When a medium-sized insurance company hired Bob for technical support,they believed they had discovered the perfect employee. Bob was a skilled resource with experience in all of the company’s enterprise software and had a keen understanding of how to trouble-shoot multiple mobile devices. Bob’s references were also outstanding – describing him as a personable “go-to” guy who could fix anything.
Bob had one small problem. He was always late. On any given day he would arrive at the office anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes after his shift was scheduled to begin.
Bob’s supervisor met with him to discuss the issue and Bob cheerfully admitted that mornings weren’t good for him. As a single parent, he had to get his kids off to school before facing a grueling morning commute. Bob pointed out that once he arrived, he put in more than the 7.5 hours specified in his contract without expecting overtime. He usually worked through his lunch hour, clocking out at the end of the day thirty minutes after most of his colleagues had left. Bob believed he compensated for the late start.
Bob’s supervisor agreed and left Bob to manage his own time-table. Six months later, Bob was summarily let go for chronic lateness. Both the director of the department and HR had observed Bob’s tardiness but had no insight into the extra time Bob always provided. By not having all of the information needed to make the right decision, the company lost a valuable employee. It was a lose/lose scenario that could have been avoided.
What Is Workforce Management?
Workforce management (WFM) is part of the Greater Human Capital Management (HCM) Model, and encompasses all the activities, processes, and tools needed to manage a workforce. A comprehensive WFM includes planning, forecasting, scheduling, and tracking workers to optimize the balance of customer, employee, labor laws, and organizational needs. Most WFM solutions work by combining a range of software systems. Until relatively recently WFM software was often run on independent siloed platforms, resulting in poor integration. In Bob’s case, if his employers had utilized integrated, cloud-based employee scheduling software and employee time & attendance software effectively as part of their WFM plan the miscommunication that led to Bob’s dismissal would have likely been prevented.
Companies with many employees and in particular companies that work in shifts often find scheduling to be a complicated process. As most know, however, scheduling affects productivity, performance, employee satisfaction, and profitability, and is therefore not a process that can be left unorganized if one hopes to maximize their business’s potential. One of the key features of a well designed cloud-based WFM program is employee scheduling software that makes possible the quantification of the type and amount of labour necessary for various tasks and the matching of the appropriate employee to the appropriate task. According to Jim Holincheck, Vice President at leading information technology research and advisory company Gartner Inc., labour costs can make up as much as 70% of a company's expenses and the ability to accurately identify the best employee for a task through use of employee scheduling software as part of a WFM program has been shown to have a positive impact in mitigating this expense.
Managing Your Workforce from the Cloud with Synerion
Synerion North America Inc. is at the forefront of the shift from legacy workforce management solutions to a cloud-based, integrated solution. Their WFM solutions include a comprehensive range of systems designed for organizations of any size and any industry that seek to automate, regulate, and centralize the process of workforce management. Their cloud-based approach to integration and centralization makes possible the reduction of labour costs by minimizing overtime, monitoring shift schedules, and ensuring payroll accuracy. Integrated software allows for the analysis of information from previously isolated systems, resulting in improved productivity by identification of areas that require streamlining. This approach has also provided Synerion clients with comprehensive statistical data about employees, including quick and efficient retrieval of data. With a siloed platform that uploaded and downloaded data in batches, as was the norm before cloud-based WFM solutions, this would have been impossible.
A cloud-based WFM platform has been used to reduce costs and increase the profits of many of Synerion’s clients. According to Julie Jamieson, Compensation and Benefits Manager for Home Hardware, “We are an organization of over 2300 employees. The Synerion team was incredibly attentive to our unique culture and needs. No need was too great nor too out-of-the-ordinary. We are extremely pleased with the project conversion, the data synchronization between systems, and our return on investment.”
Synerion relies on Microsoft Azure® and Microsoft® SQL Server in order to deliver a comprehensive suite of WFM software providing solutions for time and attendance monitoring, labour costing, staff scheduling, absence management, self-service, business intelligence, and data collection. To learn more about Synerion and how you might benefit from a cloud-based workforce management solution visit www.synerion.com.