Category: Technology

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A Year of Listening, Learning, and Building at Workforce.com

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to look back on some of the highlights from the year at Workforce.com.

Over the past year, we continued to invest in product improvements across the platform, earned industry recognition, and shared new customer stories. This lookback highlights moments that reflect Workforce.com’s evolution, setting the direction for how teams manage complex, hourly workforces.

Continuing to build the platform that hourly teams rely on

In 2025, Workforce.com shipped 150+ product updates focused on improving payroll accuracy, labor visibility, and how managers get work done day to day.

Rather than chasing isolated features, many of this year’s updates strengthened the systems customers rely on most: 

Stronger payroll guardrails

Throughout 2025, Workforce.com continued to strengthen pay checks and validation rules. This included clearer warnings, more consistent blocking behavior when data is invalid, and improved reconciliation when worked hours don’t match scheduled hours. 

Faster hiring and employee management

Hiring workflows were streamlined with bulk actions, resume summaries, and improved candidate review screens. We also strengthened HR tools to manage surveys, training, warnings, and employee records in a single place. 

Smarter reporting and workforce insights

Workforce.com continues to refine reporting capabilities in 2025, with dozens of new reports, added filters and columns, and improvements to how reports can be saved and accessed. Updates like saved reports on dashboards and more flexible grouping and filtering made it easier to monitor labor costs, sport trends, and answer key questions. 

Better control over labor costs

Updates throughout the year improved how labor costs are tracked across schedules, timesheets, and budgets. These improvements provide more precise comparisons between scheduled and worked hours and prevent unpleasant surprises at the end of the pay period. 

Hundreds of day-to-day usability improvements

Workforce.com rolled out a wide range of usability improvements to reduce friction for managers and admins. These included redesigned pages across HR, hiring, and time & attendance; expanded bulk actions and imports across payroll and reporting; and a steady stream of workflow refinements that make everyday tasks quicker and easier as teams scale.

Hearing directly from the teams we serve

This year, Workforce.com featured in-person customer stories, where we spent time with them on the ground and heard directly from the people using the platform every day. 

We visited Shipley-Donuts, Third Space Brewing, and Altitude Trampoline Park and spoke with operators and managers about how they run their teams day to day. Managers consistently emphasized the same results: significant time savings by streamlining everything in a single platform. 

Shipley Do-Nuts, for instance, relied on separate platforms for new hire paperwork, clocking in and out, scheduling, and payroll processing. Managing and integrating all these systems was time-consuming and inefficient.

“Integrating all of those together (in Workforce.com) has saved so much time. It takes me about 95% less time than before,” remarks Shelly Archer, Human Resources Manager at Shipley Do-Nuts.

Meanwhile, the team over at Third Space Brewing reported 100% time saved on verifying payroll data. “We definitely saved time from not having to reconcile numbers between two different platforms all the time,” shares Scott Passolt, Controller at Third Space Brewing. “Everything flows really easily. If we know the timesheets are correct, we know payroll is correct. I certainly have more confidence in the accuracy of the numbers. It has given us a lot of peace of mind that we didn’t miss something in moving numbers between systems.”

Bria Stuckey, General Manager at Altitude Trampoline Park, also shared the same sentiments, “What I like most about Workforce.com being all-in-one is that I can do everything right there. With other apps, we had to schedule in one system and then go into another application to fix timesheets. It was just a whole thing.”

Read more stories from the teams using Workforce.com.

Beyond the customer stories we featured this year, Workforce.com continued to receive positive feedback on independent review platforms like G2. Across reviews, customers frequently pointed to time savings from admin work and scheduling, clearer visibility into labor costs, fewer payroll headaches, and an overall experience that’s easy for both managers and frontline teams. Taken together, that feedback reinforces what we saw throughout 2025: when teams have better systems and simpler workflows, they spend less time fixing issues and more time running their business. 

Workforce.com’s progress in 2025 was also recognized across the industry, with accolades from Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp. These recognitions are driven by user reviews and ratings, making them a strong reflection of how customers experience the platform day to day.

Staying ahead in 2026 and beyond

As Workforce.com looks ahead to 2026, the focus is simple: keep building software that helps teams run better day to day. The challenges facing hourly workforces aren’t getting smaller, and neither is the need for systems that catch issues early, reduce manual work, and support teams as complexity grows.

In our HR and Payroll Trends for 2026 report, we break down what’s changing next across payroll, compliance, and automation.

Ready to see how Workforce.com can help you stay ahead? Book a demo today.

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HR and Payroll Trends for Hourly Teams [2026]

Summary:

  • Hourly teams in the U.S. will face both new and familiar challenges in 2026, and the companies that lead will be those that understand their operational needs and invest in solutions that keep them competitive.
  • AI will continue to dominate conversations, but the real advantage will come from using it effectively, not just adopting it.
  • Automation and the push to eliminate manual processes will accelerate, with organizations seeking tools that do the work rather than just support it.
  • A true all-in-one platform can help hourly workforces stay ahead, bridging gaps across compliance, payroll, and workforce operations.

Hourly teams across the United States are heading into 2026 facing long-standing challenges and emerging trends. The labor market remains tight, compliance keeps getting tougher, and the frontline workforce is transforming faster than most organizations can keep up. 

As of late 2025, the U.S. civilian labor force participation rate is hovering around 62-63%, still below pre-pandemic norms. The gap underscores how hard it remains to attract and retain top talent, even as labor costs are rising. More than 20 states raised their minimum wages in 2025 alone, with further increases scheduled for 2026 and beyond.

At the same time, technology continues to reshape how hourly work is managed. In 2026, the competitive edge will go to organizations implementing smarter technology that doesn’t just support work but actually does the work. We’re talking about systems that not only handle administrative tasks but also take action based on different data and insights. 

