September 24, 2023 • 12 mins
Fresh off the heels of the stellar Productivity Forum 2023, we're bursting with insights and raring to go. We'll reflect on the forum's triumphs and introduce you to our latest gem: "Every Second Counts". It’s a treasure trove of advice, case studies, and context on everything productivity. Hold on to your seats, because we're also unveiling ReBudget, a game-changer in online labour budgeting. Plus, we'll chat about Saturdays reclaiming their crown as the prime shopping day and all the challenges this brings to recruitment and optimum productivity.
As we look forward to the Productivity Forum 2024, we'll share our vision and what it will take to make it an even more unforgettable experience.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Productivity Podcast.
We're recovering from theProductivity Forum 2023, which
was held at the time recordinglast week in Birmingham.
Sue's back to say hello, hello,and we're going to reflect on
the event, aren't?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
we Sue.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We are, so over 100 people attend.
I think it's biggest to date.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, biggest turnout today, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
In various incarnations over the last kind
of 10 years, if you takelockdown out of the way.
A couple of interesting pointsbefore we get onto key themes.
I know we talked about the bookbefore, but that was the
official launch, if you want togive people a bit more insight
into the book.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yes, it was official launch day, so everybody that
was there got a copy to takeaway.
Every second counts.
It's called and it's about,obviously, productivity the
books written in chapters, thateach one is about the questions
that we're most frequently asked.
So it's not intended to besomething that you start to read
(01:02):
from front to back, but it'sthere as a resource to dip into.
So each section will give somecontext about the challenge or
issue that's being addressed,talk about different ways of
tackling it, cover differentcase studies, so how other
people have tackled it, and thenfinishes with some quick wins.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And if people who couldn't make the event want to
get hold of a copy.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, they can either contact us, or it is on Amazon
or it's about to be on Amazonvery soon.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
And there are two signed books floating around.
Aren't there after people askedus to sign them on the day,
which was a strange one, firstone for me signing a book.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's the first time we've released a book, so that's
why.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well, there you go.
And then we told everybodyabout ReBudget, which is our
plans to take our Excel basedlabour budget model, put that
online and then do some reallyneat things with AI, machine
learning to help be morepredictive in lots of areas, as
well as the kind of obvious howmany hours, fts and costs do I
(02:04):
need to run my shop, warehouse,restaurant by week but also some
really cool and intuitivethings around other areas.
So that seems to generate a lotof debate and lots of
conversation, which was great.
I think it's probably worthcalling out Andy Gray, who's
scribed live, scribed the day,which people are amazed at.
So for those of you that don'tknow or weren't there, andy
(02:29):
basically has some big sheets ofpaper up and, as people are
speaking, he's turning that intovisual reminders of the
conversation and the panels andthe presentations that people
did.
I've seen it probably oncebefore, but one.
I haven't realised how hardthose people work until I didn't
realise how amazing it was.
(02:49):
So, again, some really greatfeedback.
There's some photos, online,mystery, remote address, the
let's talk about key themes.
So tricky day for us becausewe're busy, we're presenting,
we're trying to pull thingstogether and get people in the
right place.
So some of it feels like a bitof a blur, but I think one of
the interesting things that cameout of one of the early
(03:11):
sessions was around Saturdaysnow being the key shopping day
again.
So, based on the fact we mayall be working hybrid, working
from home, we now go back outtraditionally on a Saturday.
So they made me think aboutkind of the times running shops,
where that's probably when wehad most of our part-timers,
most of our students, most ofour younger team members, so
(03:34):
really reinforced, you know bestwhen busiest.
Have you got your best mostexperienced people at the times
when your customers want them.
That's Saturdays, closelyfollowed by Sundays.
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And I think one of the other challenges that people
talked about was the challengesof recruiting, and a lot of
them were carrying vacancies andagain, you know it's always a
challenge when you're carryingvacancies.
The pattern of those if thosevacancies are all on your
part-time is that falling onSaturday, you can end up with a
disproportionately poorexperience on Saturday, and we
(04:09):
were joined again by Dan Will,who's always really insightful
around what's happening withfootfall.
