What is Workforce Management ?

Workforce Management (WFM) is a set of processes and tools aimed at maximizing the efficiency and productivity of an organization’s workforce.

The concept primarily involves the activities of employees to ensure that they are optimally deployed and that the organization can meet its objectives effectively.

1 Why is Workforce Management Important?

Workforce Management (WFM) is crucial for any organization aiming to optimize its productivity, efficiency, and overall performance. Effective WFM ensures that the right number of employees with the appropriate skills are available at the right times to meet business needs and customer demands. Here are some key reasons why Workforce Management is so important:

1. Optimized Resource Allocation: WFM helps organizations allocate their workforce based on real needs, preventing overstaffing and understaffing. This balance ensures that tasks are completed efficiently without wasting resources or overwhelming employees.
2. Increased Productivity and Efficiency: By forecasting demand, scheduling effectively, and tracking progress, WFM ensures that employees spend their time on the right tasks. This focus on productivity helps meet client demands promptly and with high quality.
3. Cost Control and Budget Management: Effective WFM helps reduce labor costs by ensuring that employee hours are optimized, overtime is minimized, and shifts are scheduled according to actual demand. This prevents unnecessary payroll expenses and allows for better financial planning.
4. Enhanced Employee Satisfaction and Engagement: When employees are well-scheduled and workloads are balanced, they are less likely to experience burnout or dissatisfaction. Proper planning and clear communication help create a positive work environment, where employees feel valued and motivated.
5. Improved Customer Experience: Ensuring that you have the right workforce at the right time means that customer needs are met quickly and effectively. This leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and can improve client retention and business reputation.

Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.

– Richard Branson – Founder of Virgin Group

2 Stages of Workforce Management

A Workforce Management process is usually divided into four main stages: Analysis, Scheduling, Tracking and Forecasting

2.1 Analysis

The Analysis phase is the foundation of Workforce Management, where the current state of the business is thoroughly examined to identify client needs and workforce requirements. In this phase, the organization evaluates its existing clients, projects, and the time and effort necessary to fulfill each client’s demands. This involves understanding the scope of work required by each client and determining the number of people and skillsets needed to meet those needs effectively.

The goal of the Analysis phase is to create a comprehensive overview of what resources are needed, what gaps exist, and how the workforce can be structured to best serve clients. This sets the stage for efficient scheduling and helps prevent potential bottlenecks in service delivery.

Key Activities in Analysis Include:

• Client Evaluation: Reviewing all active clients to understand their needs, timelines, and the type of services they require.
• Workforce Needs Assessment: Identifying the number of employees, their roles, and skillsets required to meet client demands effectively.
• Workload Distribution: Analyzing how current resources are allocated and identifying potential gaps in workforce capacity or skillsets that need to be addressed.
• Time Estimation: Estimating the time and effort required to complete client tasks, ensuring that future schedules are realistic and attainable.

This phase provides the strategic understanding necessary to allocate the right resources to the right tasks, ensuring the business can effectively meet its clients’ needs.

2.2 Allocation

Allocations is the action-oriented phase of Workforce Management where the insights from Analysis are put into practice. In this phase, individuals are assigned to clients, and estimated are established to execute services. The aim is to balance employee availability, client demands, and business goals to create efficient schedules that are both achievable and aligned with client expectations.

Unlike Analysis, which focuses on assessing needs, Allocations is about making real-time decisions to ensure work is distributed effectively and deadlines are met. It requires careful coordination to ensure that employees have the right workload, that they are working on projects suited to their skillsets, and that all tasks are delivered on time.

Key Activities in Scheduling Include:

• Resource Allocation: Assigning the right employees to specific clients based on their skills, availability, and the requirements of each project.
• Time and Deadline Management: Creating schedules that align with client expectations and deadlines, ensuring that work is completed within the agreed-upon timeframe.
• Balancing Workloads: Distributing tasks in a way that avoids overburdening employees while also meeting business and client needs efficiently.
• Flexibility and Adjustments: Making necessary changes to the schedule when unexpected issues arise, such as changes in client requirements or staff availability.

Scheduling ensures that resources are optimally used, and the workflow remains uninterrupted, enabling smooth execution of client services.

2.3 Tracking

Tracking is the phase of Workforce Management focused on capturing and analyzing the actual time spent on various tasks and projects. This phase involves recording the hours dedicated to each client and task, comparing these to the schedules created, and ensuring that the work aligns with expectations. Tracking helps identify any discrepancies between planned and actual time usage, providing insights for future adjustments in scheduling and workforce allocation.

The primary purpose of Tracking is to monitor progress, evaluate performance, and collect data that informs both real-time decisions and long-term improvements in workforce efficiency.