In 2026, the winners won’t be the ones chasing shiny trends. They will be those who move faster than regulatory changes, adapt quickly to new technologies, embrace challenges, and configure their systems to keep pace with existing trends and stay ahead of new ones. 

Below are five HR and payroll trends hourly teams should expect and prepare for as 2026 unfolds. 

Companies effectively using AI will stay ahead in 2026.

And no, this is not simply adopting AI. It is about using AI in ways that actually move the business forward. 

While AI investment continues to surge, very few companies feel confident about how they use it. In fact, a study found that only 1 percent of organizations believe they are implementing AI sufficiently to deliver substantial business outcomes. The gap between using AI and using it well is becoming one of the most significant competitive divides heading into 2026. 

Over the past year, we have already seen AI take deeper root in HR and workforce management. Adoption has grown steadily throughout 2025, especially in areas like hiring and recruitment. More organizations are recognizing how AI can support critical operational processes, including labor forecasting and demand-based scheduling.

“One of the great value propositions of Workforce.com is to optimize staffing levels, which can have tremendous savings for employers and fewer headaches for employees. AI has been a tremendous tool in that product,” shares Craig Chval, Vice President of Product at Workforce.com. 

Workforce.com adopted AI early and applied it directly to labor forecasting. By analyzing factors such as historical sales, booked appointments, local events, and even weather patterns, the platform can determine how many employees should be on shift on any given day. The result is better staffing accuracy, stronger margins, and more consistent service. 

But forecasting is just one part of it. AI is now helping customers in broader operational areas as well. “AI continues to be the biggest shift in this space. It provides customers clear visibility into how compliance rules are applied, rather than relying on calculations that are hard to interpret. It also helps surface risks early, such as warning when schedules break minor hours or when patterns may trigger a Fair Workweek obligation,” explains Travis Kohlmeyer, General Manager at Workforce.com.

AI is still a buzzword for a reason. But it is no longer a matter of whether organizations should use it. We are well past that point. The businesses pulling ahead today are the ones using AI to streamline their operations and solve real pain points. For hourly teams, the key is applying AI with focus and purpose. That means choosing use cases that matter rather than broad, unfocused applications that do not actually help the business run better.

Compliance becomes central to payroll software buying decisions.

Hourly teams are increasingly recognizing that payroll software needs to do more than generate payslips.

For organizations with shift-based workforces, payroll is inherently complex because no two pay cycles look the same. Hours fluctuate, roles change, and even small scheduling differences can significantly affect what an employee earns.

“Often, organizations don’t realize that some of the really big names in payroll systems actually lack the compliance capability for so many different work rules,” Travis explains. “Break compliance, minor working hour rules, and Fair Workweek are the most we see miscalculated on some platforms.” 

Payroll for hourly teams is not about assigning a pay rate and expecting the platform to handle the rest. Every pay period carries its own variables: different schedules, shift changes, varying roles or departments, premiums, and overlapping rules. This is why businesses must understand how their current payroll system handles these scenarios, or whether it handles them at all.

Workforce.com is built to manage this complexity from the ground up. The platform focuses deeply on how work rules and pay rules operate together. “We treat compliance as a design constraint, and not merely a patch. That means more robust rule engines, better guardrails in scheduling, and clearer auditability,” Travis adds.

Compliance may be complicated, but it is manageable with a payroll platform designed to understand the real-world scenarios that create risk. This includes minor laws, multi-role staff, split shifts, overlapping rules, and complex premium structures. With federal, state, and city-level regulations expected to continue evolving, organizations will increasingly look for payroll systems that anticipate these changes and help keep them ahead of costly mistakes. 

Many will switch to all-in-one platforms to eliminate manual processes.

Many organizations are moving toward all-in-one platforms to eliminate manual processes and reduce complexity. But a genuine all-in-one solution is more than a collection of loosely stitched-together apps. It is a single ecosystem where scheduling, time tracking, HR, payroll, and other workflows all operate in one place. We have seen growing demand for this throughout 2025, and we expect it to become an even stronger priority in 2026 and beyond.

“Oftentimes, potential clients look for help to eliminate manual processes such as spreadsheet scheduling, outdated time tracking, and the disconnect between systems they use,” shares Joseph Cuellar, Enterprise Account Executive at Workforce.com. 

Ray Chan, Head of Customer Support at Workforce.com, adds, “What we have seen as the biggest trend for prospective clients looking into our system is platform consolidation. Many organizations still use separate systems for scheduling, timesheets, payroll, HR, ATS, and more. A solution that spans the entire employee lifecycle is a major attraction.”

The motivation is simple. Organizations want to stop switching between multiple platforms to complete basic tasks. Not only is this tedious, but it introduces errors and forces teams to spend additional time double-checking data that should flow automatically.

Third Space Brewing is one of many organizations that have seen the benefits of consolidating onto Workforce.com. “It is the ability to do everything under one roof and not have to import and export data out from separate pieces of software,” says John Wynne, Taproom GM at Third Space Brewing.

Scott Passolt, Third Space Brewing’s Controller, expands on this, saying, “We definitely saved time from not having to reconcile numbers between two different platforms all the time. Everything flows easily. If we know the timesheets are correct, we know payroll is correct. I have more confidence in the accuracy of the numbers. It has given us peace of mind because we are no longer worried about missing something when moving data between systems.”

Watch: How Third Space Brewing Tapped into Better Payroll and Workforce Management

As organizations look ahead to 2026, especially those operating large hourly workforces, the demand for a unified, all-in-one platform will only continue to grow.

“All-in-one products are the future of the industry, and we are fully committed to that vision,” Craig shares. “Having an integrated, all-in-one solution eliminates so many pain points for our customers, and it is no surprise that the industry is moving in that direction. Our product roadmap is laser-focused on eliminating the need for customers to juggle a host of different services and offerings.

Hourly work is evolving, especially around pay.

