How Workforce Management Grows Your Business By Helping Managers Excel

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Liz Strikwerda

Content strategist and corporate blogger (2000+ posts). Her work has been featured on G2's Learning Hub, Human Resources Today, Better Buys and over 500 business websites. She plays bluegrass mandolin and enjoys sailing her catamaran and hiking in the red rock wilderness of southern Utah. Connect with me on LinkedIn

Workforce management solutions benefit all the stakeholders in your business. Employees, administrative personnel and, indirectly, customers. There is another group who doesn’t always get the attention they deserve. These are your managers.

Your managers need workforce management solutions to excel. When they have these tools and know how to use them—it can speed up business growth. It also improves morale for all the players. There is measurable ROI for companies that invest in workforce management systems.

Your managers have considerable influence because of their broad range of responsibilities. It’s their job to make sure their teams are productive. They manage projects. They liaise with clients. They perform routine administrative tasks. And they have to report to upper management. Each of these categories can be broken down into multi-step processes.

It’s easy to recognize the value of WFM for defined administrative processes. However, they can also streamline project management and progress reporting. Complete Human Resources systems have tools for employee engagement and performance reviews. Let’s discuss all the ways that WFM grows your business by empowering your managers.

1. Employee Oversight

Managers need to know what’s going on with their teams. This is more difficult when employees aren’t in one physical location. Managers with mobile, offsite, or remote employees have many oversight challenges. Even the best employees can hamper workflows when they aren’t guided by managers. Less-then-trustworthy employees can bring workflows to a screeching halt.

Mobile workforce management apps allow managers to track mobile employees. GPS verifies the location of clock in and clock out. But that’s only the beginning. Managers can create workflows with WFM systems. Employees follow the processes and check off steps as they go. Managers always know the status on a micro and macro level.

Workforce management systems can integrate with third-party apps designed for specific industries. They can also integrate with company-created software for more precise process tracking.

2. Strategic Scheduling

Scheduling is often the manager’s main task. In companies where the pay structure is fairly flat, some employees don’t want to move into management. It’s usually because scheduling is such a hassle. Spreadsheet scheduling is slow and tedious. It doesn’t allow managers to respond to changes. Substandard scheduling tools don’t allow managers to accommodate employee preferences. The employees are always mad at the scheduling manager. Who wants to be the most hated member of the team?

Workforce management solutions help managers staff shifts correctly. Coverage gaps and overstaffing affect customer service and employee satisfaction. When each shift has the right number of employees, customers receive attentive service. Employees aren’t scrambling.

WFM systems allow managers to proactively control overtime. They can cut overtime altogether. Or plan for it in advance. Employees who want overtime can request the extra hours. Managers hate to require employees to stay on the clock when they expected to punch out. Nothing kills morale quicker than when employees don’t want to work overtime but have to. This increases employee turnover which, in turn, creates more headaches for managers. In a tight labor market, managers need to keep experienced employees.

With workforce management, managers can use scheduling as a morale-booster. They can post schedules far in advance. This allows employees to plan their non-work responsibilities. Online trade boards empower employees to handle their own shift trades. When employees take over schedule changes, no one is mad at the manager. The employees are also happier. Happy employees are productive. Managers with productive teams get promotions. Everybody wins.

3. Fast Time Card Approvals

Manual time card approvals waste time. WFM systems create time cards as employees punch in and out. The hours are tallied for each shift and pay period. Plus overtime and PTO accruals. This simple process improves efficiency dramatically. The manager accesses all the time cards online. The system doesn’t make arithmetic mistakes, so the manager doesn’t need to double check. The manager doesn’t need to decipher sloppy writing or investigate missed punches.

Simplified time card approvals is a compelling reason to install workforce management solutions. When managers don’t have to gather and approve paper time cards, they are free to work on tasks that fuel business growth.

4. Payroll Accuracy

Now that we have discussed time cards, let’s move on to the complete payroll process. Workforce management ensures payroll accuracy. It tracks employee time to the minute. Plus vacation time, sick leave, and other accruals. When the payroll process starts out correctly, it prevents a host of problems for managers. Managers don’t have to research and correct paycheck errors. They don’t have to work with Human Resources to sort out mistakes with accruals. WFM compliance tools protect managers from labor disputes arising from payroll errors.

5. Better Communication and Less Confusion

Cloud-based workforce management solutions provide a centralized forum. Managers and employees communicate through the system on mobile devices. They aren’t limited by location or time of day.

The whole team can see scheduling changes in real time. It ends the back-and-forth texting regarding scheduling. Employees can see their schedule, time cards, and other HR information any time. This helps them solve problems on their own. They can update tax forms and edit their contact information. They can review pertinent documents like employee handbooks. It saves managers countless hours.

6. Analytics

Workforce management solutions can track performance for any organization. Call centers, restaurants, manufacturers, healthcare facilities—even non-profits. Managers customize the systems to measure sales, units produced, or projects completed. It can be segmented by client or shift. The possibilities are endless.

Workforce management analytics help managers improve outcomes for their teams. This makes it easy for managers to report their productivity to their superiors. This helps them fine-tune their processes to keep improving. It allows them to reward employees for their performance. When analytics are used by all the managers, the business thrives.

Simplify HR management today.

Simplify HR management today.

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