So she's from MRI footfall andshe was talking about kind of
conversion rates and how perhapspeople aren't.
One of the challenges forSaturdays is, yes, they're busy
and then conversion rates drop.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And within that, I think there was some interesting
insight around the fact thattime of day as well.
So we're kind of shoppingslightly later.
So it's about again placingthose shifts in the right area,
making sure you've done all thestop work wherever possible, all
the all the algorithmic stuffI'll call it now that can be
done and checked off at whatevertime before you get the
(04:49):
variability of kind of customerscoming in with different
requirements, different requests, and it linked to another
presentation as well aroundtrying to define contract hours.
Yeah, and there was quite a bitof debate in one of the panels
around how do you get to thesweet spot.
We talked historically aboutpeople being driven to a more
part-time, split over fall,split over full-timers.
(05:12):
There's a reason why people arepart-time and it's typically
because they can't be flexible,can't be full-time parents,
childcare, other job commitmentsand I suppose, a real
recognition that nobody's gotthe right answer to what is the
optimum contract 12, 14, 16, 15,32, 39, 48 hours, what is it?
(05:33):
And that?
Maybe that's specific byorganisation, maybe geography,
maybe by type of, you know,generation you are, if you're a
Gen Z or Gen Y or those otherthings again that we talked
about on the day.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I think the reality is an individual worker's
flexibility will be unique,won't it?
So a lot of them will havemultiple jobs, like I say, they
might have different caringcommitments and just different
preferences for for how theywant to work.
So I think just thinkingpart-time equals super flexible
(06:10):
is not the case anymore.
If it ever was no.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I remember we were in a previous life pushed down a
kind of 60-40 route ofpart-timers and, yes, we ended
up with lots of heads, but wereality is probably didn't end
up with any more flexibility,because it was the full-timers
that do the extra or plug in thegaps, unless it was college
holidays or you know, people,people, circumstances slightly
changed.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And yet the challenge is, as you go back to Saturdays
being the busier day, justhaving flat resourcing over the
operating window doesn't workfor most businesses because most
of them have peaks in eithercustomer demand or workload, and
if you aren't able to flex atall, then actually it's always a
(06:54):
challenge.
I mean you get into debatesabout well, what work can you
move out of busy periods and putit into quiet periods where
you're talking Saturdays thatare getting busier?
You know in food businesses,then you know your peaks are
always around you look main mealtimes.
If you don't use any part-time,if you haven't got any
part-time flexibility, it reallydoes limit your ability to to
(07:16):
meet demand effecting that allmeans you have to carry a lot of
extra when you're quieter.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah and shrink was clearly an emotive and hot topic
for everybody, not necessarilya key theme in terms of the
speakers and what we talkedabout, but certainly in all the
breaks and the networkingeverybody was struggling with.
You know how do you combat it?
How do you stop becoming anorganization that locks
everything up and as a counterat the front?
(07:42):
We know organizations that havehistorically worked like that,
but how do you stop becoming one?
Because it was such a challenge, along with recruitment, along
with retention, along with theother rising costs around energy
and rates and rent that thatexist there.
The big, I think, other story,which isn't new news at all, but
was an interesting debate alongthe theme and threaded
(08:04):
throughout the day in terms oftheme, was around kind of
marginal gains.
So process variants,individuals doing things
different ways, bringing newpeople into the business, and I
think the turnover stats that Iquoted was about 57%.
So more than one in, more thanone out of every two people that
join a retail hospitalityorganisation over the last 12
(08:25):
months leaves within one year.
How do you stop training in badpractice, how do you reduce
process variants and how thoselittle, little tweets can add up
to the sum of a big benefit?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yes, there was discussions about how you can
take seconds off something thatyou do a lot and it can save
millions, and the impact of whena business is scaled across a
lot of sites.
Then a small saving really addsup to a big number over time.
But we then talked about thefact that when you make in these
small changes, they can getoutweighed by the fact by
(09:01):
variance in how people areworking.
So if you just think aboutpeople putting stock on shelves,
if you make that quicker andeasier so for example, going to
more, you know, straight toshelf packaging, so you're
putting out outters.
