What Is Workforce Management Software?

Contributing factors to workforce management are the growing focus on employee well-being and satisfaction. Organisations realise that happy and engaged employees increase productivity and retention rates. By implementing effective workforce management practices such as flexible scheduling, workload balancing, and performance tracking, companies can create a positive work culture that promotes employee satisfaction.

According to the PwC CEO Survey in Australia, 'About three-quarters of CEOs in Australia say that issues related to workforce management and skills are the biggest challenges facing their business in 2023, with cyber risks a close second'.

Workforce management is a hot topic because companies need efficient strategies to manage workers effectively. In addition, companies are prioritising employee well-being and leveraging technological advancements for increased efficiency.

When managing your workforce effectively, there's no room for inefficiency or guesswork. That's where WFM software, also known as a workforce management system, comes in. With comprehensive features and an intuitive interface, WFM software is designed to streamline operations and maximise productivity.

Workforce Management Software Features

Onboarding New Employees

It is common for businesses to overlook onboarding, which creates a poor first impression for new employees. This is a core function of human resources. Most new employees decide within the first six months of their employment whether to stay with the company, and that’s why employee experience matters. It all starts with good onboarding practices to help retain staff, save money, and relieve the burden on human resources. 

WFM software automates and streamlines processes for onboarding new hires. This includes employee data capture, document management, training scheduling, and performance tracking. By digitising these processes, you eliminate the need for manual paperwork and reduce the risk of errors or delays.

A cloud-based workforce management system delivers a centralised platform that benefits a business greatly when you have remote workers or employees across multiple locations—advanced features and reporting offer reporting on employee profiles and employee lifecycle.

A comprehensive workforce management system allows you to efficiently report and track employee attendance, manage leave requests, and store compliance documentation digitally.

Employee Rostering and Scheduling

Efficient employee rostering and scheduling are crucial for workforce management. This is where workforce management software comes in. Workforce management software offers automated scheduling, easy shift planning, time and attendance tracking, and labour cost optimisation. Manual scheduling spreadsheets prone to errors and inefficiencies become outdated. 

Workforce management software streamlines the entire rostering and scheduling with automation, such as assigning shifts based on employee availability and skills. This not only saves time but also ensures fair distribution of work among employees.

Workforce management software provides real-time visibility into employee schedules, allowing managers to make informed decisions when allocating resources. Businesses can optimise their labour costs by analysing historical data and forecasting future demand patterns while maintaining adequate staffing.

Workforce management software offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive design and empowers businesses to create flexible schedules that accommodate employee preferences and operational requirements. It eliminates manual adjustments or last-minute changes by providing a centralised platform where employees can view their schedules in real-time.

Time and Attendance Tracking

A key aspect of workforce management is time tracking and attendance management. Businesses can effectively manage their workforce and optimise productivity by implementing robust systems and strategies for time and attendance.

Time tracking and attendance systems provide accurate records of employee work hours, enabling businesses to track attendance patterns, manage shifts efficiently, and ensure compliance with labour laws. These systems streamline the process of employee scheduling by automating shift assignments based on availability and skill sets.

Cloud-based timesheet software for time and attendance enables businesses to monitor productivity levels by tracking actual working hours versus planned schedules. This data helps identify areas where improvements can be made in efficiency and resource allocation.

Employee Experience  

Today's employees want autonomy, self-sufficiency, and work-life balance, and since Covid-19, we have all been very connected to the workplace. Mobile apps enable employee self-service and are part of cloud-based workforce management solutions. They increase employee engagement before day one and deliver on all aspects of employee experience.

A user-friendly mobile app is essential to ensure that employees can easily navigate and access the information they need whenever and wherever they are. 

Enabling employees to enter their time and attendance data via a mobile app reduces errors. The employee experience is quick and simple, with mobile-responsive time entry or a digital assistant for time and absence entry. 

