why workforce management and why now

Why workforce management and why now

Introduction 3

Digital HR in a world of uncertainty 4 Digital HR tools and operational efficiency Digital comes of age as HR takes control Winning the war on talent Employee wellbeing still the #1 challenge Employees at centre stage

Why workforce management and why now? 17 Remote working arrangements The return to the workplace The rise of contingent workforces hire flex workers Internal and external mobility as high-value alternatives Adapt to change

Realising value from the right workforce management solution 24 Benefit #1: Business value business Value: What to look for Benefit #2: Future readiness Future readiness: What to look for Benefit #3: Innovation Innovation: What to look for

Chester zoo builds an employee-centric future 30

Table of contents

Why workforce management and why now | 3

The promising outlook for new digital technologies, and the need for an increased focus on employee wellbeing, are part of just about every list of HR trends published in the last five years – the importance of both domains is nothing new. What is new is the urgency to accelerate these initiatives.

Workforce management and an employee-centred mindset are no longer optional if you wish to thrive in the coming years. Employees are looking for workplaces that make their work-life better balanced, and their contributions more effective, through the right digital and mobile technology.

HR leaders are focusing more than ever on increasing operational efficiency, driven largely by HR automation and digitalisation, to free up time and headspace to focus on employee engagement and well-being.

As competition becomes increasingly aggressive, rapid change continues to create unique working environments that require businesses to adapt like never before. A workforce management solution can help, if it’s tailored to meet your organisation’s unique needs.

Introduction


Digital HR in a world of uncertainty

Achieving a balance between stability and flexibility means implementing robust, frictionless tools as well as tailor-made digital solutions to fine-tune your own way of working, but how well is this balance already established in organisations? Let’s start by looking at a selection of the survey results from our latest Future of Work and People 2021 report.


The role of HR leaders continues to gravitate to the strategic, business Steerco level, helping to drive business growth and future resilience. Having honed priorities and refocused on what’s important for the coming years, there are fewer projects compared to 2020, and with significant changes in direction.

Operational efficiency is now the number 1 priority for HR, as we go about setting things back up again in as smooth, time-efficient and cost-effective a way as possible. Recruitment and work-life balance are getting more attention, as the focus on flexible working increases with new forms of hybrid working. And motivating people to give their best performance is still a big priority, as it was last year.

Unsurprisingly, digital transformation and HR automation have an increased importance, as HR leaders seek the right digital solutions and systems to balance the tactical and strategic – to get the basics right, whilst generating the actionable insights and the headspace needed to focus on employee engagement and wellbeing.

HR must balance the need to reduce manual intervention in everyday processes with the desire to provide an improved employee experience, to attract and retain the best talent.

And what we’re seeing is that Workforce Management is presenting itself as a viable solution for many of these priorities

Digital HR tools and operational efficiency


Payroll Operational efficiency

HR policy

Reward

Diversity & Inclusion

HR analytics

Socio-legal regulations

Performance managementHR service to employees

RecruitmentPerformance management

Work-life balanceWage costs

HR service to employeesOperational efficiency

PayrollLearning

Well-beingWell-being

LearningEmployee experience

Wage costsWork-life balance

Progress managementRecruitment

Diversity & Inclusion

HR process automation

Digital transformation

HR policy

Reward Employee experience

HR process automationProgress management

Digital transformationSocio-legal regulations

HR analytics

2020 2021

What priorities or projects are ongoing or planned in your organisation?


Digital comes of age as HR takes control

Payroll, Presence & Absence Management, and Staff & Work Planning are in the top five for digital maturity, as organisations show an increased focus on digital tools for efficient workforce management. However, fewer than half of businesses say they have a high degree of HR digitalisation.

Barriers to wider adoption may be cost-related, but also related to the length of time taken to embed new systems and guide employees through signifiant digital transformation. With the UK having a high proportion of flex workers at 30%, it’s important that HR teams can manage a more complex mix of hybrid or flex workforce, with time registration topping the list of performance tools for flex workers.


