As planning professionals many of us know that ‘shrinkage’ is one of the key inputs to any resource plan. The time spent in shrinkage impacts delivery of service to customers. It impacts cost to our organisation. There is also a third lens to the shrinkage challenge, too often neglected in planning. Consider shrinkage from the perspective of our front-facing colleagues.

Shrinkage: where do you focus?

Let’s be clear, there is always some time when people are away from their core role. It’s true for robotics too, even if the factors are different. Yet our focus has usually been on customer and commercial outcomes. And it took a pandemic to bring the colleague lens back into focus. I want you to think about where you focus in your organisation. Why not see your focus as more a of a dial. The shrinkage focus moves around the three lenses of Colleague, Customer and Commercial. What does this mean for decisions in planning?

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This article was first published in the 2023 Best Practice Guide - Strength in Numbers: The Value of Community

To download a full digital copy of the Best Practice Guide, click here.