Workforce Management Enable duty or shift planning. However, this is only possible if laws, tariffs, company agreements, personnel requirements, and the required qualifications are considered. And not entirely without control.
Frithjof Bergmann demanded self-determined and responsible work as early as the 1970s with his New Work concept. In the 21st century, thanks to digitalization, the independent organization of working hours is finally becoming a reality. Mobile and flexible work, whether in the office, home office, cowering space, or field service, is efficient for managing the workload within the defined weekly working hours. The basis for this is usually short-term and long-term working time accounts. They create room for maneuver and help to balance out fluctuating order books, customer frequencies, or fluctuating patient numbers economically.
Workforce Management – Personnel Deployment Planning As Required
For demand-oriented and employee-oriented resource planning to work, figures from ERP, order, or production planning systems, for example, have to flow into the disposition. This is possible with the help of workforce management solutions. The system considers the relevant information for the respective company, such as the current and forecast order situation, time balances, and wishes of employees or individual working time models. The annual vacation schedule breaks or statutory rest periods are also shown here. At the push of a button, a plan proposal is created that serves both the company’s interests and the workforce. Digital workforce management via app and self-services even enables teams to plan almost independently today.
Flexible Working Hours Motivates
The flexible handling of working and vacation times must be done in close coordination with the employee. In times of Business, employers in system-critical industries, in particular, should take the desire for relaxation through compensatory free time or overtime reductions seriously. If the duty roster considers the individual life and performance situation of the employees, this has many advantages. The need for time off or sick leave is reduced, and the willingness to take on an additional shift increases. A software for workforce management offers various possibilities to take the employees’ wishes into account when scheduling shifts.
Workforce Management Makes Employers Attractive
For example, the health care system, which the shortage of skilled workers has shaken for many years, relies on predictable working hours and desired duty rosters to be able to fill positions more quickly. This is an essential tool for care facilities, social services, and hospitals to be attractive employers. Employees can use the workforce management software to specify their preferred working hours, shifts, or working days. The system takes these into account when creating the duty roster and, at the same time, includes the daily updated time and vacation balances.
Practical Example:
A Clinic has been offering desired working hours for many years and is successfully implementing this concept. The approximately 2,000 employees, 260 doctors, can adapt their work volume to their personal life situation with three months’ notice. For example, a full-time employee can reduce the collectively agreed working hours to 80 percent at any time – for a limited period, for at least six months, or an indefinite period – and increase it back to 100 percent as required. In addition, a jumper pool was introduced. The medical specialists are available across wards and for specific shifts or days of the week. The next step for even more employee satisfaction has already been taken:
Swap Working Hours Digitally
Even after the plan has been drawn up, employees can use digital file-sharing sites to swap shifts at short notice – conveniently and independently. All necessary information such as work patterns, time, job, and the required qualifications are available at a glance. The highlight is that the software only allows requests and exchange offers if all defined rules are met, such as a minimum or maximum working time or compliance with rest periods. In this way, flexibility remains within the corporate framework despite more individual freedom; Trust and control are no longer opposites.
Practical Example:
With the help of workforce management, the manufacturing company launched the “Deskless Workforce” offensive. The aim was to efficiently involve production employees who do not have a desk or PC workstation in the processes relating to working hours. Using intuitive self-services, so-called Staff Center Workplaces, commercial teams can conveniently and peerlessly apply for their vacation, request time corrections, and query time and vacation balances. This works very efficiently at one of the PC workstations in the break rooms. All you have to do is log in with your transponder via a reader, enter your password and have access to your work account.
Workforce Management: New Work Is Within Reach
A self-determined organization of working hours was previously mostly reserved for the executive suite. With digital workforce management, flexible work concepts are becoming a reality for large parts of the workforce. Self-services and workforce management apps also enable employees without a workplace PC and without a company email address, whether on the shop floor, on the construction site, or in retail, to access their target and actual times and more personal responsibility for duty scheduling.
