How retail and hospitality leaders combat peak seasons with Strategic Workforce Planning

The season always comes — But are you ready for it? 

In retail and hospitality, the countdown clock never stops ticking. From Boxing Day rushes to Lunar New Year weekends, every season brings a new surge, and a new test of readiness.  

The holiday season, school breaks, long weekends, major events, they always come faster than expected. And every year, leaders find themselves in the same position: short on time, short on people, and long on pressure. 

Before you know it, forecasting turns into firefighting. Planning turns into patching. 

And “getting through it” becomes the goal. 

The reality behind the rush 

Across retail stores, restaurants, cafés, and hotels, managers spend their days juggling spreadsheets, messages, and last-minute roster swaps. They’re hiring on instinct, not insight, filling shifts before they even understand what next week’s demand will look like. 

• Teams are stretched thin before the season even begins. 

• Frontline staff cover extra shifts and take on roles outside their comfort zone. 

• Managers are burning the candle at both ends, doing their day jobs by day and reworking rosters by night. 

It’s not for lack of effort, it’s because the ground keeps moving. Customer behaviour changes overnight. Foot traffic spikes, then drops. Budgets tighten mid-quarter. New store openings collide with unplanned leave. 

And somehow, leaders are expected to predict all of it, with nothing more than a spreadsheet and hope. 

The cost of constant reaction 

This cycle isn’t just exhausting; it’s expensive. Labour costs rise. Overtime becomes the norm. Skilled employees burn out or leave. And customers feel it too, in longer queues, slower service, and experiences that fall short of the brand promise. 

For HR and Finance leaders, every unexpected shift has a cost, in overtime, morale, and customer satisfaction. For many, this reactive cycle has become the new normal: react, recover, repeat. But deep down, everyone knows it’s not sustainable. 

It doesn’t have to be this way 

Retail and hospitality leaders don’t lack talent, energy, or commitment. What they lack is time and visibility. They’re being forced to plan blind, relying on instinct and spreadsheets instead of reliable data. No matter how hard they work, they’re always chasing the problem instead of getting ahead of it. 

But the most successful brands are proving there’s another way. They’re breaking the cycle, not by guessing better, but by planning smarter. They’re using technology to see what’s coming, understand what it means, and act before the pressure hits. 

That’s where UKG comes in. 

How UKG helps leaders break the cycle 

At UKG, we believe preparedness beats reaction every time. Our approach helps organisations move from “just getting through it” to being ready for it, giving retail and hospitality leaders the clarity and confidence to plan months, even years, ahead. 

At the centre of that shift is UKG Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP), a powerful forecasting and planning solution built to turn workforce uncertainty into actionable insight. 

Real results: how Costa Coffee planned ahead and won 

For years, Costa Coffee —one of the world’s largest coffeehouse chains — faced the same challenge many retail and hospitality brands know well: matching staffing levels to unpredictable customer demand. 

Store managers relied on spreadsheets and past sales estimates to plan staffing for 1,600 stores across the UK. The result? Understaffed during holidays, overstaffed after them, with burned-out employees and rising costs. 

That changed when Costa Coffee implemented Strategic Workforce Planning with UKG. 

With greater visibility into future demand and workforce capacity, Costa Coffee began planning months ahead, not just weeks. The results were immediate and measurable: 

• Increased staffing efficiency by nearly 50% during the Christmas season and 65% immediately thereafter 

• Reduced overtime costs through accurate forecasting and better workforce planning 

• Decreased reliance on contract workers by optimising use of part-time, full-time, and fixed-term staff 
   

As Costa Coffee’s Labour Operations Manager, Katie Little, put it: 

Costa Coffee’s transformation proves what’s possible when planning replaces panic. 
 

What UKG Strategic Workforce Planning delivers 

With UKG SWP, leaders can: 

1. Forecast workforce needs with precision — from next month’s roster to next year’s expansion plan. 

2. Match labour to real demand — ensuring the right people are in the right place at the right time. 

3. Control costs intelligently — aligning budgets with business activity and avoiding costly overstaffing or overtime. 

4. Strengthen workforce agility — with visibility that helps you adapt to market shifts before they happen. 

5. Plan beyond the season — with scenario planning that prepares your teams 1, 3, or even 18 months into the future. 
    

The result? 

No more last-minute scrambles. 

No more “hope the roster holds.” 

Just clear visibility, strategic decisions, and a workforce plan that keeps pace with your business. 

Because every season will bring change, the difference is whether you’ll be ready for it. 

Predictability pays off 

UKG Strategic Workforce Planning (SWP) is available exclusively as an add-on to UKG Pro Workforce Management (WFM) combining world-class workforce management capabilities with predictive intelligence for long-range forecasting and scenario planning. 

• For organisations already using UKG Pro Workforce Management, SWP unlocks a new level of visibility, transforming historical and real-time data into actionable forecasts that help leaders predict labour demand, optimise costs, and plan confidently for the future. By connecting SWP to your existing WFM environment, you gain the power to anticipate what’s coming, test scenarios before making changes, and align workforce strategy directly to business goals. 

• For organisations not yet using UKG Pro Workforce Management, the journey starts there. Pro WFM on its own delivers significant operational impact, streamlining timekeeping, scheduling, compliance, and pay accuracy for today’s workforce. Once in place, it becomes the foundation that allows you to add SWP seamlessly, evolving from reactive scheduling to strategic workforce planning, when the business is ready. 
   
  “UKG has allowed us to realise labour cost savings through its automatic award interpretation. It has helped to improve our internal efficiencies and the overall accuracy surrounding our T&A and payroll processes.” 
  — Director of Operations, Bis Industries 

(Source: UKG Australia – Customer Story: Bis Industries) 

And the value doesn’t stop there. According to The Total Economic Impact™ of UKG Pro Workforce Management, conducted by Forrester Consulting, organisations achieved a 169% ROI and a net present value of $21.5 million over three years, with measurable benefits including: 

• A 3% improvement in workforce optimisation through better forecasting 

• 208 hours saved per manager annually via scheduling automation 

• Payback in less than six months, with improved compliance and labour accuracy 

Read the Forrester Total Economic Impact™ Report 

When UKG Pro WFM and SWP work together, leaders gain the best of both worlds: operational control today and predictive clarity for tomorrow. Whether you’re just starting to modernise workforce operations or ready to take forecasting to the next level, UKG helps you move from surviving the season, to owning it. 

What if you knew what was coming — and you were ready for it? 

With UKG Strategic Workforce Planning, now you can be. 
 
Get in touch with us today to learn how to turn planning into your competitive advantage here.