Hourly work is changing, and pay is becoming one of the clearest areas of transformation. In 2026, more hourly workers will expect faster, more flexible access to their earnings, rather than waiting for a traditional biweekly cycle.

We are already seeing strong demand for on-demand pay, along with greater clarity and transparency around how compensation is calculated. In response, employers are beginning to look for technology that can keep pace with modern work patterns and move beyond the rigid pay structures built decades ago.

This year, several states and localities introduced or strengthened pay transparency requirements, and similar movements are expected to continue into 2026. These changes reflect a broader shift in expectations: employees want easy, direct insight into how their pay works, and employers are increasingly required to provide it.

Hourly workers should not have to jump through hoops to understand or access their wages. The right technology can make this simple by giving them clear visibility into their pay, the factors that influence their net earnings, and how each calculation is made. As transparency and flexibility become standard expectations, having modern, employee-friendly pay tools will become essential for hourly teams.

Demand grows for automations that do the work, rather than just support it.

More teams will expect automations and built-in intelligence in the software they adopt. Technology has always aimed to reduce administrative workload, but in 2026, we will see organizations push beyond that. They will want automations that fully execute tasks, not just assist with them.

“Customers increasingly want tools that remove work, not just organize it,” Travis says. “They continue to seek hands-off scheduling, such as automatic shift building and demand-based scheduling. We are also seeing customers shift away from platforms that simply give them data. Instead, they want tools that make decisions and explain the reasoning behind them. And as compliance concerns rise, more organizations are adopting automated compliance interpretations as well.”

This shift is becoming more pronounced as many organizations operate with leaner teams. With fewer staff, they cannot afford tools that only support work. They need platforms that actively handle tasks and keep processes moving. In 2026, the demand for true hands-off automation will only grow stronger.

Industry Focus: Family Entertainment Centers (FEC)

Family entertainment centers (FECs) offer a clear snapshot of the challenges that hourly work businesses face today. FECs sit at the intersection of hospitality, retail, and events, all sectors with highly variable hourly staffing and tight compliance requirements. This makes them a strong indicator of the trends shaping HR and payroll across many other industries.

FECs deal with unpredictable demand swings driven by weather, school calendars, weekends, and special events. Their staff often work across multiple roles in a single week, sometimes in a single day. And because many employees are minors, managers must navigate some of the strictest labor rules in the country, with specific limits on scheduling, breaks, and total hours worked.

Navigating all of that makes technology essential. Bria Stuckey, the General Manager of Altitude Trampoline Park, explains how technology can help FECs overcome operational challenges. 

For Bria, compliance with minor labor laws is one of the most significant pressure points. She notes that the right system helps her avoid mistakes before they happen. “Most of my team is between 15 and 17, so we have to follow strict hour limits. Workforce.com helps me stay compliant with those labor laws. If a minor cannot be scheduled, it tells me and will not let me schedule them. I do not have to go back and fix mistakes. It keeps us compliant from the start.”

Beyond compliance, FEC operators also need tools that let them focus on their guests rather than administrative issues. Bria explains that when something goes wrong, like a missed break clock-in, she doesn’t need to stop what she’s doing or manually track down errors. The system gives her visibility into who is approaching or exceeding their allowed hours, so she can stay present on the floor rather than buried in corrections.

Just as importantly, many FECs rely on multiple disconnected systems—POS, scheduling, time tracking, HR, payroll—and the friction between those tools can cause errors and long administrative delays. Bria experienced this firsthand before consolidating. “With the other apps, we had to schedule in one system and fix timesheets in another. It was a whole thing,” she says. “With Workforce.com, I can do everything in one place. It saves time and lets me focus on people having fun.”

Watch: The Software Behind the Fun: How Workforce.com Powers Altitude Richardson


Bria’s story reflects a broader trend across the industry: FECs succeed when they streamline processes, improve compliance, and consolidate disconnected systems into a single operational hub. As organizations head into 2026, businesses with large hourly workforces will need technology that understands the realities of shift-based work and helps them manage complexity without adding more of it. 

2026 will widen the gap between businesses that adapt and those that do not. Businesses that will win are those bold enough to evolve and recognize that old systems cannot support new labor realities.

Success will not come from working harder. It will come from building workflows that anticipate issues, respond quickly, and keep hourly teams moving in the right direction. The organizations that choose to modernize now will be the ones setting the pace next year.

Ready to transform your business in 2026? Book a demo today. 

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Workforce.com Recognized with Accolades from Capterra, Software Advice and GetApp in 2025

We’re proud to share that Workforce.com has been honored with multiple recognitions from Gartner Digital Markets brands—Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp. Our product has been featured across several flagship reports released in 2025, reaffirming our commitment to delivering exceptional value to our users.

Check Out Our Latest Achievements
Strong user reviews on Capterra, Software Advice, and GetApp reflect the real-world impact of Workforce.com throughout the entire Human Capital Management (HCM) lifecycle. 

Our strategic HR and payroll tools like Applicant Tracking, Core Human Resources, and Employee Onboarding streamline hiring and improve the employee experience from day one. Meanwhile, our Workforce Management Suite, continues to lead the way with advanced capabilities like Employee Scheduling, Time & Attendance, and Labor Forecasting.

These accolades are a testament to the platform’s ability to drive real impact for frontline teams and back-office operations alike. Whether it’s streamlining the hiring process, improving employee experience, or ensuring shift coverage with precision, Workforce.com stands out for its ease of use, customer support, and tangible ROI.

What Users Are Saying About Workforce.com

“I had a great onboarding/setup experience. The software does exactly what my business needs and makes everyone convenient for employees. Scheduling is very easy and it uploads hours easily to ADP. The vacation tracking tool is very easy to manage and have employees request time off.”

[Source: Capterra]

“Workforce.com has made scheduling easier and convenient. Very easy to customize, so that I could filter it accordingly.”

