United Supermarkets Reaps Significant Savings and Further Extends Kronos Workforce Management Technology

United Supermarkets has obtained seven-figure savings through the deployment of a labor planning tool in conjunction with the workforce management solution from Kronos Incorporated. This effort has enabled the supermarket chain to further extend its commitment to excellence in customer service through controlled labor costs, minimized compliance risk, and improved workforce productivity.

News Facts

• Within just two years of implementing the integrated Kronos time and attendance and forecasting and scheduling solutions across all 51 stores, United Supermarkets experienced many productivity and cost saving benefits contributing to the multimillion dollar cost savings. By automating the scheduling process alone, the supermarket chain has achieved an annual savings of more than $500,000.
• Before Kronos, store managers spent a majority of their time scheduling employees manually. However, after implementing Kronos, a manager can schedule 400 employees in just two hours at one of the company’s largest stores. Now managers have more time freed up to spend on customer service and training of associates. Also, as United is able to effectively track special events or other trends in the system, it has been able to make sure that the right person is in the right place at the right time, ensuring that customers are receiving the experience they expect.
• Additionally, as hiring and placing the right associate in stores has been only half the battle for the supermarket chain, United is also ensuring that management of employee requests is as easy as possible. By providing associates with a self-service option to request shift changes and time off, United can also now easily track employee preferences.
• With razor thin operating margins and a diverse set of employees, United has been able to drive productivity and enhance employee and customer satisfaction with Kronos. Based on these benefits, United Supermarkets will extend the Kronos forecasting and scheduling solution to the deli, pharmacy, and produce departments to start experiencing the benefits of an integrated workforce management system across all stores.

Supporting Quotes

• David Crews, director of strategic projects, United Supermarkets
  “In our industry, we need to work with tight margins, and optimizing workforce management is very important for profitable operations. With Kronos, we have already achieved multimillion dollar cost savings and enhanced customer satisfaction, our number one priority. We’re now looking forward to further extending the value of workforce management.”

• Liz Moughan, director, retail and hospitality practice group, Kronos
  “Supermarkets will continue to face pressures from rising food and fuel prices, as well as cost-conscious consumers searching for better deals at competing stores. To address such challenges, these entities will need to focus on improving store and workforce productivity. United Supermarkets is a progressive supermarket looking to do just that by extending the Kronos workforce management solution.”

Supporting Resources

• About United Supermarkets.
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• Take a look at the lighter side of workforce management in our Time Well Spent cartoons.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos is the global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Tens of thousands of organizations in 100 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000^® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. To learn how Kronos uniquely delivers complete automation and high-quality information in an easy-to-use solution, visit www.kronos.com.

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