If the colleague does that bywalking backwards and forwards,
holding one box the length of anaisle, you could easily
outweigh any benefit that you'regetting first, as if they had
(09:23):
the trolley closed down.
Then we're working reallyefficiently.
And that's some of thechallenges.
When we see we're currentlymeasuring how long things take
and where people have madeprocess changes to see the
impact of that process change,they can be outweighed by the
fact that you get thesevariances in ways of working.
As you say, we talked quite alot in the sessions about people
(09:45):
and communication and obviouslygetting through the messages of
this is how we'd like you to doit this is the most efficient
way is and doing thatconsistently.
When you've got an everchanging workforce and probably
working across multiple hours,so you haven't got the same
management team in all the time,it's quite a big challenge.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, I agree, and kind of all the key things
throughout the day were aroundpeople, so taking people on the
journey, not doing to them,making sure they've got the
right support mechanisms, thatthe leaders are in the right
place as well, that there'stools in place to reach those
frontline workers or the peoplethat are typically difficult to
(10:25):
get to because of shifts,because of hours work per week.
So that was a big theme as well, around how you get there and
communicate with those people.
Some real life stories as wellthat were shared, which were
good.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, I think there's quite a few conversations about
tools that will be used to freeup leaders time so that they
could focus more on thatconsistency of communication and
being leaders rather than theadmin person that's stuck in the
back.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, so lots to think about, lots to share, some
great interaction on the day,great to see so many people.
As Sue said, we've got aprovisional date for next year,
so we'll start to publish thaton LinkedIn and socials.
Let people register for theevent and then we will follow up
with confirmations as it startsto come through.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, and I think all the sessions were all brilliant
and actually there was somejust as good conversations
happened in the breaks andthings.
So, as always at our events,there's a real benefit for
people out of networking.
So you know, people always findthat they're dealing with
similar challenges.
So whether they're in the samesort of industry but you know
not direct competitors, whethereven in different industries you
(11:37):
know those challenges ofmanaging marginal gains, getting
your people in the right place,making sure you're doing it all
in a way that means your teamare engaged and committed to it,
and delivering great experiencefor your customers is kind of a
constant challenge everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, hard work starts now, preparing for next
year and creating an agendathat's as good as, if not better
.
Yeah, good Court, please.
Thanks to you.
Welcome to the Productivity Podcast.
We're recovering from theProductivity Forum 2023, which
was held at the time recordinglast week in Birmingham.
Sue's back to say hello, hello,and we're going to reflect on
the event, aren't?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
we Sue.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
We are, so over 100 people attend.
I think it's biggest to date.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah, biggest turnout today, yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
In various incarnations over the last kind
of 10 years, if you takelockdown out of the way.
A couple of interesting pointsbefore we get onto key themes.
I know we talked about the bookbefore, but that was the
official launch, if you want togive people a bit more insight
into the book.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yes, it was official launch day, so everybody that
was there got a copy to takeaway.
Every second counts.
It's called and it's about,obviously, productivity the
books written in chapters, thateach one is about the questions
that we're most frequently asked.
So it's not intended to besomething that you start to read
(01:02):
from front to back, but it'sthere as a resource to dip into.
So each section will give somecontext about the challenge or
issue that's being addressed,talk about different ways of
tackling it, cover differentcase studies, so how other
people have tackled it, and thenfinishes with some quick wins.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
And if people who couldn't make the event want to
get hold of a copy.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, they can either contact us, or it is on Amazon
or it's about to be on Amazonvery soon.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
And there are two signed books floating around.
Aren't there after people askedus to sign them on the day,
which was a strange one, firstone for me signing a book.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
It's the first time we've released a book, so that's
why.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
Well, there you go.
And then we told everybodyabout ReBudget, which is our
plans to take our Excel basedlabour budget model, put that
online and then do some reallyneat things with AI, machine
learning to help be morepredictive in lots of areas, as
well as the kind of obvious howmany hours, fts and costs do I
(02:04):
need to run my shop, warehouse,restaurant by week but also some
really cool and intuitivethings around other areas.