[Source: Capterra]

“Workforce.com has been a key part of my daily workload, and it helps with the management of feedback and coaching sessions, also allows me to keep track of any time off request and schedule changes with a simple process”

[Source: Capterra]

Have you experienced Workforce.com? Click here to review us on Capterra.

Looking Ahead

This achievement marks another step forward in our journey, and we’re more committed than ever to evolving Workforce.com to better meet your needs. We’re excited for the future and look forward to continuing this journey with our users.

Learn more about why businesses trust Workforce.com. Book a demo today.

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The Total Economic Impact™ of Workforce.com

Forrester conducted a study to discover the cost savings and business benefits of Workforce.com. Results of the study show that a composite organization in the food and retail sector has seen labor savings, achieved efficiency gains for managers, and reduced compliance risk. 

Key Findings

A 450% ROI 

According to the study, Workforce.com has a 450% return on investment (ROI) and the following three-year, risk-adjusted present value (PV) qualified benefits. Some highlights include: 

Improved labor efficiency by 5% and Increased revenue per labor hour by 5.26% 

One of the organizations interviewed for the study shared that they improved labor efficiency by 11% just by focusing on optimizing labor hours per store. Over three years, the composite organization saved $5.3 in labor costs. 

Workforce.com makes it easier for managers to forecast demand and create optimized schedules based on past sales data, shift trends, hourly rates, and staff qualifications.

“It was easy to justify this investment because labor is one of the biggest costs to our business, so it’s not only critical, it’s just smart to have a system that gives us oversight and is designed to manage labor costs.” Country Manager, QSR

80% Less Time Spent on Scheduling

Managers are also saving 4.2 hours per week per store on scheduling and other related tasks, leading to $1.6 million in labor savings over three years.

By automating scheduling, Workforce.com reduces the time spent creating shifts, forecasting demand, and handling admin tasks like shift swaps, onboarding, and compliance tracking.

“Now we don’t need to rely on muscle memory and gut feelings. We only need to use the system to see the forecast to make sure that the efficiency assumptions are in place. That’s it. Everyone can make a schedule.” Vice President of Customers, QSR

$920K in Compliance Risk Reduction

Workforce.com’s compliance engine helps businesses stay on top of labor laws and ensures accurate pay, potentially avoiding $920,000 in fines, penalties, and legal costs.

$991K in Payroll and Accounting Savings

With more accurate timesheets, automated workflows, and better visibility, payroll and accounting teams spend less time on manual work and compliance checks—leading to nearly $1 million in savings.

Key challenges identified among organizations

Forrester’s study highlighted common challenges that pushed decision-makers to seek a more efficient workforce management platform. Here’s what they struggled with before making the switch: 

  • Keeping up with labor laws and agreements – With labor regulations constantly changing, businesses needed better oversight of payroll practices and compliance.
  • Lack of visibility across stores and managers – Without a centralized system, companies had little insight into store operations, making it harder to ensure compliance, track performance, and identify training needs.
  • Rising labor costs – Companies needed a smarter way to control labor expenses and optimize costs.

“We use Workforce.com because the most critical part of creating a schedule is projecting in detail what you think is going to happen every day, then using that information to tell us when people need to start. Labor in this country is very expensive, so 15 wasted minutes adds up to a lot of money.” Country Manager, QSR Organization

  • Shifting customer demands – Businesses needed a scheduling platform that could handle fluctuating demand across multiple channels. The COVID-19 pandemic made this even more urgent, forcing companies to adapt to changing customer behaviors, including balancing in-store and delivery operations.

Background

Forrester conducted this study on behalf of Workforce.com to evaluate its return on investment (ROI). Researchers interviewed decision-makers from organizations that had implemented Workforce.com. Their insights were combined into a single composite organization—a global food and retail company with 250 store locations, 5,300 employees (including one manager per store), and $312 million in annual revenue.

Before switching to Workforce.com, these businesses relied on a mix of legacy systems and platforms. However, many managers still fell back on manual processes for scheduling, managing shift swaps, and onboarding new hires. As a result, they struggled with:

  • Forecasting staffing needs
  • Controlling labor costs
  • Managing schedules efficiently
  • Staying compliant with labor laws and payroll regulations

Want to see the full breakdown of Forrester’s findings? Download the report here.

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Webinar: How Tech Can Stop Turnover for Small HR Teams

Smaller HR teams are facing challenges in maintaining employee loyalty due to being overwhelmed with various responsibilities.

It’s understandable that focusing on employee engagement can be difficult in such circumstances. However, utilizing technology can be a game-changer for lone HR managers looking to enhance employee loyalty.

This webinar aims to address these challenges by offering insights into leveraging technology solutions. By exploring both free and investment-worthy options, HR pros can learn how to create compelling job descriptions, cultivate loyalty beyond competitive compensation, and leverage the unique dynamics of small companies.

We brought on Retensa’s CEO, Chason Hecht, as well as talent specialist & Director of Employee Experience, Dana Small, to discuss free and premium tech tools that HR can use to offload nearly 30% of their admin work.

Check out the list below as well as the full webinar here:

12 free & investment-worthy tools to…

Streamline the Hiring Process:

1. ONET.com: This occupation keyword search directory allows recruiters to quickly identify and match job descriptions with relevant skills and competencies. It helps create accurate job postings and ensures candidates’ qualifications align with job requirements, speeding up the screening process.

2. Applicant Tracking System: An ATS automates the recruitment process by managing job applications, screening resumes, and tracking candidates throughout the hiring pipeline. It reduces manual tasks, ensures compliance, and helps prioritize top candidates, making the hiring process faster and more efficient.

3. Applicantstack.com: ATS platform that streamlines recruitment by automating job posting, resume management, and candidate communication. It helps organize and track applicants, reducing the time spent on administrative tasks and improving the efficiency of the hiring process. If you have a few positions open it costs less than $50 a month. If you hire more, unlimited jobs for $100 a month. You can also leverage it for onboarding if your budget is higher.

