Workforce Management Blog

To anyone who does not have experience in the workforce management industry, the components of WFM and why it is so important to any company is a mystery. We’ve put together a WFM Wheel, to help explain Workforce Management in a simple and clear manner:

The centre of the wheel is the key to any workforce management system. Accurate payroll records and employee profiles are essential to effectively managing any workforce.

In order to maintain a strong record of this information, data collection and self-service capabilities are utilized. There are a number of data collection alternatives available to companies. For example, when focusing specifically on employee time and attendance, organizations can use badge readers, swipe cards, fingerprint scanners or hand geometry units to track working hours. Employee and manager self-service capabilities are commonly seen through the web. These individuals can log in to an online portal to access and update data, view time cards, and request or approve time off.

Time & Attendance Management, Labour Allocation & Costing, Absence Management and Scheduling are essentially the four major components of workforce management solutions. Capturing and tracking employee time and attendance is the core of any WFM system, and involves monitoring employee hours through punch in/punch out machines. Labour allocation and costing allows companies to capture time against work orders or jobs, and track specific costs back to employees or jobs. An effective workforce management solution will leverage technology to decrease and manage employee absences. Finally, smart and dynamic modules can allow for optimized scheduling processes.

The outer ring of the wheel represents the end results or ultimate benefits of successfully implementing a workforce management system. Companies will witness an increased efficiency in the organizational processes, and total compliance with labour laws and regulations, as well as employee or union contracts. Furthermore, the return on their investment will be evident soon after installation. Organizations will see a drop in labour costs, payroll expenses, and increased control of the workforce through a centralized database of information. Finally, business intelligence capabilities will allow companies to analyze their workforce, monitor trends, and take corrective action where necessary.

This wheel outlines the basics of workforce management, and is a great tool for understanding the components of WFM!

Visit our website for more information on workforce management systems for your company.

Special thanks to Paolo Gilfillan (Director of Sales & Marketing, Synerion), for the breakdown of the WFM Wheel!

Don’t be deceived by the oh-so-innocent look on their face. Some of your employees may be guilty of having participated in what is commonly known as “Buddy Punching.”

What is buddy punching?

Buddy punching features an employee “punching” the time card on behalf of his buddy, another employee who is late arriving, early leaving or absent from work that day. This practice enables employee absence without consequence.

How does this affect your company?

• Productivity goes down
• Return on investment (ROI) is reduced
• Bottom line profits decrease
• Workforce Management becomes complicated
• Decrease in employee motivation

According to a study by Nucleus Research, a global provider of research and advisory services, 74 % of organizations experience payroll losses directly related to buddy punching. This amounts to billions of dollars in losses per year!

Is there a solution?

Fortunately, yes!

Nucleus Research found that organizations can save an average of 2.2% of gross payroll by eliminating buddy punching through the use of biometric time clocks. These terminals identify the employee by scanning their finger or hand as they are clocking in, thus making it impossible to get away with buddy punching. Organizations can contact workforce management software companies about investing in time clocks and other tools to optimize their business performance.

For more information on workforce management please visit our website

http://www.manufacturing.net/Articles-The-Benefits-Of-Automating-Workforce-Management.aspx

As the global market continues to become more fast-paced and competitive, companies across all industries are trying to control costs and meet their budget requirements without it affecting their ability to deliver quality products and services to their customers.

In the manufacturing industry, companies struggle to improve the management of their workforce through optimized scheduling and eliminating unnecessary costs in order to improve productivity, and ultimately improve their bottom line.

Reducing Costs

Recent studies show that human error associated with manually processing employee timecards can account for 1.5-8% of the company’s annual payroll costs. On top of that, another 2-5% of annual payroll costs can be contributed from buddy punching – the practice of an employee punching in the timecard on behalf of another employee who is arriving late, leaving early, or absent from work that day.

On average, it takes payroll administrators 5 minutes to manually process employee timecards. Now in a manufacturing company with 100 employees, that can translate up to 8 hours spent on processing payroll.

By automating your time and attendance system and implementing biometric terminals, unnecessary costs associated with human error and time theft can be eliminated, and the administrative workload can be reduced – saving organizations thousands, or even millions of dollars every year.

Controlling Costs

With a comprehensive workforce management solution, managers are provided with a better overview and stronger control of their workforce.

Time and attendance systems allow companies to accurately track employee work hours, eliminating increases in payment associated with rounding. Coupled with the ability to apply the appropriate rates and agreements to each employee’s shift, both managers and employees can be with confident in the accuracy of their wage payments.

