Enterprise Workforce Management

For many organizations across a variety of industries, it's widely acknowledged that the effective management of labor is one of the keys to financial and operational success. In healthcare, labor ranks as one of the highest single costs of service delivery. Why has managing labor costs become such a poorly understood discipline for so many organizations? Manufacturers for decades have used complex financial models and software to forecast fluctuations in foreign exchange rates and the prices of raw materials. Retailers invest tens of millions of dollars annually in building and improving sophisticated infrastructures to manage supply chains, inventory levels and product pricing. In order to successfully manage each of these business-critical assets and processes - supply chain, inventory, foreign currency, commodities, etc. - organizations know the key is to understand the dynamic and ever-changing relationship between supply and demand.

From a WFM perspective, the key to above-average performance is in understanding what DRIVES labor demand and how to respond accordingly from a supply perspective. Understanding the variables that drive the need for labor (and how those drivers fluctuate or behave over time) frees management to objectively PREDICT or FORECAST labor demand. With an accurate picture of demand, the organization can then determine how to match demand with available supply. The goal is making sure that demand and supply are in perfect (or near-perfect) balance - hence the Balanced Labor Model (BLM).

During this webcast we will introduce the Balanced Labor Model approach, describe how the model can be applied to various industries, and highlight the benefits including:

• Increased levels of customer service
• Enhanced productivity
• Reduced overtime and premium pay
• Increased employee engagement and job satisfaction
• Increased reliability and predictability of processes around scheduling, requesting time off and processing payroll
• Improved ability to respond to absenteeism and other unplanned events

   

How can an organization empower its employees, reduce costs and improve data quality all at the same time? Implementing sophisticated time capture devices with communications and employee self-service tools is the direction leading companies are turning to.

The introduction of advanced time capture devices such as clock readers, IVRs (voice recognition), PDAs, Biometrics and others, enables the organization to go beyond the recording of employee start and stop times. The advanced functionality enables the organization to accurately allocate labor dollars to specific activities and/or jobs which provide the visibility into the business that can generate tremendous cost savings for companies. Additionally, today's time capture devices eliminate data entry errors and paid non-work time while also allowing for the introduction of schedule-based pay practices and enforcement of optimized schedules. Unfortunately, these devices can present a significant change management challenge. From an employee perspective, the arrival of a time capture device in the workplace can be received with mistrust and resentment. These change management challenges must be addressed early in the project and a communication plan should be established that will result in a business productivity tool to support the business objectives while gaining the acceptance of the employee with the rollout of self service functions that is received as a benefit to the employee.

What you'll gain from this session:

Many manufacturing industry leaders have successfully adopted process improvement philosophies such as Lean and/or Six Sigma to streamline, measure and monitor their supply chain and internal manufacturing processes. Optimizing labor represents the next critical area in strategic management. Enterprise-wide Workforce Management allows organizations to reduce labor costs, increase productivity and more accurately report labor distribution while addressing such current manufacturing challenges as globally dispersed workforces, shortage of skilled workers, and demand for shorter production time frames.

Join us as we explore how manufacturers can employ workforce management to their competitive advantage. Specific areas of focus will include:

• benefits of an enterprise deployment in the manufacturing environment
• calculating the ROI and establishing project KPIs
• reducing deployment timelines and cost through policy and practice optimization
• and leveraging WFM software functionality for shop floor management

For many organizations, the moment of "go-live" for their Workforce Management (WFM) system represents the culmination of months or years of planning and execution. While a celebration is certainly in order, this milestone should not be viewed as the completion of your organization's WFM strategy. Market-leading organizations realize that, with the major software and hardware investments made, the opportunities to drive dramatic returns on investment through the creation of WFM-powered continuous improvement are just beginning.

Join us as we explain how your organization can capitalize on the opportunities to drive ever-increasing improvements in labor costs, sales and customer and employee satisfaction post-system implementation. This webcast will explain how to approach and execute WFM-powered continuous improvement from a business-case perspective. Specific areas of focus will include: planning software upgrades to make them self-funding; re-engineering policies, practices and processes to drive increased labor cost savings; expanding software functionality through add-on modules; fuelling increases in sales and product profitability through business intelligence; and achieving next-generation integration of your WFM solution by interfacing with other enterprise systems. more »