Whether you’re looking to align your workforce with strategic objectives or optimize financial portfolios, finding an effective position management system for your needs is critical.
From talent acquisition and onboarding to financial portfolio optimization, Workday, UKG, and SuccessFactors offer intelligent tools that empower organizations to effectively manage positions, mitigate risks, and foster agility in their ever-evolving business environment.
This article discusses the key aspects of position management software, a few position management best practices to make the most of your investment, and where our team of position management consultants can come in to help.
What is Position Management?
Position management involves the organizational structure and process used to facilitate the continuous maintenance of a specific position over time, enabling better visibility and control over hiring processes and allowing users to define hiring rules and requirements for each new position.
Intelligent position management systems typically apply to the following business areas:
Human Resources (HR)
In the context of efficient human resources management, position management involves the strategic planning, organization, and control of job positions within a company, including defining roles, responsibilities, and requirements for each position.
It also allows users to track position status, such as whether they are filled, vacant, or in the process of being filled. HR professionals can leverage intelligent position management functionality to ensure their workforce management objectives are aligned with organizational goals and staffing needs are met.
Finance and Trading
In the realm of financial trading, position management refers to the monitoring and control of financial positions, enabling traders and risk managers to track the size and risk exposure of their portfolios and maintain proper position control over time.
It also involves monitoring the quantity and type of financial instruments, such as stocks, bonds, or derivatives, held by a trader or a trading desk to mitigate overall risk and optimize trading strategies.
Understanding Job vs. Position Management
While job and position management solutions provide similar functionality when it comes to tracking open positions and maintain positions structure over time, job management acts as a substitute that doesn’t require the same level of coordination across teams.
Here are a few critical differences that distinguish job and position management tools:
Job Management
- No existing position layer to store and manage critical position data
- Job description and requisition created for each vacant position
- No predefined relationships between jobs and employees within the system
- Simple deployment, as it doesn’t require complex planning and governance
Position Management
- Assign multiple positions per job, but not multiple jobs per position
- Each position contains position attributes that are independent of the employee
- Outline job descriptions, definitions, and hiring restrictions for each new position
- Ensure positions are set up properly and any position changes are documented correctly
Key Capabilities of a Position Management System
Here’s a closer look at a few of the main features of position management solutions for business users:
Real-time position tracking
An intuitive position management system offers real-time visibility into the status of previously filled and open positions, whether they’re related to workforce data or financial instruments. Real-time position data typically includes information about job postings for vacancies, filled positions, or current financial holdings.
Risk management
Modern position management systems facilitate the assessment of risks associated with each position across the entire organizational structure. In the context of financial management, this involves analyzing the risk exposure of a portfolio, while in HR, it may include evaluating turnover risks, skill gaps, and the potential for human error.
Strategic planning
In an HR context, the position management system allows users to create a clear definition of job positions, including roles, responsibilities, qualifications, and reporting structures, to facilitate efficient talent management and ensure all critical positions are filled. In the financial trading realm, position management involves creating positions and defining the characteristics and parameters of each one.
Compliance management
Ensuring compliance with relevant industry regulations and workforce policies, whether related to labor laws or financial regulations, is critical. An efficient position management system assists users in adhering to compliance requirements and conducting ongoing monitoring over time.
Reporting and analytics
Robust reporting and analytics capabilities enable users to gain insights into workforce trends, financial performance, and other relevant human capital metrics, supporting informed decision-making and better collaboration.
Seamless integrations
Position management software typically comes with pre-built integration functionality that enables organizations to connect with other systems, such as HR management systems, financial systems, or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to enhance process efficiency and employee productivity.
Critical Challenges Associated with Position Management
Position management is often difficult for teams to implement, manage, and maintain. Here’s why:
Change Management
Position management often requires a complex combination of technology, structure, and process objectives, meaning there are typically extensive change management requirements to ensure efficient position control and facilitate better user adoption across teams and business units.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
As position management covers HR and finance business areas, companies must ensure collaboration and communication between internal teams and maintain process consistency and approval across their entire organization.
Ongoing Maintenance
To ensure HR positions complement budgeted positions expected by company leaders, organizations must constantly monitor their position control and management procedures and conduct regular maintenance to update default or outdated positions.
Top 3 Position Management Software Offerings
Workday, UKG, and SuccessFactors have emerged as prominent players in the position management game, offering comprehensive software solutions that streamline and elevate position control and management across the entire organization.
Here are a few critical features of each software offering for business users:
Workday
- Determine how many positions must be filled on any given date
- Track employee headcount and maintain budgeting compliance
- Create job requisitions, including job descriptions and position status
- Align position requirements with current industry standards and organizational needs
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UKG
- Establish a reporting hierarchy structure for positions that report to other positions
- Manage employees working in multiple roles or positions in one location
- Simplify relationships between jobs, positions, employees, and the overall organizational structure
- Reduce manual administrative HR tasks and eliminate manual position data entry
SAP SuccessFactors
- Create position rules to meet a variety of business scenarios
- Conduct rule-based data propagation and easily configure position object fields
- Associate position object fields with other objects for more effective workflows
- Trigger workflows that track position changes, such as adding a new position or removing one that has been filled already
Getting Started with Our Team
Our position management consulting team at Surety Systems has the knowledge, skills, and experience to handle your most critical project needs and keep your organization running like a well-oiled machine, regardless of how many open positions you have, which software you run, or what your organizational structure looks like.
Interested in learning how position management software can help you determine how jobs are defined and how many positions are needed within your current organizational structure? Ready to get started on a project with our team of expert position management consultants?
Contact us today for more information!
