What Are the Functions of Workforce Management Software?

Enterprise workforce management (EWM) automates processes that benefit employees and customers. Organizations can respond to customer queries more quickly, foster collaboration, and resolve customer issues faster. It makes it easier to assign and match customer service associates with clients, fostering personal relationships

Task oversight

One of the critical processes in WFM software is task oversight. Task oversight involves assigning, reviewing, and approving tasks. Task oversight is a feature that improves employee efficiency. This feature allows senior managers to have visibility into the performance of their staff. Another key WFM feature is operational cost management. Task oversight helps keep the business on a budget and aligns all aspects of business operations. Task management is vital for increasing productivity, keeping costs under control, and maintaining a positive workplace culture.

Modern ADP workforce management software can give you valuable insight into how you are spending your resources. It will show you where you need to cut costs or redirect them to more critical aspects of the business. This feature is handy if your company has to track employees' hours and attendance. It will also enable you to manage the time spent by each employee and reduce time spent on non-value tasks. In addition, task oversight in workforce management software can help you avoid the headache of manual timesheets.

Absence and leave tracking

Absence and leave tracking are two staples of employee management software—absence tracking systems route requests to the appropriate managers for approval. Absences affect business growth. Reducing employee absences is crucial for a business.

Absence and leave tracking in workforce management can help you plan workforce schedules and reduce time spent on data entry, billing, and project reporting. It can also manage time and leave for current workers. Freshteam features a user-friendly dashboard and candidate engagement apps. In addition, it can reduce errors and boost employee satisfaction through self-service holiday requests. Absence and leave tracking in workforce management software is essential for an organization's workforce planning.

Automation of staffing

Automating the staffing functions of workforce management software is an excellent way to avoid potential errors in determining employee skill levels and scheduling. This software uses statistical data to forecast resource needs and schedule employees accordingly. Many systems also allow managers to test variable factors such as shift size and location to determine the optimal staffing levels. Automation of staffing functions helps avoid understaffing, which can lead to customer dissatisfaction and economic losses.

The benefits of integrating these tools are numerous. First, they help companies manage their employees' customer service better. The software helps to record employee interactions and integrate them into the overall staffing performance. Moreover, it helps HR departments track employee leave and requests, thus ensuring that they do not negatively affect the business's staffing needs. Further, the software also helps automate the scheduling of employees, making it easier to ensure a smooth operation.

Regulatory compliance

Regulatory compliance is an essential function of workforce management software, especially for multinational enterprises. It is a function of many processes, including recruiting and onboarding, employee scheduling, time and absence management, payroll, and contract management. These activities vary based on location and worker type, and the rules a firm must follow to remain compliant may differ. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the ownership of these processes and identify the systems that support them.

Global expansion has increased the complexity of multinational organizations, and different countries have varying regulatory requirements. For example, workers in southern France may be covered under a specific collective bargaining agreement, whereas a standard industry labor union covers those in the US. These differences make it challenging to manage HCM processes across a global workforce. However, workforce management software that complies with these requirements helps firms avoid compliance issues.

Pressing ON As A Tech Mom: How Tech Industry Mothers Set Goals, Define Boundaries, & Raise The Bar For Success

It is not easy being a woman in the tech industry. But, it is even harder to be a woman in tech and have children. The pressure to perform both at work and at home can be overwhelming for any mother working in the tech industry.

Coauthors, technology executives, and mothers Emilia M. D’Anzica and Sabina M. Pons share the stories of successful mothers in the technology industry in their new book Pressing ON As A Tech Mom. This comprehensive guide sheds light on the struggles and celebrates the triumphs that mothers in the technology industry experience throughout their careers. The stories are inspirational and provide a much-needed perspective on what it means to be a working mother in any role in the technology industry.

Grab a copy of Pressing ON on Amazon today.

What Training Should you Recommend for Employees?

No matter what size of business you operate, it can benefit from employee training. Chances are your staff already has the skills needed for the role - that’s why you took them on in the first place - but everyone has their weak spots, and you can build on employees’ strengths as well. 