4. Claude AI: Assist with candidate screening by conducting preliminary interviews, answering candidate questions, and gathering necessary information. This reduces the time spent by human recruiters on initial interactions, allowing them to focus on qualified candidates. Also, this tool reduces your hiring data into interactive, understandable visuals. Leverage this to summarize the candidate pipeline.

Enhance Onboarding:

5. MS Planner: A simple but capable project management tool that can be customized for onboarding. It allows HR teams to create visual boards with tasks, checklists, and timelines for new hires. Free with Office 365.

6.  Loom: Allows you to create video tutorials and walkthroughs that can be shared with new hires. This is especially useful for remote onboarding, where face-to-face interaction is limited.

7. Free Fuse: Free Fuse offers a tool to build interactive learning trees that can be used to train and onboard candidates faster. By using this tool, employers can provide potential hires with bitesize information, assessments or onboarding materials, automating the learning process based on their learning pace and performance. Fully functional basic package is free.

8.  Leverage Learning Management Systems (LMS): Libraries of courses and topics for technical and soft skill development.

Create a Retention Environment:

9. TalentPulse: A turnkey employee feedback platform that captures real-time insights at every stage of the employee lifecycle. Automates and reports on employee sentiment through questions, surveys and 360’s, helping organizations identify real-world issues to better engage and inspire the workforce. Any 1 of 24 surveys can be sent for free up to 5 responses.

10. Flexible Scheduling: Schedule staff in minutes & reduce labor costs 11%

  • Create fast and accurate schedules with templates,
  • staffing ratios, and shift swapping.

Lower Turnover Rates:

11. ExitPro: Provides secure and streamlined Exit Interview program in minutes. With several pre-built exit interview question templates, instant exit interview reports, and a suite of tools to predict and prevent employee turnover. A Free trial can last up to 12 months and unlimited exit interviews for as little as $79/month.

12. Notion AI: Notion AI is an advanced feature within the Notion platform that leverages artificial intelligence to enhance productivity and organization. For employee retention, Notion AI can assist in creating personalized onboarding experiences, maintaining detailed employee records, and automating repetitive tasks

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Ratio of IT Staff to Employees

IT worker fixes computer

In short, knowing how many IT staff you need is not a straightforward answer. There are many factors you’ll need to consider if you want to come to a truly accurate number; things like industry, the tech savviness of your workforce, and organizational size all come into play. Even the time zones you operate in can impact the final number.

The best thing you can do is consider each factor, decide on a ratio (the number of employees supported by each IT worker), and then refine your number through trial and error. Hopefully, we can help with the former part of this process.

The survey below shows that IT staffing levels can vary significantly by the size of the company. For example, the typical IT staffing ratio is 1:27 among all companies included in the survey. However, companies with 500 or fewer employees typically have an IT staffing ratio of about 1:18, while companies with 10,000 or more employees have a ratio of about 1:40.

Ratio of IT Staff to Total Employees

Organization Size

25th Percentile

50th Percentile (median)

75th Percentile

Org. Count

By # Employees
Less than 500 1:8 01:18 01:34 16
500 to <1,000 01:14 01:25 01:40 14
1,000 to <5,000 01:11 01:23 01:45 38
5,000 to <10,000 01:10 01:25 01:53 15
10,000 or more 01:23 01:40 02:52 20

By Annual $ Volume
Less than $200M 01:11 01:19 01:34 25
$200M to < $500M 01:19 01:36 02:01 20
$500M to < $1B 01:11 01:31 01:53 17
$1B to < $5B 01:20 01:36 02:22 20
$5B or More 01:10 01:15 01:25 20

All Org.

01:11

01:27

01:52

103

Survey shared with permission from Organizing for Results: IT Structures and Staffing Survey by people3, Mercer Human Resource Consulting, and ITAA.

Know your labor ratios beyond IT

The importance of labor ratios extends far beyond the limits of IT. While it is undoubtedly good to figure out exactly how much IT support to have on hand, it is arguably much more important (especially for shift-based businesses) to understand the ratio of customer-facing staff they need on a daily basis.

Figuring this out is no easy task. You’ll need to account for predicted customer demand, labor costs, role-based certifications, time off, and much more.

Luckily, in the age of AI, there is a way to let technology do all this thinking for you. With labor forecasting software, you can quickly determine the correct ratio of staff you need to meet demand during every shift. Check out how this works below:

Interested in learning more? Watch our free webinar below, where we dive into more details about labor forecasting best practices.

Webinar: How to Forecast Your Schedule Based on Demand

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Labor analytics: A how-to guide for company leadership

astronaut with a magnifying glass

Summary

  • Requesting and collecting data in real-time allows your management to make better business decisions and keep costs low.

  • Focus on gathering insights that will ultimately address your business needs.

  • With labor analytics, variety is key. Use and collect data from multiple sources.

Data plays a vital function in all aspects of running a business. It is used in everything, from analyzing and predicting product performance to segmenting and understanding your customers in order to optimize the user experience. 

So naturally, data has an important role to play in workforce management through the process of labor analytics – also known as workforce analytics. Through labor analytics, HR professionals gather and analyze workforce data to:

  • Understand what new roles and functions a company should seek to fill and which ones it should cut. 
  • Understand what roles and functions might require a reduction or elimination altogether.
  • Forecasting the value and success a prospective employee can bring to a company.
  • Obtain actionable insights on how to better manage labor costs.
  • Gain a deeper understanding of the employee experience and what positively boosts employee engagement.
  • Optimize business strategy in a way that increases performance and productivity.
  • Make data-driven business decisions on fair and cost-effective worker compensation and incentives.

