If you want to grow a business, providing the best version of your product or service is only one piece of the entrepreneurial puzzle. To scale, you’ll also need to get really good at managing your human resources—hiring, retaining employees, anticipating labor requirements, scheduling, etc. These are the kinds of things that workforce management aims to help simplify.
Rather than attempting to coordinate varied systems across multiple team silos, more and more companies are using tech integration to centralize these processes for seamless, continuous and customized, company-wide follow-through.
What Is Workforce Management?
Workforce management (WFM) is an umbrella term that comprises a set of processes a business implements to maximize the efficiency and productivity of its staff. It entails strategically analyzing data for the purpose of improved labor forecasting, as well as developing and overseeing employee schedules.
When workforce management processes are implemented and utilized to their fullest potential, you can get the right people working at the right times on the right projects with the right support team around them, all while saving money on overtime, reducing days sales outstanding, and ensuring you’re training the best new hires for the job. In short, workforce management lets your staff get back to doing what they do best, by nullifying the administrative burden of manually filling out and managing stacks upon stacks of (often repetitive) paperwork.
In 2019, Workforce Management Is Essential
According to the trade group American Staffing Association, staffing companies hire nearly 17 million temporary and contract employees each year in the United States. The workforce is aging and shifting, to favor the so-called “gig economy,” and talent gaps persist across several industries. In this labor climate, automated procedures are a necessity, and workforce management software helps to facilitate them.
In 2019, you can be sure that your competitors are leveraging technology to streamline their processes, increase worker productivity, boost levels of customer service, and ultimately, improve their bottom lines. Frankly, you need to implement tech solutions, just to compete.
Your goal is not merely to survive, however—you want your business to thrive. To grow and scale with as little friction as possible, consider implementing a vendor management system, such as RINGO VMS. The best part? There are ZERO start-up fees.
Workforce Management Software Checklist
When shopping for a software integration to alleviate your staffing woes, you’ll want to ensure the winner is boasting these four key features:
- Real-Time Reporting: To accurately identify areas that are lacking, you’ll want access to real-time updates. Not only should these reports be accessible, but they should also be presented in a standardized, graphic format to avoid missing out on opportunities for improvement.
- Fast Implementation: If you plan on utilizing a software solution throughout your entire company, you’ll want to avoid disrupting the day-to-day operations of your business. Any software that takes more than a few weeks to implement and train for is likely more complicated than it needs to be. Keep it simple.
- Vendor-Qualified Candidates: In the interest of bridging increasingly pervasive skill gaps, wouldn’t it be nice to guarantee your new hires are qualified to perform their duties before spending time and resources training them, only to inevitably lose them to incompetence soon after? With vendor expertise, you can avoid that frustration, and even improve overall customer service.
- Electronic Timekeeping: Want to improve company morale, skirt costly litigation and reduce your labor cost? Stop scheduling your employees to work overtime. With electronic timekeeping, you can achieve total visibility into your employee schedules, and plan accordingly.
Let RINGO Help You Manage Your Workforce
For more than 20 years, the RINGO VMS has been helping clients and staffing partners streamline their staffing procedures, while saving users an average of more than 20% on labor spend each year.
When you choose RINGO, you’re giving your company the opportunity to begin functioning like a well-oiled machine. Real-time analytics lead to accurate labor forecasting, which leads to the hiring and onboarding of appropriate candidates—resulting in improved customer service, and beyond. Your employees will be happier, more efficient and more productive. And you’ll save a ton of cash on unnecessary labor spend!
For more clarity into how the platform works, schedule a demo. RINGO Executive Director Shani Underwood will personally walk you through the ins-and-outs of the software.