The meaning behind workforce management
Workforce Management (or WFM) solutions recognize the fact that businesses are complex and for operations to run smoothly and efficiently, proper WFM solutions must be implemented to ensure all aspects of the business that contribute to Operations, including workforce planning, forecasting, scheduling, etc., also run smoothly and efficiently.
How workforce management and operational efficiency intersect
The definition of operating efficiency describes “the ratio of an output obtained from business to an input to run a business operation. As operational efficiency improves, the ratio of output to input improves.” On the other hand, the definition of workforce management states that WFM is “an integrated set of processes that an institution uses to optimize the productivity of its employees at the individual, departmental, and entity-wide levels.” How do these intersect? Optimizing workforce management solutions means optimizing the efficiency of your workforce and that, in turn, optimizes the overall efficiency of business operations by ensuring no time or resources (including workforce members) are wasted and that all are used to their full potential.
What does the workforce management system encompass?
The WFM system focuses on optimizing your current workforce by managing their skills, training, and distribution. That means training, hiring a balanced workforce that mixes skill levels, leaders with students, balancing workloads across teams, and adapting to incorporate worker skills into operations to create unique pathways to maximize success, but The workforce management system isn’t just about managing the efficiency of operations for now; it is also focused on ensuring optimal performance in the future, and that means prioritizing WFM forecasting as well.
How is workforce management forecasting incorporated into the workforce management system? Recognizing that no two “seasons” are the same within your operations. Your business goes through cycles where some team members will be busier than others, and WFM’s foresight ensures proper cross-training of staff members to allow the workload to be balanced across your resources throughout the year. By training employees, you can ensure there is always someone to pick up the slack, cover vacations, and take on extra work. This balance ensures that some employees are not overworked and dissatisfied, while others are not being used productively or efficiently. However, while this type of management can streamline operations throughout the year, it can also help with future planning, ensuring that there are always a variety of skill levels available to fill any position that needs to be filled in the future.
Why is workforce management necessary?
Workforce management is crucial to business success because it helps to balance operations, ensuring that the people who manage each aspect of operations have the necessary skill levels to perform their tasks safely and efficiently, minimizing errors and optimizing production. It also ensures that the right amount of resources and the right mix of skills are always in place to increase production and efficiency; however, when it comes to WFM for the inexperienced, there are a few tips that can help you overcome the challenges of managing workforce diversity:
1. Train your employees to ensure the transfer of heavy workloads can be managed to maximize overall resource efficiency.
2. Train, train, and create a balance of skill levels and leadership among work teams.
3. Forecast to ensure resources are not overloaded or wasted during seasonal fluctuations.
4. Ensure flexible, real-time WFM to balance extremes that occur throughout the day and season, and take advantage of employees who want to take unpaid time off (this can help minimize resource waste and keep morale high of employees).
5. Use meeting times wisely to maximize motivation, performance, and help capture and leverage key learnings in future operations planning.
6. Spend time on the trading floor to monitor leadership, productivity, trends, time management, costs, etc. This can help you troubleshoot, but it can also help you look at skills you may be missing that could help increase productivity elsewhere.
Conclution
In short, the best business can only operate as well as its workforce. If workforce management solutions are applied smoothly and efficiently, the productivity and performance of all your operations can benefit.
