Remote work is not a new concept. Telecommuting grew as an acceptable business practice as technology rapidly advanced through the late 20th century and into the early 2000s.
Perhaps more importantly, working outside an office gained credibility as employers realized remote work increases productivity, improves employee morale and saves money.
Debating remote work pros and cons
The debate over the value of remote work has remained largely the same even as a wider swath of employees spend time outside a traditional office environment. One lingering argument against it is that there are too many distractions and the lack of a quiet place to focus on the task at hand. Yet a 2017 FlexJobs study found that just 7 percent of workers say they are more productive in an office setting.
As employers deliberate a remote workforce, the rapid evolution of workforce management technology has enabled more people to work outside the office. Professions once considered as chained to punching in and out immediately become more productive by starting and ending their day on the job.
Influencing expectations through technology
Innovative GPS-enabled technology now empowers remote employees to clock in and out simply by using their mobile device. Workforce.comâs GPS Clock-in features the longitude and latitude and provides employers with a real-time glance at each remote employeeâs precise location.
With such dynamic, easy-to-use technology available, the challenge then becomes shifting organizational and managerial expectations surrounding remote work. Security is understandably a concern that can be allayed by a trustworthy, safe platform. Here is some insightto appease curmudgeonly employers that a remote workforce is indeed a boon to business.
Choose and vet the right employees for remote assignments. You donât want your fledgling remote work program to be DOA.
Consider the effect on customers, co-workers and management.
Productivity expands since time is spent on the job, not traveling back and forth to punch a clock.
Set regular goals and objectives to be evaluated monthly, weekly or even daily.
Encourage ongoing feedback between management and the remote employee.
Online video programs allow for remote workers to visually participate in staff meetings and events.
No guessing where they are
Managers will quickly and easily know where remote staff is with the GPS Clock-in platformâs photo-verified system. While this provides peace of mind for employers knowing their workers are on the job, there also is a safety component involved.
In the event of an unpredictable natural incident, be it a sudden tornado warning, freak ice storm or an earthquake, employers can find peace of mind in knowing that resources are instantly available to check the location and safety of their remote employees.
The federal Office of Personnel Management cited improved emergency preparedness planning as a benefit of expanding its remote workforce. The agency also stated that remote work reduced employee commutes and provided cuts in real estate costs and energy use. Other positive outcomes included:
Improved employee attitudes.
Better recruitment and retention.
Improved employee performance.
As the number of employees working remotely increases every year, change long-overdue attitudes and adopt the right technology to build a vibrant, dynamic remote workforce. Enhance your business and put your remote workers in a position to excel in their jobs and boost productivity with Workforce.comâsGPS Clock-in platform.
Time was in the not so distant past an employeeâs first day on the job was spent filling out a raft of paperwork. If they finished the daunting deluge of forms in front of them, there might be time to find their workstation only to stare at a blank screen, since IT had no clue that a new employee was joining the organization.
Itâs a scenario that unfortunately still plays out. Most organizations have some type of orientation process for new hires. Too often though, those programs are neglected, poorly run and mismanaged.
That experience transforms an eager new recruit into an employee who is disengaged and disillusioned with their new company based on their first day at work. Rather than going home and effusively boasting about a great first day, your newest staff member is more apt to mumble, âEh, Iâm just glad today is over.â
Make onboarding memorable and easy
Onboarding â the process of providing new employees with the key information and training to be immediately successful in their new roles â should be simple, engaging and perhaps most importantly, repeatable.
Thanks to a continuous surge in innovative human resources technology, a simple, paperless online onboarding solutionhas organizations bidding farewell to the tedious stream of paperwork andenhancing their employeeâs first days on the job.
The advantage of paperless onboarding
When an organization adopts a digital onboarding solution, everything becomes paperless. The new employeeâs banking details, withholdings, important addresses, emergency contacts and immigration status are immediately integrated into payroll and admin without a single sheet of paper being passed along. Online onboarding allows new hires to examine health and retirement benefits options and other company perks at their leisure.
HR also gets a valuable early-alert solution to schedule IT and other stakeholders that a new employee will be joining the organization. This portion of online onboarding should become a seamless, well-structured experience that HR can use whenever a new hire joins the organization.
Getting social
In most cases a new hire knows no one in their new workplace. Other than some cursory interactions with the immediate hiring team prior to their first day, the new person is walked awkwardly through the workplace with basic introductions and small talk.
