Workforce Management
Definition
Video – WORKFORCEPLUS – Optimized Workforce Management
The 8 most important factors for successful Workforce Management
How can software support your Workforce Management?
What is New Workforce Management?
Video - Workforce Management developments and trends
Topics related to Workforce Management
These customers are already optimizing their Workforce Management
Contact
Definition
Workforce management means assigning the right personnel with the right qualifications to the right place at the right time. Workforce management systems support operations and HR by optimizing workforce management. So it's about organizing shifts and working hours, places of work, swaps, tasks, etc. With regard to working time and shift models, HR also plays a role here. Workforce management includes, among other things, workforce scheduling, staff management, and time management. In contrast, HR systems are used to manage employee master data and organize applications, onboardings, training, talent management, and payroll. Workforce management is increasingly becoming the basis for the digital organization of work in companies.
Workforce management takes place between the conflicting priorities of working hours, employee needs, and service level. Numerous legal requirements, collective bargaining agreements, company agreements, and employment contracts must be observed in planning and management. There are also various social and cultural aspects. An optimized demand-orientated workforce management and control finds the best possible balance for individual operational objectives and conditions. Thus, employee motivation, working time productivity, and customer satisfaction increase.
THE 8 MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS FOR SUCCESSFUL WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
- PLAN ACCORDING TO DEMAND
If you want to plan according to demand, you need to know the personnel requirements. The so-called personnel requirement calculation is based on business drivers or personnel requirement drivers. For example, this can be the handling volumes in logistics, the expected customers in retail, or airplanes or passengers at the airport. These demand drivers are linked to the corresponding workload. The resulting personnel requirements form the basis for shift planning.
- PLAN PERSONNEL DEPLOYMENT
Regardless of whether it is a fixed framework schedule, flexible scheduling, employee participation, etc., planning should always take into account working time laws, collective bargaining agreements, individual working time rules, and all relevant employee data in terms of qualifications, function, employment contract, availability, preferences, restrictions, etc. In addition, there are company-specific target criteria concerning productivity, service level, and employee needs. Modern tools that use algorithms and artificial intelligence make the complexity of scheduling manageable and save work by automatically taking these factors into account and checking them during scheduling.
- PROCESS WORKING HOURS AND SURCHARGES
Working hours and scheduling do not end at the planning stage – they must be recorded, classified, and evaluated without errors together with absences, overtime, and times subject to extra pay. Accurate recording and evaluation are mandatory prerequisites for error-free payroll accounting, for controlling, and for feedback into scheduling.
- DIGITIZE EMPLOYEE PROCESSES
The information about staff scheduling, shift plans and adjustments, and work assignments must also reach the employees. And that's not all – self-service apps also allow employees to be involved in the scheduling process, for example, requesting shift schedule changes, vacation requests, and shift swaps.
- INVOLVE EMPLOYEES
More flexibility is demanded of employees, who in turn require more flexibility in scheduling. Modern forms of employee engagement increase motivation. Wishes or limited availability of the workforce can often be taken into account in advance. The schedule is thereby more stable and more reliable.
- GET A CLEAR OVERVIEW
For successful planning and control of working time deployment, intelligent and meaningful reporting is essential. Using KPIs, those responsible must be able to directly measure the influencing variables and deviations from assumptions and target states in order to take timely countermeasures, if necessary. Reporting should be tailored to the context and roles addressed.
- INTEGRATE PROCESSES
Workforce management plays a central role in the company and has interfaces to many other areas and systems. Everyone involved needs to receive the necessary information, prepared accordingly. An error-free, smooth data exchange between all participating systems is absolutely essential.
- USE DIGITIZATION
In many places, the planning and linking of the individual sections of workforce management is still done in Excel, but it is being replaced more and more by powerful software due to increasing complexity and the move towards digitalization. This enables a smooth scheduling process, continuity of planning, and, with peripheral systems, the use of intelligent planning procedures and flexibility, especially when planning a larger number of employees.
HOW CAN SOFTWARE SUPPORT YOUR WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT?
Workforce management software makes it possible to systematize, digitize, and automate the processes described. This also makes it possible to manage more complex demand patterns, working time models, and agreements. Digital work scheduling enables smoother operational processes. This creates quality advantages as well as productivity advantages in terms of efficient use of working time. Employees also benefit, for example, by avoiding overwork situations. Digital workforce management can be used to improve the employees’ work-life balance. Finally, digital self-service can be an essential part of your digital employee experience.
WHAT IS NEW WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT?
The ideas of the New Work Movement are also influencing workforce management. The so-called "New Workforce Management” is an attempt to implement current findings in the area of designing shift and working time systems. This means that employees' individual interests are more systematically aligned with operational requirements. As in New Work, New Workforce Management can succeed in realizing a higher level of self-development by engaging employees so that they also feel a higher level of appreciation and satisfaction.
WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENTS AND TRENDS
Dr. Jörg Herbers, Managing Director of INFORM GmbH and Division Manager for Workforce Management, talks in an interview about developments and trends in workforce management. Skills shortages and cost pressures, working time flexibility and work-life balance demand new software solutions.