What is the degree of digitalisation in the following HR areas?

1 2 3 4 5

Payroll

Presence and absence management

Expense management

Training and development

Staff and work planning

Compensation & benefits

Management of flex workers

Performance management

1 2 3 4 5

Cooperation / teamwork

Recruitment and selection

Talent assessmentand matching

Onboarding (reception and familiarisation)

Employee commitment

Labour law and legislation

Offboarding (exit of employees)

Employee welfare

• 1 - Very low degree of digitalisation (no or very limited automation, use of digital applications, robotisation, etc.)

• 5 - Very high degree of digitalisation (very extensive automation, use of digital applications, robotisation, etc.)

<250 employees 250-2999 employees 3000+ employees

What is the degree of digitalisation in the following HR areas?


3 out of 4 HR departments want to choose their own IT systems, rather than rely on IT or procurement

As digital HR gains traction, HR departments are taking control of targeted projects that will yield the highest rewards. Whilst it’s good news that overall digital maturity is improving, there is still work to be done on managing increasingly complex workforces. Many employers are counting on third parties to help them boost their digital maturity levels.


Winning the war on talent

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated major shifts in how employees engage with work. Significant changes to the workplace have altered beyond recognition the old models of employees being based at their workplace for set hours every day. Ensuring that employees maintain a healthy work-life balance is a key challenge that relies on robust workforce management solutions that can proactively monitor and manage this.

To make flexible working a success, it is critical to keep a focus on setting a healthy work-life balance as part of company culture. While digital applications for time registration are available more widely, it will be necessary to drive adoption of digital applications in other key areas that currently lag behind, such as those facilitating feedback and check-ins, and incorporating flex workers


What digital applications are available for managing the performance of employees or teams?

Objective and projectregistration system

Time registration system

Performancemanagement system

System that facilitatesteamwork (cooperation)

System that facilitates continuousfeedback and check-ins

System that facilitates the developmentand coaching of employees

System that facilitates cooperation andwork follow-up with flex workers

None of the above

22.6%

21.1%

18.3%

19.7%

15.3%

26.4%

30.5%

23.8%


Monitoring performance, staff planning, and employee self-service are key targets for organisations looking for digital and mobile solutions that will handle permanent staff with hybrid working patterns and also the irregular patterns of flex workers. Managing these through capable digital tools means companies are also less likely to need to outsource these services.


Employee wellbeing still the #1 challenge

Looking at the biggest challenges that organisations are facing over the coming years, firmly at the top of the list are concerns about giving employees the best experience – to attract, retain and nurture the right talent. More than ever, there is a national and global focus on making sure that all employees, including flex workers, know that employers have their well-being top of mind.

“Thanks to an innovative digital platform, our employees benefit from lots of functionalities. They can easily register time, upload sick notes, revise their vacation days and enter data on bike use and carpooling, among other things.”

Filip Peeters, HR Director at Nike European Logistics Campus


What are your biggest HR challenges in the coming years’

1st place 2nd place 3rd place

4th place 5th place (% occurence in top 5)

47%

Staff welfare and resilience

Employee engagement & Experience

Attract and recruit (war on talent)

Sustainable employability of employees

Talent development & internal mobility

Teleworking and hybrid working (partly in the office and partly remotely)

Employee retention and attrition

Keeping or gaining control of personnel costs

Staff planning(including flexible workers)

Strategic wage policy

10%

7%

8%

7%

5%

5% 5% 5%6% 6%

6%

6%

4%

4% 4% 4% 5% 6%

5% 5%6% 6%

5% 5% 5% 5%

6% 6% 6% 6%

6% 6% 7% 6%

7%

6% 6%

6% 5% 5%

6% 6%

7%6% 6% 6%

9% 8% 7% 7%

What are your biggest HR challenges in the coming years


Staff wellbeing, employee experience and war for talent are the three HR biggest challenges. In order to rise to these challenges HR must provide simpler ways of monitoring and managing the processes that support improved employee engagement, and are quick to highlight any areas of concern.

