Simpson explains how Team Wheel fixes retail workforce tech

Retail chains often pour sums into HR, payroll and workforce-management platforms, yet many learn that technology by itself cannot fix operational issues. The key to success lies in how closely those tools match the demands of a multi-location staff roster and whether employees throughout the organisation actually adopt them. Team Wheel, established in 2019, was launched to bridge this divide.

Under the direction of chief executive Andy Simpson, the firm collaborates with HR, payroll, finance and operations groups to choose, roll out, fine-tune and, when needed, rescue people-systems so they generate business outcomes. In this conversation, Simpson outlines the rationale behind Team Wheel, shares insights gained from guiding retailers through transformation projects, and stresses that effective change starts with people and processes rather than merely technology.

A Gap Between Tech And Real Staff Needs

Simpson says there was not one moment that led to the launch, but a pattern he kept seeing from the inside. A retailer would buy a good HR or payroll system, the implementation partner would leave at go-live, and the people left running it had a system that was not set up around how the business worked. Hourly paid, multi-site workforces just had the worst experience imaginable.

The big consultancies priced and designed for head office and what the juniors kind of knew about the industry, while the smaller ones did not know the systems well enough to fix what was wrong. Simpson started Team Wheel in 2019 to sit in the middle: people who know the systems and understand what a Friday payroll run means to a store on a Saturday.

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It is the decisions made before it was chosen, or the ones nobody made and just fell into. The biggest mistake he sees, and he has seen it a lot, is taking a bad process and rebuilding it in a new system. The rota is still copied from last week rather than built to footfall and trading hours, the approvals still go through the same three people, and the payroll team still re-keys the same corrections. It is just happening on a nicer screen. That solves nothing and costs a lot. You have paid a six figure sum to automate the problem, and because it is now in a system it is harder to change than it was on paper.

Mapping Workflows Before Selecting Any Software

This is why the consultancy always starts with what it calls phase zero. It is a short piece of upfront work before anything technical is done. The team sits with the people who actually do the work, store managers, area managers, the payroll team and HR, and maps how things run today, not how the policy says they should run. How does a store actually cover a sickness on a Sunday? What happens to a Christmas temp’s contract in January? Where does labour cost get decided, and does anyone see it against sales before the week’s over? Then they agree what should change, what is worth keeping, and what the business wants the system to do for it.

The consultancy avoids starting with a product. The team works out what the business problem is first. Then they pick the tool. Sometimes the answer is to fix what is already there. Much of the work happens before a system is chosen. The team also rescues systems chosen without that phase. Clients tend to stay with the consultancy after the new system goes live. That loyalty is the best measure of success. The firm has been a finalist in the British HR Awards for three years running.

Ensuring Data Accuracy And Trust

Payroll must be correct every week. It must be right through peak trading periods. Managers should build rotas and approve time in the system. They should not use WhatsApp or spreadsheets. Labour costs should be visible against sales while there is still time to act. A report a fortnight later is too late. One record for each employee builds trust. HR, payroll and operations rely on that single record. Right to work, under-18 hours and minimum wage checks happen by the system. They do not happen by memory.