In this article, we take a look at some of the most common employee training areas and what they can expect to learn when they attend a workshop. These training areas include things like communication strategies, productivity training, project management, and leadership training.

Communication Strategies 

Most people can think of an example of good communication and poor communication. If communication is not working, you tend to misunderstand each other, and complications arise. This isn’t a big deal when you’re going for coffee; it’s more important when you run a business.  

If you want to run your business more efficiently, then focus on your communication strategies. Communication training takes the form of workshops that develop better strategies for listening, speaking, and checking your understanding. This training helps to fine-tune employees’ skills.

Productivity Training 

When it comes to productivity in the workplace, time management is a high priority. Unless your employees are using their time effectively, you will lose money which will affect your bottom line. At the same time, you don’t want to pressure your workers too much, so offer some training.  

In productivity training, your employees will learn how to develop a clear sense of purpose, create priorities for the day and week, change negative behavior patterns, and develop strategies for time management. This type of training can improve your bottom line right away.

Project Management

These days, every task is a project, especially if you are working across platforms and digital workstations. Unless you have a suitable project manager and employees trained in project management strategies, you might run a business that is inefficient and loses out on revenue. 

Again, project management training takes place on retreats and trains employees to work with groups to reach goals and meet targets. Project management can be complicated, especially when sharing complex ideas; these skills need to be sharpened to take your business forwards. 

Leadership Training 

Building a strong and effective workplace takes time; it also takes some investment. One thing you most certainly need in your workplace is leaders, some of them are born, but most of them are made. You can turn your employees into leaders by investing in some leadership training. 

TKI is a form of leadership training that supports conflict handling, which keeps your workplace harmonized and productive. Why not invest in TKI training to create an assertive and cooperative workplace that results in a stronger team that understands each other better.  

Health and Safety Training

When it comes to the safety of your staff, it’s important to do what you can to provide them with all the tools they need to look after themselves and each other. Being able to spot potential risks within the workplace, as well as ensuring they stay on the right side of the law in everything they do, is imperative. 

That’s why it’s good to be mindful of both personal and professional problems your staff can face, especially legally. Fentanyl offenses are on the rise, so it’s good to check in with your staff to ensure they’re doing everything to protect themselves and their peers.

Diversity Training 

The modern workplace contains a rich variety of personalities, ethnicities, sexualities, and genders, but not every workplace is equipped to support everyone in the best ways. Diversity training is important for helping managers to understand and support individual differences. 

However, diversity training is useful for employees at any level. Investing in diversity training helps to create a more inclusive and happier workplace; it also makes your workplace more productive because your employees feel more included and happier in their work environment.  

Digital skills 

Digital skills are often thought to be soft skills, things like word processing skills, email skills, and search engine skills; however, there is a little more to it than that. Although many of your employees will tell you they have digital skills, they might not have all the skills needed today. 

Suppose your employees have limited skills in spreadsheets, presentation software, and customer management systems. Why not send them on a course to upgrade their skills and offer more value to your business? Digital skills don’t take much time to learn but can add excellent value.  

Diversity training is important for helping managers to understand and support individual differences. There are many companies who specialize in diversity in the workplace services that can make sure no one feels left out in the office.

Final Thoughts 

If you want your business to grow in the right direction, then you need to train your employees and add value to the business core. Without training, your staff will be less productive, more fractious, and have less connection - not what you want in the modern workplace at any level. Growing your business takes time and investment, especially in core skills for your staff. 

There’s good news! Training your staff and increasing their skillset has never been easier; all you have to do is invest in the best skills training program for your business. Whether you need stronger leadership or better communication, build up the skill you need in your business today.

How To Empower Women Workers In Your Business

Women play an essential role in social and economic activities. Apart from honoring International Women’s day, it is also crucial to pay attention to their progress in your workplace throughout the year. As a business owner or leader, it is essential to create or often host events that discuss diversity, inclusion, gender equality, or fairness to create a more accommodating environment. Moreover, diverse organizations are usually more successful since they leverage multiple viewpoints and innovation. The following are ways for empowering women in your workplace.

