Keyword Location Location Type
Head of Workforce Management
CDS Superstores, trading as The Range, wilko & Homebase is one of the UK’s fastest-growing retailers. With nearly 300 stores nationwide and over 15,000 colleagues. Our vision is to deliver outstanding value and choice to our customers every day. As we continue to expand, we’re investing in smarter ways of working — ensuring every colleague, shift, and hour delivers maximum impact for our customers and business.
As a result of our expansion plans and our continued ongoing success we are now looking to appoint a Head of Workforce Management. Based at our Head Office in Plymouth, with national travel as required. This unique opportunity combines a challenging, high impact role with a sought-after Devon location and lifestyle
About the Role:
The Head of Workforce Management (WFM), reporting into our Chief Operating Officer, will lead the strategic and operational direction of labour planning, scheduling, and optimisation across our retail estate and support functions. This role will be responsible for maximising colleague productivity and customer service while optimising wage spend, ensuring that our stores are efficiently resourced to deliver commercial and operational goals.
You will drive continuous improvement through data-led decision-making, workforce analytics, and system-enabled optimisation, partnering closely with Operations, Finance, HR, and Store Leadership Teams.
Your key responsibilities will include:
1. Develop and implement our workforce management strategy to balance customer service, operational efficiency, and wage cost optimisation.
2. Lead forecasting and budgeting of labour demand, ensuring alignment with business trading patterns, sales targets, and seasonal trends.
3. Define and deliver KPIs to monitor labour productivity, cost-to-sales ratios, and scheduling accuracy
4. Oversee the deployment and continuous improvement of workforce management systems and tools (e.g., forecasting, scheduling, and timekeeping platforms).
5. Partner with Operations to ensure staffing models are consistent, efficient, and support exceptional customer experiences.
6. Drive labour standards and productivity benchmarks across departments and store formats.
7. Use analytics and modelling to identify labour cost efficiencies and productivity improvement opportunities.
8. Translate insights into actionable recommendations for senior leaders and store teams.
9. Continuously refine forecasting algorithms and labour models based on business performance and external factors (e.g., trading conditions, seasonality).
10. Work with Finance, and Operations to ensure wage budgets are effectively controlled and understood at all levels.
11. Engage with Retail management to embed a culture of labour efficiency and accountability.
12. Lead communication and training programmes to enhance scheduling accuracy and colleague engagement.
13. Foster a culture of continuous improvement, innovation, and cross-functional collaboration.
About You
To excel in this role, you will need:
14. Proven experience in a senior workforce management or labour optimisation role within a multi-site retail or hospitality environment.
15. Strong understanding of labour forecasting, scheduling, and productivity modelling.
16. Experience managing large-scale wage budgets and delivering measurable cost efficiencies.
17. Commercially astute with strong analytical and financial acumen.
18. Skilled in using WFM software (e.g., Kronos, Reflexis, Blue Yonder, Quinyx, or similar).
19. Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills across all levels.
20. Strong understanding of UK retail labour laws and scheduling compliance.
21. Background in change management and process improvement.
Our values
This is a fantastic opportunity to join an extremely fast-paced and dynamic business. We look for team members who aspire to always deliver their best and to be:
22. Impact led and commercially focused
23. Tenacious in the face of challenges
24. Collaborative and caring
What we offer:
25. Competitive salary
26. Pension
27. Long service awards
28. Employee discount
29. Cycle to work scheme
Position: Permanent, Full-time
Hours: Monday – Friday, 08:45am – 17:30pm.
Location: Plymouth, Devon