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Workforce Management Software Buyer's Guide
Table of Contents
- What is the definition of workforce management?
- What is Workforce Management Software?
- How does Workforce Management Software work?
- Is it worth investing money in Workforce Management Software?
- What are the features of Workforce Management Software?
- What are the benefits of Workforce Management Software?
- Before selecting any Workforce Management Software
- How to select an ideal Workforce Management Software?
- Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Workforce Management Software
- Workforce Management Software Pricing
- Conclusion
Workforce Management has remained as one of the priorities for every small and big organization for making stability in the competitive business environment. If you lack strong management inside your manpower then chances are high that you will probably not make it to the milestone like other big companies. Thus, it is necessary to get your house in order through a strong system that can keep an eagle’s eye on workforce management, states you with the alternatives to outsmart the odds and reports you on the progress made on daily basis without any glitch – we are talking about the Workforce Management Software.
What is the definition of workforce management?
Workforce management is a set of methods an organization uses to maximize the productivity and competence of its workforce. Whether it is projecting future labor requirements or schedule creation and management of the staff, workforce management (WFM) involves it all.
What is Workforce Management Software?
In the beginning, Workforce Management Software was supposed, but now it has more to offer than just timeline management, but nowadays the growing needs of every company for maintaining steady performance level has revamped the software to take additional responsibilities. Now, apart from just employee scheduling, Workforce Management Software can give you a detailed insight into presently available employee data through its advanced tools for making smart decisions during project distribution. It can contribute towards a number of things such as improved capacity planning, increased productivity, easy staffing management and many more. In short, it enables you to manage the operational deployment of the workforce effectively.
How does Workforce Management Software work?
Workforce Management Software gets to work on multiple things simultaneously under a single time frame by making use of its tools and third-party APIs. For instance, it makes the best use of its real-time reporting tools to produce accurate payroll and invoice reports. It offers you custom work shift reports that take time for the HR team to create for keeping a tap on individual productive time, leaves and other necessary details. The software has in-built labor law codes infused to state the obvious when and where required. The presence of text, email, and in-app notifications help you automate the workforce the way you want. As the workforce software keeps a log of every daily based activity, performing error-proof recordkeeping becomes a cakewalk for you.
Is it worth investing money in Workforce Management Software?
There could be several factors that may trigger you to have a typical Workforce Management Software application by your side. For example, your current system may have started showing its limitations to manage a significant workforce which is why you may opt for a new one. Most companies when growing in terms of structure and style need meaningful management information to measure their staff performance. On the other hand, that comes as a limitation to the HR team as a physical task to perform daily. That probably would be the best time to take advantage of new technologies to address such needs. What could be more satisfying than having your workforce well distributed for different tasks as per their actual performance scale to create the best overall result? That is easily doable by Workforce Management Software. Thus, this discussion concludes that the workforce software may not be an absolute necessity for very small or just-starting companies but is a barely essential investment for every mid-sized and big company for sure. Now let’s have a look at its features and benefits in a bit detail and see what it has to offer.
What are the features of Workforce Management Software?
Here are some of the standard features that you may find in almost every Workforce Management Software available in the market. However, there could be more upgrade to the below-listed ones with the increase in subscription price which varies definitely from company to company.
› SCHEDULING WORKFORCE FOR A PROJECT
Before starting any project, it gets essential to assign an adequate number of man force to it for hassle-free project execution. The software can do that with ease. It takes into account past performance data of each employee and therefore executes the staffing needs without considering guesswork.
› USER CONTROLLED FORECASTING
Suppose you want to have a big task in hand and want to put best men on it those can hardly show performance error, the software can help you out. Based on past performance data and constant employee working record, it can predict the potential workforce group that can give the best judgment to the task at hand.
› PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
Workforce Management Software can be a watchdog for your company to evaluate the performance of the individual employee and the company as a whole. By running useful workforce analysis through performance tracking and KPI tracking workforce management tools, it can let you track the overall achievement of the organization without any difficulty.
› REPORTING
By making use of some data extraction tools, it can analyze various time sheets, vacation planning reports, payroll reports, scheduling reports, custom reports, etc. Not just that, it gives a visual representation of the whole analyzed data that enables you to make quick decisions without going through a pile of documents.
› WORKFORCE MOBILITY
You need to sit in front of your office PC to manage everything. With the software being mobile compatible, you can have a constant look at the overall progress made just by running the software from any mobile device. Continuous push notifications and easy integration with third-party business apps keep you fully aware of what is happening where.
› ATTENDANCE TRACKING
Workforce Management Software has workforce management tools to take care of time clock options and biometrics daily. With that being said, it means you can get an accurate portrait of your employee hours just by looking at the dashboard.
› SCENARIO PLANNING
There are often times when you come to choose between several business decisions. The workforce scheduling software can help you take calculated risks by letting you go through what-if scenario planning phase. You can come to know the exact type of risks involved so that making a decision will be easy.
What are the benefits of Workforce Management Software?
Having Workforce Management Software by your side will help you effectively manage your workforce for producing desired results every time. Its features and tools let you gain benefit over several factors such as:
› EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT
The workforce scheduling software maintains a record of individual workforce-related information for each employee so that no one has to get in touch with the human resource department again and again for assistance.
