Finding innovative methods to maximize your company’s performance is crucial in today’s fast-changing global market. Globally, human resource professionals and operations managers are turning to High Volume Workforce management systems to maximize the effectiveness of their staffing processes.It’s never been a better time to rethink your staffing strategy. This Ebook will teach you all you need to know about managing a high-volume workforce and how it can help your company succeed.
What is High Volume workforce management?
High Volume Workforce management is a collection of processes and procedures that operate to ensure that a business’s workforce resources are allocated effectively. A corporate framework focuses on performance and competence to increase employee productivity. In other words, WFM strives to put the proper amount of personnel with the necessary skill sets precisely where and when they are needed.
A business may benefit from high-volume workforce management for a variety of reasons, including the following:
- The ability to better schedule and arrange events
- reducing employee absenteeism
- the process of discovering and addressing problems
- keeping a careful check on labor expenditures
- strengthening the safety measures for employees
Why is it important?
High Volume Workforce management procedures aid in planning and awareness, providing your firm with a complete view of its business requirements. It promotes adaptability, enabling your organization to respond to new difficulties without making expensive changes to its business or recruiting methods.Increased flexibility and improved planning will result in increased productivity, which will eventually result in increased revenues – as studies have shown, firms that know how to reallocate and manage their workforces efficiently beat their rivals by a factor of two. Organizations that understand how to efficiently reallocate and manage their High Volume workforces outperform their competition by a factor of two. A high-volume workforce may present several challenges, and we’ll discuss some of the most common ways to deal with them below.
Common workforce management issues.
Scheduling and planning
For companies today, the adage “time is money” is very accurate. And this is particularly truer for high-volume workforces such as manufacturing, where some firms might save millions of dollars by reconsidering their shift scheduling practices. It’s self-evident that finding a method for quickly creating weekly and monthly calendars are crucial for businesses trying to gain a competitive edge. Poor scheduling and planning may result in high absence rates — which we will examine in further detail below — but they can also have other consequences. Poor and unpredictable scheduling may demoralize staff and increase the likelihood of unexpected overtime, which can rapidly add up to a significant price.A High Volume workforce management system may assist by streamlining your scheduling methods via cutting-edge technology to eradicate these typical pain areas. Other practical benefits include expanding your accessible labor pool and improving talent acquisition and retention.
Absenteeism
Are you prepared for a shocking statistic? Absenteeism costs the United States economy $8.5 billion in lost productivity each year when employees take unscheduled time off work. In comparison, the UK’s total economic cost of absenteeism is estimated to reach £26 billion by 2030. In other words, it is critical not just to recruit the greatest employees but also to motivate them to show up. A capable workforce is just as critical as a robust workforce. When people are absent from work because of physical injuries or illnesses, psychological problems, bullying or harassment they are missing out on the opportunity to earn a living. These causes of absenteeism may be addressed somehow—whether by promoting employee health and well-being or by building an overall work climate that fosters employee retention. While a High Volume workforce management system may assist in addressing the underlying causes of absence, it can also assist your organization in managing the impacts of absenteeism via proactive planning and other long-term solutions. Absenteeism occurs, but it does not have to hurt your bottom line. Rather than overcoming employee shortages, a good business will have agile plans in place. Analyzing your labor force and doing activities such as skills audits can help you better understand your capacity and capabilities and potential issues that may occur when absenteeism is high. Additionally, it will assist you in identifying the most crucial procedures involved in operating your organization. Finally, defining the competencies necessary to perform important activities will aid in formulating your training and development programs.
Inefficient operations and low productivity
Efficiency is the guiding principle of contemporary company operations, with new technology and tactics often targeted to increase efficiency to maximize investment return. However, what is efficiency, and what does inefficiency represent in terms of operations? On average, inefficient labor operations arise when you spend more money and effort on a certain procedure than other businesses do or create.Thus, what precisely causes labor inefficiency? As with most operational issues, there are several possible explanations. Your labor expenses may be high, or your staff may be disengaged – as some polls have shown, organizations with higher levels of engagement also report up to a 21% increase in productivity. Additionally, it is conceivable that your managers lack access to data and cannot recognize issues with your current operating plans.
High turnover and poor retention
Businesses may implement various strategies to improve employee retention and minimize high turnover rates. These include providing competitive compensation, establishing a strong employer brand and a favorable reputation, expediting the onboarding process, and enhancing talent acquisition. However, these steps are not guaranteed to produce effects on their own.Implementing a complete workforce management system can make retention efforts simpler and more successful. A High Volume workforce management system may help your firm boost employee retention, minimize attrition, and save money – all while improving productivity.
Labor costs
Cost reductions are a specific focus for procurement teams, especially in the manufacturing sector, where maximizing financial efficiency and controlling outgoings is one of the most difficult tasks organizations face. Concentrating only on direct labor expenses, on the other hand, might cause businesses to overlook significant indirect sources of workforce spending, such as training and turnover costs, as well as delayed fill times.How can a solution for high volume workforce management be used to address both direct and indirect labor costs aggressively? One area of concentration that has shown to be beneficial is recruiting. Because new hiring — particularly a well-run recruiting process — may be expensive, discovering novel techniques to reduce hiring might be advantageous. Redeployment or upskilling existing employees, aided by High Volume workforce management tools, may supply the skills you want without hiring.Keeping over-planning to a minimum — when you pay for more capacity than you need and wind up with employees who aren’t needed — may also help your business control expenses by ensuring that you only pay for the labor you demand. To assist in reducing excessive planning, you might assess your workforce capacity utilization to understand better how effectively your resources are being deployed and consider redeployment possibilities.
Physical workplace safety, as well as its long-term viability
Employee safety advantages are self-high – by providing a safe, clean, and productive work environment, you ensure employee safety and maintain employee engagement. A secure, pleasant, and stress-free work environment is one of the undiscovered secrets to high productivity. Additionally, a dangerous workplace may be a significant financial risk, as injured employees spend more time at home and workers’ compensation claims accumulate.However, before you can enhance your safety culture, you must first determine how it compares to the competition. An external evaluation may serve as the first step in integrating a High Volume workforce management strategy into your business’s strategic plan, providing practical insights you can apply immediately to make your workplace safer.It’s also a good idea to explore possible changes to your work environment as the epidemic winds down and industrial facilities reopen. Streamlining your safety processes and achieving a balance of safety and efficiency may be aided by new high-volume workforce management solutions.
Building a successful High Volume workforce management strategy
With greater knowledge of the many advantages that a High Volume workforce management method can provide for your firm, you can begin designing a plan for adopting it. The ideal method is to begin by defining your company’s particular requirements and difficulties and then aligning your labor tactics with those goals.
In general, it’s prudent to follow the following stages in order:
- Establish your priorities. Determine what aspects of your current operations you want to improve. Which areas of your body have been affecting you recently? Can you identify long-term challenges you’ve encountered? How can you think concretely about these issues? For instance, are you more concerned with retaining existing staff or enticing new talent?
- Identify and correct inefficient processes. Identify the processes to manage the problems you wish to address and establish what isn’t working. It might be a specific procedure or a broader communication problem. For instance, given that 44% of firms utilize three or more internal systems to support High Volume workforce management operations, it’s simple to see how information may be lost in translation between systems.
- Conduct research on potential solutions. There are several WFM options on the market — from plug-and-play software to full-service strategic partners — so you’ll need to dig into the sector and do some research to locate the solution that’s most suited to your business’s requirements.
Outsourcing the management of your High Volume workforce
Hiring employees is a time-consuming and expensive procedure, much more so for firms with large or contingent workforces. It may divert your focus away from more critical issues, and personal participation is not always guaranteed to result in better recruits and a more competent workforce.
Recruitment does not have to be a time-consuming process. If you collaborate with an HR partner to manage your workforce outside, you may free up time to focus on the core of your business. Firm’s solutions provide scalable, adaptable, and efficient sourcing methods that adapt to customers’ shifting resource requirements – so you can be certain you’re in good hands.
Struggling to Manage Your High Volume Workforce Successfully?
Here Are Three Reasons Why
Almost every aspect of the workforce has been altered due to the epidemic. There is also a persistent scarcity of skills, which the current economic crisis has aggravated. Several publications on the subject, but most concentrate on assignment-based labor located in an office, such as technological talent, accountants, and recruiters. Supervisors at the site level are anxious for personnel who can keep their firms going. However, those who bear the brunt of today’s challenging atmosphere manage shift-based labor. This category comprises factory employees, drivers, nurses, security people, hospitality laborers, and contact center employees. Staffing for shift-based, high-volume jobs is fundamentally different from hiring conventional, assignment-based personnel. The following three characteristics make it more difficult for organizations to locate the people they need when they need them.
It’s fast –
The setting is very fast-paced in high-volume staffing. Labor requirements at the site level alter daily, making planning difficult and resulting in a great deal of last-minute activity. For instance, labor requirements in a manufacturing plant or storage facility might vary dramatically from day to day, depending on the volume of orders received. Similarly, the teacher shortage in a school system might fluctuate daily based on call-offs, often with hours to spare or even new demands that appear midday.
It isn’t very easy –
High-volume employment is far more complicated than managing white-collar, assignment-based labor. By far, the most significant reason for this is the complexity of the rate regulations. Rates are subject to significant variation due to shift differentials, including weekend rates, night allowances, late show penalties, and split shifts. Businesses must keep meticulous records of who works for them on which shifts and implement pricing regulations properly.
It’s competitive-
Globally, the skilled worker shortage is a major problem regardless of worker type. In the United Kingdom, it has been exacerbated by a constricted labor market resulting from Brexit. This setting may lack insight into when they work and how much they earn, particularly shift employees. Experience is crucial in recruiting talent, both for staffing firms and employees. Businesses’ ability to compete for shift-based personnel is becoming a differentiation. Applying the same technique to contingent work that is assigned and shift-based is insufficient. With additional constraints on the horizon due to growing health concerns, businesses must move swiftly to ensure their personnel systems can keep up with demand, manage complexity, and recruit talent.
Managing Today’s High-Volume Workforce in a Comprehensive Approach-
Additionally, there are six ways in which the process differs from those of traditional, assignment-based workers. External workforce management is not a one-size-fits-all issue. Contingent labor is broadly classified into two types: conventional assignment-based employees and high-volume shift-based workers. Six criteria distinguish these two forms of work from one another. Today, we will discuss those aspects and how a comprehensive workforce management system can address each of them.
1. Staffing volume
Staffing levels may remain stable or fluctuate somewhat in volume to workforce turnover, corporate growth, or unique project requirements within the organization. Alternatively, staffing volume might be dynamic, rapidly increasing in response to big events such as plant openings, seasonal demand, or when external socioeconomic variables readily impact demand.Today’s technology enables a uniform approach to staffing, assisting firms in establishing standard procedures for seeking labor, collaborating with suppliers, and monitoring the worker lifecycle. Staffing at a high volume is extremely transactional and dynamic, necessitating a unique form of technology that places a premium on mobile experience and speed.
2. Worker classification
Contingent work is divided into two types: assignment-based labor and shift-based labor. Assignment-based employees are often white-collar, doing activities in an office environment while sitting at a desk. While shift workers might be white-collar, they are often classified as light industrial or blue-collar employees who conduct physical labor.They may include factory employees, truck drivers, nurses, educators, security guards, hospitality workers, and customer care agents. However, the workforce management system is ideally suited for the dynamic world of shifting shift-based employment because of its straightforward approach to scheduling and time entry and invoicing—all of which differ greatly across employees and employers.
3. Urgency in hiring
While one might argue that all personnel is required instantly in today’s corporate environment, you can fill most assignment-based, in-office tasks via a conventional approach. A recruiting manager obtains approval for a requirement, then opens the request to suppliers who submit applicants. Finally, a person is picked. Many shift-based positions need personnel within days, and the procedure is simplified and expedited.It shines as a central repository for all non-permanent work and the worldwide complications that accompany it. The solution is an agile platform that facilitates process transparency and cooperation at the site level between employees, staffing agencies, and end customers (factory, depot, hospital, convention center, etc.). With pre-approved individuals ready to take shifts, the procedure is accelerated. All stakeholders may track when shifts are filled in real-time and resolve any difficulties promptly.
4. Process of candidate selection
Businesses have varying criteria for candidates. Certain positions demand industry-specific higher education degrees, a minimum amount of expertise, demonstrated communication and interpersonal skills, and an ability to adapt to a new culture. In the light industrial or blue-collar sector, other positions need a trustworthy worker with the appropriate availability and the necessary credentials to comply with compliance and legislation.
Such regulation is vulnerable to change in these sectors, invalidating current qualifications and necessitating renewal. As a result of these factors, the candidate selection process varies significantly to verify a suitable and compliant worker. When the individual fit is critical, the company leverages AI-powered technologies to match applicants better to open jobs. It enables applicants to self-register for opportunities by giving their contact information, availability, and verification of any required certifications for shift-based employment. Once vetted and accepted for employment, users may either self-select available shifts or be alerted when their qualifications match an open shift. When prerequisites such as a driver’s license or safety certification expire or become invalid, they are removed from the pool until a compatible renewal is approved.
5. Complexity of the rate
It is a critical distinction between the two primary categories of contingent work. Most white-collar or assignment-based employees get fixed wages, with few exceptions for regular time and overtime pay. Shift employees face complicated rate calculations due to shift differentials, such as weekend rates, night allowances, late show penalties, and split hours. It necessitates the development of a strong rate control engine capable of accommodating these idiosyncrasies. While controlling rates for white-collar employees are generally conventional inside a company, site managers need reliable time collection systems and billing mechanisms that account for the many intricacies of shift differentials for shift-based employees. Additionally, staffing agencies need insight into their performance and a system for capturing time and shift differentials to charge for their services appropriately.
6. Scheduling of employees
Scheduling white-collar, assignment-based labor is a conventional and uncomplicated practice. It’s a very different picture for shift employees. The turnaround time for filling shifts is much shorter in the light industrial sector, and the no-show rate is far greater. Consequently, shift coverage is a major source of aggravation for site managers since their objectives and expectations heavily depend on it. Other solutions are used by businesses to create start and finish dates and to interface with timekeeping systems to track hours worked. Without automation, scheduling shift-based labor may be very inefficient, needing many spreadsheets and continual back-and-forth contact with suppliers. A real-time roster enables unparalleled, real-time insight into shift schedules, obviating the need for several spreadsheets and emails.Businesses want visibility across their whole extended workforce, regardless of whether they are engaged in staffing, consulting, or other delivery-based activities. Corporate program owners and stakeholders want insight into budgets and headcounts, trust in compliance, and invoicing accuracy. As a result of this purchase, companies may now use the Extended Workforce Platform to manage ALL forms of non-employee labor.
Bottom Line
High volume workforce is extremely transactional and dynamic. Businesses need purpose-built just-in-time staffing and scheduling software when recruiting factory employees, drivers, nurses, security people, hotel labor, contact center professionals, and other shift-based temporary workers. Shift staffing may be simplified with the high-volume workforce solution, resulting in industry-leading visibility, increased fulfillment, and complex timekeeping, supplier compliance, and exact automated invoicing.