So that seems to generate a lotof debate and lots of
conversation, which was great.
I think it's probably worthcalling out Andy Gray, who's
scribed live, scribed the day,which people are amazed at.
So for those of you that don'tknow or weren't there, andy
(02:29):
basically has some big sheets ofpaper up and, as people are
speaking, he's turning that intovisual reminders of the
conversation and the panels andthe presentations that people
did.
I've seen it probably oncebefore, but one.
I haven't realised how hardthose people work until I didn't
realise how amazing it was.
(02:49):
So, again, some really greatfeedback.
There's some photos, online,mystery, remote address, the
let's talk about key themes.
So tricky day for us becausewe're busy, we're presenting,
we're trying to pull thingstogether and get people in the
right place.
So some of it feels like a bitof a blur, but I think one of
the interesting things that cameout of one of the early
(03:11):
sessions was around Saturdaysnow being the key shopping day
again.
So, based on the fact we mayall be working hybrid, working
from home, we now go back outtraditionally on a Saturday.
So they made me think aboutkind of the times running shops,
where that's probably when wehad most of our part-timers,
most of our students, most ofour younger team members, so
(03:34):
really reinforced, you know bestwhen busiest.
Have you got your best mostexperienced people at the times
when your customers want them.
That's Saturdays, closelyfollowed by Sundays.
Now.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
And I think one of the other challenges that people
talked about was the challengesof recruiting, and a lot of
them were carrying vacancies andagain, you know it's always a
challenge when you're carryingvacancies.
The pattern of those if thosevacancies are all on your
part-time is that falling onSaturday, you can end up with a
disproportionately poorexperience on Saturday, and we
(04:09):
were joined again by Dan Will,who's always really insightful
around what's happening withfootfall.
So she's from MRI footfall andshe was talking about kind of
conversion rates and how perhapspeople aren't.
One of the challenges forSaturdays is, yes, they're busy
and then conversion rates drop.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
And within that, I think there was some interesting
insight around the fact thattime of day as well.
So we're kind of shoppingslightly later.
So it's about again placingthose shifts in the right area,
making sure you've done all thestop work wherever possible, all
the all the algorithmic stuffI'll call it now that can be
done and checked off at whatevertime before you get the
(04:49):
variability of kind of customerscoming in with different
requirements, different requests, and it linked to another
presentation as well aroundtrying to define contract hours.
Yeah, and there was quite a bitof debate in one of the panels
around how do you get to thesweet spot.
We talked historically aboutpeople being driven to a more
part-time, split over fall,split over full-timers.
(05:12):
There's a reason why people arepart-time and it's typically
because they can't be flexible,can't be full-time parents,
childcare, other job commitmentsand I suppose, a real
recognition that nobody's gotthe right answer to what is the
optimum contract 12, 14, 16, 15,32, 39, 48 hours, what is it?
(05:33):
And that?
Maybe that's specific byorganisation, maybe geography,
maybe by type of, you know,generation you are, if you're a
Gen Z or Gen Y or those otherthings again that we talked
about on the day.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
I think the reality is an individual worker's
flexibility will be unique,won't it?
So a lot of them will havemultiple jobs, like I say, they
might have different caringcommitments and just different
preferences for for how theywant to work.
So I think just thinkingpart-time equals super flexible
(06:10):
is not the case anymore.
If it ever was no.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I remember we were in a previous life pushed down a
kind of 60-40 route ofpart-timers and, yes, we ended
up with lots of heads, but wereality is probably didn't end
up with any more flexibility,because it was the full-timers
that do the extra or plug in thegaps, unless it was college
holidays or you know, people,people, circumstances slightly
changed.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
And yet the challenge is, as you go back to Saturdays
being the busier day, justhaving flat resourcing over the
operating window doesn't workfor most businesses because most
of them have peaks in eithercustomer demand or workload, and
if you aren't able to flex atall, then actually it's always a
(06:54):
challenge.
I mean you get into debatesabout well, what work can you
move out of busy periods and putit into quiet periods where
you're talking Saturdays thatare getting busier?
You know in food businesses,then you know your peaks are
always around you look main mealtimes.
