A Complete Guide To Workforce Management & 6 Tools to Use

Many business owners know that they must recruit competent and experienced staff, but what is the best way to do this? The answer: Workforce management. 

Workforce management can help your company grow and prosper by providing a more detailed understanding of how many people are needed in different departments, what skill sets those people should have, and where they might be located. 

You’ll also learn more about their performance and any potential problems such as absenteeism or turnover rates. This means you will always have enough staff on hand, so there’s no chance of being unproductive due to staffing issues!

Today, we’ll show you some of the finest workforce management tools and give you valuable tips for managing your team more effectively, so read on!

What is Workforce Management?

Source: Bayometric

Workforce management (WFM) is a business process that focuses on effective and efficient resource planning and scheduling to determine how many workers should be scheduled when they should work and what their tasks should be. 

When WFM is used correctly, it can improve the profitability of a business while maintaining compliance with local and national laws.

 It brings together personnel scheduling, time & attendance tracking, absence & leaves management under one umbrella system.

What is Workforce Management Software?

Source: Upland Software

According to CNBC, worldwide, 70% of the workforce worked remotely at least once a week. Such data pose an essential question for organizations:  How will they manage the remote workforce? The answer: Workforce management software.

Workforce management software automatically checks employees’ availability before creating schedules and handles all aspects of the workforce life cycle, including overtime rules. When you automate your workforce management process, you will become eligible to enjoy the following benefits- 

• Increased accuracy in payroll calculations
• More optimized staffing levels
• Improved employee satisfaction for desired hours/shifts
• Real-time scheduling

Market Overview

As per verified market research, by 2026, the Workforce management software market will reach USD 3.18 billion with a CAGR of 3.1% from 2019 to 2026.

Companies use Workforce Management software to improve efficiency by increasing visibility into scheduling, staff, time-off requests, approvals, etc. 

How can Workforce Management software improve your business growth?

Employees are your company’s lifeblood. Employees can perform at their best when you have the appropriate procedures in place. This, in turn, promotes a more pleasant consumer experience.

Here’s how workforce management software can contribute to better business growth-

1. Better Productivity

Workforce or productivity management software enables managers to improve their employees’ productivity by optimizing the time allocated for each task, thus helping companies meet deadlines more efficiently. This further reduces downtime and boosts company revenue.

2. Manage attendance of your employees

Workforce management software helps you in managing the attendance of your employees in a better way. This automatically scheduled system helps by providing an automated attendance report that is good enough for making payroll every month.

3. Plan your budget

In today’s workforce, when projects are becoming increasingly complex and more dispersed. It is essential to have a complete picture of what you’re working with so that you can adjust your plan to fit your situation.  

Effective workforce management software will let you enter the budget for every position on a project so that you have an accurate idea of what it’s going to cost. This is an indispensable service for any forward-thinking business owner or executive – by knowing where their money is going.

4. Meeting Compliance Requirements

Global regulations demand a 24/7 workforce with round-the-clock support services. Workforce management software automates these processes and ensures that organizations meet compliance requirements by scheduling staff hours based on service levels.  

Tips for managing your workforce effectively and efficiently

1. Regularly communicate with your team

It is essential to speak with your team members once and, if not daily, then at least every few days. Keep an open-door policy and show them that you care about what they have to say even if the message isn’t the best to hear. 

2. Be a role model for your workforce

 Being a successful leader or manager means setting an example for your workforce, providing assistance to anybody who asks for it, and realizing that failure is acceptable occasionally.

Be an example of what you expect from them. Demonstrate to your team how it should be done. So they can follow in your footsteps.

3. Practice transparency

Transparent management is one of the most important ways to handle an organization. It ensures that there is no scope for any confusion or miscommunication. 

Keeping your staff in the dark may cause them to feel alienated. This can have a negative influence on their engagement and loyalty, putting the entire business at risk.

4. Implement the best time tracking software

The best approach to put your team management talents to good use is by figuring out which software applications are ideal for you. 

Technology may provide critical performance data that you can use to make accurate staffing decisions, such as who to put in charge of a future project.

 6 Best Workforce Management tools

Let’s look at some of the best workforce management tools and see what could work best for you.

1. WorkStatus

WorkStatus is an intuitive workforce management software that is affordable and easy to use. The software provides workforce management solutions for organizations of all types and sizes, allowing them to optimize their human capital performance to focus on increasing the bottom line.

It offers a wide range of labor cost reduction options, such as up-to-date labor costs reports and flexible management tools that allow users to allocate labor costs to different business units.

Let’s have a look at some of the workforce management solutions provided by WorkStatus-

• User activity monitoring with screenshots
• Project budgeting
• Productivity measurement
• Geofence and GPS tracking
• Data loss prevention
• Attendance management
• Business intelligence dashboard
• Detailed reporting

Request a free demo of Consultant time tracking software here –

2. Hubstaff

Hubstaff is a workforce management software that allows you to manage remote, desk, and field teams from anywhere. It has everything you’ll need to maximize your team’s potential — whether they’re in the office, remotely located, or mobile.

You can export customizable reports regularly, such as time and activities, payments, budgets, employee productivity, and more. You’ll get these insights emailed to you regularly if you use Hubstaff to manage your team.

Let’s have a look at some of its unique features below-

• Employee scheduling
• Payroll software
• Automated reports
• Mobile time tracking
• Time tracking apps

3. Paylocity

Paylocity is a workforce management software built with valuable features that can help you manage your workforce better. It is mainly marketed as a payroll solution.

Attendance Points is a point system for keeping track of schedules, is one of its stand-out features. You may use the Attendance Points system to find out who on your team frequently misses shifts or takes too many breaks. 

This can assist you in developing a schedule that better reflects your employees’ working styles so they can do their best. Let’s have a look at some of its other features-

• 360-degree feedback
• Applicant tracking
• Compensation management
• ACA reporting
• Benchmarking

4. Calamari

Calamari is a simple workforce management app. It has two key features: leave management and employee attendance monitoring. Despite this, the program is excellent for teams that want a compact solution since these features are implemented very effectively.

Let’s have a look at some of its other features-

• Calendar management
• Automatic time capture
• Overtime calculation
• Employee scheduling
• Mobile access

5. Kronos Workforce Ready

Kronos is a well-known workplace management program that has been around for years. When it comes to the software they want to use, customers have many alternatives, so Kronos has something for both large and small organizations.

Let’s have a look at some of its features below-

• Background screening
• Alerts/Notifications
• Appointment scheduling
• Forecasting/Budgeting
• Assessment management

6. Workforce Suite

WorkForce Suite is a workforce management software designed for organizations of all sizes. It allows employers to create schedules, modify and approve timecards, authorize time-off requests, analyze productivity trends, and manage expenses.

Its Time & Attendance section allows you to automate and customize complex pay rules and compliance requirements. Let’s have a look at some of its features below-

• Labor forecasting
• Shift swapping
• Online time clock
• Performance metrics
• Leave tracking

Final Thoughts

Introducing workforce management software is one of the best decisions you can make for your business. It will help improve productivity, work culture, and more time for strategic planning. You’ll also be meeting compliance requirements with ease while confidently managing your team’s workloads in a transparent manner. 

To implement this process efficiently and effectively, we recommend using WorkStatus or Hubstaff as they are great tools to track employee hours. 

We believe that these suggestions assist you in making an informed decision about how to manage your employees’ workloads more efficiently!

You may test WorkStatus out for free for 14 days here.

Well!! That’s it for today! Do you know any other top workforce management software? Share with us below if we forgot to mention any important one on our list!