The good news is that most businesses already have access to massive amounts of workforce data – the catch is that gathering and making sense of this data can be tricky. But in the end, the benefit of utilizing labor analytics significantly outweighs the effort spent organizing the data. 

Research shows the positive impact that workforce analytics has on business outcomes. Case studies show that companies that use labor analytics say they have a clearer understanding of their workforce needs and can identify employees with high potential. They have also noted an improvement in retention rates and are generally happier with their human resources. 

Webinar: How to Stop Employee Turnover

Since the pandemic, attracting talent has never been trickier, and the benefits of labor analytics cannot be overstated. Following these four steps will help you optimize your labor analytics process and put your business in a better position for success.  

Gather analytics data in real-time

It is essential that your C-suite decision-makers have access to labor analytics in real-time, before they need to make critical business decisions. Visibility like this improves response time to frontline labor issues and ensures a more efficient allocation of resources. 

Real-time analytics give managers a clear picture of labor costs as a percentage of revenue across all locatins and throughout the day, allowing them to see where and when their workforce is struggling. This way, they can make better decisions regarding staffing levels, absenteeism, overtime, and more.

Whitepaper: Workforce Analytics

Connect labor analytics with business needs

While organizations should always make decisions on the most current data available, having too much data can hinder decision-making. Labor analysis shouldn’t be aimless in scope. Each research activity should address a specific question that needs answering by the organization. In other words, business outcomes need to guide the analytics process in the right direction.

Use multiple types of data and analytics

To best utilize data analytics, using multiple, targeted sources of data — including business-appropriate performance analytics and HR/talent management analytics — is important. But it’s not enough. In workforce analytics, variety is key.

Internal reports focus on metrics such as completed training hours or satisfaction with training. Predictive modeling uses statistical analysis to project the outcome of various actions. And external benchmarking allows an organization to compare itself against the industry-standard. Incorporating data from a variety of analytics types gives the business a more robust viewpoint, allowing for better-informed decision-making.

Avoid common data analytics mistakes 

Organizations should be sure to avoid common pitfalls when using analytics. The data needs to be organized and cleaned, and organizations should start with small, simple projects rather than something big to help get leadership buy-in. 

They should also be careful not to confuse correlation with causation in research results. For example, if data shows that older employees are more successful at a task than younger employees, that may have nothing to do with age demographics but with years of experience. 

Data literacy – “the ability to read, write, and communicate data in context” — is a vital skill for any business today, according to 2019 Gartner research. Some companies may still have ways to go to maximize the potential of their labor analytics. Hiring a chief data officer or data scientist or outsourcing analytics capabilities to a vendor can help make sense of the data that’s collected. 

The growing importance of data analytics is inevitable. For the unprepared company, this may be intimidating. Getting leadership buy-in and using data analytics strategically to achieve a specific business outcome can help. But once the organization gets a handle on its labor analytics function, it can expect promising business outcomes. 

Optimize your labor analytics process with Workforce.com

Utilizing labor analytics tools like Workforce.com makes it easier to turn your data into real-time, actionable insights. These insights help you more efficiently tackle frontline labor issues like:

  • Predicting future hiring requirements
  • Understanding current staffing needs
  • Managing compensation and overtime
  • Understanding and optimizing employee engagement

If you’re interested in using workforce management software to improve both your labor analytics and your bottom line, check out our webinar below featuring exclusive research from a Forrester TEI report:

Building a Business Case for WFM Software

For more information, get in touch with us now. 

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Why tattleware isn’t the solution for underperforming teams

Summary

  • Tattleware is not just intrusive; it is also ineffective, as your employees still have access to their own devices.

  • Employees who are being monitored can feel stressed and resentful, leading to higher turnover rates and lower productivity.

  • The use of tattleware makes your organization vulnerable to undesirable legal situations.

Employee monitoring has long been a topic of much interest and debate. In an attempt to find out the extent of employee productivity, employers have sought ways to keep tabs on their workers — from Henry Ford’s 1914 Sociological Department that was used to monitor practically every aspect (work and personal) of Ford workers’ lives to Elon Musk contracting a PR firm to monitor Tesla employees’ Facebook activity. 

As hybrid and remote work become more commonplace — spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic — more employers are turning to employee monitoring software, also known as tattleware or bossware. Without the ability to physically see their employees hard at work at their desks, companies are turning to different apps, monitoring tools, and surveillance software.

According to a survey conducted by the IDC, 67.6% of North American employers with more than 500 employees are currently using employee monitoring software. In another study, ExpressVPN found that 78% of the employers it surveyed are using monitoring tools. 

Tattleware and monitoring software can take on many different forms. Some examples include monitoring:

  • When an employee steps away from their computer
  • Employees’ online activity (websites visited, time spent using specific software like Slack, etc.) 
  • What employees are typing and what keystrokes are being used
  • The topics of discussion amongst employees by taking screenshots or even screen recordings
  • The facial expressions of remote workers during video calls using video analytics tools (this supposedly helps employers determine who is contributing more than others in meetings) 
  • What employees are doing by watching and listening in through their laptop webcams or microphones

We spoke with Jon Hyman, a partner in the Employment & Labor practice at Wickens Herzer Panza, to get his take on the topic. He believes that “employers that try to regulate employees’ use of workplace technologies in this way are fighting a Sisyphean battle.” It is a futile and harmful practice that uses tech to police and punish employers instead of effectively addressing productivity issues.

Enforcement will always be a losing battle

One issue with tattleware is that it is actually quite ineffective in doing what it ultimately sets out to do – keep tabs on your employees. 

“I hate this type of employee monitoring. I call it the iPhone-ification of the American workforce,” says Hyman. “No matter your policy trying to monitor your technology and your employees’ related productivity, if your employees can take their smartphones out of their pockets to circumvent your efforts, how can you effectively police anything? Why have a policy you cannot police and enforce? It’s also incredibly creepy and intrusive.”