Digital onboarding software can launch a social interaction well before the new hire ever enters the workplace. Access to the onboarding software allows the new employee to begin learning about their future teammates, supervisors, key executives and responsibilities.
They can pre-enroll in company- and job-specific training courses, survey employee resource groups and open a dialog with future colleagues. From hobbies to food restrictions, managers can get to know their new employee.
One chance at a first impression
Given that the onboarding process is a new hireâs introduction to the organization and its workplace culture, onboarding plays an underrated role in employee retention.Â
Research has shown that a new hire will decide within the first year if they want to stay with the company. One survey revealed that nearly a third of new hires quit their jobs within the first 90 days while a separate report showed that organizations with a strong onboarding process improved new-hire retention by 82 percent and productivity by over 70 percent.
An employeeâs first day shouldnât be all about arduous paperwork and trying to absorb an overwhelming information dump of company rules and policies. Instead, go paperless and online with your onboarding so your new hires can do it all ahead of time and immediately dig into the job at hand.
While restaurants brimming with patrons and retailers bustling with shoppers are energizing images, employers must keep a level head when staffing their locations. Whether itâs reviving a dormant construction site or setting up the outdoor patio for a busy weekend brunch, a real-time wage tracker solution will help employers avoid the common mistake of overstaffing their workplace and spending too much on labor costs.
Understand your wage spend
Business owners want to keep patrons coming back whether they are grabbing a meal or leisurely shopping for a new pair of shoes, which means more foot traffic in the door.
Correctly staffing your location is crucial to profits as well as customer satisfaction. That can be as simple as consolidating employee data currently logged in varying systems and spreadsheets into a single online platform. Merging your employee data with the technology to track wage costs in real time and adjust staffing levels can avert the nagging issue of being overstaffed or understaffed.
Beware of peaks and valleys
All organizations have their rush times and slowdowns. Think strategically and incorporate software solutions for those periods but also remain flexible for the unexpected. Some ideas to consider:
Denote peak seasons and hours versus slow seasons and hours to determine how many employees are needed.
Give employees schedule preferences, reasonable time off and the holiday schedule.
Distribute advanced schedules to head off any conflicts or unforeseen circumstances.
Avoid overstaffing
Eager employers donât want to be left short-staffed. Wage tracker software helps eliminate erring on the side of caution and adding more people than are needed, which cuts into the companyâs profits.
Thereâs also a dirty little secret when it comes to the cost of overstaffing. Employees hate getting cut once they show up and also dislike standing around for hours on end with nothing to do. Either way, employees will complain that their time was wasted by a boss who scheduled too many employees. Do it over and over and youâve provided them the time to search their phones for other employment options.
And avoid understaffingÂ
When the workplace is short-staffed, employees complain that they are constantly on the run and overworked to the point of exhaustion. That leads to poor quality of work, high levels of stress and increased absences. There will be higher overtime expenses, which can result in a more costly alternative than hiring additional employees full time. And like overstaffing, short-staffing a workforce leads to employee turnover, too.
Keep employees happy and cut costs
Put the kibosh on grousing employees and give them a reason to be happy and fairly compensated for the work they do. Effectivewage-tracker software will prompt managers that wage costs are higher than expected so they can make adjustments throughout the day to successfully run their shift. The wage tracker platformâs built-in wage calculator monitors real-time costs, staff count and where employers may be overspending per shift with up-to-the minute reporting.
The result will be a savings in wage costs and a drop in unnecessary overtime. Youâll also notice a more satisfied and engaged workforce.
As organizations ramp up their staffing, this is the perfect time to incorporate live wage tracker software to empower managers with the tools they need to accurately and fairly compensate employees and assess staffing levels in the moment and at a glance.
Life is good for an organization when shift scheduling is established and working well. Let scheduling get even a little sideways, however, and that tightly run ship can quickly become an all-hands-on-deck disaster.
Shared calendars, lost emails, hard-to-read spreadsheets, white boards and even Post-it notes are not how to schedule employees. Comprehensive scheduling software tools can prevent a Titanic-like calamity from disrupting your employment schedule.
Effective employee schedulinggives managers immediate insight into how many staff members to schedule at any given time and optimizes planning breaks, setting vacations, adding time for training and addressing unplanned absences. A streamlined scheduling plan also cuts the time associated withonboarding new staff members to full productivity.
