What is Workforce management (WFM)?

May 6, 2017

For any modern business to run efficiently and successfully, it needs to operate with clear and organised systems. With staff costs increasing, compliance requirements getting tougher and customers expecting even higher levels of service, a workforce management (WFM) system is a key tool for a modern business. But what exactly is a WFM system?

A full Work Force Management system includes everything a business needs to plan and execute a rota, confirm staff attendance, pay the staff correctly and account for the costs. Modern systems are nearly all cloud based and sold as a “Software as a Service” where pricing is often “per shop per week” or “per person per month”. Businesses expect their platform to be customized for instance to reflect their pay and holiday rules. A full Work Force Management platform consists of a number of modules, these are:

Scheduling:
The core of a workforce management platform, a staff scheduling tool helps customers ensure they have the right number of people in the right place at the right time. It works with demand and budget tools to ensure every roster is checked against budget to prevent overspend and also against demand to ensure you have enough staff to maximize revenue.

The end result is 100% accurate payroll, which should never be above budget and with no confusion over who works where and when.

Time and Attendance:
Time and Attendance tools allow you to track and analyse employee hours worked. They can work alongside biometric readers that specifically track each employee’s working hours. This means that “lateness rules” will be 100% accurately applied every time. Time and Attendance tools also report overtime, training days and holiday leave, ensuring managers are aware with real time reporting.

Compliance:
In an increasingly complex compliance environment, operators need to automate the checking of their staff rotas against multiple criteria. For instance, compliance tools will prevent a manager from scheduling a non-compliant member of staff into a shift. If a non-EU citizen on a student Visa has already worked 20 hours that week or a lifeguard at a fitness centre is not in date for training then that person will not get scheduled in.

Demand Management:
Often linked to revenue generating systems such as EPOS or till systems and sometimes a predictive analytics engine, this module allows the person planning the rota to be aware of how many staff are required to meet customer demand in each department at each hour of the day. The true benefits of a workforce management platform centers around reducing staff costs, driving efficiencies and productivity.

If you would like to know more about how a bespoke workforce management solution can benefit your business, or about any of the other modules that can help increase savings, click here to request a demo.

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