› COMPLETE TRANSPARENCY OVER MANAGEMENT DECISIONS
As every single decision gets officially recorded in the software, the employee will get to know about everything by directly accessing his/her payroll database, benefit database, attendance database, etc. with a single click.
› FLEXIBLE APPLICATIONS
Only its features do not limit the Workforce Management Software; instead, it can expand its productivity by easily getting integrated with other business applications that your company needs on a day-to-day basis. For instance, it can easily incorporate into HRM applications and pre-existing payroll software applications to give you more information than just employee work performance.
› ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL
Though WFM scheduling software is a multi-user application the control part comes limited to few hands only. For instance, the HR can input rules regarding daily pays, overtime pay, onsite training cost, and tax calculation methods, etc. while the software will flawlessly execute them regularly letting employees to only have a look at the output on their dashboards.
› FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS
There are no deployment criteria when it comes to adding WFM scheduling software to your kitty. You can choose from several options such as Hosted, Cloud-based deployment, On-Premise Deployment, etc. This gives you the flexibility to have mobile access and opt for extensive data storage without any difficulty.
› COMPLETE AUDIT TRAILS
The WFM software keeps a constant track of all individual activities. The information is made available only to the necessary stakeholders and governing decision makers. Additionally, with necessary protection tools, it keeps secret business data protected from unwanted sources.
Before selecting any Workforce Management Software
Having understood the usage and benefits of Workforce Management Software is not going to be enough. In order to anticipate ideal case scenarios, you need to select the best company with an ideal Workforce Management Software application to offer. It is imperative to invite suppliers to tender to pull together best bidders in the market for your need. Once you state your requirements and budget limitations over the tender, ideal bidders will come to you with budget-friendly offers. It will enable you to run an easy assessment of the stability and potential longevity of each supplier with ease.
On the other hand, if you are a small scale company having few employees and want to have one-to-one sessions with few selective vendors, then make sure to have your requirements clear in your mind before approaching. Why sorting priorities becomes important because most just lose to vendor’s marketing gimmick and end up paying more than their early estimation to false advance promises. Having priorities in check will keep you grounded and you can easily give not-so-required offers an easy pass to keep your budget in control.
How to select an ideal Workforce Management Software?
Here are three bare essentials to judge before subscribing to any WFM software.
› THE SUPPLIER
Obtain a copy of the company’s latest financial report along with client list and case studies to judge its eligibility. It is important to see what level of expertise the company has in this particular software niche as a newbie can rarely become your ideal bet for such applications. Also, look whether the company owns all the software and source code or it is dependant on third-party developers for the same.
› THE SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT
Make sure on which hardware platform the software is supposed to run along with available network and database environments required. In case you need extra hardware, will your vendor supply the same or not? Some vendors sell the complete package where some offer modules. In case your requirements can be met by a few modules there is absolutely no need of opting for the complete package.
› SERVICE AND SUPPORT FUNCTIONS
You should ask for the kind of post-implementation service and support the vendor has to offer. Make sure the subscription fee includes the training cost otherwise that may take a reasonable sum of money from your pocket. Also, select the software that can easily offer you data conversion routines else you will have to enter the data manually.
Questions to ask a vendor when buying best Workforce Management Software
1. Is the workforce management software cloud-enabled?
2. Does the system work across devices?
3. How simple or difficult is the implementation process?
4. Can the software record attendance and time?
5. Does the system provide employee prioritization?
6. Are there user controls?
7. How well can the software work in a multi-channel environment?
8. Is the product capable of creating intelligent schedules?
9. How robust is the software’s tool for reports and analytics? Can I personalize it?
10. Can the software double up as a task management solution?
11. Can I integrate this software with ones I already use, for example, a payroll solution?
12. Have you served a client before in my industry?
13. How easy is it for my team to use?
14. Can the system scale, along with my growing business?
15. What kind of post-sales support can I expect? Is it inclusive of the cost, or do I need to pay extra?
16. How often do you update your software?
17. Does the system include real-time functionality?
Workforce Management Software Pricing
The Workforce Management Software comes in two basic price models – Standard and Business. The Standard model covers all the basic features that an ideal Workforce Management Software is supposed to have such as project and job tracking, time tracking, employee scheduling, biometric record keeping, payroll and invoicing, overtime alerts, etc. The cost comes around to be $25 per month per user and costs an additional $5 for adding every extra user to the list of beneficiaries. On the other hand, the Business model aims to cater the advanced needs such as tracking the expenses, running audit trails, sorting employees as per department, etc. Needless to say, it comes with an additional price tag of $50 per user per month and costs $10 extra for adding a new user to the list. FYI, the price models are the average ones which may vary depending on the company’s marketing strategy to get the most of their product.
Conclusion
As of now, you must have understood that Workforce Management Software is basically nothing but a time administration tool. Apart from keeping a track of individual performance, it offers valuable insights through advanced analytical tools that lead to informed decision making. Having so much potential, the software has greater importance in running long term business than other business software for sure. That’s why it is imperative to choose the software wisely with sufficient time in hand so that you will not have to repent on your choice afterward. Analyze every software on the scale of its pros and cons and choose the one that best matches with your set criteria on a higher note. It’s perfectly okay to go for a trial version if you are not sure about its performance caliber. When it stands tall on most of your expectations, go for a yearly subscription to get a significant discount.