Nucleus Research recently released their 2022 Workforce Management Technology Value Matrix. For the eighth year in a row, WorkForce Software has been recognized as the leader for the efficiency, functionality, and usability of its solutions.
“Over the last 18 months, organizations have faced difficulty in attracting and retaining quality talent. This has highlighted the need for solutions that help organizations optimize labor spending while improving employee engagement and wellbeing. WorkForce Software has continuously responded to changing needs of employees through renewed investment in automation and analytics across areas including scheduling and communication. From leveraging demand forecasting and schedule optimization to complex and changing compliance rules, WorkForce continues to deliver a strong solution to meet user needs.”
Evelyn McMullen, Research Manager, Nucleus Research
The report reviews what necessities and capabilities organizations are considering when searching for from workforce management vendors. This new focus on employee engagement correlates to lower turnover rates, reduced costs, and higher profitability.
Following is a summary of Nucleus Research’s findings, but readers should read the report for the full details.
What Are Organizations Seeking in Their Solutions?
Vendor investment has focused heavily on AI and ML capabilities that automate tedious processes and forecast scheduling needs. Other primary areas of focus include tools to navigate complex compliance regulations and integrations that enable the consolidation of solutions to fill in functionality gaps and improve data accuracy.
Workforce management (WFM) customers are demanding higher levels of functionality in areas such as employee self-service, scheduling, compliance management, analytics and reporting, and labor forecasting.
The most critical capability cited by users is the ability to optimize labor spend and forecast scheduling needs as labor cost represents an area where organizations can either overspend or save significant costs.
Compliance management is another area where costs can quickly accumulate and having a solution that automatically incorporates compliance standards and regulations into schedules can significantly reduce the risk of noncompliance fees. As mass resignations continue to weigh on employers, reporting and analytics provide valuable insights to organizations about employee satisfaction, flight risk, and fatigue, which allows managers to better focus their retention efforts on the teams and employees that need it the most.
What Capabilities Are WorkForce Software Offering to Confront These Issues?
The WorkForce Software platform is SaaS-delivered and provides users with a broad range of WFM capabilities, including time and attendance, demand forecasting, predictive scheduling, labor analytics, fatigue management, absence and leave management, and data collection. The vendor can continuously build out its library of APIs, enabling customers to easily integrate the solution with existing HR and payroll systems. Additionally, the vendor has a fully configurable, automated rules engine that validates input actions, including scheduled shifts, forecasts, and time-off requests within the Workforce Suite.
The rules engine continues to expand to better support automated compliance with varying levels of regulations and internal labor rules. The WorkForce Suite gives each employee access to a configurable WorkForce hub, where they can access and manage priorities and gain visibility into certain actions based on personal preferences. The WorkForce hub also gives users more control of their schedules, leveraging demand forecasting and schedule optimization to publish schedules quickly and allow enough time to work out potential scheduling conflicts.
Employees can utilize self service capabilities to state unavailability, swap shifts, request time off, or accept or deny extra shifts. Organizations can pre-set rules to automate the acceptance or denial of employee requests, resulting in substantial manager time savings. Recent updates and announcements include:
In June 2021, WorkForce Software released Workforce Experience, a communications and employee engagement component of the WorkForce Suite. Workforce Experience provides tools such as communication and collaboration channels, feedback surveys, and in-the-moment information gathering, micro training, self-service, automation, and easy access to company information to optimize the employee experience at work.
Also in June 2021, the vendor launched WorkForce Tasks, a task management component of the WorkForce Suite. WorkForce Tasks gives organizations the tools necessary to assign, review, and track tasks. This includes the ability to create tasks of any kind, capture image and video visual confirmation of task completion, and include checklists, surveys, training materials, images, videos, etc. in task definition. Additionally, users can schedule tasks and auto-assign tasks to employees based on factors such as availability. WorkForce Tasks also provides managers with a detailed dashboard where they can review task progress, approve or reject tasks, and manage task due dates, dependencies, and calendars.
Looking forward, the demand for workforce management software with higher levels of functionality in scheduling, employee self-service, compliance management, analytics and reporting, and labor forecasting continues to grow. WorkForce Software is staying ahead of the curve by offering modern workforcce management solutions to meet the challenges businesses face in this fast-changing market.
