Navigating the Future: The Role of Workforce Management Software in HR
March 27, 2024
by Matt Cromar
HR teams face the challenge of managing people and hitting company goals. An effective workforce management system is their secret weapon. It turns the tide by helping attract and retain frontline employees by giving them more schedule and pay flexibility and control and modern self-service tools.
WFM tools can also help foster a stable environment where workers feel financially secure so that you can reduce stress levels among your team. People who aren’t worried about unpredictable hours or paychecks can better focus on their tasks. And let’s face it: when your team is happy and engaged, productivity soars—and so does business success.
This blog explores how workforce management software, like Legion WFM, plays a key role in HR success. You’ll get the scoop on its basic functions, learn about its evolution from paper to pixels, and see what features are must-haves for modern businesses. We’ll also look at how it meshes with other systems and peek into what’s next for workforce management tech.
Key Takeaways
- Workforce management software, exemplified by platforms like Legion WFM, is pivotal for HR teams in efficiently managing people, ensuring employee satisfaction, and easily achieving organizational goals.
- Core features like real-time data syncing, automated scheduling, and labor law compliance contribute to optimized labor and improved employee engagement.
- Legion WFM seamlessly integrates with existing HR systems such as Workday HCM and SAP SuccessFactors, ensuring compatibility and communication between platforms for streamlined processes.
Understanding Workforce Management Software in HR
Workforce management software has become a cornerstone of modern human resources. It goes beyond simple scheduling, diving deep into the complexities of managing an organization’s most valuable asset: its people.
The primary role of WFM in HR is to streamline processes that used to be manual and time-consuming.
Creating schedules, tracking work hours, or ensuring compliance with labor laws can all be more efficient thanks to workforce management solutions like Legion WFM. While saving time, you also improve employee satisfaction by offering flexibility and transparency.
By leveraging real-time data from integrated HR systems, these platforms can instantly generate optimized schedules that align with business needs while considering employee skills and preferences—a win-win for retention and recruitment.
The Evolution of Workforce Management Tools
Once a landscape dominated by paper rosters and manual tracking, modern workforce management has transformed into one that is intelligent, automated, and employee-centric. The shift began with electronic timesheets, simplifying payroll but requiring substantial human input.
Technological advancements allowed for more sophisticated software solutions that streamlined and automated daily tasks. With AI, platforms like Legion WFM have changed the game. These innovations enable HR professionals to increase the precision and accuracy of forecasts and automatically create optimal labor plans that predict staffing needs across locations, channels, and more. Forecasts and schedules are continuously improved, learning from manager edits while giving employees more flexibility and control over their schedules.
Legion Workforce Management Software
Legion Workforce Management software stands at the forefront with features that can transform your HR operations. It expertly balances real-time data integration and automated processes to elevate employee and employer experiences.
Real-Time Integration
Our system syncs with your existing HR platforms, immediately reflecting changes in employee status, pay scales, skills, or training. This connection supports accurate scheduling decisions that adapt on the fly to fluctuating demands while also optimizing your labor resources.
Legion’s modular WFM platform seamlessly integrates with leading HRMS and payroll systems such as SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, ADP, and others. With a modern cloud platform built for scale and integration, Legion’s self-learning modules automatically improve based on changing data patterns.
Data-Driven Decision-Making
Workforce management software like Legion WFM transforms HR into a powerhouse of data-driven decision-making. Legion’s Strategic Insights makes data easily accessible and actionable and includes a range of dashboards, reporting, and analytics options.
Legion offers a comprehensive suite of capabilities tailored for operations and executive teams, featuring a vast collection of standard reports, customizable report creation to align with your business drivers, and advanced automation for in-depth analysis and management of key performance indicators (KPIs) through Strategic Insights.
Legion Report Generator delivers a comprehensive reporting tool that provides real-time operational reporting to key stakeholders who create reports, such as store managers and corporate administrators. Users can create and customize reports based on their specific operational needs with a user-friendly interface encompassing the entire Legion data dictionary.
Optimizing Labor Planning and Scheduling for Compliance
Gone are the days of manual schedule creation; enter Legion’s planning tools.
Legion WFM enables intelligent automation to create optimal schedules that match business needs with employee preferences and skills 96% of the time. With Automated Scheduling, managers can instantly create optimized schedules based on labor rules, budget constraints, compliance rules, and employee skills, performance, and preferences.
