LOWELL, Mass., and WESTON, Fla., USA – UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people, has announced that Costa Coffee, one of the world’s largest and best-known coffee shop chains, is optimizing store staffing and strategically planning long-term labor decisions with AI-powered UKG workforce planning and forecasting solutions for frontline and hourly workers.
Headquartered outside London, Costa Coffee’s corporate-owned locations employ thousands of full-time, part-time, and fixed-term workers at 1,600 sites across the U.K. The coffee giant partnered with UKG as the most effective way to align labor to demand and optimize staffing levels to ensure stores are always appropriately staffed, especially during the busy holiday season. After deploying UKG Strategic Workforce Planning, Costa Coffee increased staffing efficiency by nearly 50% during the Christmas season and 65% immediately thereafter.
“The results we’ve experienced with UKG are tremendous,” said Katie Little, labor operations manager at Costa Coffee. “Store managers can accurately plan their staffing needs well in advance and make data-driven decisions, so our stores always have the right people with the right skills in the right place. This not only helps keep customers happy but ensures we have the ideal mix of employees, which creates a better experience for them, all while keeping us on budget.”
The move to the AI solution marks a significant transformation for the retailer, as managers previously relied on spreadsheets and estimated, based on budget, the number of workers they would need at each location. This often led to under- or overstaffing of stores, resulting in overtime for some workers and the need to move others from one store to another to cover shifts. The problem was exacerbated during the Christmas season — one of Costa Coffee’s busiest times of the year — when having the right people in place to serve customers is essential.
“It was an inexact science and not an efficient way to operate. Because we didn’t have access to labor data in real time or the ability to properly forecast our needs, we were always planning ahead with outdated information,” said Matt Smith, retail operations standards manager at Costa Coffee. “We also didn’t have line of sight into employees’ outstanding vacation time, so we ended up understaffed before the Christmas holiday — because of all the vacation time our people were taking at the end of the year — and then overstaffed right after. It was very painful for both store managers and employees, cost us money, and we knew we needed to make a change.”
The inflection point came during the 2021 holiday season, when Costa Coffee went live with UKG Strategic Workforce Planning as its centralized solution for labor budgeting, recruitment planning, and productivity. Leveraging workforce management information and labor analytics from each store location, the coffee giant more precisely forecasted its 2022 holiday staffing needs, allowing it to optimize and energize its existing workforce while tracking toward its budget.
“At one point, we had more than 300 different contract types for our workers. UKG helped us standardize that process, and we’ve seen the total number of contracts decrease substantially,” said Little. “Because we can more precisely plan staffing needs months in advance, we can take better care of our people by offering more hours to our full- and part-time employees and hiring fewer fixed-term workers. This cuts down on recruitment costs and helps us fill gaps to make timely hires when and where they are needed.”
Another important benefit from Costa Coffee’s partnership with UKG was the overall impact on its store managers.
“Managers are now empowered to run their business effectively and efficiently. With labor data available at a glance, our store managers can make smarter staffing decisions in a quicker manner and are working less overtime themselves,” said Little. “We also know staffing has a significant impact on customer satisfaction, and emerging technology like UKG will only strengthen our ability to provide an exceptional customer experience.”
“AI-powered technology exists to make life easier for employers and help them take better care of their people,” said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG. “While this is true for any industry, it’s particularly relevant to environments such as retail that continue to struggle with staffing in this tight labor market. With UKG Strategic Workforce Planning, organizations can make intelligent business decisions that not only create great workplace experiences and help their people thrive, but have a positive, trickle-down effect on customer loyalty, which ultimately impacts their bottom line.”
