Workforce Scheduling Driving Business Performance How Workforce Scheduling Optimization Aligns the Workforce with Business Demands for Customer Satisfaction and Success While many factors affect an organization s ability to achieve success, none is more important than managing their most important asset: people. As businesses strive for productivity improvements and insight into how they can better align their workforce with business demands to increase sales and meet customer satisfaction objectives, one proven means of driving performance is with optimized workforce scheduling.
Driving Business Performance With Optimized Workforce Scheduling Executive Summary When employees represent anywhere from 35 percent to 70 percent of organizational costs, getting the right staff with the right skills in the right place at the right time is essential to improving the quality of service delivered to customers and making greater strides in producing better bottomline results. Across the industries that rely heavily on workers schedules for success, it may be surprising to find that many businesses are still using manual processes to schedule and deploy their workforce. Manual scheduling is cumbersome and time consuming, impedes decisions regarding workforce deployment, can hinder the process of assigning staff to tasks or roles, and compromises payroll accuracy. To streamline payroll processes and fully leverage the workers that drive business performance, organizations should consider an automated workforce scheduling and optimization solution. Optimized staff schedules can: Positively impact customer satisfaction, drive sales and reduce operating costs. An automated workforce management solution with optimized scheduling helps organizations accurately forecast and schedule workers to meet both customer service and cost objectives. Enable managers to produce a labor schedule in minutes rather than hours or days and to develop staff schedules to meet peak period demands that can lead to increased customer satisfaction. Improve staff deployment and productivity, increase effectiveness of decision-making, and ensure payroll accuracy (while reducing the need for error correction). Provide real-time visibility into staffing levels and give organizations the tools they need to effectively and efficiently plan, deploy and manage their workforce in accordance with regulatory and union requirements, as well as corporate policies. Gain a complete and accurate view of workforce movement and metrics by replacing manual processes with automated systems. Organizations realize higher levels of productivity and get the biggest return on their labor investment. www.cybershift.com 2 2009 CyberShift, Inc.
This paper examines workforce scheduling optimization, the opportunities it presents, and the enterprise application solutions available to manage and support workforce optimization initiatives. Match Labor Supply with Business Demands Without a system in place, the tasks of staffing shifts, managing sick-day replacements and responding to fluctuating business demands are laborious and inefficient. Visibility into resource availability is limited and, without a dashboard view of the workforce, businesses may not know if they re paying for unnecessary overtime or scheduling employees to work hours beyond what is considered safe or within contractual guidelines. When an automated workforce management system is in place, employers benefit from the ability to track key performance indicators (KPIs) that provide real-time visibility into the status of cost and sales metrics and staff productivity. Enterprises can optimize schedules based on business demand, and as a result, realize an increase in productivity, enhance operations and ensure the right resources with the right skills are available when and where they need them. For example, although industry analysts predicted last year s holiday season to be the worst in decades, seasonal foot traffic was still higher than what retailers typically experienced at other points during the year. Yet many stores were understaffed, frustrating customers who were left unattended. These consumers took their business elsewhere in search of a better experience. Businesses with an automated scheduling solution in place could have ensured that their departments were properly staffed by a sufficient number of knowledgeable personnel ready to help customers make buying decisions. A 2005 report from investment bank Bernstein estimated that a schedule optimization tool, along with planning and forecasting software, could boost revenue by one to three percent at a retailer with $4 billion in annual sales, resulting in a $2 million to $6 million rise in earnings. While almost every organization can benefit from a scheduling solution, those that rely heavily on scheduling such as manufacturers, call centers, transportation providers, healthcare, retailers and those with field services operations realize the greatest benefits. Scheduling software delivers real-time information that enables companies to allocate staff according to employee-to-revenue ratios, or other relevant metrics such as placing workers in certain areas, locations or in departments to accomplish the tasks or service that generate better bottom-line results and within budget allocations. Once the organization has a dashboard view of the workforce and insight into what staff is available and their skill sets, managers are able to make more effective staffing decisions. This enterprise-level visibility ensures better alignment with contract requirements, worker certifications www.cybershift.com 3 2009 CyberShift, Inc.
