Labour lessons

Ben Zifkin discusses the main benefits companies can achieve through an effective Workforce Management Initiative.

“Workforce Management solutions provide employees with two very important things: empowerment and flexibility”
-Ben Zifkin, Axsium Group

Workforce Management (WFM) solutions possess the unique ability to increase revenue and reduce operating costs, while enhancing both the customer and employee experience. Many of the simple, stand-alone programs historically used to manage scheduling and timecards are now being replaced by advanced software that carries the promise of greater profitability through reduced labour costs, increased sales, enhanced customer service, and improved talent attraction, retention and productivity.

Reduce labour costs
Automating complex pay rules can yield significant cost savings from an immediate and profound reduction in payroll errors. Systematic payroll errors can translate into to millions of euros of overpayments each year. Consider the case of an organisation that recently went through a pay rule accuracy review. The end result was an identification of more than €1.8 million in savings per year over five years by executing the following simple but critically important changes: Paying more closely to schedule through checks and flags for employees who are working time outside their scheduled hours; implementing grace rules to reduce overpayment to employees who come in earlier than shift start and leave later than shift end; and automating a holiday rule calculation to reduce errors in amounts paid to employees. Simple changes to policies, processes and practices can lead to material hard cost savings.

Enhance customer service
Retailers realise how important it is to have the optimal level of staffing to meet customer demand. Unfortunately, when relying upon either a manual process or an antiquated system to create schedules, retailers inevitably find themselves at peak hours with too few associates scheduled to handle a flood of prospective customers, resulting in reduced service levels. An automated labour forecasting/schedule WFM solution that relies on historical sales information, current trends, labor standards, and special event information allows companies to ensure staffing levels will meet sales demand consistently throughout the week and deliver the appropriate customer service experience.

Increase sales
One of the most compelling benefits from the implementation of a comprehensive WFM application is a measureable sales lift from more effective forecasting and scheduling. In May 2007, lingerie retailer La Senza Corporation implemented a Labour Forecasting and Schedule Optimisation solution to improve staff scheduling and overall operational efficiency. With more than 3000 employees in 340 retail locations, La Senza needed a consistent and reliable process for scheduling and managing its workforce. Within the first months of the deployment, La Senza immediately experienced increases in same-store sales as a result of its ability to better match store traffic with the labor supply.

Attraction, retention and productivity
Unlike most cost saving initiatives, Workforce Management solutions enhance the employee experience. Your employees will now be able to take more ownership of their day-to-day activities. Employee self service allows employees to initiate transactions, follow up and report on information pertinent to them without the hindrance of going through a supervisor or Human Resources. At any point, employees can request time off, view their vacation balances, see their paystubs and a host of other functionality. Employees can even swap shifts and indicate their availability to ensure that they maintain a modicum of flexibility and work/life balance.

Workforce Management solutions provide employees with two very important things: empowerment and flexibility. Creating this kind of environment not only makes your employees more satisfied and productive but it makes it significantly easier to attract new talent and retain existing talent. In difficult economic times like these, the organisations that mange their people most effectively will be the most successful. By addressing the three most important aspects of your business – revenue, cost and experience – Workforce Management initiatives are the optimal programs for any organisation in any industry. Most importantly, a Workforce Management solution will not only help your company weather the current storm, but it will set you up to be opportunistic as the climate improves.

Ben Zifkin is a co-founder of Axsium, a global business and technology consulting firm dedicated to Workforce Management. As Axsium’s Partner in charge of International Operations, Zifkin has established a reputation for delivering quality solutions to many of the largest and most complex organisations throughout the world.