Retailers tend to think of their workforce management strategy as separate from their recruiting or talent management strategy. According to a new paper from The Workforce Institute at Kronos, what retailers don't realize is that these entities are intrinsically connected. Many organizations implement a workforce management solution - time and attendance, scheduling, and absence management - to control labor costs and improve productivity, but don't consider how these solutions can empower employees, ultimately leading to improvements in attracting and retaining their workforce.

In the paper, titled "Empowering the Hourly Workforce through Enterprise Workforce Management," author Tim Lett, a member of the board of advisors for The Workforce Institute, says the key issues that affect the job satisfaction of hourly workers are family leave, vacation, flexible hours and shift swapping. How an organization accommodates these issues can determine whether their best employees stay and are factors that potential new employees scrutinize when considering a job offer.

According to Lett, here are some best practices for implementing workforce management solutions:

-Clearly articulate business goals related to employee empowerment, including the need to improve scheduling flexibility and reduce cycle times for vacation approval and shift changes.

-Provide hard evidence and case studies to decision makers to show that the "leap of faith" on employee empowerment is worth the risk.

-Communicate employee empowerment goals, along with hard- and soft-dollar benefits, clearly and early to build company-wide support. Make achievement of employee empowerment goals an intrinsic part of performance evaluations for project sponsors, team members and management.

To learn more about how to empower the hourly workforce through enterprise workforce management, visit: http://www.workforceinstitute.org/put-down-the-technology-and-step-away-from-the-keyboard.htm.