Workforce management
Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that aims to optimize the productivity, competency, and engagement of an organization's workforce. Generally this process utilizes software to plan business needs more effectively than through a spreadsheet. The process includes all activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as human resource management, performance and training management, budgeting, forecasting, and scheduling.
While WFM has traditionally focused on operational efficiency and cost reduction, its focus has expanded to include enhancing the employee experience (EX), particularly for frontline or hourly workers.[1] Modern WFM systems are used as tools to improve employee engagement, provide flexible work arrangements, and reduce attrition.[2]
Core Components
[edit]Workforce management software helps users to observe all relevant legislations, local agreements and the contracts of individual employees – including work-life balance guidelines.[3] The starting point is a clear definition of the work required through engineered standards and optimal methods for performing each task as efficiently and safely as possible.
As workforce management has developed from traditional staff scheduling to improve time management, it has become more integrated and demand-oriented.[4]
It's seen as a complete approach to make an organization's workforce as productive as possible, reduce labor costs, and improve customer service.[5] Core processes often incorporate:
- Forecasting and Budgeting: Creating demand-based forecasts to determine the required workload and number of staff. This is often based on analyzing historical data (such as sales figures or customer contacts) to establish engineered standards.
- Scheduling: Creating and deploying schedules to workers. This includes integrating staffing requirements, peak loads, skills, labor laws, and contractual terms.
- Employee Involvement: Providing tools for employees to be involved in the scheduling process, such as managing availability or bidding for shifts.
- Performance Management: Measuring performance, providing feedback and coaching, and managing incentives and online training.
- Time and Attendance: Capturing time-worked data for payroll and managing working time accounts.
- Process Analysis: Monitoring and analyzing the entire WFM process to find efficiencies.
Employee Experience
[edit]A primary driver for modern WFM adoption is the improvement of the employee experience, especially for deskless or hourly workers who may not have corporate email.[2] This includes capabilities such as:
- Flexible Scheduling: Empowering employees with tools for shift-swapping, shift-bidding, and self-scheduling based on their preferences.
- Employee Communications: Delivering targeted corporate communications (such as updates or training modules) directly within the WFM application.
- Sentiment Capture: Using pulse surveys to measure employee sentiment at key moments (e.g., after onboarding or a promotion) to improve the work environment.
The Role of Artificial Intelligence
[edit]The WFM market has been impacted by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), shifting the software from a simple system of record to a "system of intelligence."[6] Uses of AI in WFM could include demand forecasting with predictive analytics, optimizing employee schedules, and assigning workers to tasks based on their skill set.
Field service management
[edit]Workforce management also uses the process of field service management in order to have oversight of company's resources not used on company property. Examples include:
- Demand management – to help forecast work orders to plan the number and expertise of staff that will be needed
- Workforce scheduler – using predefined rules to automatically optimise the schedule and use of resources (people, parts, vehicles)
- Workforce dispatcher – automatically assigning work orders within predefined zones to particular technicians
- Mobile applications for technicians – allowing dispatchers and technicians to communicate in real time.[7]
Market growth
[edit]In the 1980s and 1990s, entrepreneurs focused on topics such as supply chain management, production planning systems or enterprise resource planning. As cost pressures have increased, managers have turned their attention to human resources issues. In all personnel-intensive industries, workforce management has become an important strategic element in corporate management. The process has experienced growth in all sectors, including healthcare.
Delivery Models
[edit]WFM systems are typically delivered in three ways: as an on-premises system (where software is installed on a business's own servers), a hosted system (managed by an outside provider), or as a cloud-based computing service (Software as a Service, or SaaS).[8] While many large enterprises historically used on-premises systems, cloud-based solutions have become the standard for modern WFM. [9]
As society continues to adopt new technologies such as smartphones and enterprise mobility tools, more companies are allowing employees to become mobile. Mobile workforce management refers to activities used to schedule the employees working outside the company premises. It helps distribute workforce efficiently across various departments in an institution.[10]
The need for social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes in both employer's and employee's vision of remote work, which will likely have a long-lasting impact on workforce organization and management in the coming years.[11][12][13]
See also
[edit]- Medical outsourcing
- Meeting scheduling tool
- Project workforce management
- Project management
- Strategic service management
- Time and attendance
- Time tracking software
- Workforce optimization
- Employee Scheduling Software
- Timesheet
References
[edit]- ^ Helfenbaum, Wendy (27 May 2025). "A new generation of workplace apps aim to improve culture and employee retention". Convenience Store News Canada + OCTANE. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
- ^ a b "HR Monitor 2025". McKinsey. McKinsey. 3 July 2025. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Newman, Daniel. "5 Leadership Tips for Digital Workforce Management". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
- ^ Parker, Darren (18 June 2025). "Effective workforce management through AI integration is a key growth driver, expert says". Engineering News. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "3 ways to get the most out of workforce management systems". 2016-09-20.
- ^ Wilson, Jim (15 October 2025). "AI is critical in workforce planning: expert". Canadian HR Reporter. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "4 field service management solutions to keep your jobs on track". 2013-11-15.
- ^ "Why it's time to move workforce management to the cloud". TechRadar. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
- ^ Hammell, Rick (9 December 2024). "Beyond Borders: Adapting To Global Workforce Dynamics And Regulatory Challenges". Forbes. Retrieved 14 November 2025.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "5 challenges of mobile workforce management for 2018. 9 experts say". The Management Blog by BeeBole Timesheet. 2017-11-29. Retrieved 2018-04-27.
- ^ Caligiuri, Paula; De Cieri, Helen; Minbaeva, Dana; Verbeke, Alain; Zimmermann, Angelika (2020-07-01). "International HRM insights for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for future research and practice". Journal of International Business Studies. 51 (5): 697–713. doi:10.1057/s41267-020-00335-9. ISSN 1478-6990. PMC 7266413. PMID 32836500.
- ^ Kniffin, Kevin M.; Narayanan, Jayanth; Anseel, Frederik; Antonakis, John; Ashford, Susan P.; Bakker, Arnold B.; Bamberger, Peter; Bapuji, Hari; Bhave, Devasheesh P.; Choi, Virginia K.; Creary, Stephanie J. (2021). "COVID-19 and the workplace: Implications, issues, and insights for future research and action". American Psychologist. 76 (1): 63–77. doi:10.1037/amp0000716. hdl:11343/254106. ISSN 1935-990X. PMID 32772537.
- ^ Copulsky, Gerald C. Kane, Rich Nanda, Anh Phillips, and Jonathan (10 February 2021). "Redesigning the Post-Pandemic Workplace". MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved 2021-08-07.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Sources
[edit]- AMR Research, 2006: The Human Capital Management Applications Report, 2005–2010: "AMR Research Releases Report Showing Human Capital Management and Customer Management as Fastest-Growing Enterprise Application Segments at 10%".
- DMG Consulting: 2009 Contact Centre Workforce Management Market Report: "DMG Consulting: Workforce Management Market Grew 7.4 Percent in 2008".
- Workforce Asset Management Book of Knowledge (John Wiley & Sons Publishing, 2013): Disselkamp, Lisa, ed. (2013). Workforce Asset Management Book of Knowledge. doi:10.1002/9781118636442. ISBN 9781118636442.
- Portage Communications, LLC: "Erlang Calculations Compared to Simulation Methods for Workforce Management". 20 July 2016.