Workforce management solutions assign work in a more cost-effective manner. By creating optimized schedules based on available attendance, absence balances, and monthly limits, workforce management systems have the ability to reduce overtime and outsourcing costs. Rules-based solutions governing legislative, union and contractual agreements assure that payments will be made according to employee schedules, preventing unnecessary payments of overtime due to unauthorized early arrivals and late departures.

Improved Productivity

Combined with the appropriate scheduling and absence management software, WFM solutions can further improve the way you do business by building optimized schedules to maximize employee productivity. WFM solutions help manufacturing organizations ensure they have the right people, with the right skills and certifications, doing the right jobs, for each shift. Managers are also given a complete picture of employee absences so they can plan scheduling employees accordingly, based on operational needs to prevent understaffing.

The ability to track labour costs to identify if a task is profitable is essential. Time Costing systems help manufacturing companies collect, analyze, and calculate work hours by task/project for costing purposes to determine whether a product is profitable. Workforce management solutions help Manufacturers easily identify if the cost of the product is consistent with the investment in it, and if there are any suspicions of a loss, companies can take immediate corrective action.

Making the Change

Every organization is different. Manufacturing companies looking to automate their workforce management solutions need to find the right solution to meet the specific needs of their organizations. The ultimate goal of implementing a workforce management solution is to enable your company to cost effectively allocate employee time by optimizing scheduling and time and attendance management. With the right workforce management solution, organizations can control labor costs, minimize compliance risks, and mostly importantly, improve workforce productivity.

For more information on WFM systems please visit our website

Automate this Tedious Task

Scheduling employees for shifts can be one of the most tedious and time-consuming jobs a manager faces. Sifting through various absence requests, ensuring no one is working overtime, while at the same time making sure the schedule gives everyone an equal number of shifts, is no easy task.

Implementing an automated scheduling system ­­­allows companies to:

• Control costs. Automated scheduling modules allow users to assign employees to shifts based on system recommendations, which provide you with many options in regards to costs (i.e. choosing the cheapest combination of employees, blending experienced workers with amateur staff, etc.). Furthermore, the system will avoid scheduling overtime. Using all these features will ultimately lead to decreased labour costs for the company.
• Reduce risk. Creating a schedule automatically allows managers to input any legal regulations, as well as rules in employee and union agreements. The system will take these all into account, to avoid any non-compliance.
• Be alerted. Companies using an automated scheduler have the option of setting up alerts within the system to inform them of any deviations from regulations, or if a specific employee has been scheduled for too many or too few hours.
• Empower employees. Give employees access to schedules in advance, and allow them to automatically request time off through a self-service portal.
• Take corrective action. Identify gaps between the budget forecast and planned schedules before deviations occur, to allow for corrective action.
• Stay organized. Automatically creating schedules is simpler, faster, and much easier to keep track of. All the information regarding scheduling is centralized and easily accessible, keeping the whole process more organized and less prone to error.

For more information on Workforce Management visit our website

Absenteeism is becoming a growing problem for companies of all sizes. Here are some reasons to explain absenteeism, and some resolutions to combat it.

Reasons

1. Lack of Commitment: Employees who are not interested in the success of the company will likely be willing to miss work without a legitimate excuse. This lack of commitment to the organization and their jobs can stem from poor working conditions, which will be discussed later in the article.
2. Lack of Consequences: Simply put, incentives encourage attendance and punishments discourage absence. Furthermore, employee packages that allow for a lot of time off can lead to workers abusing this.  
3. Poor Working Conditions: Working in an environment that is unpleasant will discourage employees from coming to work every day. Poor conditions can include a lack of breaks, an excessive workload, a stressful atmosphere or poor treatment from managers. Working in these poor conditions leads to a lack of commitment, simply because employees don’t enjoy their jobs.
4. Honest Excuses: Although there is a fair bit of unexcused absence in the workplace, employees are often away from work for legitimate reasons. These can range from sickness to car trouble, or anything in between.

Resolutions

1.  Work-Life Balance: Striking a balance between the workplace and personal life is something that companies should allow for employees. Building “personal days” into absence packages or implementing a “flextime” system can help with this.
2. Follow-ups: Conducting post-absence interviews can help managers clarify the reasons for absence, discuss ways the absence could have been avoided, and reinforce why absenteeism hurts the company (especially for employees who show a pattern of absenteeism).
3. Consequences: Absenteeism can be discouraged through negative consequences (punishments), and attendance can be encouraged through positive consequences (praise, recognition, monetary bonuses, or awards such as “Employee of the Month”).
4. Automation: Installing a time and attendance system to automatically track employee hours reduces illegitimate absences, and does not allow employees to get away with simply not showing up for work. An automated system can also produce fair schedules and track who is eligible for overtime, to ensure employees are happy with the hours they work, to ultimately motivate attendance.

Visit our website for more information on automated time and attendance solutions.