Unlike HR software – which helps managers oversee their workforce – workforce management software engages company staff. Connecting personnel to their managers, to the company, and to each other yields greater efficiencies, speed up workflows, and delivers better products and services.

These capabilities are especially valuable if a company employs a remote or mobile workforce. Benefits include streamlined scheduling and time-keeping, systematizing tasks for consistency, and improved communication between all stakeholders for greater clarity and speed to completion.

What is Workforce Management Software?

A comprehensive workforce management (WFM) solution can include:

• Labor planning and employee scheduling
• Time and attendance
• Employee engagement
• Analytics

All of these features can be integrated into related systems like payroll, HR or HCM (Human Capital Management) platforms, and even ERP or other executive management tools.

As companies come to understand the interdependence of these functions – and the software to address them becomes more sophisticated – point products for any of these needs may be referred to by their developers as “workforce management.” This has led to a seeming proliferation of products in the category.

To evaluate the suitability of these various products for any one company’s needs, it’s best to judge them against the core goals: increased efficiency, improved accuracy, and administrative agility. The more comprehensive and tightly integrated these capabilities are, the better the software can achieve the intended goals.

Key Requirements: The Backbone of Workforce Management Software

While different products come at challenges from different angles, five keys stand out as critical to a contemporary workforce management solution:

1. Labor Planning and Management

Since all the goals of WFM ultimately relate to a business’s financial performance, the criteria for selecting that software should begin with its ability to organize the staff relative to business goals. That takes planning. And those plans need to be turned into action.

By optimizing workforce allocation based on financial considerations from the start, companies can minimize over- or under-staffing and maximize productivity at the planning stage. This same software then gives managers the ability to adjust staffing levels on the fly as demand shifts or costs change.

Say, a fabricator needs to get their output installed in the field before the weather changes. With all the inputs loaded in their WFM, they can determine how much longer to extend shifts or how many temps to bring in to meet the new forecast and still maximize profitability.

2. Employee Scheduling

Of course, the specifics of scheduling benefit from line manager inputs and require the concurrence of the affected staff. A solid WFM solution retains past performance data as well as accommodating recommendations from managers regarding any one individual’s skill set or experience level.

Rather than negotiating the optimal schedule with back-and-forth conversations, everything can be handled quickly and efficiently in the WFM tool. This ensures minimal practical labor costs with the greatest operational efficiencies. It also enables worker engagement to maintain team cohesion and work quality.

For example, if the best field supervisor has planned PTO and an installation schedule gets pushed out, the necessary adjustments can be made with minimum disruption to the overall schedule or financial projections.

3. Leave and Absence Management

Speaking of PTO, any good WFM solution gives organizations the ability to schedule and administer time off. This should be enabled with minimal operational friction. That includes the impact on payroll processing, automating accrual calculations, and reporting for company policy or compliance purposes.

In addition to limiting the administrative burden, an empowered staff brings transparency to the process. Scheduling time off becomes a practical conversation with a shared goal.

In the scenario above, the best field manager may elect to push out their PTO to oversee a critical installation and tack the additional accrued time onto their vacation. The WFM software can automatically handle all the details with a simple approval.

4. Employee Engagement and Collaboration

According to Gallup research, “engaged employees have higher well-being, better retention, lower absenteeism and higher productivity.” Engagement isn’t just communication between employees and their employer, but even more so with line managers and other employees. The better WFM solutions enable all of these.

In addition to the collaborative administrative systems discussed above, a WFM can enable employee self-service access to information like payroll and taxes, benefits, and insurance plan details. Such capabilities take on increased importance with distributed or remote workforces and professional organizations whose people may share a workspace with each staring into a screen of their own.

A solid WFM would enable an exchange like the scenario above – combining informal real-time communications between people in different locations with a shared source of truth about schedules and accrued PTO – to yield the benefits Gallup has identified.

5. Mobile Access

A cloud-based WFM requires an internet connection. While mobile access (via a portal or app) is more of a software feature than a function, it can be critical for remote or mobile team members. Virtually everyone has a smartphone, and for many, it is their primary internet access point. So mobile access becomes a critical element to consider when evaluating WFM software.

This capability provides the flexibility and enables the employee engagement that makes a WFM such a powerful management resource.

Beyond Scheduling: Additional Features of Your Workforce Management System

Beyond the core features of a solid workforce management software, certain capabilities greatly increase its value to a business:

Pay Management

Pay management functionality automates payroll calculations, as well as tracking time and attendance, and can integrate with payroll platforms. This ensures more accurate and efficient payroll processing.

Platform and Compliance

A centralized platform – when properly configured – streamlines HR management and can ensure compliance with legal regulations like overtime rules and pay or pay rate by task type. This better enables a compliant work environment and can reduce objective risks along with potential liabilities.

Reporting and Analytics

With so much employee and workplace data in one place, a company can gain enormous insights into one of its major cost components. This elevates WFM solutions to strategic tools that can be leveraged to improve efficiency, optimize resource allocation, and guide data-driven strategic workforce management practices.

VensureHR’s Workforce Management Software Will Revolutionize Your Business

Of course, VensureHR’s workforce management software delivers all these capabilities and more. It is also informed by 20 years of workforce management expertise in over 50 different industries. So its robust utility and ease of use are not theoretical; they’re pulled from the real world based on real results. To learn more or receive a personalized demo, please contact us.