and skills, and shift schedules to meet forecasted demand, further enabling companies to meet their business objectives. A workforce management solution with scheduling optimization also eliminates errors that result from manual processes. Along with increased accuracy from electronic data entry, a workforce scheduling solution ensures time and attendance entries are correct, reduces time theft (resulting from extended breaks, tardy arrivals and early departures) and buddy punching (when one employee clocks in for another who may be tardy or absent), enforces adherence to business rules and facilitates compliance with government regulations, as well as with internal policies and union requirements. Since these business rules drive accruals, paid time off, time accrued towards participation in retirement programs and leave management, having them properly tracked and validated can result in greater accuracy of benefits accruals and lower payroll costs. Drive Better Decisions A company s workforce has become increasingly recognized as a critical component to business success. In fact, most senior executives view the workforce as a key competitive differentiator and one of the top priorities on their agenda. The biggest benefit of a workforce management solution with scheduling optimization is that it provides pertinent information that drives better decisions to meet business demands and deliver a competitive edge. Scheduling optimization can reduce and better distribute labor costs, boost sales and increase productivity by ensuring the right staff with the right skills is available at the right cost. Scheduling optimization software goes beyond time and attendance tracking to become a smart tool that enables businesses to improve operational efficiency and productivity and leverage workforce performance to impact business performance. Increased capabilities include: Ability to align staff with the business strategy. Without question, products and services are important elements in business success. The workforce is increasingly recognized as the single ingredient that ties it all together, transforming plans and objectives into results. A scheduling optimization solution helps managers create employee schedules that take into account data about an organization s demand such as sales volume, store foot traffic, seasonal and holiday peaks or hospital bed counts. It also ensures managers schedule the right blend of skills, number of workers and at the lowest possible labor costs. For instance, if a manufacturing plant needs to run production on a Saturday, from a scheduler s perspective, they need to identify workers who have the right skill sets and determine who is already scheduled to work as opposed to scheduling others whose Saturday hours may result in time and a half or double time. Through the scheduling software solution, managers can easily www.cybershift.com 4 2009 CyberShift, Inc.
gauge resource availability, consider the costs of the required skill sets and ensure the assembly line meets its production schedule. Gain insight into skill sets and certifications, work schedules, turnover and absenteeism. Once an organization has visibility into its workforce, it can rapidly identify and work to resolve issues such as increased absenteeism or turnover. Perhaps analysis reveals that absences spike on Fridays before a holiday weekend. Businesses with this insight might choose to offer personal time on that day and thus be able to plan for additional workers to keep the business moving forward. Or, they can identify patterns such as turnover correlated to a particular manager or shift. Having this insight enables businesses to take a proactive approach to scheduling to meet business goals. Facilitate compliance with local and federal regulations, internal policies and union requirements. Proper time and attendance recordkeeping and management is another growing area of focus for workforce optimization. Under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) covered employers must grant time off to eligible employees; the definition of which is multi-faceted. Having an automated workforce management system in place can benefit employers that grant such leaves with assurance all of the requirements have been accurately met. Another key regulatory driver for automating workforce management is related to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). FLSA establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor standards, which affect full- and part-time workers. Organizations with a high number of hourly workers must adhere to the requirement that hours beyond a 40-hour work week be paid at 1.5 times the hourly rate and employers that fail to comply with this requirement face severe penalties. By gaining insight into workforce metrics, organizations can ensure compliance with the FLSA and schedule employees to minimize overtime charges. Look at scheduling from a broader perspective. Instances where scheduling is at the crux of workforce management matter abound. For example, at a public transportation company, senior managers were booking a minimum number of hours worked for a maximum number of hours paid, leaving other workers with schedules that were not attractive to them. By orchestrating scheduling through manual events, some operators ended up working split shifts with a long period of time between the two shifts or working extended hours beyond safety regulations. In addition to creating discord among workers, it also created potential safety hazards for passengers that relied on this mode of transportation. A scheduling solution would have enabled this organization to adjust schedules in real time, control costs and adhere to regulations and safety standards. Employee satisfaction could have been increased by considering their preferences for shift times or tasks. Scheduling solutions can empower employees to control their own schedules and take into account their choices while adhering to specific guidelines such as the minimum recovery time required between trips for transit workers. www.cybershift.com 5 2009 CyberShift, Inc.
