As a business grows, so does its workforce. This presents any business with new challenges. Specifically, business owners must employ effective methods to manage a growing workforce without sacrificing productivity or efficiency.
This doesn’t need to be as overwhelming as it may seem. A business can streamline such processes as time management, forecasting, and various HR tasks by adopting a workforce management solution.
This is theoretically easier than ever thanks to the availability of workforce management software. However, not all workforce management solutions are equally valuable.
If you’re a business owner in need of new workforce management software, you must look for an option that boasts certain essential qualities. They include the following:
Mobile-Friendly Features
It’s becoming increasingly common for employees in virtually all industries to perform work-related tasks on the go. Sometimes, these tasks are fairly basic, such as keeping track of hours.
Any workforce management software you decide on using should have a mobile app that allows users to access at least some of its essential features. This is critical in today’s business environment.
Forecasting
Most workforce management solutions will include general time-tracking and scheduling features. These qualities are helpful, but by themselves, they don’t add up to a workforce management software that delivers maximum value.
The strongest solutions are those which also include forecasting capabilities. Although the specific manner in which a forecasting solution works can vary from one product to another, essentially, this feature allows business owners and managers to easily determine future needs regarding how many employees should be assigned to upcoming projects.
Being able to anticipate these needs far in advance helps managers prepare more thoroughly and confidently. This, in turn, allows for greater efficiency, which translates to greater savings (and earnings).
Be aware, this feature is beneficial in two major ways. One, it guards against understaffing, which could otherwise have a negative impact on client satisfaction. When used properly, it also prevents overstaffing, which can be very costly.
Compliance-centric Record Keeping
A genuinely useful workforce management software should also allow you to easily keep and access various employee records. More importantly, its record-keeping system should be designed so that you can easily maintain records illustrating your business is complying with all applicable Department of Labor regulations.
This is another way in which the right workforce management solution can help your business stay productive. If you ever need to address any compliance issues, being able to access the records you need quickly will allow you to resolve these issues with efficiency. Without this type of record-keeping system, addressing such issues could be very time-consuming, preventing you and HR from focusing on other important tasks.
Reporting
Your workforce management solution has the potential to provide valuable data regarding employee performance, staffing needs, time management issues, and more.
However, you can only take advantage of the insights that data may provide if your workforce management software offers strong reporting features. Look for one that allows you to conveniently generate and analyze reports.
Individual Employee Tracking
The qualities listed so far generally pertain to the way a workforce management solution can address “big picture” elements of managing a workforce. However, it’s also critical that a workforce management software provides you with the means to assess how individual employees use their time.
Naturally, this can help you identify any issues that need to be corrected. For example, a workforce management solution could let you easily discover that an employee is excessively tardy.
This feature can also help you better appreciate when an employee is putting in extra effort. As a business owner or manager, you have many tasks to attend to every day. This can make it easy to overlook when an employee is going above and beyond what’s expected of them.
You don’t want that to happen. Research shows that recognizing ambitious employees and acknowledging their hard work can have a tremendously positive impact on employee engagement. Offering that acknowledgment is easier when you have a tool that clearly illustrates whether an employee is worthy of such recognition.
Intuitive Dashboard
This is an essential quality of any workforce management solution. It’s also one many surprisingly lack.
Boasting all the features listed here is important. That said, if taking full advantage of these capabilities isn’t an intuitive process, they won’t truly provide the value that they should.
When demoing a new workforce management software, pay close attention to how user-friendly the dashboard is. Remember, in theory, you won’t be the only one using this tool. Every member of the company will likely be using it in some capacity. You want to be confident all employees will feel comfortable doing so.
Geofencing
Geofencing has always been valuable in many lines of work. Any business whose employees have to sometimes travel to different locations besides their cubicles or offices to perform work-related tasks could benefit from a tool that allows managers to determine when employees were actually at those job sites and how much much time they spent there. This is key to ensuring workers are using their time as effectively as possible.
In a post-pandemic world, geofencing parameter features may be even more essential. As more and more businesses permanently embrace remote or hybrid work models, keeping track of whether employees are where they need to be when they need to be there can be a challenge. A workforce management solution with geofencing parameter features effectively addresses this problem. Such a tool could thus give your business a significant competitive advantage now that many other organizations in your industry are likely also adjusting how they do business in the wake of Covid-19.
Make a sincere point of looking for these qualities when assessing new workforce management solutions. The benefits of choosing the right tool range from saving money to optimizing employee engagement. Taking the time to find one with these features will be a worthwhile investment.
