Who’s working today?

TEAMS: Workforce Management, Connect App team, Connect Web team, TLC

At a glance

I led the design of the schedule view, alerts and filters, and shift-level details in My Team, a mobile workforce management tool that replaced the Leadership Engagement app, saving 86K leader hours, reducing schedule-checking time by83%, and saving $500K+ in overtime labor.

The problem

Retail store managers are responsible for teams that can range from 20 to 100 employees, depending on the season. To manage labor effectively, leaders need to know who is working, who is scheduled to work, and who’s close to overtime.

The two primary sources for this information were the Leadership Engagement app and TLC (Time Labor Center). TLC served as the system of record for schedules and reports, but was only available on desktop. Viewing or managing the schedule meant leaving the sales floor and heading to the back office.

“…if we could get it while we’re on the floor–boom!”

- General manager

Leaders don’t want more reports, they want faster decisions

Printed schedules were common, but inconvenient once leaders were on the floor. Access to exceptions—overtime risk and call-outs—mattered more than viewing full reports designed for back-office review.

Design strategy

The Leadership Engagement app had high adoption, so we retained the features leaders relied on most while adapting them within My Team. A full schedule view worked in the back office, but on a mobile device on the floor, the challenge was deciding what to surface, what to elevate, and still give visibility to overtime risk and call-outs at a glance.

I conducted a competitive analysis across scheduling tools, calendar apps, and other information-dense interfaces, including email, to understand how different patterns handled hierarchy and scannability. The challenge was making alert patterns prominent, maintaining clarity with the addition of schedule details, and avoiding cognitive overload. A survey of general managers shaped which information was priority.

Design principles that guided My Team:
• Mobile-first access — decisions made from the floor, not the back office
• Hierarchy — exceptions and alerts surface before full schedule detail
• Clarity — dense data scannable, mid-task

Key capabilities

1

Labor status and visibility
• Department-based grouping
• Clock status communicated with color + icon

2

Actionable filters
• Overtime alerts
• Open to shorter shift

3

Shift-level details
• Primary location indicator
• Shift activities broken down by time

86K

leader hours saved

83%

time reduction (checking schedule)

$500K+

saved in overtime spending annually

“A game changer.”

- Retail leaders (80% agreement)

Did behavior actually change?

In pilot markets, 87% of leaders said overtime alerts influenced their scheduling decisions. Leaders described using overtime alerts to intervene early and coach in the moment.

“The more organization to the information being displayed, the easier the tool is to use quickly… this tracks with that.”

- General Manager

Identifying a secondary communication gap

What we saw:
• 14% shifts started late
• 6,000+ “running late” messages sent through call-outs

What we proposed:
• A dedicated “Running Late” action on employee’s shifts. The action was placed directly on the shift to reduce friction during time-sensitive moments.
• A way for employees to communicate lateness without triggering a call-out alert.

Up next

Priorities were informed by leader feedback and workflow gaps observed during pilot rollout:

• Labeling shifts as call out on schedule was one of the top three requested features from leaders — a clear signal to prioritize.
• Labor % to issue data surfaced through stakeholder review as a gap in the Insight tab.
• Tablet optimization would bring break management to the floor, a capability that existed on desktop but not on mobile.