4 Best Practices for Workforce Management

Workforce management is a complex aspect of human resources that works to ensure that a company has the necessary team members doing the right things in the company. While it can be hard to analyze this information since it involves intangible variables relating to human skills, wants, and practices — there are actually things you can do to help you with this process and benefit your company in the process. There are tons of benefits to having an effective workforce management system in place that include eliminating extra staffing when not necessary, ensuring that you have enough staff during busier times, and promoting employee satisfaction by leaving them with enough work to stay bust but not too much that it becomes completely overwhelming. In fact, being overwhelmed with work is one of the top reasons that employees quit — and you definitely don’t want that! Your staff is one of your most valuable resources and they are a true investment, and you want to make sure that you get the most out of your investment by keeping them happy and around for the long haul. So here are four best practices for workforce management that can benefit your employees and your company overall:

Communicate

The first best practice for workforce management involves effective communication practices. And this goes both ways: management needs to communicate with employees about their expectations and employees need to communicate with management about their feedback. When it comes to management, they need to make sure to communicate all work rules and expectations with their employees. This can be best done through documents like employee handbooks or conditions of employment. There also needs to be channels for employees to communicate with their management teams about requests, problems, or issues. One great thing about new technology is that employees are able to input scheduling requests directly into a system and eliminate the need to have these discussions in-person, via email, or over the phone. That way, it is in the system and on the calendar for everyone to see once it’s submitted and approved.

Enforce

The next best practice for workforce management is to enforce rules and policies. Since all of these things have been previously communicated and agreed upon, any departure from them needs to be addressed appropriately. It’s important to treat everyone fairly in this area and not give any preferential treatment when it comes to schedule requests.

Involve

Another great practice for workforce management is to involve your employees in the process by actively soliciting feedback about what they think and what they would like to see in the future. Understanding what your employees want and value will help you manage them better. Overall, many people want the same things: flexibility, predictability, well-being, and to feel valued. It’s important to take these things into account when it comes to workforce management. You need to be understanding if something comes up unexpectedly and an employee needs to reschedule a shift or take the day off — within reason. Furthermore, you also need to be able to provide them with notice if shifts change so that they can properly plan their lives and not leave them scrambling at the last minute. All of these things will lead to happier employees and a better work environment.

Project

One of the most important practices for workforce management involved the future projection of your workforce and its composition and needs. The good news is that a lot of this can be done through digital technology that takes a lot of the guesswork out of it. You just need to make sure that you have an effective tool or program in place that helps you do this and streamline the process.