Nucleus 2023 WFM Technology Value Matrix Report Lists WorkForce Software as a Leader for the 9th Time

Nucleus Research recently released its 2023 Workforce Management Technology Value Matrix. For the ninth year in a row, WorkForce Software has been recognized as the leader for the value, functionality, and usability of our solutions. 

The report examines the requirements and competencies that organizations require while searching for and evaluating WFM (Workforce Management) vendors. The Nucleus 2023 evaluation continued to focus on employee engagement while highlighting the critical means to optimize labor spend, reduce employee turnover, and avoid non-compliance fees.

The following is a summary of Nucleus Research’s findings, but readers should read the report for the full details. 

What Workforce Management Capabilities Are Organizations Looking For?  

• Ongoing challenges in attracting and retaining frontline and hourly employees are now paired with economic uncertainty, pressing organizations to increasingly do more with less. Organizations are looking for modern workforce management solutions to optimize resource planning, labor spending, and allocation while mitigating unplanned overtime, compliance risk, and employee burnout.  

• Configuration of schedules based on unique performance management factors is critical to running lean operations without understaffing or violating compliance regulations.

According to the customers interviewed by Nucleus, the capability to customize schedules based on various distinctive factors is essential for efficient operations, particularly when workforce conditions are unstable, to avoid understaffing or violating regulatory compliance.

• Over the past year, vendor investment has continued to focus heavily on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and Machine Learning, specifically in areas such as labor optimization and complex scheduling. Reporting and analytics capabilities leverage data across systems to give employers and managers a more complete view of factors contributing to employee satisfaction, fatigue, and flight risk.

What Capabilities WorkForce Software Offers to Confront These Challenges 

• WorkForce Software is a purpose-built, SaaS-delivered platform that provides users with a broad range of workforce management solutions such as time and attendance, advanced scheduling, demand forecasting, fatigue management, leave and absence management, and analytics functionality. The vendor offers a large network of API integrations to seamlessly integrate existing HR technology and payroll solutions to eliminate data siloes. Additionally, the platform provides users with their own configurable WorkForce Hub to manage priorities and gain visibility into a range of actions.

• The software runs on a configurable and automated rules engine to approve and deny requests and validate input actions in processes such as scheduling, forecasting, and PTO. WorkForce Software expands its rules engine to incorporate the latest local, state, and federal regulations to ensure compliance with current labor laws. WorkForce Task Management provides users with task management functionality integrated as a result of the vendor’s acquisition of Foko Retail in 2021.

• Organizations can use WorkForce Task Management to improve store productivity and ensure process standardization across locations. The schedule optimization functionality assists organizations in matching schedules with expected customer demand to improve operational efficiency and reduce instances of schedule padding.

Recent updates and announcements include:  

• In September 2022, WorkForce Software integrated the core communication capabilities of WorkForce Experience, including the WorkForce Hub and Digital Assistant, directly into the WorkForce Suite User Interface. This allows customers to access the chat, channels, and broadcast capabilities of WorkForce Experience in the same UI as traditional time, scheduling, absence, and analytics capabilities.

• These communication capabilities have been enhanced to extend the vendor’s vision for smart communications, which provides a layer of automation and automatic generation of suitable context to communications to reduce manager workload and improve the quality of communications and expected outcomes. 

• Throughout 2022, the vendor expanded its standard product global template library to include new best practices, rules, and regulations in France, Singapore, Vietnam, South Korea, Spain, and Italy. In addition, the vendor is actively working with industry-leading SI’s to develop country and industry-specific fast implementation packages to support growing demand for the mid-market.

• In March 2023, WorkForce Software developed new HCM and Payroll Connectors for Workday, which utilizes WorkForce Integration Platform APIs for Suite access. Also in March, the vendor released WorkForce Suite Mobile Timesheets as part of its mobile-first strategy to improve automation, reduce manager workload, and improve the overall employee experience. 

• Throughout 2022 and early 2023, the vendor continued to expand its broad range of scheduling solutions to improve productivity and automation. Enhancements include automatic publishing of generated shifts, auto-assignment support for multi-week contracts, enhanced editing in the scheduling editor, a new swap schedule screen, new assistant HUB cards for shift swap requests, and the ability to run auto-scheduler for specific employees.

Stay ahead in the rapidly evolving workforce management software market with WorkForce Software’s innovative, purpose-built solutions for scheduling, compliance, analytics, employee self-service, and labor forecasting. 
 
Read the Full Nucleus Research Report Here.