Here are some ways that scheduling software can save time, streamline scheduling and control costs.Â
Employee scheduling software saves time and money.Â
The old Benjamin Franklin adage of âtime is moneyâ is as true today as it was in olâ Benâs era. It certainly applies to scheduling the right employee into the right slot.Â
Whether itâs a 12-hour on-floor hospital shift or a four-hour lunch rush slot, scheduling software is a time-saver when it comes to matching an employeeâs skills and availability to the proper shift. Managers will have a real-time schedule that changes with the organizationâs needs. Scheduling software also removes the labor-intensive task of constantly rebuilding a schedule to free up you and your staff for other opportunities. In other words, you are saving up Benjamins by freeing up time.
Employee scheduling software streamlines the process.Â
Saving time is important, andscheduling software helps you make better use of that time. All schedules can be created and distributed electronically, and employees can use their phone to clock in and out, eliminating the need for onerous back-and-forth emails or missed phone calls.Â
A 2017 Quickbooks survey found that 49 percent of employees admitted to time theft, which annually costs companies more than $11 billion.Scheduling software tools cut down on fraud that may be taking place in your company.Â
Overtime, while often unavoidable, is another opportunity to save money through scheduling software. You have enough people to get the job done, but not so many that youâre cutting into the bottom line. Scheduling software provides the tools to cut costs in the form of unnecessary overtime by showing which employees are eligible for overtime assignments and who already clocked too many overtime hours.
Donât be a ship helplessly tossed about in the swirling seas of scheduling employees! Find out about the benefits of Workforce.comâscomprehensive scheduling software today. Youâll see how it can boost efficiency and control costs across your entire enterprise.
Like meat and potatoes on the dinner table, a shift schedule template is considered one of the basic tools of workforce management.
Indeed, shift schedules are crucial to the smooth operation of workforce management. A single, uniform system allows employers to manage their workforce and standardize operations more easily and save money through simplified, consistent administration that allows the organization to focus on its core business.
Rather than managing schedules on paper, which can be inefficient and potentially risky when trying to balance overtime, paid time off and compliance regulations, viewtime and attendance and scheduling through a strategic lens.
A template for all needs
Finding a shift schedule template that fits an organizationâs needs may not be as daunting as it seems. Most exist in Microsoft Word and Excel formats as well as in Google docs and Google sheets.Â
Some are detailed to include the week, day and times of day while others are largely blank. The templates are adaptable to adjust the days of the week among other details.Â
There are varying styles of shift schedule templates. Among the most-used, according tolabor management company 7shifts, include:
Fixed shift schedule â Fixed shifts consist of staff working the same number of hours and days each week.
Split shift schedule â Employees agree to fill their work hours over two shifts or time slots in a day. Work with HR or legal counsel to maintain federal labor law compliance.
Overtime shift schedules â These can be costly but are often necessary during emergencies and busy times. Again, recognize labor law compliance.
On-call shifts â An employee is available to work on demand, at any time. For example, if someone misses a fixed shift due to a family emergency, the employee in waiting will be contacted to take this shift.
Benefits of flexible shift options
Itâs compulsory for organizations with hourly staffing needs to use shift scheduling tools. But with work from home becoming the norm, more companies are engaging employees through flexible shift schedules.
Implement a plan, keep in constant communication with those who are remote, and then evaluate its success.Â
A shift scheduling template keeps all employees â in person or remote â on the same page. A work schedule calendar also assures that no shifts will be missed.
 Why innovate what already works?
Some people are perfectly fine with meat and potatoes every night for dinner. By the same token, some organizations are content with pen and paper to schedule employees.
Technology-based employee scheduling software not only offers the steak and spuds, it provides a tantalizing appetizer, a warm loaf of bread, a scrumptious side of veggies and to-die-for dessert, too.
Rather than spending hours slaving over a hot stove â er, spreadsheet â managers can build schedules on the go and immediately post for all employees to access.
Managers also understand that employee schedules can no longer be based solely on business demand. Schedules need to reflect employee preferences. Intuitive software can inform the organization when an employee is available and how many hours that person wants to work each week.
This also empowers employees to communicate with managers regarding time off orco-workers who may want to swap shifts. There is shared value for both sides. And if employee engagement is a goal, employers can build schedules that are more predictable, consistent and adequate so employees can better plan their lives and budgets and reduce use of sick days and shift trading.