The challenges of employee retention and attrition, staff welfare and resilience, staff planning, and attracting and recruiting new talent, all loom large for employers facing skills gaps and a shortage of high-quality candidates for key roles


Employees at centre stage

Employee experience is often used as a catch-all term for most things related to being employed, but it all comes down to turning every touch point between your employee and your organisation into a chance to grow closer. COVID-19 has changed this landscape. Not only has it altered the type and frequency of touch points, it has also forced HR professionals to rethink their employee experience strategies. The reskilling and upskilling of workforces are crucial for companies to stay on top, and digital experiences are becoming mainstream

HR must find ways to create company-wide strategies while catering to the new needs and demands of individual employees. Resources are often limited but improving the employee experience with low-cost initiatives is – believe it or not – an option. For example, creating a culture of honesty, transparency and open communication, where employees feel heard and listened to, is free. Increasing flexibility and autonomy on a tight budget? Sure. Implementing talent management or digital self-service tools? Those benefits outweigh the costs.

“As HR priorities have been revisited following the seismic changes of the past 18 months, focus has increased on digitalisation and automation to create the time and insights to focus on employee engagement and well-being.”

Cathy Geerts, CHRO at SD Worx


Why workforce management and why now?

What used to be nice-to-haves – workforce management projects and employee experience initiatives – are now at the very heart of today’s HR strategies. In the current business climate, no company can afford to ignore the added value that digital transformation brings to the table, nor can they look away from ever-changing employee needs if they intend to attract and retain the best talent.


Remote working arrangementsAt the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many organisations underwent a massive work-from-home experiment. Crisis conditions may have prevented employees from reporting to their places of business, or working during normal business hours, but they were still essential to operations. With ongoing innovation in remote working technology, it has never been easier for employees to collaborate and connect with their colleagues virtually – from project management and execution to communication across the organisation and cultivation of company culture. Remote working also provides more flexibility for employees’ work–life balance, improving their quality of life while boosting employee engagement and productivity.

The return to the workplaceAs the emergency conditions of the initial phase of the pandemic have started to abate, organisations are reviewing arrangements for employees and looking at longer-term approaches to hybrid working, or moving as many employees as possible back into the workplace, safely. Workforce management solutions have a key role to play in creating such a safe environ-ment for returning employees. Contactless access control to buildings reduces the opportunities for germ spreading, and touchless thermal sensors can block access if temperature is not within an acceptable range, ensuring effective infection control. Occupancy management allows adherence to COVID-19 guidance and contact tracing can be simplified based on robust monitoring.

The rise of contingent workforcesThe labour market has been under great pressure the last couple of years.First of all, the growing need for specific (digital) skills and competencies has companies struggling to find the right profiles. Second, the mass outflow of experienced and skilled baby boomers leaves many companies with a great number of complex vacancies to fill. Fluctuations in demand make it difficult to plan ahead, so companies are increasingly being forced to rethink their workforce management strategies. Employers are under increasing pressure to come up with new and creative solutions that will further optimise their workforce management for the coming years. Adding flexibility to their teams will be key to working efficiently and effectively.


#1 Lower costs The financial argument can be a decisive advantage for companies. Simply put, hiring contingent workers is financially interesting for employers in some cases. Employment taxes might be lower and there are usually fewer employee benefits involved. Moreover, the costs related to recruiting, onboarding and dismissal are all in favour of contingent workers. It should be noted, however, that according to a company’s industry, required skills, location and other parameters, hiring certain contingent workers may prove to be more costly

#2 Access to specific skills and knowledge From highly skilled managers to inexperienced production aides, contingent workers can help you cover the whole talent spectrum. They might not want or be able to work for you on a permanent basis, but they could be interested in a flexible working agreement. Extra benefit: when there’s a fit, you can still offer them a permanent contract

Hire flex workers

Why exactly should employers at least consider hiring flex workers? We’ve asked those companies that already employ flex workers what’s in it for them. These answers came out on top:


#5 Unexpected shortage of capacitySometimes, time is of the essence. You need someone straightaway, without the hassle of an intensive selection, recruiting and onboarding process. In that respect, contingent workers offer companies the possibility to acquire the right talent at the right time.

