Labour is always one of the biggest costs in retail, but Christmas 2025 is shaping up to be a real test. Rising wages, unpredictable footfall, and changing customer habits mean that even small miscalculations can hit profit, staff morale, and the customer experience. If you had to place a bet this Christmas, what would you choose: a sunny Saturday or a sudden winter downpour? For UK retailers, the answer could make a measurable difference. Some stores are already planning shi

Every organisation eventually reaches that point where someone says, “We just need to go digital.” Then the slides appear, the demos begin, and everyone nods politely. Six months later, the old spreadsheets are still circulating under filenames that end in “final final v3”. The problem isn’t technology. The problem is trust. Digital transformation fails when it starts with the system instead of the people. Software doesn’t resist change, people do and usually for good reason.

In UK manufacturing, rosters are often treated as operational tools rather than compliance frameworks. Yet the roster is one of the most legally exposed documents a business holds. Every shift allocation, break pattern, and overtime entry carries potential regulatory implications under the Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) , Equality Act 2010 , Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 , and, less obviously, National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 . I’ve spent the past eight years