In today’s competitive retail industry, the need and requirement for prolonged working hours grow every day. Retail shops are now taking steps towards arranging their employee’s schedules to involve multiple and longer shifts.
The retail industry has started to realize that it needs to address its workers’ shift changes in their jobs. Recent months have shown an increase in unfair scheduling and scheduling abuse. Employees are intentionally called by their employees to work more hours. Many shops have undertaken procedures to cater to shift changes to cater to the employee’s flexibility in their work schedule.
Procedures and practices observed by the retail industry have been shifting in recent years. Retail shops have realized and understood just how much shift changes of their workers and employees are affected. Their work timing is found to have an impact on the productivity of their work.
Different Shift Changes Followed in Retail Shops
Schedule Format (Fixed or Rotating Shifts)
During fixed shift schedules, employees work one particular shift. It could be that they are required to work on different days, but their shift will always be the same. Employees that are required to work on rotating shift schedules will have to serve various shifts periodically. It could be that one day they might be working in the afternoon and another day at night.
Walmart has offered its employees the options of fixed shifts and flex shifts. Workers on a fixed shift are guaranteed their weekly hours, while flex shifts let workers form their timetable from the left hours. The retail store is now working towards launching an app that would help workers select their work schedules directly from their phones.
On-Off Work Pattern
Employees and workers work for consecutive days and then take a few scheduled days as their off days. 
Morning Shifts
Specifically, in retail stores, workers and employees are generally found to work on a day or morning shift. The morning work shifts are either 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mid-Day Shifts
Most retailers that are open for 24 hours or extended hours have employees working on mid-day shifts. This shift’s timing is usually from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. or 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Evening
Retail stores that are open late in the evening have employees who will have to work from 4 p.m. until 11 p.m. or 5 p.m. until 12 p.m. Most retailers use more part-time workers to work their evening shifts.
Why Shift Change Procedures are Needed
Retailers need to understand and realize that they need to adopt specific shift change procedures if they want to improve their store operations.
Calculation of Specific Workload Required
To fully utilize their employees, retailers must calculate the amount of time it takes for their workers to perform certain activities. This estimated calculation will help retailers to hire their employees per their need.
Flexible Workforce
Retail stores often need a flexible and diverse workforce team comprising of part-time, full-time, and temporary staff. The diverse staff members on different schedules will prove to be advantageous to the store as there will always be an employee present in the store.
On-Call Scheduling
On-call scheduling is a common practice in many retail stores. Employees are put in an unfavorable position as they sometimes have to keep a selected time slot free, just in case they are called in for work. The disadvantage of this scenario is that there is no assurance if they need to show up for work or not. If retail stores set up a systematic procedure regarding on-call scheduling, it will benefit the employees and the store.
Conclusion
In response to the evolving demands of the competitive retail industry, the focus on prolonged working hours and fair shift scheduling has gained momentum. Retailers recognize the impact of shift changes on employee productivity and are adopting procedures to ensure flexibility and fairness. Retailers are exploring diverse scheduling formats, from fixed and rotating shifts to on-off work patterns. These changes address the need for a calculated workload and contribute to a flexible and diverse workforce. As the retail landscape evolves, establishing systematic shift change procedures becomes essential for improved store operations and employee satisfaction.
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