#4 AvailabilityDepending on the type of skills you need and the type of employment you’re looking for, contingent workers could solve availability issues. You hire more when needed and downsize your contingent workforce during quieter times. Mid-term and long-term workforce planning remains a significant challenge, which is why flexible workers are still so valuable.

#3 Temporary projects or work Chances are that you only need specific skills and knowledge for certain projects or periods of time. In some cases, you’re better off upskilling and training current staff. In other cases, turning to contingent workers may prove to be a fruitful way forward. Again, your company’s context will define which road to flexibility is best.


Internal and external mobility as high-value alternatives

There are other options to creating flexibility within workforce management, and they’re all about building talent. When companies are looking to add skills and knowledge to their workforce, they have 3 main options:

Sometimes you need fresh blood in the form of contingent or non-contingent workers, and upskilling your current employees could be the way to go. It all depends on a few crucial factors, such as the type of expertise you need, how long you need it for and the costs each option entails.

The end goal is to create change from within. With flex workers now making up 30% of the UK workforce, the business landscape has seen significant change over the past 18 months, so growth plans may need rebalancing.

Buying talent (i.e. hiring permanent workers)

Borrowing talent (i.e. hiring contingent workers)

Building talent (i.e. training permanent workers)


#1 Map Your Talent

Talent mapping allows you to identify your employees’ talents, accurately predict future talent gaps and—more importantly—assess the viability of your current staff to bridge those gaps.

These five additional suggestions could also boost your organisation’s internal mobility:

#4 Include Everyone

Internal mobility is not the sole prerogative of younger generations. More experienced employees can equally be willing to change their professional ambitions. Remember: internal mobility is not only about going up about going up.

#5 Remove Obstacles

Boost the rematching of employees with new roles by taking away the fear of losing seniority, a lower salary or increased work pressure. Last but not least, make sure your employees know there won’t be repercussions if they (unsuccessfully) apply internally.

#2 Maintain an Open Dialogue

This way, your employees get to know where the organisation is heading, which roles are best suited to them on that growth path, and how you can help them get there.

#3 Focus on Strengths

Trying to improve weaknesses can easily lead to frustration. Instead, see how you can exploit an employee’s strengths even further. This will improve employee motivation, engagement and —ultimately—productivity.


Adapt to changeWhat initially appeared to be a brutal, sharp shock when the pandemic first hit in 2020 has turned into a longer-term set of challenges that look set to affect the workplace for many years to come. The world continues to adapt and develop at a rapid pace, and change has become a daily reality for all businesses. Agility is critical for organisations during ongoing challenging times, and talent flexibility will be key to achieving it. This, however, is easier said than done. It requires HR to be able to successfully balance its permanent workforce with a flexible labour force, while safeguarding legal compliance and inspiring talent mobility.

So how can a workforce management solution help?


Realising value from the right workforce management solutionTechnologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have the potential to reduce your organisation’s expenses while enabling your processes to be more data-driven and efficient. Obtaining digital maturity is not just a daunting technological task, it’s a people challenge, too. Employers need to carefully assess which solutions could best benefit their employees, communicate transparently about future changes and offer their staff a voice to boost support. A digital workforce management transformation has the biggest positive impact when it’s a joint effort. To help you get started, here are the three main benefits of an effective workforce management solution


Benefit #1: business valueWorkforce management solutions can deliver business value across your organisation in many forms—from reducing overtime costs and eliminating unnecessary administrative processes to simplifying compliance and improving the employee experience. The business value of your solution should touch every aspect of your organisation.

• Operations can benefit from optimised schedules that meet key performance indicators such as productivity, basket sizes, conversion rates and task execution, all while reducing overall budget

• IT directors will see value in a solution that provides a seamless user experience, enables data sharing across the solution and other business-critical systems, and prioritises data security

• Employees can benefit from self-service functionality that lets them easily report absences and check accruals, allowing them to get back to work more quickly.