Key Activities in Tracking Include:

• Time Reporting: Logging the time employees spend on specific tasks, projects, and clients to ensure accurate tracking of work hours.
• Performance Monitoring: Assessing how effectively employees are meeting their assigned tasks and schedules, and identifying any issues in productivity or efficiency.
• Identifying Gaps and Overages: Comparing scheduled time versus actual time spent to identify where adjustments are needed, whether in scheduling, resource allocation, or client expectations.
• Data-Driven Improvements: Using tracked data to refine the Analysis and Scheduling phases, improving accuracy in forecasting time and resource needs for future projects.

Tracking provides the feedback loop necessary to understand real-time performance, ensuring that the workforce is being utilized effectively and that client services are delivered on time and within budget.

2.4 Forecasting

Forecasting is a critical phase of Workforce Management that involves predicting future business needs to determine the required workforce. It is a data-driven process where historical data, market trends, and business objectives are analyzed to anticipate demand for labor over specific periods.

By forecasting accurately, an organization can prepare for seasonal changes, market fluctuations, and shifts in customer demand, helping to avoid overstaffing or understaffing.

The goal of forecasting is to create a roadmap that aligns workforce capacity with business needs in both the short-term and long-term. This step informs the planning and scheduling processes by providing a clear picture of when and where resources will be required.

Key Activities in Forecasting Include:

• Data Analysis: Reviewing historical data on sales, customer traffic, and operational workloads to identify patterns and predict future demand.
• Market and Trend Evaluation: Considering external factors such as industry trends, economic conditions, and competitive landscape that could influence future business needs.
• Scenario Planning: Developing different demand scenarios to prepare for a variety of potential outcomes, allowing flexibility in workforce allocation.
• Regular Updates and Adjustments: Continuously revising forecasts as new data emerges, ensuring that predictions remain as accurate as possible.

While forecasting sets the stage for planning by predicting demand, it is inherently more focused on analyzing data to prepare for upcoming needs. It is a proactive step that helps organizations make informed decisions about hiring, training, and workforce allocation.

3 Tools

While Workforce Management (WFM) is a crucial process for organizations, many still rely on general-purpose tools like Excel sheets and task management software to manage their workforce. Though these tools can be useful for organizing basic tasks and scheduling, they present significant challenges because they are not designed specifically for WFM. Here’s a closer look at the problems associated with using these common tools:

Excel Sheets

Excel sheets are often used for tracking employee schedules, managing shifts, and analyzing work hours. While Excel offers flexibility and customization, it has some major limitations when it comes to WFM:

• Manual Data Entry and Errors: Relying on manual entry for schedules and time tracking can lead to human error, resulting in inaccuracies that affect staffing and payroll.
• Limited Scalability: As organizations grow, Excel sheets can become overwhelming, making it difficult to manage a large workforce efficiently.
• Lack of Real-Time Updates: Excel doesn’t support real-time adjustments or instant communication, making it hard to quickly respond to unexpected changes like absences or demand surges.

3 Task Management Tools

While Workforce Management (WFM) is a crucial process for organizations, many still rely on general-purpose tools like Excel sheets and task management software to manage their workforce. Though these tools can be useful for organizing basic tasks and scheduling, they present significant challenges because they are not designed specifically for WFM. Here’s a closer look at the problems associated with using these common tools:

3.1 Excel Sheets

Excel sheets are often used for tracking employee schedules, managing shifts, and analyzing work hours. While Excel offers flexibility and customization, it has some major limitations when it comes to WFM:

• Manual Data Entry and Errors: Relying on manual entry for schedules and time tracking can lead to human error, resulting in inaccuracies that affect staffing and payroll.
• Limited Scalability: As organizations grow, Excel sheets can become overwhelming, making it difficult to manage a large workforce efficiently.
• Lack of Real-Time Updates: Excel doesn’t support real-time adjustments or instant communication, making it hard to quickly respond to unexpected changes like absences or demand surges.

3.2 Task Management Tools

Task management tools like Trello, Asana, or Monday are often used to assign tasks and track project progress. While these tools are great for organizing work at a high level, they fall short in several areas related to workforce management:

• No Real Workforce Planning Capabilities: Task management tools focus on project tasks but do not provide features for forecasting workforce needs, optimizing schedules, or tracking work hours in a way that’s tailored to staffing requirements.
• Inadequate Tracking and Reporting: These tools often lack robust time tracking or detailed analytics on employee performance, making it difficult to assess how well resources are being used or where improvements are needed.
• Limited Resource Allocation Flexibility: Unlike dedicated WFM solutions, task management tools don’t allow for dynamic adjustments to workforce deployment based on real-time changes in demand or employee availability.

3.3 Specific Workforce Management Tools

At Kriu, we believe that to fully reap the benefits of a workforce management tool, it’s essential to have a tool specifically designed for this task.

Moreover, we recognize that the way this discipline is executed varies significantly depending on the sector in which the company operates. For instance, the functional needs of a WFM tool for a marketing agency are quite different from those of a call center. This is exactly why we created Kriu: to offer marketing agencies a vertical solution entirely tailored to their needs.