The best workforce management practices start with having the right systems in place and if you have more than say 30 staff members and you don’t use workforce management systems, you need to start.
Benefits of utilising our quick workforce management best practices list include increased efficiency, improved compliance, enhanced customer satisfaction, reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, higher employee engagement and superior business insights.
Many companies who invest in workforce management software end up only using a portion of its capabilities, and this completely misses the mark.
This leads us to the question: what are the best workforce management practices to get the most out of your workforce management software?
We provide tips below.
#1: Take time to add the data
The data that you already have is going to act as a foundation that the workforce management (WFM) system uses to provide the best results in terms of forecasting and scheduling. Your first step to optimising the solution, is to ensure that your WFM database contains the richest information available, so that the system can draw from it for the best results.
Avoid the temptation to get the data into the system as quickly as possible. Instead, be thorough, as it forms the basis of how the system will initially operate.
#2: Get the most value from your workforce management system
Get training on how to use it
Digital adoption is the key to digital transformation which leads to enhanced efficiency, greater innovation, and a better customer experience, to name a few.
If team members don’t utilise all the features, or don’t use the tool correctly, your business could face problems like compromised data integrity, mistakes, dissatisfied customers and frustrated employees, defeating the objective of investing in workforce management solutions.
Collect data
McKinsey has found that data-driven organisations are 23 times more likely to get new customers. This is because those companies that use their data to produce better insights, develop a more in-depth understanding of how to find and keep customers satisfied.
Workforce management software enables real-time data collection for profound insights that lead to better business decisions. For example, insights from the data may tell you to reduce agents.
Budget according to rosters
Once a roster has been prepared, the system should enable you to determine budgeted wage cost. This should enable you to determine how much overtime and non-productive time (and the related cost thereof) has been rostered. You should also then be able to compare rostered wage-to-revenue percentages per site.
This information would allow you to make changes to the roster in order to gain maximum efficiency.
#3: Make continual improvements a part of worklife
Those organisations that find the highest ROI on WFM solutions, maintain a keen interest in new features that become available, and are enthusiastic about how they can best use them.
They embrace change and make continual process improvements, training their employees in how to use new tools.
Workforce management software is not only an operational instrument, but also a career building tool.
Make continual system improvements an official responsibility of a specific individual in the organisation.
#4: Monitor workforce activity religiously
Monitor, monitor, monitor! Examine the quality of forecasts, whether an effective plan was created, and if the plan was executed well.
Very importantly: strive for the right metrics that add the most value. If you need to add some numbers that can only be included manually, do so.
In addition, remember that long term consistency is a much better metric than a daily average. Implement the metrics and incentives that will yield the best business results.
If it can’t be measured, it can’t be monitored.
