Background:A US based retail client that provides home furnishing hires associates in their stores & warehouses to meet customer demand. Associates include full time, part time, temporary associates. Hiring the associates at the right time is critical to ensure sufficient coverage in stores during the peak seasons. Hiring too early leads to extra costs & hiring too late results in lost sales. There was need to account for the fact that new hires need to be trained before they are ready to work on the floor.

Approach: Seasonality pattern of every department of the client was studied individually. The statistical models were built at department/sub department levels within each stores to more accurately hire the associates based on their skills. The approach further treated full time, part time & temporary associates differently.

Impact: This project significantly reduced the labor planning & hiring costs. The exit process of temporary hires were smoother. The customer demand during peak season was effectively met.