Retailers are continually pressured to improve customer service even as they persistently strive to reduce payroll costs. Given the overall cost and customer-facing nature of the in-store workforce, it is only natural that they look there to help accomplish these seemingly disparate goals. In fact, the volume of work assigned to the in-store workforce has risen for over half our survey respondents, while the payroll dollars they are given to accomplish these tasks has remained constant, or even decreased. Retail winners, or those with better annual comparable store sales increases than their peers, respond to these challenges differently. Retail winners spend far less time focusing on workforce management, and yet, they gain better results.