If you have a large hourly workforce, Workforce.com is here to help. Its comprehensivetime-keeping andscheduling softwarecan handle complex business demands and allow the organization to view the big picture while empowering employees and maintaining compliance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted workforces around the world into remote work or a different environment than what employees are used to.Â
Businesses are making adjustments to their operations in adherence to social distancing and in joining the fight to curb the pandemic.Â
As the search for a vaccine continues, it seems like flexible work will be here to stay. But what does that mean to the workforce? And what must managers do to help navigate the new normal involving remote work?
Same principles, different times
Jacob Morgan, an author, speaker and authority on leadership, employee engagement and the future of work, said in a recent blog post that more companies will embrace flexible working arrangements.Â
âWith the current pandemic, millions of people around the world are working from home,â he said. âThis will likely continue over the coming months but even after the pandemic is over, I expect we will see a dramatic rise in flexible work arrangements. However, in order for these efforts to be successful organizations need to use a new set of digital technologies and embrace a new way of working.â
âBefore rushing to pick that shiny new collaboration and communication platform, focus on developing a strategy which will help you understand the âwhyâ before the âhow.â This is crucial for the success of any collaboration initiative,â he wrote. âYou donât want to be in a position where you have deployed a technology without understanding why. Especially during this pandemic, make it clear what the desired goals are so everyone is on board.â
Aside from implementing suitable solutions, Morgan also highlighted the importance of collaboration, measuring the right metrics, leading by example and listening to the voice of the organization, among others. Morgan explained the challenges in applying them and practical ways to overcome them.Â
âCollaboration should never be seen as an additional task or requirement for employees,â Morgan wrote. âInstead collaboration should fit naturally into their flow of work. For example, with my virtual team of ten employees turning on Skype every morning and looking at whatâs going in Asana is how we all start our day, itâs not an afterthought or something additional we do ⌠itâs how we get things done.â
He reiterated that collaboration is an ongoing initiative and goes beyond simply rolling out initial guidelines, thinking that it will stand the test of time. Itâs all about adjusting and being agile to changes.Â
âItâs important to remember that collaboration is perpetual,â Morgan wrote. âItâs a never ending evolution as new tools and strategies for the workplace continue to emerge. This means that itâs important for your organization to be able to adapt and evolve as things change. Keep a pulse on whatâs going on in the industry and inside of your organization. This will allow you to innovate and anticipate. So many organizations were caught off guard by this pandemic because they had neither the tools, the training, the leadership, or the guidelines to help make flexible work successful.â
Clear course of action is vital
The pandemic has disrupted global workforces. Management consultancy Gallup has seen massive changes in different aspects of work and employee life, and they are seeing record levels of stress and worry among the U.S. workforce. So how are employers faring in terms of their response?
Leaders need to have a clear course of action and communicate it clearly to their employees. A survey from Gallup shows that 52 percent of employees strongly agree that their employer fared well in terms of sharing information to them about the next steps.Â
Technology is key to implementing action plans
Having a strategy is just half of the battle. The other half is implementing it. Technology plays a crucial role in that.
A workforce management platform is helpful in this regard as it can help you operate efficiently beyond borders, staying on top of your operations, and improving overall communication with staff. It can help you automate and customize certain processes and adjust quickly to market changes.Â
Thereâs a lot of factors at play when managing a workforce, especially so at a time like this. Itâs vital to have the right solutions in place that will help you focus on enriching your people and equipping them to do their best even in this era of remote work and beyond.Â
Labor compliance software is an innovative way to manage the overwhelming alphabet soup of laws, regulations and agencies that govern the workplace.
HR practitioners must recognize the regulatory distinctions of the FMLA and FLSA and navigate the nuances between the ADA and ADAAA. What are the latest regulations surrounding the ACA? Can a misstep with COBRA come back to bite them? And SOX ⌠is that a professional baseball team or a law protecting corporate whistleblowers?
If assessing guidance from agencies including OSHA, DOL and EEOC wasnât enough to cope with, labor compliance software is a must-have now as the coronavirus invades organizational policies. HR leaders and corporate counsel must quickly familiarize themselves and understand the implications of implementing workplace laws surrounding a new bowl of alphabet soup â PPP, FFCRA and the CARES Act.
 The value of labor compliance software
Maintaining corporate compliance with government regulations isn’t easy. Besides knowing what agencies actually do and how regulations affect employers, labor laws are dense, complex and confusing. A single unintentional compliance misstep by an organization can lead to a costly and time-consuming lawsuit with the potential to disrupt or even bankrupt a small, growing organization.
