Transparency is retail’s golden rule for workforce management at peak

Peak retail is often described as controlled chaos. The pace accelerates. Customer expectations rise. Labour costs climb. Store managers juggle absences, demand spikes, and the pressure to deliver a seamless in-store experience.

But beneath that operational intensity, a deeper issue often sits unresolved.

Burnout. High turnover. Inconsistent customer experience.

And increasingly, these are symptoms of something less visible – opaque scheduling, unclear communication, and workforce decisions that feel arbitrary to the people most affected by them.

In a recent Retail Gazette podcast conversation, Erik Fjellborg, CEO of Quinyx, offered a clear principle for retailers navigating this complexity: this year’s golden rule is transparency.

Not transparency as a buzzword. Transparency as a leadership responsibility.

When burnout is a workforce management issue

Retailers that fail to manage peak effectively face two significant risks.

The first is turnover – particularly losing experienced employees who cannot easily be replaced. Retail performance depends on brand knowledge, training, and the right mix of senior and junior colleagues. You cannot simply “bring someone in from the street” and expect them to deliver a consistent customer experience.

The second risk is more immediate. When employees are close to burnout, it shows. A single poor interaction at the till or on the shop floor can undermine months of brand investment.

This is not hypothetical. Before modernising its workforce processes, jewellery retailer Kendra Scott found that schedules were often released late, making it difficult for staff to plan their lives. Managers were spending hours manually building rotas in spreadsheets, often finalising them at the last possible moment. The result was friction, stress, and avoidable operational strain. Greater visibility and earlier scheduling did more than improve efficiency – it improved trust.

Workforce management in retail is not an administrative task. It is directly linked to customer experience, brand perception, and financial performance.

Clarity, fairness and flexibility

From the podcast discussion, three themes stood out:

• Employees value clarity around why they’ve been given a certain schedule

• Advance notice of changes reduces stress

• Clear expectations around tasks improve engagement and performance

Flexibility is equally critical. In Quinyx’s State of the Frontline Workforce research, which surveyed over 12,000 frontline employees globally, flexible scheduling consistently ranks alongside pay as one of the most important factors influencing job attractiveness and retention. For many younger workers in particular, flexibility is not a perk – it is an expectation.

But flexibility in retail cannot simply mirror the gig economy. As Erik explains, going “full Uber model” is not realistic for most retail operations. Retail requires continuity, training, and a stable team mix.

The answer lies in structured flexibility.

In practice, this often means building a stable core schedule that can be communicated well in advance, while reserving a portion of shifts for employee-led flexibility. Many retailers find that allocating around 20–30% of shifts for bidding or self-booking creates the right balance – providing operational certainty while giving employees meaningful influence over their working lives.

That blend of structure and autonomy reinforces fairness, reduces last-minute friction, and strengthens trust in how workforce decisions are made.

Transparency in communication is as important as transparency in scheduling

Scheduling is only one part of the equation. Task clarity and communication matter just as much.

Fashion retailer JOSEPH recognised that fragmented communication tools were creating confusion across stores. Staff were receiving information from multiple sources, with no clear indication of what was current or authoritative. By establishing a single source of truth and enabling two-way communication between head office and stores, the business reduced internal email traffic significantly and improved clarity around daily expectations.

Similarly, global fashion brand Reformation faced the challenge of coordinating store communication across time zones, particularly during high-pressure periods such as Black Friday. Relying on disconnected tools created operational blind spots. By centralising communication and introducing clear accountability – including visibility into message opens and task completion – the brand strengthened execution during peak while reducing unnecessary stress for store teams.

Transparency is not just about seeing the rota. It is about knowing what is expected, what has changed, and why.

AI improves outcomes – but transparency builds trust

Automated forecasting and scheduling have existed for years. What has changed is the quality of outcomes.

Modern AI models can process far more data points than traditional systems – analysing historical demand, trading patterns, labour constraints, employee preferences, skills and certifications, and compliance rules simultaneously. The result is a more accurate demand forecast and a more optimised schedule.

But workforce management is not a purely mathematical exercise.

Retail leaders still hold knowledge that is difficult to encode into software – local customer behaviours, team dynamics, contextual nuances. That is why a human-in-the-loop approach remains essential.

The optimal model combines:

1. A mathematically optimised schedule generated through AI
2. Human validation and refinement before finalisation

As automation increases, transparency becomes even more important. Employees need to understand what automation is doing, why it produced a certain outcome, and how fairness is embedded into the system.

AI should reduce chaos – not create confusion.

Turning workforce data into better decisions

Most retailers already track core labour metrics such as sales per worked hour or transactions per hour. The opportunity lies in going further.

Forward-thinking organisations are analysing:

• Which team compositions drive the strongest performance
• How different mixes of senior and junior staff affect sales
• How employee satisfaction with schedules correlates with results
• How performance varies across stores – and where targeted resource allocation can improve profitability

Retailers that combine workforce analytics with transparent decision-making frameworks are better equipped to manage both peak demand and long-term engagement.

The value lies not just in generating insight, but in distributing it. Too often, advanced dashboards sit at head office while store leaders operate with limited visibility. Transparency requires that the right people have access to the right data at the right time.

Read more: Explore our retail workforce whitepaper to see how leading brands are using workforce data to improve peak performance, retention, and profitability.

Recognition and sustainable peak performance

Recognition also plays a role in transparent workforce management.

Frontline work is demanding and highly visible to customers, yet often undervalued internally. Digital tools now allow retailers to recognise performance more consistently, enable peer recognition, and compare engagement across regions.

Recognition reinforces fairness. It signals that contribution is seen and valued.

Sustainable peak performance is not achieved by squeezing labour harder. It is achieved by creating clarity around expectations, contribution, and outcomes.

Transparency as a leadership principle

As workforce decisions become more data-driven and automated, there is a risk they feel impersonal.

That is why transparency matters more than ever.

Retail leaders must:

• Explain how automation works
• Clarify why schedules change
• Demonstrate how fairness is built into workforce decisions
• Balance efficiency with employee wellbeing

Workforce management is no longer simply about controlling labour costs. It sits at the intersection of employee engagement, compliance, customer experience, and brand reputation.

Transparency transforms workforce management from a back-office function into a strategic capability.

And at peak – when pressure is highest and trust is most fragile – that capability can mean the difference between burnout and resilience, between inconsistency and confidence.

Transparency is not a feature.

It is retail’s golden rule.

To hear Erik Fjellborg’s full discussion on transparency, peak trading, and the responsible use of AI in retail workforce management, listen to the complete podcast conversation.