• Finance and Payroll appreciate the ability to eliminate error-prone manual processes and workarounds with precise data and time-capture options, pay rule automation that provides consistent and accurate payment, and streamlined approval processes

• HR departments can simplify labour law compliance, automatically track and record all absences including paid leave and attendance policy violations, and receive complete coverage for all leave practices. This allows more time to focus on more important subjects like work-life balance and the well-being of employees.


Business value: what to look for

Operational Efficiency

When it comes to achieving business success, it’s critical that employees are engaged and focused on driving a positive impact on financial performance. A workforce management solution can help by forecasting labour and optimising schedules to account for the needs of the business.

A solution that promotes employee productivity by using things like AI urgency models will ensure that your employees’ time is not wasted, by prioritising the tasks that matter the most while reducing unnecessary administra-tive tasks in the background.

.

Employee Engagement

Providing a best-in-class employee experience is essential to the operations of your organisation, and a dedicated workforce management solution can increase user satisfaction. It can also offer convenient self-service options and personalise their user experience in a way that is meaningful to them.

When managers and their employees are freed from administrative activities and provided with actionable data, they will have more time to focus on the core business

Maximum Return on Investment (ROI) When considering a workforce management solution, ask for a personalised ROI business case that considers your organisation’s specific size, processes, and other relevant factors. You could be surprised at the positive potential returns


Future readiness: what to look for

Risk mitigation

Given the prevalence of ever-changing rules, it’s important to look for a workforce management solution that automatically enforces rule changes.

Rule-based flexibility

Workforce management automation is designed to keep up with your ever-changing needs. Any organisation will benefit from the flexibility and future readiness that a rules-based solution provides.

Benefit #2: future readiness

Because both unforeseen challenges and new opportunities can arise, and because your strategic goals can change, you need a solution that’s able to adapt to your vision for the future. Work alongside your workforce management provider to create a roadmap that meets your needs today and tomorrow without customisation. Your workforce management solution should be designed to grow with your organisation.


Benefit #3: Innovation

Creativity develops new ideas. Innovation makes them happen. Advancements in technology will continue to transform the market in which your organisation operates. You can help support a culture of innovation with a solution that’s capable of collecting and processing the data to support digital transformation. Successful innovators help their customers evolve along with them.

Innovation: what to look for Actionable Data

Your workforce management solution should provide ample visibility into your entire workforce operations. Your solution should collect, aggregate, process and store data in an actionable, easy-to-understand interface that prioritises the most urgent items first so that you can quickly analyse the data and act on it with urgency.

Detailed visibility of all your employee data, from individual records to team planning across multiple locations, gives you flexibility and agility to act on the information you can see, rather than rely on assumptions or historical records of what has happened before.

In a highly competitive landscape, the ability to act quickly and confidently on key workforce data can transform your organisation’s operations and give you the edge over the competition. Increased speed can turn access to data into actionable insight that can put you ahead in an increasingly competitive landscape.


Simple Integration

Your workforce management solution needs to work within complex software environments addressing specific functions. This way, your employees don’t feel the burden of working with multiple, unintegrated systems.

One of the key integrations is that between workforce management and payroll; providing the tech, data flows and services to optimise the complete employee lifecycle, from time to money. Your workforce management solution should automatically tell your payroll solution how many hours an employee worked and how many of them were overtime, to accurately determine their pay.

Enabling employees to personalise their working arrangements, the payroll process will automatically become more customised and complex. The adoption of hybrid working locations and other shifts in work patterns make staffing and payroll difficult to manage in isolation. Monitoring more fragmented or irregular employee access to the workplace and performance also requires the right software.

Sharing data seamlessly across WFM and payroll the two systems is the key to a successful solution and a workforce of satisfied employees. A reduction in typically time-consuming and error-prone manual HR processes drives operational efficiency and more effective planning.