Compliance solutions allow organizations to avoid a trip to court and more easily comprehend constantly changing federal, state and local legislation. Employers can disseminate policies to employees, provide guidelines for regulatory enforcement and manage confidential documents all while saving money by easing time-consuming, onerous reporting rules.
Workforce management systems typically assist with traditional compliance issues while a specialized compliance solution takes employers beyond the basics and provides expert guidance on critical regulations. It can be like having a team of legal experts at your fingertips with minimal expense.
Labor compliance software also allows businesses to communicate company and legislative policies to their employees.
Key areas for compliance software
Regulatory software helps an HR department remain in compliance across all organizational departments. According to peer-to-peer software review site G2, there arebusiness functions and the germane laws that can be undertaken by labor compliance software:
Benefits â Affordable Care Act (ACA); Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA); Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA); Fair Labor Standards Act(FLSA); Family and Medical Leave Act(FMLA).
COVID-19-related policies âCoronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act); Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and Payment Protection Program (PPP).
Labor and employment relations â Labor union updates (AFL-CIO, AFGE, SEIU, etc.); Department of Labor (DOL); Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
Payroll âFair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA); Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA); Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).
Risk â Employee safety is a top priority for all organizations. Compliance software can manage and track guidance and enforcement by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Companies needing compliance software
No organization is immune from U.S., state and local labor laws. True, regulations often vary depending on factors including employee count. A four-person mom-and-pop shop does not face the same labor compliance regulations as a multinational company.
Yet it is crucial that company policies remain up to date and comply with changes in legislation. Despite the expense a lawsuit can present, many smaller organizations are hesitant to call on legal resources simply based on costs. Those concerns can be streamlined by compliance software.
Small companies have difficulty keeping up with changes in compliance because they lack the manpower, and HR departments are already stretched thin or responsibilities are divided among employees as collateral duty. There is no point person to track and update compliance regulations.
Compliance is particularly crucial to navigating the maze of workplace issues. Municipalities and some states have institutedfair workweek policies in the past two years with more on the horizon.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement,mandatory sexual harassment prevention training is compulsory in six states. Compliance training, employee handbooks and more can be structured and simplified with a compliance solution.
Small and midsize organizations in particular have difficulty keeping up with HR compliance regulations as new legislation is continually introduced. When the HR team is small (or even just one person), their bandwidth quickly becomes strained.
Sorting through the alphabet soup of labor regulations can be an eye-glazing exercise for employers. Labor compliance software helps them to spell out attractive cost-savings, easy-to-use solutions and avoid unintentional noncompliance.
When letting employees know their value to the organization, itâs important to show appreciation for their daily tasks through effective co-worker comments.
Technology provides exceptional opportunities to motivate your staff and engage their participation by providing ongoing feedback and building a two-way relationship. Selecting the right workplace app develops a continuous dialogue that improves your internal communications and builds a consistent, trusted relationship with employees.
Choosing the internal communications app that best suits your organization has far-ranging implications. Among the most effective forms of communication that your workplace app can provide is employee feedback.Â
The value of ongoing feedback Â
People thrive on feedback. Consider how often people are asked to ârateâ an experience â the latest vacation spot, the quality of your petâs food or a call center employeeâs friendliness.
Naturally, employees are encouraged to rate their job experience, as well as their workload and the quality of management. In fact, feedback is not only appreciated, it is expected. Employees want to know where they stand with their employers.
An effective workplace app can make that communication faster and more focused. It could literally take seconds to offer a personal congratulations or post a companywide notice of the employeeâs accomplishment.Â
Feedback can come in the form of an employee performance review, a note of encouragement or a thank-you for a job well done. Many people would be surprised at how well a supportive, positive message is received.Â
Peer-to-peer feedback
Constant colleague feedback also encourages your staff to communicate with one another and enables growth in the company. Employees can use communication-based apps, for example, to swap shifts. This process encourages staff to remain open with one another and enhances growth in the company as well.
Employees can use this online feedback to build an authentic, trusting relationship with each other, as well as with supervisors. Peer-to-peer communication coupled with supervisor appraisals goes a long way in helping them become better in areas they need to improve and showing genuine appreciation in the areas that they have excelled in.
Organizing feedback
Your app simplifies feedback by providing a centralized clearinghouse for all employees on a single platform. Employees can communicate one-on-one or in team settings. They also can organize schedules and are crucial to building a feedback-seeking culture.