If you don't use any part-time,if you haven't got any
part-time flexibility, it reallydoes limit your ability to to
(07:16):
meet demand effecting that allmeans you have to carry a lot of
extra when you're quieter.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Yeah and shrink was clearly an emotive and hot topic
for everybody, not necessarilya key theme in terms of the
speakers and what we talkedabout, but certainly in all the
breaks and the networkingeverybody was struggling with.
You know how do you combat it?
How do you stop becoming anorganization that locks
everything up and as a counterat the front?
(07:42):
We know organizations that havehistorically worked like that,
but how do you stop becoming one?
Because it was such a challenge, along with recruitment, along
with retention, along with theother rising costs around energy
and rates and rent that thatexist there.
The big, I think, other story,which isn't new news at all, but
was an interesting debate alongthe theme and threaded
(08:04):
throughout the day in terms oftheme, was around kind of
marginal gains.
So process variants,individuals doing things
different ways, bringing newpeople into the business, and I
think the turnover stats that Iquoted was about 57%.
So more than one in, more thanone out of every two people that
join a retail hospitalityorganisation over the last 12
(08:25):
months leaves within one year.
How do you stop training in badpractice, how do you reduce
process variants and how thoselittle, little tweets can add up
to the sum of a big benefit?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yes, there was discussions about how you can
take seconds off something thatyou do a lot and it can save
millions, and the impact of whena business is scaled across a
lot of sites.
Then a small saving really addsup to a big number over time.
But we then talked about thefact that when you make in these
small changes, they can getoutweighed by the fact by
(09:01):
variance in how people areworking.
So if you just think aboutpeople putting stock on shelves,
if you make that quicker andeasier so for example, going to
more, you know, straight toshelf packaging, so you're
putting out outters.
If the colleague does that bywalking backwards and forwards,
holding one box the length of anaisle, you could easily
outweigh any benefit that you'regetting first, as if they had
(09:23):
the trolley closed down.
Then we're working reallyefficiently.
And that's some of thechallenges.
When we see we're currentlymeasuring how long things take
and where people have madeprocess changes to see the
impact of that process change,they can be outweighed by the
fact that you get thesevariances in ways of working.
As you say, we talked quite alot in the sessions about people
(09:45):
and communication and obviouslygetting through the messages of
this is how we'd like you to doit this is the most efficient
way is and doing thatconsistently.
When you've got an everchanging workforce and probably
working across multiple hours,so you haven't got the same
management team in all the time,it's quite a big challenge.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, I agree, and kind of all the key things
throughout the day were aroundpeople, so taking people on the
journey, not doing to them,making sure they've got the
right support mechanisms, thatthe leaders are in the right
place as well, that there'stools in place to reach those
frontline workers or the peoplethat are typically difficult to
(10:25):
get to because of shifts,because of hours work per week.
So that was a big theme as well, around how you get there and
communicate with those people.
Some real life stories as wellthat were shared, which were
good.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Yeah, I think there's quite a few conversations about
tools that will be used to freeup leaders time so that they
could focus more on thatconsistency of communication and
being leaders rather than theadmin person that's stuck in the
back.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah, so lots to think about, lots to share, some
great interaction on the day,great to see so many people.
As Sue said, we've got aprovisional date for next year,
so we'll start to publish thaton LinkedIn and socials.
Let people register for theevent and then we will follow up
with confirmations as it startsto come through.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, and I think all the sessions were all brilliant
and actually there was somejust as good conversations
happened in the breaks andthings.
So, as always at our events,there's a real benefit for
people out of networking.
So you know, people always findthat they're dealing with
similar challenges.
So whether they're in the samesort of industry but you know
not direct competitors, whethereven in different industries you
(11:37):
know those challenges ofmanaging marginal gains, getting
your people in the right place,making sure you're doing it all
in a way that means your teamare engaged and committed to it,
and delivering great experiencefor your customers is kind of a
constant challenge everywhere.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
Well, hard work starts now, preparing for next
year and creating an agendathat's as good as, if not better
.
Yeah, good Court, please.
Thanks to you.
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