In today’s evolving business landscape, business leaders need real-time data and dynamic analytics that cater to their unique business needs and make it easier to increase employee engagement, customer service, and company morale.
This is where an intelligent workforce management system come in to help! And, luckily for you, our team of consultants at Surety Systems is here to help you, on your own terms.
Read on to learn more about the key features and capabilities of workforce management solutions and the main advantages of partnering with Surety Systems.
What is Workforce Management Software?
Workforce management (WFM) software refers to integrated, technical solutions that encompass and streamline all of the processes needed to retain a productive and efficient workforce. This helps better manage time entries, organize the workforce, enable self-service functionality, and ensure employee safety in the long run.
Workforce management software originally started in call centers, appropriately scheduling reps and predicting call volumes. Today, it has grown to support smarter business management across different teams and organizations and improve overall employee productivity.
And, by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning functionality, WFM software offers built-in business data insights to provide the data you need, when you need it.
Why is Workforce Management Software Important?
Workforce management tools and software create consistency, support operational efficiency, and improve employee lifecycle management, while staying in line with an organization’s goals and priorities in the process. Inconsistent WFM practices can damage reputation, a high turnover rate, and non-compliance problems, so finding a workforce management solution that meets your needs can be a make-or-break factor in your company’s success.
And, as businesses adopt new technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, new jobs and the need for digital skills emerge to help companies keep up.. To fill these jobs, workforce management software can be used to connect recruiting and employee development initiatives, attract qualified candidates, and up-skill current employees.
Benefits of Workforce Management Solutions
Here’s a look at the top 10 benefits of effective workforce management solutions:
1) Improved Employee Productivity
Having an effective workforce management solution cuts down on manual processes and allows users to manage time and attendance more efficiently. Improved visibility into employee availability, hours worked, and safety incidents also helps companies improve overall workforce productivity, ensure staffing needs are covered, and respond quickly if things change.
2) Attendance Tracking
Workforce management software automates attendance tracking, making it easier to reduce payroll errors and improve the accuracy of time tracking data. With an all-encompassing workforce management solution, businesses can offer an automatic way for employees to record absences and hours worked.
3) Safe Workplace
WFM solutions can promote a safe workforce and compliance culture, while also managing health and safety incidents more efficiently. By streamlining these health and safety protocols, businesses can ensure the information reported is accurate and supports employees through any health and safety-related issues.
4) Increased Employee Engagement
Workforce management software solutions can help employees feel more productive, leading to improvement in their work and increased engagement across teams. It can also help employees achieve a better work-life balance by increasing schedule flexibility and addressing employee sentiment, feedback, and preferences to give employees a voice in their experience.
5) Reduced Cost
The cost of workforce management software often decreases as the productivity of the workforce increases. Workforce management software cost savings help save time on administrative tasks, increase visibility into employee availability, and make it easier to track budgeted hours to ensure time and absences are recorded accurately.
6) Flexible Scheduling
Many businesses struggle to manage employee schedules, especially when it comes to aligning job talents with business priorities to improve efficiency and cut expenses. Employees can leverage self-service tools to control their own schedules and establish workforce plans that match workers with expected demand over time.
7) Business Insights
With organizational and departmental data consolidated into one personnel management system, businesses are enabled to make better, more informed business decisions in the future. Employers can also track overall business performance with workforce management solutions that provide real-time information and advanced data analysis functions.
8) Security
Some task management solutions include biometric data gathering tools, like fingerprint scanners and eye-trackers, to prevent “buddy punching”, or the act of employees clocking in and out for one another.
Workers may only access a web clock from the area in which they are meant to be working if access is location-based.
And, by incorporating machine learning in secure labor management systems, companies can proactively identify irregularities in the workforce management data and resolve minor issues before they become bigger problems.
9) Fewer Errors
Workforce management systems minimize human error by automating time and attendance functions and offering self-service time entry and reporting tools for better data accuracy across the board.
Smart alerts can also help ensure that an employee’s time is accurately recorded and their work schedules are maintained properly, no matter what.
10) Anytime Access
To help workers perform more effectively, companies may use workforce management tools to meet people where they are.
Anytime access to important information makes it easy for employees to complete tasks, like checking in and out, switching shifts, requesting time off, and obtaining documents like pay stubs and W2s from wherever.
Workforce Management Software Capabilities
Here are some features you’ll find within a workforce management system:
Forecasting, Budgeting, and Scheduling
To develop schedules that satisfy demand while not overworking employees or driving up prices, accurate workforce forecasting is essential.
The most precise predictions and automated scheduling that considers people’s abilities, interests, and availability are produced by solutions that utilize predictive modeling, AI analytics, in-memory data processing, and other cutting-edge technology.
Absence Management, Time, and Attendance
Top labor management programs should allow time monitoring from a variety of sources, including online timesheets and mobile apps.
This offers thorough time-management capabilities, including logging overtime, paid time off (PTO), and extended periods of absence. Employees’ and supervisors’ lives are made simpler by self-service capabilities for time off requests and approvals, and notifications for overtime can help businesses avoid unnecessary payroll costs.
Analytics Dashboard
Users can gain insights into individual performance, scheduling, effectiveness, and more with intuitive dashboards that are based on real-time data. And, the impact of workforce strategies across the organization can be measured by considering how WFM systems integrate with other HR data.
Regulatory Compliance
With customizable programs, organizations can monitor and comply with local and global restrictions, certification requirements, union agreements, labor standards, and more.
Integration
By integrating with HR systems, WFM solutions show just how sourcing, hiring, recruiting, and training processes create an engaged and productive workforce.
Talent management: Employee training and certification, recruiting diverse and skilled employees, and managing compensation and performance.
Payroll management: Leveraging a single system for increased efficiency and more accurate pay data across the board.