Celebrate Everyone’s Strengths

It is essential to create a habit of acknowledging the accomplishments or strengths of your peers. The misconception that someone does not need praise in adulthood is misleading and false. Apart from combating imposter syndrome, celebrating someone’s strengths also helps retain good employees. Besides, lack of recognition is one of the reasons why people leave an organization.

Connect Them With Female Mentors

Sharing experiences and stories is one of the best ways of changing minds and provoking action. Therefore, connecting your female colleagues or workers with female mentors is an effective way of empowering women workers to succeed in your organization in your firm and the sector in general.

For instance, Sacred Women Book suggests that you can nurture a woman's career by connecting her with established people in the profession, including female leaders and entrepreneurs. This also helps build their ability to thrive and have confidence in their career.

Incorporate Less Experienced Women in Major Projects

One of the best ways to nurture people's careers is by incorporating them into major projects. You can consider picking a woman directly or suggesting one based on your delegation power whenever a chance arises. This provides an opportunity for her to lead or play an essential role in the project. Nowadays, more women continue to play crucial political, social, and economic roles previously perceived to be for men.

Be Approachable and Offer Guidance where Necessary

Some women possess a subconscious notion that there are few opportunities for them. This may prompt them to fight potential competitors to leverage their chances. Unfortunately, some men also suffer from this belief. Although women hold few senior positions worldwide, you can combat this issue by helping each other by providing mentorship or any other form of help.

Create Open Discussions about Wages and Salaries

Being open about salary matters is crucial in addressing the equal pay question. Unfortunately, some organizations still actively discourage this by terming it inappropriate or unprofessional. One of the main reasons some companies discourage openness is the failure to offer fair payments.

Since this is still termed a taboo subject, many women usually shy from feeling confident to discuss or negotiate their payment. It would help if you created a free and open environment by discussing salary issues with workers, especially women.

Set Realistic and Measurable Targets

Typically, women have to prove themselves compared to men. Therefore, you should make it easy for them to set measurable and realistic targets. You can achieve this by adopting key performance indicators (KPIs) to help clear any ambiguities when discussing payments and promotions.

Accept and Embrace Individuality

It is also crucial to accept that women are different. One of the ways of empowering women within your organization is embracing individuality. Besides, you should not accept them for adhering to a stereotypical feminine idea, and also, you should not hold them back when this happens.

Nowadays, any form of discrimination in society, including gender discrimination, should be highly discouraged and condemned. Women should be offered equal opportunities and build and nurture their careers.

How Wellness Programs Help Businesses

In the modern business world, health benefits and associated perks are key components of employee benefits packages and can help attract talent. In addition to health insurance and other common benefits, corporate wellness programs can bolster your employees’ health and your company’s reputation.

Advantages Of Having A Wellness Program

●      Reduces the Risk of Illness: many health issues arise from a lack of health knowledge and awareness. Common health concerns, including high blood pressure and bad cholesterol, are associated with unhealthy habits. Even in situations where the root cause isn’t lifestyle-related, proper diet, exercise, and care still have a positive impact on the condition. A wellness program supports healthy habits and can help protect your employees from avoidable illness, improve existing conditions, and improve long-term health and well-being.

●      Lower Stress Levels: stress is a common part of modern living and can be caused by an assortment of outside factors. Depending on the nature of your business, stress can be an inherent part of many jobs simply due to the nature of the work. Stress is unhealthy and can lead to health issues, reduce overall job performance, and lead to an increase in missed workdays. Your wellness program can help employees in managing stress levels and reducing them as well.

●      Improve Attendance: a lot of workplace absenteeism is caused by health issues both physical and psychological. A well-implemented wellness program can help improve health and reduce stress levels, which in turn improves attendance. Regular attendance improves performance, helps people stay current on work tasks, and prevents getting behind in their duties due to missed workdays.

