Staff planning in minutes: proven automation for large retailers
10.04.2026
The ZESAM workforce management solution turns staff planning into a driver of efficiency in day-to-day retail operations. Used by Switzerland’s leading retailers, it proves its value every day for more than 100,000 employees. Thanks to tried-and-tested automation, an entire week’s schedule can be created in just a few minutes – taking absences, availability and all legal requirements into account.
The following is a summary of the presentation “Staff planning in minutes: proven automation for large retailers” by Raphael Schmid, Head of the Workforce Management Business Unit at Ergon, delivered at HR Festival 2026 in Zurich.
Staff planning must take a wide range of requirements into account. On the one hand, there are hard constraints such as working time legislation, employment regulations, industry-specific agreements such as collective labour agreements, internal company rules, absences such as holidays, and employee qualifications. On the other hand, there are soft constraints: What staffing levels are required, and how well utilised are employees? Are there individual preferences, and how can Saturday shifts, for example, be allocated fairly? The first question has a direct impact on costs, while the second affects employee satisfaction. Viewed in this way, successful staff planning is not simply a planning problem but an optimisation problem.
Staff planning for large retailers
In a small business, shifts can still be planned manually or using Excel. In large organisations, however, manual planning is extremely time-consuming. The following practical example shows how Switzerland’s two largest retailers automate this process using ZESAM.
With its various modules, ZESAM gives staff planners a clear overview of teams, departments and employees. Suppose you are planning a weekly schedule for 100 employees. For a typical week without public holidays or special events, you begin by selecting a suitable template.
The shifts and tasks in this template then need to be assigned to specific employees. Within a few seconds, the planning assistant calculates possible assignments for all 100 employees based on configurable weightings such as staffing demand or utilisation. Monthly and annual schedules can also be generated in this way.
ZESAM allows additional contextual information to be displayed as required, such as the hours already scheduled and those still to be allocated in the cockpit. Dedicated views also show employees’ projected time balances as well as their individual preferences and requests. The system also checks the schedule against legal requirements and flags and logs any violations.
Once the staff schedule has been finalised and approved, employees can view their assignments directly in the app on their mobile device.
With ZESAM, large organisations – whether in retail or other industries – can create an efficient and transparent staff schedule in just a few minutes.