Workforce Management (WFM): Features, Benefits and More
Workforce Management (WFM) is about all the activities required to maintain a productive team in an organization. Irrespective of industry, it is adopted by many to optimize their processes. From call centers to healthcare services, several industries have employed WFM to successfully optimize their processes. It is fully integrated with payroll and other core HR functions and financial data to offer accuracy, easy-to-access services for contributing towards organizational success.
Importance of Workforce Management
WFM plays a crucial role because it effectively manages and deploys the workforce. An organization with inconsistent policies and practices needs proper management to deliver the desired results.
· Resource Allocation
The WFM ensures that many employees with the appropriate skills are available when necessary. It minimizes downtime for getting work done efficiently.
· Time Management
It focuses on proper scheduling, which reduces idle time and overtime, directly boosting overall productivity.
· Labor Cost Control
It optimizes schedules and reduces unnecessary overtime, helping organizations control labor costs.
· Operational Efficiency
Streamlining processes and minimizing waste with a better workforce will result in considerable cost savings.
· Improved Employee Satisfaction
Fair and balanced work scheduling improves employee morale, helps in employee retention, and reduces burnout, leading to greater job satisfaction and lower turnover rates.
· Employee Engagement
Employees are more engaged when they feel their time is valued and get support in their roles.
· Adherence to Labor Laws
The WFM helps in regulatory compliance with labor laws and regulations, avoiding legal issues and penalties.
· Accurate Record Keeping
Automated time tracking gives accurate records like working hours and breaks, which is crucial for compliance audits.
· Data-Driven Decision Making
It offers valuable details with the help of analytics and reporting related to teams’ performance and trends for better decision-making.
· Forecasting
Predictive analytics is helpful to anticipate future workforce demands and adjust strategies accordingly.
Features of Workforce Management
In an organization, HR uses the WFM to get proper solutions and processes to manage work in place. Its top features include:
· Time and Attendance Tracking
Automated systems for recording when employees log in and log the time of their work. WFM helps to easily track and manage absentees, such as sick, maternity, paid leaves, loss of pay, and other types.
· Availability Management
It assists in creating and managing employee schedules for adequate coverage. It considers employee availability and preferences while planning shifts.
· Predictions and Scenario Planning
WFM solutions take help from historical data to predict future workforce depending on the expected demand. They also model various forecasting scenarios to know the potential effects on the team’s needs.
· Training and Development
Workforce management can simplify the process of keeping track of the employee’s skills, credentials, and qualifications. It also identifies the gaps using its skills inventory and tries to fill those using training programs.
· Compliance Management
It adheres to the schedules and work practices per the state’s labor laws and regulations. It also develops essential measures to justify the health and safety regulations.
· Reporting and Analytics
It tracks Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and contributes to creating customizable detailed reports for analysis and decision-making.
Advantages of Workforce Management
Applying a robust workforce management process helps the team become empowered and has a positive effect. It offers several essential advantages that drive an organization towards growth. A few of them are:
· Productivity and Efficiency
WFM decreases the manual processes to manage complete policies governing time and attendance. With improved visibility into hours worked, the availability of staff, and safety incidents, overall workforce productivity increases. It ensures streamlined operations that meet the team’s requirements by quickly responding. It also allocates proper resource utilization.
· Affordability
As productivity maximizes, costs get reduced due to its hassle-free processes. It also results in spending less time on major administrative activities. It also decreases the team’s overall expenses by giving more visibility, employee availability, and budgeted hours.
· Less Errors
It reduces human errors with its advanced features. It eliminated the data entry errors that usually occurred due to self-service time reporting tools. It consists of intelligent systems that are always on high alert and automatically restored.
· Customer Satisfaction
By ensuring adequate staffing levels, businesses can provide better services to make insightful decisions for the future. It helps to level up customer satisfaction and overall organizational performance.
Workforce Management Tools and Software
Workforce management tools are software solutions that meet the employer’s objectives. They have different options ranging from transactional to transformational. These tools are industry-based solutions that ease the work.
HR can use these tools to incorporate better hiring, payroll, and exit processes. They also use these for measuring working time and absences of workers, sharing information, reviewing performance, and tracking employee productivity. Based on the business requirements, an organization chooses a particular tool. Some of the most popular and reliable WFM tools are:
- ADP
- Papaya Global
- Oracle
- Ceridian
- Fuse Workforce Management
The Future of Workforce Management
WFM is a crucial component of modern business operations. The changing market conditions made survival competitive. With advanced solutions, tackling the changes becomes easy. These solutions will make the workplace more enjoyable. The teams will be productive and engaged and contribute to the success of a business.
