The Kronos Retail Labor Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Background | Privacy & Security | Availability | Technical
BACKGROUND
Q: Who is Kronos?
- Global leader in workforce management solutions that enable organizations to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity.
- Kronos provides solutions for organizations of all sizes – ranging from small businesses to very large multinational enterprises – across a broad spectrum of industries including retail, healthcare, manufacturing, hospitality, government, education, services, and transportation.
- Tens of thousands of organizations in 60 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications.
- 30 million people use a Kronos solution every day.
- Privately held company with annual revenues of $715 million.
- According to IMS Research, Kronos is by far the market leader for workforce management solutions, accounting for an estimated 25.3% of the total world market.
Q: What is The Kronos Retail Labor Index?
- The Kronos Retail Labor Index is a family of metrics and indices that analyze the relationship between the demand and the supply sides of the labor market within the retail sector. It is derived from a single unified data set, allowing for statistically appropriate comparisons and time series–based trending analysis. Firms that use Kronos hiring solutions employ approximately 15% of the U.S. consumer retail labor market, providing Kronos with a unique set of data on employee job applications, hirings, and length of service. The Kronos Retail Labor Index provides a distinct and early indicator of the health of the retail sector.
Q: What does the analytics department at Kronos do?
- The Analytics department focuses on quantifying the relationship between employee behavior and organizational performance. To do this, they investigate all aspects of this relationship, quantifying current patterns, predicting future trends and ultimately communicating the outcomes in a meaningful way to the Kronos customer base.
Q: What makes Kronos an expert in retail hiring? Why do these numbers hold value?
- Firms that use Kronos hiring solutions employ approximately 15% of the U.S. consumer retail labor market, providing Kronos with a unique set of data on employee applications, hirings, and length of service.
- The size and diversity of the Kronos customer base provides sufficient data for industry level and nationwide aggregate analysis.
Q: Why did Kronos decide to create this report?
- As the leading provider of solutions that help to manage the retail hiring process, Kronos has access to a unique unified data-set, and is able to analyze the space in a way that no one else can. Especially in today’s economy, where there is so much interest in what the future will bring, we felt the time was right to bring our expertise to a wider audience.
Q: How is the Kronos Retail Labor Index unique?
- The Kronos Retail Labor Index is unique in that it is the only report we know of that presents metrics for both the demand and supply sides of the labor market: applications, hirings and length of service – or retention rate. Other indices provide some pieces of this puzzle, but no other index provides the whole picture.
Q: Does Kronos provide this kind of analysis to all its customers?
- Yes. A benefit to using the Kronos hiring solution is that customers have access to aggregate-level data in the industry in which they operate.
Q: When is the Kronos Retail Labor Index released?
- The Kronos Retail Labor Index is released monthly based on a pre-announced schedule. The release dates typically fall on a Monday or Tuesday, one to two days before the release of the Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS report.
PRIVACY AND SECURITY
Q: How does Kronos have access to this kind of data?
- Kronos’ hiring solution, Workforce Acquisition, is a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, so all of the data is hosted at Kronos. Kronos is able to analyze this data in the aggregate, without compromising customer privacy in any way.
Q: Do all Kronos customers agree to have their information analyzed this way?
- Yes – any customers whose data is analyzed in the aggregate via The Kronos Retail Labor Index have agreed to have their data analyzed in this way.
AVAILABILITY
Where can I go to get the latest Kronos Retail Labor Index and related visuals?
TECHNICAL
Q: Is this data statistically valid?
- Yes, the underlying sample of applications for The Kronos Retail Labor Index includes more than 40 million applications resulting in 2.028 million hires.
Q: What was the methodology for deriving this index?
- The index is based on the ratio of applications to hires. This metric is seasonally adjusted using the preferred method of the US Census Bureau, the X-12a ARIMA Time Series Model.
- The retention rate metric is calculated based on actual hire and termination data using a methodology derived from a well-known and defined area of statistics known as Survival Analysis.
- A full description of the methodology is available as a downloadable document at: www.kronos.com/retail-labor-index/methodology
Q: The graphs associated with The Kronos Retail Labor Index are different from others I have seen. How were they developed?
- The graphs are based on a concept of Analytical Design pioneered by Edward Tufte (www.edwardtufte.com). The goal of this type of graph is to present the evidence in a form that is best understood by the reader.