Workforce Management: The Tip Of The Iceberg
At the point we first notice most trends, we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg. It is difficult to visualize how new technology will be used before it is in the mainstream.
Consider the VCR. Before it was in nearly every home, it prompted thoughts like, “what would I need this for?” and “this is just another way to watch home movies.” Twenty years ago, people did not see the value of technology like this; the VCR was just the beginning of inexpensive entertainment at home or letting people go on with their lives and never miss their favorite shows.
What about the microwave oven? Why would I want to bake a potato in a few minutes? Now how many of us put a potato in the oven for an hour or cook popcorn in a pan on the stove?
We also see iceberg tips in business. Just 15 years ago, it was difficult to picture the role email or the Internet would play in our professional life, but now try to imagine your job without them.
Most technologies follow a consistent evolutionary path. Someone first notices a need, and then innovation leads to a solution. A small percentage of people see the potential for that new technology and adopt it as their own. It is the ‘early adopters’ of technology who work through the initial issues and resolve the kinks. Then there is the majority of the people who envision the use for the technology in their lives, and within a few years the technology hits the mainstream and is used by most.
We see trends on the horizon in workforce management. Time collection and policy management are well known to most organizations, but technology’s ability to reduce costs, streamline business, and optimize our workforces is still in its infancy.
The workforce of the not-too-distant future will use wireless electronic chips for employee ID’s that will clock an employee into work; restrict or grant access to areas of the building; know an employee’s location at any time; and, enable ‘just-in-time’ labor where it is needed.
This article discusses workforce technology trends that are tips of the iceberg today, but could be mainstream tomorrow, forever changing how we pay and manage employees.
New policies and regulations increasing complexity
If history is a guide, Sarbanes-Oxley, FLSA, FMLA, and union contracts are just the latest plateau of complexity in the workforce. Investors are now holding company executives accountable for any operational issues that lead to appreciable de-valuing of stock price. This means organizations must provide a record of business processes and those records must stand up to the scrutiny of an audit. It is not enough to provide a record of a transaction or paycheck; we must now provide a record of every change that led up to the transaction or paycheck. For example, if an employee’s timesheet is adjusted prior to the period’s end, we need a record of that adjustment, not just the amount arrived at after the adjustment.
Our workforce management systems must automate this complexity and be flexible to adapt to changes in regulations and contracts. If an audit is requested, these systems must have a record of every interaction that resulted in change to data. If you are missing required data, the wrong time to find out is when you are going through an audit.
Employee self-service: Increase satisfaction while decreasing costs
Every employee has dozens of interactions with the organization he/she works for every year. Each time-off request, sick day, time correction and schedule change requires a certain amount of the organization’s resources to fulfill. As they say, “time is money,” so the level of employee self-service determines the cost savings an organization experiences servicing its employees.
The term self-service may imply that the employee is able to do whatever they wish, but the same business rules used by an HR or payroll manager are enforced by a workforce management system.
For example, if an employee requests several days of vacation in the following month, an HR manager may have to verify the employee has enough earned vacation time to cover this time-off; then, there may be supervisor approval to ensure the vacation does not interrupt workflow. A workforce management system should automatically enforce the same process by checking the time and obtaining supervisor approval for the time-off without contacting the HR staff.
While a manual process may take several days, an automated self-service function can provide immediate results, so the employee is happier and the cost of the transaction is lower.
Battling rising payroll costs with schedule optimization
Payroll is often the biggest expense in an organization and may represent 30-40% of the total operating costs, so controlling regular and overtime pay is critical to many employers. One of the best methods for controlling these costs is schedule automation.
Scheduling automation systems provide control over both simple and complex scheduling functions. On the simple side, schedule automation can prevent overpaying an employee for overtime when an employee punches in too early or stays too late without manager approval.
Complex scheduling scenarios calculate the optimal workforce complement to perform a specific job or shift, or ensure employees electing to work a specific shift are not likely to go into an overtime situation.
A soft benefit of schedule automation is increased flexibility of schedule times for employees to help improve satisfaction. For example, two employees can swap schedules without involving management. The system will make sure that each is qualified to perform the shift they are swapping and prevent one or the other from going into an overtime situation without prior approval of a supervisor.
Performance management uncovers hidden problems
An age-old problem for employers is discovering and correcting unwanted behaviors. For example, a time and attendance system that tracks tardiness can assign a point value to each occurrence. Employees and their supervisor are then alerted by the system that multiple occurrences have passed a certain threshold and require action to be taken. The actions are predetermined by the employer, but the system will issue several warnings to the employee before the threshold is hit, providing an opportunity for the employee to change the behavior before disciplinary action is taken.
Analysis of organization-wide time data may also uncover other problems before they reach a critical state. For example, an executive using an automated performance management tool may receive an alert that a certain department has exceeded an absenteeism threshold for the month. While no single employee in a department may have exceeded the threshold, the department absenteeism may be over the norm. This alert will enable management to find out why things are abnormal before they reach a critical state.
Increasing security with Biometrics
Even organizations at low risk of theft or attack want to ensure only employees can enter the facility. Perhaps they only want to prevent buddy-punching where a friend clocks another friend in when they are late. Biometric devices provide this level of security.
A biometric device, like a fingerprint scanner, can verify that the person using an access card is in fact who they say they are. Biometric devices can also control access to doors and turnstiles, so only authorized employees may enter certain areas. Visual devices can be added at guard stations to display a picture of the employee as they come through a door, so the guards can verify identity.
Wireless chips can also provide proximity sensing that automatically clocks an employee in as they pass through a threshold. In the future, it may be commonplace for organizations to use these types of chips to provide labor distribution information, including the department the employee worked in or the equipment used.
The use of these technologies is on the rise and even companies that have had some level of homegrown workforce management automation in the past now recognize the market offers many state-of-the-art technologies that are more cost-effective to buy rather than build from scratch.
Technology is still the best game in town for reducing costs and streamlining operations. Many workforce automation technologies are already recognized as mainstream components of business, but more are being developed and enhanced everyday, so what we are seeing now may well be just the tip of the iceberg.
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