Managing an hourly workforce isn’t easy, particularly when employees are spread over multiple worksitesIf you manage hourly employees but don’t use a state-of-the-art enterprise workforce management system, you’re throwing away time and money – every single pay period.
Managing an hourly workforce isn’t easy, particularly when employees are spread over multiple worksites. However, a robust enterprise workforce management system—also known as time and labor management software, or a time and attendance solution—can give you control over even the most elusive workforce.
Yes, change is hard. Many of us resist the idea of implementing new systems. But that’s not a valid reason to shun powerful HR technologies—not when you consider these five ways in which an enterprise workforce management system will benefit your business.
1. Increase Your Labor Efficiency
According to the American Payroll Association (APA), nearly 75% of U.S. businesses are paying employees for time they didn’t actually work. That represents a huge cost to employers, not just in wasted dollars (hold that thought!), but in terms of how much quality work is performed each day.
For starters, do you know where 100% of your workforce is, 100% of the time? It may sound obvious, but knowing exactly who is on shift—and where—is the first step to ensuring employees are working effectively.
A strong enterprise workforce management system offers mix-and-match time tracking methods for various work situations, from biometric time clocks for time tracking stationary employees (say, janitorial staff at a hospital) to mobile time tracking apps with GPS (such as construction workers who move from site to site). There’s no longer an excuse for not tracking everyone!
2. Improve Customer Service
“Hardly anyone’s here…where’s your crew today?” That’s the last question that service providers like staffing and security companies want to hear from their clients. But it’s an occupational hazard when employees work remotely, unless you have a strong enterprise workforce management system standing sentry.
Not only can such workforce management software alert field managers when employees fail to clock in, it can provide tools that allow you to deploy your staff strategically.
The most advanced enterprise workforce management systems feature unified time tracking programs and scheduling software that make it easy to create—and update—work schedules in real time. Being able to respond quickly when problems occur in the field will build customer loyalty, along with a strong reputation for service.
3. Improve Labor Compliance
Wage and hour lawsuits continue to skyrocket. Many cases involve unpaid overtime and off-the-clock work, unauthorized time card changes and missed or shortened meal breaks—all preventable lapses when you have a vigilant enterprise workforce management system safeguarding labor compliance!
For example, a proactive enterprise workforce management system can be programmed to issue real-time alerts and reminders that halt violations in their tracks. It can alert managers when employees are about to cross into unplanned overtime, or remind employees to take their full meal breaks on schedule. It can flag open punches as they occur, so incomplete timesheets can be quickly made whole.
In addition, it can provide employers with compliance-related reports and analytics, so managers can identify problem areas and take corrective action.
4. Cut Your Labor Costs
Based on our findings, an automated enterprise workforce management system will reduce an employer’s labor costs by up to 5% or more. It does this in a number of ways, including:
- Eliminating manual errors, which according to the American Payroll Association, typically totals 1-8% of an employer’s gross payroll.
- Limiting overtime by pairing a cutting-edge scheduling program—with overtime flagging—and real-time OT alerts for managers.
- Making time theft and buddy punching impossible. In one recent survey of hourly workers, a breathtaking 43% of employees admitted to embellishing their hours. When you replace paper timesheets with biometric time clocks or mobile time tracking apps with automatic GPS verification, that’s no longer a possibility.
Yes, a strong enterprise workforce management system will pay for itself in a very short time!
5. Free Up Your Managers to Focus on Business
More and more forward-thinking companies are turning to HR technologies to streamline their workflows and administrative tasks, so they can dedicate more resources to tending and growing their core business.
If you have a barebones time tracking system in place—or worse yet, are still documenting time and attendance manually—an automated workforce management system will allow your field managers and HR team to attend other priorities.
Beyond that, a cutting-edge enterprise workforce management system will allow you to bid more accurately on new business and invoice your customers more accurately, because you’ll have a much better handle on your actual labor costs.
Article by Jordann; Jordann Donskey is a senior marketer at EPAY Systems is a leading SaaS provider of seamless human capital management technology and services designed to help medium to large businesses manage their workforce in a lot less time and with a lot less work.
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