Optimized Labor
The key to cost-effective operations is understanding when and where employees are most needed.
With Labor Optimization, Legion analyzes historical data alongside real-time inputs such as sales forecasts or foot traffic predictions. This allows for pinpointing optimal staffing levels that meet demand without overstaffing—a balancing act crucial for financial stability.
Companies can reduce idle time and prevent burnout by matching workforce availability with customer demand. They can also create schedules that support work-life balance, which is increasingly important for attracting and retaining talent.
Automated Scheduling
Automated Scheduling can reduce scheduling time by 50% compared to manual scheduling or simple software. And managers don’t have to worry about getting employees’ availability right. Businesses can create bias-free schedules that respect employee preferences—boosting satisfaction rates—and adhere strictly to budgetary constraints.
Labor Law Compliance
It’s always a challenge to navigate labor laws. Non-compliance can lead to legal repercussions and damage staff morale.
Our automated systems track changes in labor laws, proactively allowing organizations to adapt swiftly without extensive manual oversight, thereby avoiding costly penalties and fostering an ethical workplace culture rooted in fairness.
Better Employee Engagement
By integrating Legion WFM into your HR processes, you can empower your employees with greater control over their work schedules while streamlining workforce management tasks for HR leaders. It’s a simple yet powerful way to enhance productivity, improve morale, and drive business success.
Performance and Rewards
True engagement starts when employees feel valued and have a sense of ownership over their work. Legion’s Performance and Rewards system taps into this by acknowledging achievements in real-time, fostering an environment where contributions don’t go unnoticed.
When people see their efforts recognized, they’re more likely to be invested in their roles. Better job satisfaction goes hand-in-hand with productivity.
Legion InstantPay
Recognition isn’t the only piece of the puzzle. Financial stress can disengage even the most dedicated workers.
Legion InstantPay is fully embedded into the Legion app, providing real-time access to earned wages in the same app your employees regularly use to check their schedules, record time, manage time off, and more.
InstantPay is a game-changer; it gives employees access to earned wages before payday, providing peace of mind that can translate into greater focus on the job.
Frontline Communications
Effective communication bridges gaps between departments, ensuring smooth operations and better teamwork.
Frontline Communications transforms how you communicate with employees and radically improves retention rates.
Legion offers tools tailored for direct interaction between teams and management so everyone stays informed about changes or new opportunities within the company.
Schedule Empowerment Through the Mobile App
Legion’s mobile app allows workers to input their availability into the system anytime through their smartphones, providing HR leaders with real-time visibility into potential staffing levels across different shifts and locations.
Beyond indicating when they’re available, our application lets employees set preferences for specific days or times they’d like (or prefer not) to work and swap or pick up shifts as desired.
Integrating Workforce Management Software with Other HR Systems
Workforce management software is a linchpin for operational efficiency. Integrating Legion’s Workforce Management platform with existing HR systems transforms disjointed processes into a streamlined powerhouse. Legion is designed to be modular, allowing companies to integrate into key HR and operational systems.
The key to seamless integration lies in compatibility and communication between systems.
Legion WFM boasts integrations with industry leaders like SAP and Workday, so data can transfer across platforms without hiccups or manual intervention.
Legion’s open API infrastructure simplifies integrating payroll and benefits administration. By tracking status changes, pay adjustments, skills development, and more at their fingertips, managers can make more informed decisions that impact scheduling accuracy.
Future Trends in Workforce Management Technology
The landscape of HR is ever-evolving, and WFM technology stands at the forefront of this transformation.
Emerging trends like machine learning and generative AI are reshaping how HR professionals approach their roles.
Machine learning continues to evolve and create smarter systems that learn from data patterns. This innovation enables software like Legion WFM to forecast demand precisely and create optimized staffing plans to meet business demands.
Generative AI is poised to revolutionize how employees interact with the software they use, heralding a new era where workforce management becomes seamlessly intuitive for the deskless worker. This technology transforms WFM functions into easily accessible tools through simple conversational interactions. Legion’s sophisticated Workforce Management software provides valuable foresight that empowers decision-makers within human resources. To learn more about how Legion is transforming HR, schedule a demo today.