The largest expenditure for most companies is labor costs. There is a great deal of costs wrapped around a company’s workforce — recruiting costs, training costs, payroll, benefits, and physical assets to name just a few. Taken from an article written by William Adkins titled “How to Calculate the Employee Labor Percentage“, Adkins writes,
“It is critical for a small business to effectively control the cost of labor. Typically, labor cost percentages average 20 to 35 percent of gross sales. Appropriate percentages vary by industry, A service business might have an employee percentage of 50 percent or more, but a manufacturer will usually need to keep the figure under 30 percent. However, cutting labor costs is a balancing act. If you reduce payroll outlays too much, it can create problems recruiting and retaining productive employees. Effective labor cost control means identifying areas where you can reduce costs without impairing employee incentives and productivity.”
Hourly and shift workers are an area where significant cost savings can be found. Managing and optimizing something as simple as shift swaps between employees is an area of significant cost savings for your hourly and shift workforce. Adherence to wage and labor compliance initiatives is another area of cost savings by avoiding expensive fines and penalties for non-compliance. Retention is another area for significant cost savings. In some industries churn is a big problem…and a very expensive one. Having an employee engagement strategy and communications platform that can reach your entire workforce can help reduce costly churn within your labor pool.
In today’s world almost everyone has a smart phone. Branch Messenger has recognized this as an effective means through their mobile labor management platform to engage the labor pool to streamline tasks such as shift swaps between employees, managerial approvals, and push communications that may otherwise be more difficult to achieve with hourly and shift workers. Their platform has a social component that drive adoption and utilization rates that compare to other social platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Executives and managers love this feature as a way to effectively communicate and engage their valued workers. Their app can be downloaded directly from the Android and iTunes app stores as a “freemium” app that can be used at a local or store level. They also have an enterprise solution that integrates to WFM, HCM, Payroll, ERP, and other systems that enhance that value and ROI already provided in their free offering.
For more information, check out their latest solutions video below:
If you think Branch Messenger could benefit your organization, you can engage them at https://www.branchmessenger.com/contact.