The No-Brainer
How Tara-M, a fashion retail chain based in Borken, has been managing its 20 stores across NRW with SEAK since 2018 — traffic-driven workforce scheduling, a significant reduction in overtime, and mobile tools built for store teams.
Tara-M at a Glance
Tara-M is a second-generation family business headquartered in Borken, North Rhine-Westphalia. The brand focuses on the mid-price segment of the fashion market, offering women's and men's clothing from labels including Opus, s.Oliver, Mac, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, and Street One for women, alongside Brax, Eterna, and Jack & Jones for men.
Team
around 275 employees
Branch Network
20 branches across 10 locations in North Rhine-Westphalia
SEAK customer since 2018
Time management, workforce scheduling, headcount planning, SEAK Teams (mobile time tracking, time corrections, vacation planning, absence requests)
Numbers, Data, Facts
Branches across 10 locations in NRW — all managed through SEAK
Employees, scheduled according to demand
drives Tara-M workforce planning and time management with SEAK
The Challenge
Before 2018, Tara-M managed workforce scheduling and time tracking using the classic tools of a growing retail chain: Excel, paper, pen, and a lot of phone calls. The company's managing director sums it up plainly: overstaffing and understaffing went undetected across locations, and during peak periods the full team was rarely on the floor. At the same time, the central office was constantly fielding requests for time corrections, vacation approvals, and absence management — while last-minute changes to staffing requirements triggered endless rounds of calls across the entire store network.
Five specific pain points were holding the business back:
No Visibility Into Staffing Decisions
Branch managers and headquarters had no visibility into over- or understaffing — and during peak hours, the team was rarely fully deployed.
Inaccurate Time Tracking
Pen-and-paper data entry was a constant source of errors — requiring back-office corrections, back-and-forth with store teams, and delays in payroll processing.
Central Switchboard Under Constant Callback Pressure
Time corrections, vacation requests, and absence notifications were all handled by phone through a central office — placing a significant burden on administration and HR.
Unfair Shift Scheduling
Unappealing shift times — Saturday slots and late evenings — were distributed unevenly across the team, with no transparent or fair mechanism for allocating these less desirable hours.
Endless Phone Calls Every Time Staffing Needs Change
Last-minute staffing changes — sick calls, unexpected peak days — meant hours on the phone scrambling to find cover. No visibility into available staff reserves.
Matthias Gleis — Managing Director — Tara-M
"We had no way of identifying understaffing or overstaffing before. Now we have projected revenue targets mapped to every single day, and the number of staff on the floor matches expected customer footfall. During peak periods, every team member in a branch is now on shift. That simply wasn't the case before."
The Decision: A Recommendation from the ERP Ecosystem
The recommendation to try SEAK came from prohandel, a retail management and point-of-sale technology provider that Tara-M had an existing relationship with. Matthias Gleis was already familiar with SEAK's strong reputation in the retail sector — the software was well established among some of Germany's most recognized fashion retailers.
Tara-M's management decided to run a pilot from August to December 2018. Following a successful trial, SEAK was rolled out across all 20 locations — encompassing workforce scheduling, demand planning, time and attendance management, and the mobile capabilities of SEAK Teams.
The Execution: Frequency-Based Planning Combined with Mobile Tools for Store Teams
Today, store managers plan staffing based on historical sales data and guidelines set by head office. SEAK automatically generates scheduling suggestions — by day, by department, factoring in qualifications, contracted hours, and employee preferences. Built-in fairness rules ensure that less desirable shifts are distributed equitably across the team.
Time tracking runs entirely digitally — employees clock in and out via fingerprint scanner at the checkout or in the break room. Paper timesheets and manual data entry are a thing of the past. The SEAK Teams mobile app puts time corrections, vacation requests, and absence notifications directly on employees' smartphones — significantly reducing the administrative burden on head office.
What the software actually covers
Annual Planning with Seasonal Factors
Staff hours and headcount requirements are planned across the full year — accounting for seasonal fluctuations, public holidays, school breaks, promotional campaigns, and other influencing factors.
Automatic Shift Suggestions
The system generates daily, department-level shift recommendations aligned with actual demand — based on historical data and your organization's requirements.
Qualifications and Features
The software factors in required qualifications and roles for every staffing suggestion — ensuring the right people are always assigned to the right positions.
Contract Hours and Preferences
Contractual hours and employee preferences are automatically factored into every schedule — making truly flexible shift planning a reality.
Justice Factors
Unpopular shifts — Saturday nights, late hours — are distributed fairly across the team using configurable fairness rules.
Frequency-Based Demand Planning
Revenue planning combined with daily revenue forecasting and productivity targets determines your annual hours requirement — the foundation for effective staff scheduling across every location.
Fingerprint Time Tracking
Clock in and out with a fingerprint scan — at the checkout or in the break room. Secure, accurate, tamper-proof, and completely paperless.
Mobile Tools (SEAK Teams)
Time tracking, time corrections, vacation planning, and absence requests — all handled on the go via smartphone. Head office workload drops dramatically, and employees say it's a tool they can't imagine working without.
Barbara Kubitza — Head of Sales — Tara-M
"A large number of our branch colleagues were quite skeptical at first. There was pushback. But that changed fairly quickly. Now everyone is happy. Nobody wants to give up the mobile solutions anymore. On top of that, the software makes flexible working hours possible in the first place — and that's a win for everyone."
The Result: What Has Changed Since Then
Fewer Overtime Hours & Fairer Shift Distribution
The impact is felt across four dimensions: financial performance, operational control, employee satisfaction, and operational resilience — the last of which proved its full value during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Business Management
Control
Employee Satisfaction
Operational Resilience
Head Office Relief
Matthias Gleis — Managing Director — Tara-M
"We measure success by transparency. We now have a significantly better overview of staff deployment and workforce reserves than before. Another key metric is overtime hours — and we've managed to reduce these considerably. On top of that, we've made real strides in digitalization: the mobile tools with their paperless processes have been very well received by employees both in our branches and at headquarters."
Which building blocks are used in Tara-M
Matthias Gleis, Managing Director, Tara-M
"Simple and straightforward. Once it's set up, it just runs — and keeps on running."
Let's talk about whether SEAK is the right fit for your business
In a 30-minute introductory call, we'll assess where your business stands today, identify which modules are the right priority for your situation, and outline a realistic implementation roadmap.
Alternatively, you're welcome to reach out via our contact form — we'll get back to you promptly. Or give us a call at: +49 40 238 348 – 000
The Trade Trusts SEAK
From fashion and food retail to building materials and specialist trade: retailers across Germany rely on SEAK to manage their workforce.
Family Business, 2nd Generation — The Quiet Giants of German Fashion Retail
Founded in 1983, Tara-M is a family-owned business now in its second generation. From its headquarters in Borken, a team of 275 employees manages 20 stores across 10 locations in North Rhine-Westphalia — from Herne in the southern Ruhr area to Rheine on the Lower Saxony border — with retail floor space ranging from 100 to 5,000 square meters.
Tara-M positions itself in the mid-market segment of fashion retail, with a focused brand portfolio that includes Opus, s.Oliver, Mac, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, and Street One for women, alongside Brax, Eterna, and Jack & Jones for men. This places the company firmly in the category of "small giants" in German fashion retail — businesses where digitalization and process automation are top strategic priorities. The software they rely on simply has to work, and it has to deliver on its promises. For Tara-M, that software has been SEAK since 2018.