And with an efficient system in place, business leaders get actionable insights from real-time payroll and HR data, enabling them to make accurate decisions. You’re also more likely to see an increase in employee satisfaction and engagement.


Cultivating a unique digital employee experience

Chester Zoo balances full-time permanent staff with seasonal and contingent workers, students and a variety of shift patterns. This means they need tight controls over time and attendance for accurate pay data and reporting, but they also want solutions that empower managers to have more control and to be able to make employee changes more easily. They are also dedicated to developing their employee experience through their digital HR solutions.

An integrated workforce management solution

Chester Zoo already used SD Worx’s HR and Payroll solutions, and were now looking for a workforce management offering that would integrate easily. Protime, SD Worx’s integrated workforce management solution, presented itself as the leading candidate for their requirements. Chester Zoo worked in an agile environment with the Protime team and their implementation consultant. Even after the solution was live, both client and vendor had regular conversations to ensure the solution was optimised to their bespoke needs.

Chester Zoo builds an employee-centric futureChester Zoo is the UK’s most visited zoo. Home to 35,000 extraordinary animals, it has over 500 members of staff who share one thing in common—working all hours of the day and night to ensure the zoo is an inspirational and enjoyable place to be and to work in.

Case study


Implementing a WFM solution, and integrating it with HR and Payroll, has reduced all data duplication and human errors caused by manual inputting. It’s also driving a positive employee experience. We live in a world where employees are used to high levels of digital maturity throughout their personal lives – and expect the same from their working lives too.

“Before we used paper for annual leave forms, but now staff can submit absences on their

laptops or mobiles. They can clock in and clock out on their phones. They have different options to suit them,” Andrew said.

Chester Zoo is in a strong position with more accurate data and reporting, and an improved digital experience for their employees.

It’s our goal to make managers more autonomous and allow them to manage their team without intervention from Payroll or HR. Visibility of the staff you manage is very important, and a digital solution has really helped that.

Andrew Williams,Payroll manager at chester zoo

Digital maturity and easeof management


Workforce management solutions

Time has become increasingly important in our society. Individuals and organisations alike are looking for ways to use their time in the most efficient, flexible and productive ways. In a service-driven economy, this means that organisations will be looking for different ways to optimise the available time of their workforce, in order to increase productivity and ROI. To achieve this, an organisation needs powerful workforce management software and the right expertise to facilitate three key areas: Time & Attendance: While time and attendance tracking is a basic process, huge gains can be made through processing and reporting to gain an accurate, real-time oversight of workforce capacity and staff availability.

Workforce Planning: By assigning the right tasks to the right people, businesses gain efficiency, can guarantee higher service levels, and are better prepared to adapt to workload fluctuations.

Task & Activity Management: By registering exactly how much time is spent on each task for each customer, you get a clear overview of workforce capacity and can allocate accurate personnel costs.

To learn more about how our comprehensive workforce management solutions can optimise costs and operational efficiency and provide actionable insights across your organisation, speak to our team today.

www.sdworx.co.uk/WFM

[email protected]

https://www.sdworx.co.uk/en/solutions/workforce-management

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About SD Worx

In today’s new world of work, people want to be inspired by what they do and have the freedom to focus on what matters. Organisations need a dynamic, motivated workforce empowered by smart technology. As a leading European provider of people solutions, SD Worx turns HR into a source of value for their customers’ business and the people that work for them. SD Worx delivers people solutions across the entire employee lifecycle, from paying employees to attracting, rewarding and developing the talent who make businesses succeed. SD Worx powers performance through four core capabilities: technology, outsourcing, expertise and data-driven insights.

More than 76,000 small and large organisations across the globe place their trust in SD Worx and its +75 years' worth of experience. SD Worx offers its people solutions in 150 countries, calculates the salaries of approximately 5 million employees and ranks among the top five worldwide. The more than 5,300 employees at SD Worx operate in seventeen countries: Belgium (HQ), Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. In 2020, SD Worx achieved a consolidated turnover of more than EUR 825 million (pro forma).

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why workforce management and why now

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