With the UK still lagging behind its major economic rivals in terms of productivity, businesses are awarding more attention and drive to workforce management.
Workforce management is a set of processes designed to optimise a company or team’s employees, enabling them to maximise productivity.
A wide range of tools have been developed as a result of this focus, allowing managers to optimise every aspect of their workforce management.
Project management
Traditionally, a manager would assign a project or task by holding a meeting and delivering a brief. The employee would likely make notes, which may not always be as detailed as necessary, which often leads to another conversation when they’re not sure about something later down the line.
There are a variety of project management tools available which remove the time wasted on meetings like this. These tools allow managers to create projects, assign staff and deliver detailed briefs in one place, with several members of staff able to access them. They also allow users to communicate in the same place, meaning they can discuss and collaborate on a project in real-time. No missed phone calls, no time-consuming meetings to attend.
Workforce management in this way makes the whole process a lot quicker – from assignment and briefing to workers actually getting on with it.
Leave management
Tools like WhosOff optimises workforce management of areas like staffing and scheduling. Leave management apps gives a workforce a central location where staff can request annual leave, and give managers simple outline of any planned staff absences.
Workforce management through tools like this remove the need for email requests and the risk of losing track of how much leave has been taken. An employee looking back through their diary to see how many days off they’ve had isn’t productive. And neither is a manager doing the same for every employee.
The data provided by leave management apps like WhosOff also allows managers to forward plan their teams to prevent the risk of a fall in productivity. Any staff shortages can be highlighted well in advance, and be managed accordingly.
What’s more, WhosOff reported a 23% fall in sick leave from its clients – and an employee who is working is much more productive than one who is not.
Time tracking
This method of workforce management probably requires a bit of communication with your staff, because it can seem a bit ‘Big Brother’.
On the face of it, time tracking could look like a way of keeping a close eye on employees. But if the reasons why it is being used are communicated, the team are more likely to get on board.
Time tracking provides managers with some crucial data which aids workforce management significantly. Managers can see roughly how long it takes workers to complete certain tasks. And that allows them to better plan for projects, to understand exactly how long things will take. Using the data provided, managers can highlight any skills shortages and put certain staff members together to create the most productive team for every project.
While there is a plethora of factors that determine how productive a business is, managers need to attack it from all angles to really boost productivity. From a workforce management point of view, these types of tools will enable managers to get the most out of their team.
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