Costa Coffee partners with UKG for advance workforce planning

The coffee brand increased staffing efficiency by nearly 50%.

Costa Coffee has partnered with workforce management specialist UKG to optimise its staffing and strategic labour planning decisions.

With UKG’s AI-powered solution, Costa Coffee increased staffing efficiency by nearly 50% during the Christmas season and 65% immediately thereafter.

“The results we’ve experienced with UKG are tremendous. Store managers can accurately plan their staffing needs well in advance and make data-driven decisions, so our stores always have the right people with the right skills in the right place. This not only helps keep customers happy but ensures we have the ideal mix of employees, which creates a better experience for them, all whilst keeping us on budget,” said Katie Little, labor operations manager at Costa Coffee.

When Costa Coffee went live with UKG Strategic Workforce Planning as its centralised solution for labour budgeting, recruitment planning, and productivity. Leveraging workforce management information and labour analytics from each cafe location, the coffee giant more precisely forecasted its 2022 holiday staffing needs, allowing it to optimise and energise its existing workforce whilst tracking toward its budget.

“At one point, we had more than 300 different contract types for our workers. UKG helped us standardize that process, and we’ve seen the total number of contracts decrease substantially,” said Little. “Because we can more precisely plan staffing needs months in advance, we can take better care of our people by offering more hours to our full- and part-time employees and hiring fewer fixed-term workers. This cuts down on recruitment costs and helps us fill gaps to make timely hires when and where they are needed.”