Use Insights To Choose Your Business’ New Year’s Resolutions

15th December 22

As the end of 2022 draws ever-closer, thoughts turn towards what changes (or “resolutions”) could be implemented in the New Year that will improve our lives over the next twelve months.

And we’re not just talking about individuals. Right now, businesses are making plans, discussing budgets, investments and identifying where savings could be made in 2023.

But trying to set your course and make these decisions when so much turbulence surrounds us is difficult. This is why we strongly recommend using solid data when making decisions. Not only does this provide strong, backed-up evidence, it can also remove some of the emotion that dominates decision making in the absence of anything more substantial.

Data from workstudy measurement provides a robust picture of what is really happening within your operation. Combining that data together with onsite observations from our expert analysts – and seeing how you stack up compared to your peers – provides actionable insights that drive value for your business.

To give you a rough idea, our insights typically identify opportunities to redirect a fifth of operating costs.

Examples of how insights can help make informed decisions

• Validating the case for change from pilot stores before full roll-out – Our process improvement consultants have assisted various types of businesses from different sectors in reviewing early-stage implementation. Not only do we ensure they are delivering in line with initial expectations, but we also identify how they can achieve even more benefits. For one retailer that wanted to implement electronic shelf edge labels, we quantified how long their current paper ticket-based process was taking. This validated the benefit of switching to an automatic process. We’ve also reviewed the processes for retailers that began fulfilling online orders from stores rather than a central warehouse. This identified practical changes for the stores, as well as system upgrades for the central team. Whether you are looking to invest in online order fulfilment, new software or you are introducing new customer offers, measuring the operation will enable you to reach the best solution faster
• Leadership design – Changing the structure is one of the most emotive and challenging things you can do. But in order to bring your strategy to life, it must be done right – after all, it is the local management teams that really deliver on your brand’s customer and employee experience. By measuring how leaders really spend their time, and identifying what prevents them from being with customers and colleagues, you can reshape your leadership model to be even more effective for the future 
• With a team-wide efficiency study, insights can lead to big strategic changes – Through benchmarking, one phone retailer identified that the time spent on back office processes was out of line with other companies. This triggered them to remove, simplify and automate everything, resulting in resources being shifted from admin to customer service. For another retailer, a significant change in stock management was undertaken when they discovered that they spent twice as long as the average in moving stock between the shopfloor, stockroom and back again. Stopping non-essential stock counting and reducing overall stock levels enabled the team to spend time reducing queues and serving more customers

You know your business better than anyone. And, whilst you think you know everything there is to know about your operation, we all have our blind spots. 

Discover what new insight a workstudy measurement could bring you to. Get in touch with our team.