Feedback is clearly a valuable business proposition. According to a Gallup study, managers who received feedback on their strengths had turnover rates that were 14.9 percent lower than for those who received no feedback. Still, some employees are hesitant to provide feedback in person. And that applies to managers and supervisors as well.
An internal app makes feedback easier and eliminates barriers with simple, easy-to-use communications. An app also provides the ability to give feedback for those who prefer to avoid face to face meetings.Â
Using a communications app is redefining the way we think of employee engagement. Unleashing such tools in your workplace are changing the way businesses operate and make feedback immediate and continuous.Â
Give employees the power to communicate! Workforce.comâs employee engagement module empowers employees to respond immediately and effectively to topics relevant to your business any time of the day or night.
Leon Pearce is a senior software engineer for Workforce.com. Photo by Lenny Gilmore
Creating innovative HR technology that empowers employees while also saving organizations time and money is an accomplishment to be applauded.
So when the founders of Workforce.com initially developed a highly advanced time-and-attendance platform in their native Brisbane, Australia, in 2014, it was only natural that the four friends were ready to take it to a global stage. After international wins in tech hot spots such as the United Kingdom, Israel and Asia, unleashing their product on the hyper-competitive shores of North America is now a success story thatâs ready to be told.
From those early days with just the first four employees, Workforce.com now boasts dozens of employees who diligently serve businesses nationwide and across the globe.With a commitment to success and a reputation for achievement, Workforce.comâs talented and diverse team is building a strong tradition of delivering excellence by customizing its offerings to their client’s evolving business needs, be it large or small, simple or complex.
Among those dedicated to superior customer service is Chicago-based Workforce.com software engineer Leon Pearce, who has maintained a commitment to promoting the productâs ease of use.
âPeople are the most significant competitive advantage any business can get, so they need to be truly engaged for long-term success,â Pearce said. âWe want to help tackle these complex problems and streamline those processes so they can focus on the essentials of managing their workforce: worker happiness, welfare and efficiency.â
Considering that human resources practitioners must be all things to all people, the sheer volume of work they perform to keep a business functioning smoothly can be overlooked and underappreciated by organizational leaders and employees. Workforce.com technology supports their efforts and provides them with the opportunity to become strategic business partners, Pearce said.
âIn essence, we build the software with the purpose of improving workforce compliance, automation, engagement and productivity,â he said. âThis helps HR stay compliant with ever-changing labor regulations, automate administrative processes, build trust with front-line staff and improve business productivity.â
That said, software and technology isnât very effective if not used properly. As an example, Pearce evoked the tool wielded by the Marvel Comicsâ God of Thunder.
âYou could own Thorâs hammer but thatâs not very useful if nobody can lift it,â he said.
Software fundamentally changes business operations, which means itâs also important to make sure the partner you choose aligns with the vision you have for your teams.
âWith the emergence of Software as a Service as the future of technology adoption, you are not necessarily buying into what it is today, but its ability to improve and help your company reach its potential in the future,â Pearce said.
Ask multiple questions of the software provider, Pearce added, such as:
How many features did they release in the last 12 months?
Who is your chief technology officer?
Do you understand the future of work and whatâs your product road map for the future?
What improvements to the user experience have been made recently?
What percentage of revenue do you commit to new research and development compared to supporting old infrastructure?
Are you going to grow and improve your product as we grow and improve our business?
When it comes to implementation, a common complaint about HR software is when it purely serves management and not the rank-and-file employee.Â
Ask to see it live in a demo and test the software by placing it in the hands of the end user and get their honest feedback, Pearce said. And there are numerous techniques to understand if users like a product.
Yet, he pointed out, many of these techniques are flawed.
âYou can compare companies based on revenue, but then are you evaluating how good the product is or how slick the salespeople are?â he said.
App store ratings give a voice to the people who actually use the software. Since users didn’t choose it, they will be honest with their opinion.
âThe biggest mistake we see is when software is chosen because it ticks the boxes of a proposal and not how it works and is used by the front-line employees,â Pearce said. âIs it intuitive and easy to learn? Iâd always make sure to evaluate whether it enhances or detracts from the employee experience.â
Pearce said that Workforce.comâs technology fits seamlessly into the big picture of people management, helping guide where the world of work is heading and providing a path for HR to be there alongside it.