Support eco-initiatives. By gaining insight into worker s schedules, availability and skill sets, organizations can also support eco-initiatives such as telecommuting by identifying who is able to work remotely and who is required onsite without compromise to business goals. Employers are able to leverage this perquisite as a way to retain hard-to-find talent or specialized skills while optimizing organizational performance. Improve planning and business forecasting. Having a system in place provides organizations with insight that allows them to plan for excess capacity or meet anticipated demands. For example, in the airline industry, a shortage of security or aircraft personnel during the height of travel season could result in disgruntled passengers, longer wait times and planes that do not take off on time. An automated solution can assist in forecasting demand by providing information that enables organizations to sufficiently staff their operations. Choosing To Automate Increase employee satisfaction. A scheduling solution positively impacts the employees workplace satisfaction by giving them the ability to better control their own schedules. While the solution helps drive best practices by fitting employees and contractors into expected workloads, the employee can have some say in their schedule by arranging for substitutions when they need to be out of the office. Employees can easily manage their availability for time off, arrange the coverage they need while they re out of the office and at the same time, ensure the business keeps moving forward. Once the decision to automate has been made, keep in mind the needs of your business and how managing workforce movement and metrics influence business optimization. Be certain that the solution provides alerts and workflows that help to optimize key scheduling tasks, enabling supervisors and managers to track staff performance against specific objectives/metrics and to take appropriate corrective actions. Look to the solution to provide employees, contractors, managers and scheduling administrators with the flexibility to replicate, improve on and automate complex scheduling processes that are needed to remain efficient and competitive. Also be sure to look at how the solution is architected to determine how flexible it will be in addressing complex business requirements and the needs of a diverse employee population. A best-of-breed solution should offer personalization to address your specific business needs to maximize productivity and employee satisfaction. Understand that the workforce management application is touched by virtually every employee in the organization and therefore needs to be intuitive and easy to use with little or no employee www.cybershift.com 6 2009 CyberShift, Inc.
training. Familiarity with the system encourages adoption and offers immediate productivity gains, delivering a better return on the technology investment. When choosing a solution, look for an application that meets your cost requirements. The flexibility of a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) On-Demand delivery model will speed up the implementation process at a more affordable price point. As your company evolves, having the flexibility to bring the application in-house will ensure protection of your investment and that the solution will continue to meet business needs. Organizations that choose to optimize scheduling are able to take advantage of real-time information into labor costs, staff utilization and employee skill set availability, making it possible for them to be more proactive in their decision-making and get the biggest return on their labor dollar. When it comes to scheduling, time really is money. When you consider a manager s time spent analyzing critical information to make decisions on forecasting staffing requirements (how many, what skills, where, when), keeping operations running smoothly and keeping customers satisfied, time can increase sales opportunities and profit margins as well as improve customer service. Through an automated workforce management solution with scheduling optimization, payroll processes are simplified and increased visibility into workforce movements and metrics enables organizations to react to change and meet business demands. When employees represent the largest variable expense for most organizations, making sure the right people are available at the right time (and at the right cost) can boost customer service, drive sales and impact profitability. About CyberShift, Inc. CyberShift, Inc. is a leading provider of workforce management and expense management software and services focused on helping mid-sized to large, complex organizations improve organizational performance and profitability. Through its integrated Workforce Management 3G suite, which includes time and attendance, advanced scheduling and reporting and analytics, companies can more effectively plan, manage and deploy their workforces, reduce costs and improve processes across business operations. CyberShift s Necho Expense automates the processing and facilitates the management of employee business expenses such as travel and entertainment and helps companies improve compliance; enforce expense policies and procedures and increase visibility into operations. Offered in both traditional license fee and Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) delivery models, CyberShift s innovative solutions have been awarded U.S. and Canadian patents. CyberShift is the first enterprise-class workforce and expense management solution provider to enable support for the BlackBerry platform. To learn how CyberShift s solutions can help your workforce, contact CyberShift by calling (877) 274-4381 or visiting us at www.cybershift.com. www.cybershift.com 7 2009 CyberShift, Inc.