

A workload labour model is a business tool which helps you achieve the best allocation of your available salary and/or hours budget. It does this by calculating the weekly hours and cost required to achieve your revenue targets and deliver your intended customer experience on a bottom-up basis.

When…a workload labour model plays a part

“ReThink recently conducted a comprehensive productivity review of our operating model for Food and Pharmacy at Lincolnshire Co-op. The insights and recommendations provided by their team have been instrumental in driving significant improvements in our business. Tactically, the review enabled us to gain clarity on where and how we spend our time, allowing us to reallocate budget allocations across trading sites based on task requirements.

Previously, we set budgets based on historical data adjusting for inflation. The workload model has resulted in a more efficient and effective use of resources, ensuring that our colleagues, members and customers receive the best possible service.”

Andy Warman – Head of Strategy and Transformation at Lincolnshire Co-op

Why…are they useful?

They enable businesses to ensure the right number of colleagues are available to complete their tasks. Without a workload labour model, businesses often rely on blunt tools to allocate resources to individual stores, such as “Salary to sales percentage” or “Last year plus”.

An effective workload labour model:

  • Schedules people in the best way to meet business demands
  • Distributes what is available in the fairest way that allows you to deliver your unique brand strategy
  • Accurately reflects your operation
  • Provides you with the flexibility to try ‘What if?’ scenarios
  • Supports your budget processes

How…we do it at ReThink

After we have carried out a work study, we work with our customers, helping shape their ideas and producing a model that they can use to truly understand their business and make more informed decisions. That can be a useful process, as for Lincolnshire Co-op, and we can build models from your existing task times, if you prefer.

We offer a choice of models; ReBudget is a custom-built Excel model, or ReBudget Plus adds online capabilities for enhanced security and reporting.

Our tips on how best to use your workload labour model include;

  • Keep a live master copy of your model and “What if?” copies to calculate the impact of changes – The ‘What if?’ model allows you to play without accidentally destroying your “As is” budget allocations. Or use ReBudget Plus, and the model will do that for you
  • Maintain an audit trail of all changes – Record details of all model changes, such as when they were made, who made them and who signed them off. You won’t be able to remember them all and, this way, you will be supporting the transparency that ensures all stores are treated equitably within the model. Ideally, your model will automatically maintain an audit trail, as ReThink models do
  • Set up a flexible pot for local variance – There will always be operational quirks that are not reflected in your model, and probably never should be. Providing a small fund for regional managers to invest at their discretion provides flexibility for them to address local issues or to back their own growth opportunity hunches. In our experience, it saves a lot of debates and pitching for resources
  • Set up a steering group – Not a big bureaucracy, but a group that applies a level of knowledgeable scrutiny to keep the model honest to the operation and ensures fairness. To ensure balanced decision-making, it is much better for recommendations and decisions to be scrutinised by a small group from different teams, than for it to become the domain of one powerful figure who is the focus for all persuasion efforts
  • Stay connected to the business – There is a danger that models, and the team working with them daily, become a dusty corner of the business and that the model is seen as something that is too difficult and complex to engage with. This is the exact opposite of the ideal where your model is used as a financial tool to inform any decisions that impact on store operations, whether that’s driven by product, marketing, logistics or the operations team

We provide a subscription service which enables us to provide ongoing support to help with ad hoc changes or model amendments for quarterly or annual updates, for example. By letting us look after this, you can then focus your attention on strategic investment decisions.

Find out more about our workload labour model service by:

How can we help you?

We pride ourselves on delivering insights and value across our services, and will never build your model, dump it and run. We provide detailed training and supporting documentation to help you maintain the model.

Our workload labour models ensure you budget for the resources at a local level to deliver your sales and salary budgets. Discover how they can be used for your business. 

Contact our team today.