SPA's Workforce Analysis

Market intelligence of this kind is fast becoming the driving force behind many successful ventures from new product development and new concept roll outs to strengthening current positions. SPA Marketing Systems offers a range of analyses based on workforce data to complement our established consumer analysis services. Using information on over 1.8 million businesses from Market Location Ltd, the UK's leading business data specialist, our workforce analysis service provides the latest information on the GB Business Universe for any area around your outlet(s).

The 1.8 million records contain information for businesses that will mean more to retailers, manufacturers and the restaurant / drinks trade. The data doesn't include all the 'one-man-bands' , it is researched and updated at least once a year - giving you the freshest snapshot of daytime & evening trade.

Why Does Workforce Matter? Here are some of the ways that SPA's Workforce Analysis can help with your leisure / retail marketing strategy and location planning:
	Do Something Different? Which outlets have lots of workers nearby and what's the mix - white-collar professionals or blue-collar manufacturing? Where is it worth doing something different at lunchtime or early evening?
	Outlet Performance. Which of your outlets do best at lunchtime and which should do better? How does outlet performance compare between business and more residential environments? Does this provide lessons for future site selection?
	Expansion Strategy. Where should you open next ? What other places have a similar number and mix of workers as your best existing sites?
	Turnover Prediction & Segmentation. Workforce data adds a new dimension to outlet segmentation or turnover prediction models, particularly if you have lots of high street locations.
	Business 2 Business Local Marketing. Use workforce data to select outlets for a Business to Business mailing and then buy names and addresses of relevant businesses around these outlets.
	See it all in Colour! Use maps to examine the workforce density around your locations

Data Source
The Workforce Database is built using information from Wegener Direct's (formely Market Location) PrimeFile plus business universe. The database consists of information on over 1.8 million businesses and for each business includes characteristics such as business activity, company size, premise type and geographical location.

The key characteristic which makes Primefile plus useful for applications in the retail planning arena is that the data is site-based and hence does not attribute, say, all employees of Tesco to the Tesco Head Office but holds totals for each Tesco store. This makes it a very valid reflection of where "workers go to work". In addition, to produce as realistic an assessment of workforce size as possible, SPA have undertaken a considerable amount of work to estimate employment size where is it unknown.

The Primefile plus database is made up of two parts - Wegener Direct's Primefile which collects very detailed information on the largest 300,000 UK companies and data from Thomson Directories. Both sources are site-based and both are telephone researched at site level and updated by a team of professional in-house researchers. In this sense, the database is continually evolving and updated.

Want a Map? Maps can be produced to show the concentration of workforce around ab outlet or in a particular town.
click on image to enlarge	....Birmingham. Use a Workworce Grid Square map to see where the workforce is concentrated.
Examine the distribution of a particular Industry type by Postal Area, Life Insurance Offices.......	click on image to enlarge
click on image to enlarge	.....Or even look at street-level maps showing the location of the businesses that are important to you.
SPA even has software tools such as LOCATE to tell you exactly WHO is nearby.......
click on image to enlarge

SPA Workforce Segmentation
SPA's experience in retail marketing analysis and location planning coupled with the opportunities presented by Workforce Data have led to SPA Marketing developing a multi-dimensional classification system called Segmentz. It covers all multiple retailers from fashion to filling stations, Pizza Express to Little Chef.

	GeoDems - classification according to the kinds of people who live nearby (based on "geodemographic" data giving the age, class and ethnic mix of the catchment area).
	WorkPlace - classification on the numbers and kinds of people who work nearby, and the businesses employing them.
	Retail Mix - classification by the kinds of retailing in the immediate locality.
	Competition - based on the distance to the nearest branches of major competitors.

As an additional service SPA can now classify all of your outlets against any or all of these dimensions. Particularly, the WorkPlace segmentation codes can be appended to all your outlets and we can examine where you are strong and weak and, if you supply us with the data, even how sales turnover, or profitability varies by segment.

For more information on SPA Segmentz click here.

Data for YOUR GIS
We are aware that many potential users of workforce information already have Geographical Information Systems (GIS) which are actively used for site location planning and performance assessment. Besides offering reporting and project-based workforce analysis, SPA is now able to supply workforce data to go into your GIS. There are a variety of geographic levels available and a wide range of variables:

Workforce Data can be supplied at most levels of geography:
	Postal Geography - postal areas, postal districts, postal sectors - even full postcode!
	Census Enumeration Districts (EDs) - for small area analysis applications.
	Other Geographies - TV regions, Economic regions, SPA Areas (SPA's breakdown of GB into 1214 non-overlapping town catchments). If you have a particular geography in which you are interested, please ask!

To provide the most flexibility to users, we will tailor Workforce Data to include just the variables that are most relevant to your particular application. The list of variables available ranges from top-level workforce and workplace totals, in-commuting ratios, location size, workplace by postcode type, SPA's Broad Industrial Groups (BIGs), locations by summary industry type, locations by 2 digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC), locations by 4 digit SIC…. All variables are available either as location totals i.e. number of businesses by geographical area, or as workforce totals i.e. the workforce by geographical area.

In addition, SPA's Broad Industrial Groups (BIGs) are also available for incorporation into a geographical database. BIGs provide a very useful and succinct grouping of business activity based on the similarity of activity and social class mix - is the workforce in any area predominantly white-collar or blue-collar? What does this mean for the potential for your particular business or product at lunchtime or in the evenings? Click here for more information about SPA's Broad Industrial Groups.

Future Developments
SPA is committed to not standing still where workforce analysis is concerned! We have lots of ideas on which we would like to work over the coming months with a view to improving and adding to the range of workforce services we offer. Improvements to the employment estimate methodology is just one area of interest. Also, of particular relevance to retailers would be some idea of the split of the workforce between blue collar and white collar. SPA has data on Social Class by 2 digit SIC code which can help us classify SICs into types. We might then be able to look at the bias of trading towards businesses with white-collar employees, or even to relate sales to estimated numbers of white-collar employees.

Watch this space!!

Interested?
As you can see there is a wide range of analyses including reports, maps and databases that are relevant to knowing about "daytime" populations. Reports and maps can be ordered over the 'phone or if you have a more detailed requirement, SPA specialise in the whole range of analysis from "over the 'phone" area analysis reports to complex segmentation and turnover analysis, using a wide range of databases and techniques. Give us a call to discuss your particular project. If you already have a Geographic Information System in-house, the Workforce Database is available as a statistical counts database at varying levels of geography to use within your own system.

Workforce Analysis now offers retail and leisure outlets a detailed analysis of the surrounding workforce for location planning and direct marketing campaigns.

To discuss how Workforce Analysis can help you get the most out of your business email SPA at info@spamarketing.co.uk or call on 01926 334978.

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SPA Marketing Systems Ltd
Leamington Spa, Warks, CV32 6PT
Tel 01926 334978
Email:info@spamarketing.co.uk or Contact us

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