Definition: Workforce Management is the department responsible for leveraging human capital resources toward the objectives of the organization in the most efficient and sustainable manner. The success includes meeting customer service level agreements and staffing fulfillment targets. This is accomplished by balancing the business needs with employee interests and partnering effectively with key resources and departments to ensure alignment on goals, strategies, and insights-based decisions.
Key responsibilities of the Workforce Management department:
- Forecasting and Budgeting: Collaborating with other departments, such as Finance and Operations, to develop accurate demand forecasts based on historical data, seasonal trends, business projections, and other relevant factors.
- Workforce Planning: The process of translating demand forecasts into resource requirements to guide HR and talent acquisition efforts across various planning horizons.
- Scheduling: Developing employee schedules that align with business needs, taking into account employee availability, preferences, labor laws, and workload fluctuations. WFM aims to strike a balance between meeting operational requirements and employee well-being.
- Real-Time Management: Monitoring workforce performance in real-time to ensure adherence to schedules, track attendance, manage unplanned absences, and adjust staffing on the fly when necessary to ensure SLA and staffing rate targets are met.
- Performance Analytics: Collecting and analyzing workforce data to evaluate performance, identify trends, and make data-driven decisions related to staffing, efficiency, productivity, and forecasting.
Key objectives of the Workforce Management department:
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Meeting customer queue wait times and transaction turnaround times.
- Staffing Rate Targets: Ensuring the right number of resources are scheduled at the right time to handle the expected workload.
- Workforce Productivity: Coordinating the efforts of the workforce toward operational targets, such as units produced, calls handled, or tasks completed.
- Schedule Adherence: Monitoring employee adherence to assigned schedules to ensure that operational needs are met and to identify areas for improvement.
- Absenteeism and Attrition Rates: Tracking employee absenteeism and attrition to identify trends and take proactive measures to minimize workforce disruptions.
- Forecast Accuracy: Evaluating the accuracy of workforce demand forecasts to address any instances of over or understaffing to ensure service-related and budgetary objectives are met consistently.
Alternate Terms: WFM, Workforce Organization