Considerations When Choosing Workforce Management Software
WFM solutions can come as part of a broad HR system like human resource information (HRIS) or human resource management system (HRMS), or as a standalone program.
You can enhance the functions of WFM solutions when they’re integrated into an HRMS or ERP system that analyzes and combines workforce data with other datasets. This can help facilitate more intelligent automation, better-informed workforce strategies, and a more efficient business.
When choosing the best workforce management software for your organization, you must consider if it can support total workforce management objectives.
In other words, can it provide a single view of your business’s entire workforce, including contingent workers and permanent employees? Full transparency in your workforce is key to correctly scheduling and managing today’s complex workforce.
Challenges of Workforce Management Software
Every business has its own set of unique challenges. Let’s take a look at a few of the most common workforce management challenges:
Represented Workers
Workers who are represented often earn more money and have greater benefits than unrepresented workers. The complexity of the regulations governing things like seniority, tenure, eligibility, and benefits can make it difficult for certain firms to comply with them.
Without a complete personnel management solution, managing contract rules may become challenging.
Time Tracking
Almost every employee in an organization is impacted by time tracking. The lack of integrity of the data flowing from their HR system is a common issue consumers have with their current specialty time and labor systems.
Traditional time tracking can be difficult, cumbersome, and prone to errors, which may add to administrative strain and create excessive payroll expenditures. And, the effect on employee morale when paychecks are late is even greater.
Absence Management System
The lack of a solid absence management system may lead to higher expenses, increased risk, and decreased productivity. To manage absence policies globally, organizations must meet any complicated requirements that arise.
The particular laws and user interfaces needed for various nations and areas sometimes provide difficulties for absence management systems.
Software Providers Surety Systems Supports
Here’s a look at some of the WFM software providers we support at Surety Systems:
SAP
SAP’s workforce management solutions work to streamline business processes and optimize overall productivity by using workforce planning, dynamic scheduling, data-driven insights, and more.
UKG
The UKG Pro WFM solution utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to streamline processes like performance management, attendance management, employee scheduling, and more.
Workday
Workday offers a comprehensive WFM solution that improves business processes and increases business success by helping users create new workforce plans, collaborate to implement new plans, and strategize around new business goals.
Infor
Infor provides a WFM solution that improves employee efficiency, reduces operating costs, and boosts productivity. It utilizes company data to increase employee performance and labor management. It also features dynamic scheduling, time and attendance tracking, and absence management tools.
The Surety Systems Advantage
Our team at Surety Systems is dedicated to finding the “best fit” consultant for your unique needs and supporting you from implementation planning to go-live and everything in between.
Our team of consultants has the skills and experience needed to help you successfully implement workforce management solutions, increase productivity and engagement, and optimize your technical investment over time.
Here’s a look at some advantages of choosing our team over other firms:
Time-and-Materials
Our consultants work on a time-and-materials basis, meaning you can say goodbye to unnecessary fees and overhead costs. This ensures that you only pay for what you need, and nothing else.
Surety Systems provides you with a team of consultants who have exactly what it takes to support your projects and optimize your investments.
Whether it’s your first time implementing WFM solutions or you’re looking for an extra helping hand, our consultants are sure to have the knowledge and experience you need to lead you to success, without breaking your budget.
Optimal Turn-Around Times
At Surety Systems, we value your time. We understand that there are times when an unexpected project comes up, and you may have time constraints that make it harder to find a full-time employee that can handle the task.
You can rest assured that our team will guarantee fast turnaround times that work with your deadlines, without having to compromise the quality of work for timeliness.
Catered to Your Needs
Our consultants value completing your projects according to your timeline and your budget. Your needs are our number one concern, so we ensure our consultants fully understand your unique criteria and can deliver an efficient experience for your internal teams.
How Can Our Consultants Help?
Here’s a closer look at how our consultants can help you:
1) Assistance Whenever, Wherever:
Our goal is to always complete projects on time and on budget.
Whether you choose us as your sole provider or we’re only assisting with a project, we maintain a commitment to assisting you at any time. We have the experience and resources needed to fill in any gaps where your implementation partner may lack experience or expertise.
We also know that it’s common for implementation teams to change over time. So if someone on the partner side leaves or changes roles, we will always be there to help your project stay on the right track.
2) Experienced Team:
Our consultants are your biggest advocates for your team. This helps us understand your team and your goals better, so we can take the right steps to achieve success. And, rather than choosing an unknown partner or trying to implement yourself, our team is dedicated to your project needs from Day One to the end of your project.
3) Additional Support
If your implementation partner isn’t upholding their half of the bargain, the implementation process could spiral out of control, leaving you with a lot more work than you initially planned for.
To ensure that everything goes smoothly, you and the partner should establish a liaison (like our consulting team at Surety Systems). Our team of experts is there to provide further assistance whenever and wherever you require it, ensuring that you are never left hanging out to dry.
4) Exceeding Client Expectations
It’s no secret that sometimes, less expensive isn’t necessarily better. With our team of consultants at Surety Systems, you get what you pay for. This means that we will offer best-fit consultants at a fair and competitive price that aligns with present market conditions and standards.
5) Accuracy the First Time Around
Surety Systems should be your first line of defense when you consider beginning a new implementation project. By involving our team early on, you can avoid any obstacles brought on by past partners who weren’t able to hold up their end of the bargain or started the implementation wrong from the beginning.
6) Post Go-Live Support
Our support services don’t end after you’ve successfully implemented or integrated your new WFM software. From troubleshooting to WFM system optimization, data migration, and more, our team of experienced consultants is here to help you.
Contact Us
Ready to partner up with Surety Systems to implement or integrate workforce management software across your entire organization?
Contact us today!
