Sales Per Labour Hour (SPLH)
SPLH helps retailers evaluate how efficiently labour is being used and is one of the most widely used metrics for workforce planning, labour optimisation, and store performance.
What is Sales per Labour Hour?
Sales per labour hour measures the relationship between sales revenue and employee labour hours. Rather than focusing on the number of employees, SPLH evaluates how much revenue is generated for each hour of labour.
Retailers commonly track SPLH by store, department, region, or time period to compare productivity and identify opportunities to improve staffing and scheduling.
Why is Sales per Labour Hour important?
Labour is one of the largest operating expenses in retail. SPLH helps retailers determine whether staffing levels are aligned with customer demand and business performance.
Monitoring SPLH helps retailers:
Measure labour productivity.
Optimize workforce scheduling.
Improve labour efficiency.
Control labour costs.
Support labour forecasting and budgeting.
When analysed alongside customer traffic and conversion rate, SPLH provides valuable insight into whether stores are using labour effectively.
How is Sales per Labour Hour calculated?
Sales per labour hour is calculated using the following formula:
Sales Per Labour Hour = Total Sales Revenue ÷ Total Labour Hours Worked
For example, if a store generates $24,000 in sales during a day and employees work a combined 300 labour hours, the SPLH is $80.
Most workforce management platforms calculate SPLH automatically by combining sales data from the point of sale (POS) system with employee time and attendance records.
Sales per Labour Hour vs. sales per employee
Although both measure workforce productivity, they focus on different units of measurement.
Sales per labour hour measures the revenue generated for every hour worked.
Sales per employee measures the average revenue generated by each employee over a specific period.
Because employees often work different numbers of hours, SPLH generally provides a more accurate view of labour efficiency and is the preferred metric for workforce planning and scheduling.
Best practices for improving Sales per Labour Hour
Retailers can improve SPLH by:
Aligning staffing with forecasted customer demand.
Using demand-based or AI-powered scheduling.
Reducing overstaffing during slower periods.
Providing employees with sales and customer service training.
Monitoring customer traffic, conversion rate, and average transaction value (ATV) alongside SPLH.
Using workforce management software to continuously optimise labour allocation.
When integrated with workforce management and retail analytics software, Sales per Labour Hour helps retailers improve labour productivity, optimise staffing decisions, control labour costs, and maximise profitability while maintaining a high-quality customer experience.
