Workforce Management - Workforce Management Software

Workforce Management Software

Workforce management solutions can be deployed enterprise-wide. While special software is commonly used in numerous areas such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), SLM (service lifecycle management), CRM (customer relationship management) and HR (human resources) management, the management of the workforce is often still handled by using spreadsheet programs or time recording. This often results in expensive overtime, non-productive idle times, high fluctuation rates, poor customer service and opportunity costs being incurred.

In contrast, by using a software solution for demand-oriented workforce management, planners can optimise staffing by creating schedules that at all times conform as closely as possible to the actual requirement. At the same time, a WFM solution helps users to observe all relevant legislation, local agreements and the contracts of individual employees – including work-life balance guidelines.

A key aspect of workforce management is scheduling. This is achieved by establishing likely demand by analysing historical data (such as the number and duration of customer contacts, sales figures, check-out transactions or orders to be handled). Many workforce management systems also offer manual adjustment capabilities. The calculated forecast values are then converted into actual staffing requirements by means of an algorithm that is adjusted to the particular use case. The algorithm itself is based on the work of Erlang though most modern adaptations of WFM have shifted towards a richer state management, and optimizations to the original idea.

Current and future staffing requirements, short-term peak loads, availabilities, holidays, budget allowances, skills, labour law-related restrictions, as well as wage and contractual terms have to be integrated into the planning process to guarantee optimal staff deployment. In the workforce management process, the integration of employees is an important factor. In several WFM systems, employees can log in their availability or planned absences and they can bid for specific shifts so long as they have the necessary skills for the activities planned for these shifts. Experience shows that professional workforce management systems realistically fulfil more than 80 percent of employees’ shift requests. Here, employee scheduling software guarantees the best possible synthesis of optimised staff schedules and employee requests.

The more flexible the working time models and the more complex the staff scheduling becomes, the higher the requirements for correct time management becomes. As time recording and accounting of working times are closely connected to scheduling, the integration of time management into the entire process is the logical consequence. Using workforce management systems, working times are booked exactly to the required time accounts and made available for payroll accounting by means of automated processes.

Many software solutions offer a number of options for evaluating the planning in real-time, enabling short-term reactions to deviations from the forecasted demand or expected over- or understaffing. Control functions enable a permanent adaptation of the scheduled staff to the actual requirements. In other words, the optimisation process allows for manual data adjustment in the case of short-term fluctuations in demand or unscheduled employee absences.

Depending on the software provider, organizations have a choice to deploy the software in their own on-premise data center, or in the provider’s private cloud. Workforce management is an appropriate type of system that organizations can access via the cloud through services such as application management and hosting.