Workforce Management Featured Article
Modern Workforce Management Works for Employees As Much As It Works for Employers
While many companies today use workforce management, it’s often used to determine the benefits to the company itself. Are workers being compliant? Are they claiming pay for work they haven’t done? How’s their attendance? How’s their adherence? Do they need to be put on probation or retrained? It’s no wonder that many workers view their employer’s workforce management system as a malevolent entity akin to Hogwarts’ caretaker Mr. Filch in the “Harry Potter” series who roams the grounds with his cranky and suspicious cat, looking only for infractions to report.
Workforce management, particularly today’s solutions, can do so much more than catch employees doing something wrong. Matt Smith, writing for Smart Data Collective, recently blogged that while managing the costs and efficiency of schedule-, time- and pay-related tasks, including compliance, remains important, advanced solutions that can work for (and not against) the employee are critical today.
“Used to full capability, [modern workforce management] can manage this operational environment and help managers drive not just productivity but also the success of the organization while also engaging the workforce,” he wrote.
Modern workforce management is pro-employee as well as pro-employer. It more than likely contains analytics capability, which helps organizations drill deep to discover cause and effect, advanced reporting so managers and executives can customize the reporting views they want (and how the information is delivered), schedule optimization, the ability to run simulations and cloud-base delivery that allows it to be used from anywhere workers or remote workers might be located. With a majority of companies still using spreadsheets or manual processes, however, these benefits are out of reach.
“As organizations evolve, their needs for more efficient and engaging workforce management is transforming workforce management,” wrote Smith.
This evolution will raise the profile (and the need) for cloud-based solutions as contact centers become more distributed, for mobility solutions that will allow workers to check their schedules from mobile devices and managers to receive alerts and reports when they’re not in the office, and even integration with social media customer support, which is becoming increasingly important to younger sets of customers. Modern workforce management solutions are also critical for companies that face regulatory compliance, including compliance with the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FLMA) and local regulations that affect workers and their schedules.
“Driven by the evolving nature of talent and challenges to retain it, advanced workforce management now has capabilities to address spectrum broad range of human capital management needs,” wrote Smith. “Using it senior management can gain greater insight into the workforce in action while improving the work experience and complying with relevant policies and regulations. Most organizations will find that investment in workforce management can be justified by its ability to ensure compliance with regulations.”
When workers understand that workforce management is looking out for them as much as it’s checking up on them, it becomes more of a tool for employee engagement. Build transparency into the mix by allowing workers to log in and view information relevant to them, including their schedules. Give them some autonomy to switch shifts with other workers, bid for vacation time and report an absence due to sickness early and from their mobile devices. When workers see that the solution is working for them, they will be less suspicious of it and more willing to embrace it.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi