Getting In-Store Labor Just Right: What Retailers and Goldilocks Have in Common

Third, in addition to giving store managers a simple way to align with defined labor budgets, retailers should explore ways to help store managers balance labor hours between "selling time" spent with customers and "non-selling time" spent on the completion of critical tasks, which, according to research published in the Harvard Business Review, can improve store profitability by as much as 7 percent.