Workforce management software allows managers to streamline employee onboarding, scheduling and time tracking, personal data updates and even payslip delivery. By automating these administration-heavy tasks, employees can focus on their core responsibilities without being burdened by administrative work. This increases efficiency, reduces errors, and saves valuable time for both employees and managers.

A mobile app provides a convenient platform for employee communication. Employers can send important updates, announcements or even conduct surveys to gather feedback from their team members.

Leave and Absence Management

Leave and absence management is a critical aspect of workforce management that can be efficiently managed with the right software. Workforce management software offers comprehensive solutions for employee scheduling, time-off requests, and automated tracking and approvals.

Workforce management with robust leave and absence ability enables employees to easily submit their time-off requests online, eliminating the need for tedious paperwork or face-to-face interactions. Managers can swiftly review these requests through an intuitive interface and make informed decisions based on real-time data for team management.

Automated tracking ensures accurate records are maintained, allowing HR departments to monitor employee absences while ensuring compliance with company policies effortlessly. The software also facilitates seamless integration with payroll systems for efficient leave calculations.

Payroll Software

Workforce management with payroll is essential for running a successful business. Accurate payroll is crucial for maintaining employee satisfaction and compliance with legal requirements. An all-in-one software solution like Access Definitiv ticks all the boxes for payroll and compliance; it is one facet of a workforce management solution with powerful Award Interpretation, seamless time and attendance capture and is date driven to minimise manual payroll calculations.

By implementing a robust payroll system, you can streamline payroll processes, including calculating wages, managing deductions, and issuing payments. This saves time, reduces the risk of errors, and helps build trust and transparency within your organisation.

Investing in the best workforce management software with the key feature of payroll inbuilt means there is no requirement for separate payroll integration; this is essential for maintaining employee satisfaction, ensuring compliance, and optimising operational efficiency and reporting for workforce planning.

Compliance Management

Management of compliance risks is crucial for any business. With the right compliance features in workforce management software, companies can effectively monitor and enforce compliance with regulations, policies, and industry standards. They can also consolidate the data to mitigate compliance risks. We recently shared why compliance reporting is challenging with separate applications.

By implementing a workforce management solution, organisations can mitigate risks associated with non-compliance. This includes avoiding costly penalties, legal issues, reputational damage, and negative impacts on employee morale.

Furthermore, workforce management software streamlines administrative tasks related to compliance monitoring. This allows Human Resource management to focus on strategic initiatives rather than spending excessive time on manual processes.

A comprehensive onboarding process ensures essential documents are collected for compliance before and after employees' first day. All data and documents are attached to an employee record and are readily available. Using workforce management software with intuitive compliance management means you are across the entire workforce compliance requirements, and anomalies can be managed with triggers and alerts to employees and employers before they become larger problems.

Workforce Management Analytics

The best workforce management software drives important information and reporting from a single data source. Workforce management data and analytics enables data-driven decision-making and strategic alignment for businesses. If the data resides in multiple applications, it is difficult to access, manipulate and visualise and the accuracy of the data is always questioned.

All-in-one workforce management solutions deliver centralised data, so the reporting uses a single data source, which is comprehensive and easy to access. The workforce management software becomes the powerhouse for advanced reporting, labour cost management, and daily operations with dashboards, and everyone is on the same page with one system.

You can make informed decisions regarding staffing requirements, resource allocation, and workforce costs with real-time data.

Data Security

Security is critical for any business. Ensuring employee data and sensitive information safety and privacy is paramount in today's digital landscape.

Organisations must implement robust security measures to protect against data breaches, identity theft, and unauthorised access. This involves implementing secure authentication protocols and encryption methods and regularly updating security systems to stay ahead of evolving cyber threats.

Integrations

Integration capabilities are essential for any business. Even if you have the most comprehensive workforce management solution, you may need third-party integrations as an example for your general ledger. A workforce management solution seamlessly integrating with existing systems will streamline processes and eliminate data duplication or manual entry errors.