You have a performance issue, not a tech issue

Tattleware supposedly makes it easier for employers to identify employees who are slacking. But knowing the time spent on work tasks or whether they’re streaming the World Cup on another tab doesn’t tell you anything about why productivity is suffering. 

“Instead of regulating an issue you cannot hope to control, treat employees’ use of technology for what it is — a performance issue,” Hyman explains. “If an employee is not performing up to standards because he or she is spending too much time on non-work activities, then address the performance problem. Counsel, discipline, and ultimately layoff if the performance does not improve.” 

Employee monitoring breeds resentment and reduces employee engagement

“A slacking employee, however, will not become a star performer just because you limit their social media access, keep an eye on how often they shop on Amazon, or log their Spotify playlists,” Hyman says. Instead, “they will just find another way to slack off and will resent you for your intrusion of their privacy. Instead of wasting your resources to fight a battle you cannot win, reapportion them to win battles worth fighting.”

In its survey, ExpressVPN found that the use of tattleware can have negative effects on employee mental health and wellbeing. Most employees surveyed felt stress and anxiety about their employers monitoring their activities. Thirty-two percent of respondents said that they didn’t take breaks as often for fear of repercussions. 

The very tools that are meant to be addressing dips in productivity are ultimately breeding distrust amongst workers, reducing performance and employee engagement. 

In a period where employees are resigning in droves, how wise is it for your company to gain a reputation for spying on their staff? 

Employee monitoring can leave you vulnerable to legal issues

Although there are many employee monitoring service providers out there that work within the law, using tattleware can land you in some unpleasant legal situations. 

According to the law firm Skadden, there are five potential legal issues to consider before implementing tattleware:

  • Invasion of privacy. An employee could take legal action against you if your monitoring activities are found to be highly offensive or end up revealing facts about their personal lives outside of work. 
  • Unfair labor practice charges. Under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, employers can be charged if their monitoring reveals information about labor organizing efforts. 
  • Employment discrimination. Tools like facial recognition software may reveal characteristics about employees that are legally protected. Facial expression tools may not take cultural differences into account and make unfair assumptions about certain staff members. 
  • Unpaid wages and overtime. Just because an employee isn’t at their computer, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t working. Using monitoring software to pay hourly employees could result in unpaid wages and overtime for time spent doing things like reading, writing, taking phone calls, etc. 
  • Workplace injuries. Monitoring software can lead to overworked and burnt-out employees. Physical injury may also occur. In March 2022, a large e-commerce company using monitoring tools was fined $60,000 for causing employees’ joint and muscle injuries. These injuries were a result of employees overworking in order to meet deliverables.   

Build an environment of trust instead of fear

“We ask so much of our employees, even more so during COVID. The 9-to-5 is no longer relevant. If my employee, who is giving up nights and weekends for me, wants to spend a few minutes during the workday posting to Facebook, or checking the score of last night’s game, or buying something on Amazon, I just don’t care. I only care when it reaches the level of distraction and impacts performance. Then, however, we are treating the performance problem, not the technology problem—which is the appropriate and practical solution.”

“To put it another way, if you don’t trust your employees enough to do their jobs, why are you employing them in the first place?” Hyman concludes. Ultimately, spying on your employees damages your reputation and breeds mistrust. A happy, productive, and engaged workforce is attainable through trust, transparency, and capable leadership.

An engaged workforce is a productive workforce

The best way to ensure your team stays productive and maintains good performance is to keep them engaged. Workforce management software sets you up to get the basics of employee engagement right. 

Scheduling must be done in a way that is fair, efficient, and transparent. It must be flexible, allowing for adjustments like shift swaps and shift bids to be made on the fly. You also need a precise time and attendance system in place that makes it easy for employees to review their hours and see what they’re owed.

For more tips on how to drive employee engagement, watch our webinar – How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Employees

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4 Ways to Maximize HR and WFM Data

Technology and cloud-based applications and platforms enable companies to gather more data, but can they use it to make more effective HR and business decisions?

Virgin Media exemplified how to turn HR data to improve the candidate experience and recruitment process, ultimately reducing a potential loss in revenue equivalent to $5.4 million per year.

Another example is Lake Elsinore Storm, a minor league baseball affiliate of the San Diego Padres. They can track different WFM data, giving them information on how labor dollars are being spent. Using Workforce.com, they see labor costs and revenue per week, per team, and per individual. Because of this visibility and system, they can spot gaps and potential opportunities that help them not just be more efficient with costs, but more importantly, improve customer engagement.

However, the same cannot be said for other organizations, and most are still looking for the best way to utilize and make sense of their data better. In fact, according to a Workforce.com study, 64% of respondents say that labor analytics is a priority when they are evaluating any new software for their organization. It’s a clear indication of a gap between how organizations want to utilize data and how they currently do so. 

How to Maximize HR and WFM Data

1. Have everything in one place

Integration is key to ensure accuracy, access information fast, and analyze information alongside relevant metrics. 

“Over a really long period of time, everything seems fine. And I think it’s true for most HR data. No one really needs it for anyone. No one’s asking, so people tend to forget that this is important. And then there’ll be some event—something regrettable and unexpected. When that does happen, not having this data correct and accessible becomes very, very expensive,” Josh Cameron, Chief Strategy Officer at Workforce.com, said. 

When COVID-19 first hit, HR departments were suddenly being asked for a lot of information regarding employee statuses, PTO balances, and pay rates. “Instead of having a week to work it out, HR teams need to provide information right away. We certainly saw that in the market and saw organizations wanting to implement systems really fast to handle all of that,” Cameron shared. 

Webinar: The Hidden Cost of Bad HR Data

When HR and WFM data are integrated and can be found in a single place, it would be one less thing organizations need to deal with when something unexpected happens. 

