IN Brief:
- Manual scheduling and shift communication still leave logistics operations exposed to disruption, compliance risk, and weak audit trails.
- JJ Foodservice’s deployment of UKG Ready® shows how integrated workforce systems can connect time tracking, leave management, and scheduling rules across sites.
- As UK employment reforms increase scrutiny of shift changes, real-time labour records are becoming essential to resilience and retention.
By Russell Howe, Group VP EMEA at UKG
Supply chain performance is usually judged by resilience: adequate inventory levels and transport efficiency. What receives less attention is real-time labour visibility, despite the central role people play in shaping daily operational outcomes across the supply chain.
Even small gaps in workforce visibility in distribution and logistics environments – such as limited insight into who is working where, when shifts change, or how hours worked compares to planned schedules – can quickly ripple across operations, surfacing through missed deadlines and growing compliance risks, as UK requirements around scheduling transparency continue to tighten.
This is particularly relevant in frontline-heavy environments where most employees are not desk based and operations depend on accurate coordination. Despite this, many organisations still rely on manual or informal processes to manage rotas, track hours, and approve leave. Recent UKG research shows that 33% of frontline workers continue to receive shift updates through channels such as messaging apps, email, paper rotas, or verbal communication. While familiar, these approaches offer limited traceability and make it difficult for organisations to maintain consistent records of scheduling decisions.
Workforce visibility leads to operational stability
The experience of JJ Foodservice, a UK‑based food wholesaler and distributor, shows the link between workforce visibility and operational stability.
JJ Foodservice operates across 14 locations, employs more than 800 people, and manages a fleet of 165 delivery vehicles. A significant proportion of its employees work in warehousing and distribution, with staffing requirements that vary by location, shift pattern, and seasonal demand.
As its business grew, JJ Foodservice found that processes which previously worked well, such as manager‑led approval of holiday requests and manual tracking of hours, became harder to apply consistently across sites. While there were rules in place to limit how many employees in the same role could be absent at once, it required human oversight to enforce them – making it difficult to maintain real‑time visibility of staffing levels as conditions changed throughout the day.
Over time, these visibility gaps began to affect its day-to-day operations. Employees in the same role were approved for leave at the same time, reducing warehouse staffing and delaying vehicle loading. This placed additional pressure on remaining staff and contributed to fatigue and absence due to sickness, and impacted employee retention.
Building a unified view of workforce activity
To address these issues, JJ Foodservice moved to automate its workforce management using the UKG Ready® suite – a core solution in the UKG Workforce Operating Platform – creating a single system for tracking time, managing leave, and applying scheduling rules consistently across locations.
With around 70% of employees not having access to a computer at work, the approach needed to reflect how frontline teams operated day to day. Warehouse employees began using physical timeclocks, while managers and mobile workers, such as drivers, accessed the system through a mobile application. These tools also became a central channel for sharing company communications, including holiday policies and operational updates.
The link between visibility and workforce retention
Improved workforce visibility delivered measurable benefits. Employee turnover dropped from 55%, the industry average, to 25%, and the company achieved Great Place To Work® certification in 2024, supported by employee engagement data available through its workforce systems.
Access to real-time workforce insights allowed managers to compare scheduled shifts with actual hours worked. Clock‑in and clock‑out reports supported more informed staffing decisions throughout the day, while hours-worked data became a core input for cost‑per‑box calculations and longer‑term wage forecasting. With clearer oversight of working time and leave, JJ Foodservice is positioned to demonstrate consistency, transparency, and compliance as UK workers’ reforms continue to evolve.
Adapting to evolving workforce demands
JJ Foodservice’s experience points to the practical ways workforce visibility can be strengthened within supply chain operations. Putting systems in place that automate leave and follow scheduling rules can help surface potential staffing issues earlier and reduce the likelihood of disruption.
Clearer insight into schedules and staffing decisions also helps create a more consistent experience for frontline teams, reducing uncertainty and enabling fairer treatment across sites. This is becoming increasingly important as UK requirements around compensation for short notice shift changes are coming into play, but only 23% of shift workers say they currently receive compensation when such cancellations occur.
With real-time, transparent, and auditable records of hours worked, leave approvals, and schedule changes, companies are better placed to demonstrate consistency and compliance as employment rules evolve. For supply chain leaders, workforce visibility is essential for operations that customers can rely on, employees can sustain, and that are well positioned to meet evolving regulatory requirements.