âTechnology is changing how people approach their work and their relationship with work, so we’re engineering to build a future where teams can perform better through improved workflow and feel empowered with the right technology,â Pearce explained.
For employees that means intuitive mobile apps to see future work hours, swap shifts, provide company feedback and apply for time off and schedule unavailability. For managers, itâs being able to easily build, send and optimize schedules against forecasted demand while tracking actual hours worked.
âAnd for HR and workforce professionals it means being able to manage and oversee this in one place that they can customize perfectly to their way of doing things and integrate with their existing payroll and technology stack,â Pearce said. âOn the whole it means building a platform that leverages the very best technology to help the workforce win and reach its potential.â
Competitive advantage is key to any software platform. Finding what separates one product from another doesnât necessarily take a publicity-hungry influencer. The benchmark for software in this space would be a solution that can follow best practices for each particular industry and help teams get to where they want to be, while being easy to use.
âCreate a solution that supports an organization while they find their way forward and enables them to operate in ways that create new competitive advantages,â Pearce said. âOur strategy is to build our software like a platform that provides adopters with a starting point of industry best practices, but is also flexible enough to evolve with them. Stagnation always ends in failure, which is why enabling our users to keep tweaking their functions and improving the way they operate is so important to us.â
While many see software â any type of software â as a tool, a thing to use merely to accomplish a task, Pearce fancies a more cultured approach.
âItâs like art. Seeing people use the software I helped build definitely gives me pride, but I think more to the point is the knowledge that I was involved in hopefully making peopleâs lives just a little better,â he said. âI thank our customers every day for giving me that opportunity.â
Don’t take our word for it. Thereâs a lot that goes into making time and attendance software simple to use and hassle free. Try Workforce.comâs multifaceted time and attendance software and youâll be lifting Thorâs hammer in no time.
Workforce management professionals face more responsibilities than ever before, and workforce management software can help them manage their many responsibilities. Â
While workforce management used to be a more focused term â mostly encompassing payroll, timesheets and scheduling â now it encompasses a broader array of duties including recruiting, onboarding, training, technology and more. Some of these duties are owned by HR, while IT, finance or operations take care of others. Balancing this variety of duties is not simple.Â
Between 2020 and 2025, the workforce management software market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.21 percent, according to India-based market research organization Mordor Intelligence. The report also found that the global workforce management software market was valued at $2.7 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach a value of $3.5 billion by 2025.Â
Why use workforce management software?
Organizations are interested in using HR and workforce management software for multiple purposes, and many organizations plan to use certain types of software in their long-term plan, according to the 2019 âHR State of the Industryâ report from the Human Capital Media Research and Advisory Group, the research arm of Workforce.com. While 37 percent of the organizations surveyed already use a management software system that addresses all core areas of talent management, 10 percent plan to purchase it in the next year and 8.4 percent plan to in the next three years.Â
The same trend exists for organizations interested in software that specializes in one talent management category. According to the report, 46.4 percent of employers already used recruiting technology software, 9.2 percent planned to in the next year and 6.5 percent in the next three years. With scheduling/time and attendance software, 59.9 percent of respondents already used it, and 9.3 percent and 5.8 percent plan to in the next year and three years, respectively.
Among this huge workforce management software landscape, organizations may have challenges choosing a provider and managing the software. Vendors are releasing new versions of workforce management software every other day while similar companies are also emerging, noted MarketWatch.Â
One important functionality of a workforce management software solution is the capability to create schedules based on varying rules and regulations. For example, numerous cities and states have passed legislation including laws guaranteeing workers the right to request scheduling accommodations and predictable scheduling laws. Meanwhile, an organization may have specific internal rules that apply to just one team of employees, or they may have global employees who donât fall under American law.Â
The benefits of workforce management softwareÂ
Workforce.com software, for example, addresses this by allowing users to input a rule or regulation and have it automatically added to the system. This isnât the case with every time and attendance software, but capabilities like this allow workforce management professionals to create good schedules despite the many rules that impact how they can and canât schedule employees. Â
The benefits of workforce management software solutions are clear. They can save organizations time and automate complicated processes. Still, some organizations havenât made the leap yet, citing reasons like lacking the time, budget or resources to choose products, assess vendors and deploy new applications.Experts advise companies in this predicament to start small with core software solutions that address payroll, time and attendance, paid time off and benefits. Delaying workforce management software investments will hinder a managerâs ability to automate the necessary tasks and focus on the parts of their job that canât be automated.
