Workforce Management Featured Article
Streamlining Workforce Management Solutions to Save Time
It’s an old adage (or it should be) that about 70 percent of any worker’s job is doing annoying and time-consuming administrative tasks that don’t add much to the bottom line, but need to be done because “We’ve always done it this way.”
Technology has promised to take care of these administrative tasks, but the problem is that not all technology is created equal. We were relieved to see doctors and other healthcare professionals do away with paper charts – all the writing was time consuming – but instead, we sit on an uncomfortable stool in the exam room while the doctor or nurse proceeds to type into a laptop for 20 minutes, often swearing about how slow the system is. Is that an improvement?
Companies today strive to get the most out of their workforces, but it’s largely an impossible task when workers are bogged down with endless, repetitive and often duplicate tasks of data entry, particularly at a desktop computer. The workforce is mobile today, and workers are often on the go. Tethering them to desktop based human resources software simply doesn’t make sense.
“Mobile technology facilitates employees to be flexible and productive at their work as well as makes it easier for managers and human resource personnel to perform workforce management on the go,” wrote a Sage Software blogger for the Web site Pocket HCM. “To embrace a mobile workforce, HR managers and employers would need a cloud based mobile HR app that allows human resource people and entrepreneurs to track employee performance, attendance, leaves, etc. on the run.”
Another benefit of mobile HR is that, because the application needs to take up very little space, these solutions tend to be simplified, easy to use and collaborative. Today, cloud-based workforce management solutions often have mobile features that allow a workforce to use the same solution across both desktops and mobile devices. The Sage blog post listed some of the top features of cloud-based workforce management solutions. They include:
- Since it’s on the cloud, you get instant access to all the crucial HR and employee data. All you need is a computer and a reliable Internet connection to get going.
- High levels of security, ensuring safety of all your employee data.
- User-friendly, clean and quick interfaces.
- An employee self-service portal, which empowers the employees to check and update their personal details on the go. (They can even swap schedules or bid for vacation time.)
- Keeping track of employee time and attendance becomes easy with mobile HR software, since it automates the entire process saving HR personnel from the hassles of doing it manually.
- For a business with remote workforce reporting in from different locations, tracking their time, attendance, performance, etc. won’t be a headache, since mobile HR solution makes this easy and hassle-free.
If it’s a goal for your organization to help your customer-facing employees spend more time with customers and less time interacting with outdated workforce management solutions, it may be time to look for a cloud-based solution with a strong mobile component.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi