Workforce management systems are quickly becoming one of the most adopted forms of business technology. From healthcare to retail, companies across a spread of industries are seeing the benefits, optimising their staff management with innovative solutions that promise better productivity and improved employee experience.
Naturally, with the introduction of any new software comes a short period of upheaval. Processes are changed, employees must adapt, systems must be integrated. Of course, the long term gain often outweighs the momentary shift, however, to ensure a smooth process of implementation, businesses must consider both the software’s specification and the supplier. Choosing the right partner for your organisation not only provides reassurance for a positive ongoing relationship - it speeds up the rate of return on investment too.
Here we share the top factors to consider before selecting the best workforce management supplier for your business.
7 things to consider before implementing a workforce management system
Partnership approach
When introducing anything new into the workplace, there’s always a concern for your employees’ response. Will they be open to change? How will it affect engagement and productivity? But most importantly, will they use the innovation to the best of its ability? If employees are hostile towards your workforce management system, the prospect of a return on investment can be limited. It’s therefore crucial that suppliers work side by side with their clients to nurture a positive employee response throughout the entire introductory process - and beyond.
Consider a supplier who prioritises a partnership approach, particularly in the early stages of implementation, and understands the change being asked of your workers. Project communication is crucial to success and your provider should be able to craft messaging that clearly states what, how and why the technology will affect workers.
A top-notch vendor should also provide ample employee training across the business inclusive of group sessions and remote support. But what’s even more important is ensuring that all senior staff are clued up. At Rotageek, we turn head office system owners into certified scheduling geeks, meaning that your employees can go to their colleagues for help, as well as our team of experts. We also like to get a pulse of how happy your employees are with the scheduling process before and after roll out, so you’ll have quantitative data on how much we’re improving their experience.
Most providers strive for client satisfaction from head office, but those who aim to please the entire workforce are much more likely to implement a service that generates greater benefits to overall business performance.
A relevant client base
A successful workforce management system is not a one size fits all solution. Every business is different. From high street retailers to franchise management, not even brands in the same industry experience the same obstacles.
For example, Rotageek’s digital scheduling software was the perfect solution to O2’s need for meeting customer demand. However beauty based retailer, Sephora, had more complex requirements. In the Middle East, the chain benefited from data-driven technology that forecast customer demand from historic footfall data, creating automatic schedules that drastically improved efficiency and productivity within 75 stores.
Your employee management supplier must be able to solve your specific issues, therefore ensure to seek out your partner’s previous client base to gain a realistic insight into their capabilities.
Agile development
Technology is constantly evolving - and your supplier’s should be too. With increasing needs for fairness rules, flexible working and individual employee requirements, the agility of scheduling software is a key consideration.
A smaller, more personable vendor often has the upper hand when it comes to developing their specialist solution. Bespoke requirements can be met through increased flexibility, meaning that clients’ individual problems are considered and solved to drive additional efficiencies and ROI.
At Rotageek, we pride ourselves on our partner-led agility, having provided a number of bespoke solutions to leading retailers. With a unique requirement for multi-location scheduling, we partnered with Wiliam Hill to provide a simple way to schedule shared employees across an entire cluster, whilst Pets At Home additionally benefited from tailored visibility of schedules per location.
'We chose Rotageek for a number of reasons. Firstly, we wanted to work with a business that was small enough & personal enough, to really listen to our problems. We didn’t want to be ‘just another retail account’ to a large Human Capital Management enterprise. On a related note, Rotageek is a really agile company - and that translates to how they develop their tech and make client-specific configurations. We chose Rotageek because we felt that we would be included right from the point of product development, meaning that the solution we get is exactly what we need. And finally, because of all of the different ways we were using to schedule, it would have been impossible for us to go directly from our current scheduling solutions to fully automated rostering. Rotageek’s Digital Scheduling solution was the perfect next step for us.” Dave Abbott, Head of IT Service Delivery at Dune London
System integration
There’s nothing more frustrating than investing in a new exciting piece of software that doesn’t work alongside your current systems. This not only dampens your employees’ acceptance of change - it can have a detrimental effect on productivity too.
It’s therefore of vital importance to seek suppliers whose technology can integrate with both HCM and payroll systems as well as any bespoke platforms in place. The best scheduling software vendors will already work alongside major providers however integration timelines should always be agreed in advance.
Cloud-based solution
In today’s modern world, people expect digital innovations to be accessible on the go, no matter their location. Limiting information to one device or shared harddrive is no longer flexible enough for most organisations, particularly those with a deskless workforce.
Instead, cloud-based workforce management systems offer an affordable alternative, without the heavy-upfront investment often associated with new software. Implementation is much simpler and quicker, with guaranteed data security through authentication standards. Plus as an online solution, cloud-based applications are compatible with most environments, rather than being limited to a Windows Operating System or certain browser. Such solutions therefore prevent the need to continually update technology in order to keep up with rapidly changing computer or smartphone models.
Ongoing support
Your workforce management system is rolled out. Training is complete. Automatic, fair scheduling is underway. But what happens next? The ongoing success of new technology isn’t just down to successful implementation. Suppliers must provide ample ongoing solutions for employee support.
Purpose-built knowledge centres provide round the clock information for users at any time of day or night. But human support is guaranteed to increase staff satisfaction. Ensure to partner with a supplier that provides direct contact with their customer service team through integrated instant messaging software such as Intercom. Users can be directly guided through their individual problems as and when they happen, meaning issues are solved quickly and frustrations are avoided.
Looking to partner with a leading workforce management provider? Find out more about how Rotageek’s first-rate employing scheduling technology can revolutionise your business today.