2. Automate what you can

A good place to start is employee onboarding. A digital and automated onboarding system helps you keep track of employee information from the get-go. This helps keep everything in one place without too much paperwork. An efficient system stays on top of qualifications, certifications, and employee pay rates and alerts HR teams and managers when they need to be revisited. 

3. Optimize operations with data

WFM data can be powerful when used to optimize operations, and it begins with access to vital data and ensuring that frontline managers can use it too. 

It’s all about having access to crucial data in real-time and being able to make decisions on the fly. Typically, managers receive an end-of-week report on their labor analytics, but the crucial decision point has passed by then. When they have a real-time view of their operations, they’re able to adjust according to how the day goes. 

Read: Labor analytics and reporting starts with access to the right data

Access to WFM data can also help managers build cost-efficient employee schedules based on historical data and metrics. It takes out the guesswork and ensures that there are enough employees scheduled to meet the day’s demands. 

4. Avoid compliance issues

When HR and WFM data are tracked and analyzed correctly, they can prevent compliance issues from happening.  Leveraging data for HR compliance is about preventing potential violations. It means having the information to make sure everything is compliant—from wages, implementing schedules, to workplace policies. But at the same time, it’s also about not having to scramble getting information when it’s requested by authorities.

An integrated system is vital to realize the positive impact of data on your organization. When systems are integrated, consolidating a vast amount of information proves to be much easier. Ultimately, integration allows teams to generate reports fast, act on them quickly, and stay agile if something unexpected happens. 

Workforce.com can sync with any platform an organization uses, allowing for scheduling driven by actual labor insights, automated employee onboarding, custom BI reporting, and easier labor compliance, among others. See it in action by trying Workforce.com today. 

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How to prevent workforce management system outages: mitigation through redundancy

Summary

  • Workforce management data breaches and outages are a very real threat

  • Businesses should build redundancy and backup plans into their systems

  • It comes down to choosing vendors with reliable data and network security

In light of the ransomware attack on Kronos (UKG) that caused disrupted operations for thousands of businesses across the nation, it is worth reflecting on how to properly build redundancy into a workforce management system so as to mitigate the pitfalls that come with mass system outages.  

As many unfortunate companies and employees experienced with the Kronos (UKG) data breach, having vital attendance, scheduling, and payroll systems shut down and remain inoperable for weeks can be disastrous. Without proper contingency plans and security measures in place, workforce management system failures can result in payroll running late, chaotic scheduling, extremely inaccurate timekeeping, and the potential for sensitive employee information to be leaked. 

Okay, now take a deep breath.

Outages and data breaches do not need to be so stressful or debilitating. Here are several measures you can take to build redundancy into your workforce management system to keep your business running smoothly in the event of a technological emergency. 

Have a business continuity plan

Essentially, this is a document that outlines in detail how a company will remain in operation during a sudden system disruption or outage. A continuity plan like this needs to be mapped out and understood by all parties well in advance to any sort of outage in order for it to work. Drafting up a plan in the moment of failure will do very little good and most likely add to the confusion and stress of the situation, so be sure to put one in place ahead of time. 

To create a business continuity plan, take the three following steps:

  • Identify key business functions. In the case of workforce management systems, these would usually be timekeeping, scheduling, and compliance.
  • Determine the minimum downtime for each function. This will help you gauge the urgency at which measures need to be taken to address outages. It will also clearly define a timeline for when replacement systems may need to be brought in. 
  • Create a plan to maintain operations. Here is where you actually decide on the temporary processes your company will take to continue scheduling and timekeeping. These are usually manual processes taking the form of paper-based tools and simple spreadsheets. In other cases, you might have backup software or hardware. 

Use best-of-breed software

This is undoubtedly the best way to ensure your workforce management system is failure-proof.

When using a traditional all-in-one software system that handles everything ranging from scheduling to payroll processing, you are susceptible to a single point of failure. As soon as an all-encompassing platform like this has a data breach and crashes, your company can be left without the ability to run a single critical business function for up to several weeks.

Instead, companies should use a suite of best-of-breed softwares from a variety of different vendors. Enlisting multiple platforms to perform different functions eliminates the risk of a single point of failure. For instance, if your specialized time and attendance system goes down, you are still left with the ability to use your payroll system which operates on a completely different server. In this case, all you would need to do is document time manually which then you can still plug in for payroll. 

Regularly export timesheets, schedules, and other relevant data

There are many precautionary measures that can be taken during normal business operations that can help mitigate damages from an outage. Exporting timesheets and schedules to store separately from your workforce management cloud is simple, efficient, and often, very useful. 

By routinely exporting and keeping former timesheets and schedules on hand, you effectively create a paper trail which you can use in case of ill-timed audits during an outage. These offline records can also be used as references for when you need to manually create previously automated schedules and timesheets. It’s always a good idea to have business-as-usual models available while in the midst of enacting a business continuity plan. 

Ensure systems have strong IT security infrastructure

Finally, at its core, a workforce management system simply needs to have reliable data and network security. Your business won’t need to suffer the damaging effects of software outages if the software doesn’t become compromised in the first place. 

While data breaches and system outages can happen to anyone, the likelihood of them happening is far lower in systems with proven track records of safety and reliability. You should look for past instances where a provider has fallen short in its IT security and use those red flags to help you choose a secure workforce management platform.

Proper workforce management IT systems should be SOC-2 certified so as to ensure maximum client data security. The system’s online infrastructure should also be hosted in a virtual private cloud, helping to safely isolate it from potential network breaches. 

You should also be sure that your workforce management system runs daily data backups as well as Point in Time Restore points. All backup data should be stored on a separate cloud server too, so that a single outage will not compromise the entire system and all its data.

Don’t let your business remain unprepared for workforce management and payroll system outages. These nightmares can happen to anyone, and the fallout can be severe without proper protocols and backup plans in place. If you’d like to find out more about what to do in the event of a system data breach or failure, contact us today. We’d love to chat.