●      Improve Employee Satisfaction: as noted above, employee benefits are a key part of attracting and retaining the best workers. A wellness program shows employees that a company cares and using these benefits increases employee satisfaction. This reduces the chance they are likely to leave for another job or company. Employees also like to feel valued by their employers and wellness programs help communicate a level of care.

●      Can Reduce Healthcare Costs: finally, a wellness program can decrease healthcare expenses for a business. As wellness programs focus on long-term lifestyle improvements, this can reduce long-term healthcare costs. When your diet is in order and you work out regularly, your need for a doctor can decrease, as can your need for medication.

Final Thoughts

Wellness programs are beneficial for both companies and employees. Being healthy and eating well are common concerns and people want to be in good shape and be productive. Health problems don’t just burden a company, they burden the unwell person. Wellness programs are well worth the cost to implement and help everyone in the workplace.

How Group Insurance Can Benefit an Employer

By: Gregory Rozdeba

Most employees today are looking for an employer that offers more than just a paycheck. One of the benefits they look out for is group health insurance. In fact, the importance of these policies has grown during the pandemic.

A group health insurance plan can also be of significant benefit to the employer. If employees are healthy, productivity and employee turnover can improve. A group health insurance plan also helps employees during medical emergencies. This can reduce stress levels and further improve overall morale.

Let's talk about some of the biggest benefits of group health insurance for the employer.

What is Group Health Insurance?

As the name suggests, this type of policy provides health insurance to a group of people. They are also referred to as corporate health insurance plans. Group health policies are used as a loyalty-building tool in most businesses. The premium payments of these policies are always handled by the employer.

The premiums are generally low for such policies. This is because the risk factor for the insurance company is spread out among a group of people.

How Group Health Insurance Works?

Group health insurance plans are not available to individual buyers. They can only be purchased by companies or groups that can ensure 70% participation. No two plan types are the same due to the differences between insurers, terms, and costs. Once the company has decided on an insurance plan, the employees can choose if they accept or decline the policy.

In some cases, the employees may have an option to opt for basic coverage. There is also an option for advanced coverage, which includes add-ons. The premiums are then split between the company and its employees based on which plan is chosen. Health insurance benefits of these plans may also be extended. these can include the immediate family of the employees for extra charges.

Benefits of Group Health Insurance for Employees

Since the policy is designed for employees, it comes with some significant benefits. Some of these benefits include:

·      Free Health Insurance Coverage

Since the policy is usually purchased by the employer, it ends up being free for the employee. Employees may feel like the coverage they are receiving is not enough. They may make additions at extra cost.

·      Faster Turnaround Time

Being enrolled in group insurance allows for faster claim settlement. Companies prefer going for insurance providers which offer fast service to their employees.

·      Easy Access to Family Health Insurance

Buying health insurance for their spouse and children can be expensive. A group policy can cover all immediate family members of a person. It also comes with no extra premium payments. The plan also offers easy health coverage for parents. This is usually a tough task because of the age and health risks.

·      No Waiting Period

For most insurance policies, insurance companies have a waiting period. especially when it comes to maternity benefits and diseases. This means that a person cannot claim benefits for a certain time after these events. This limitation does not exist in group insurance policies.

·      No Medical Screening Needed

Medical screening is important for insurance companies. it allows them to determine the status of the person who is buying a policy. The premiums on the insurance plan may increase or decrease depending on this. This does not apply to group policies.

Benefits for Employers

There are also noticeable benefits for employers, specially those providing a group health insurance option to their employees. These include:

·      Protecting Their Investments

Every employee is an investment in some way to the company. If they are unable to work due to health reasons, the company loses an asset.

·      Maintaining Productivity

A group insurance plan reduces absentees and increases productivity. This is because employees are more focused on their work rather than medical issues.

·      Attracts Employees

Having a health insurance policy on offer is attractive. It increases the level of commitment and satisfaction from the employees

·       Tax benefits

Having a group plan maximizes tax compensation for your employees. This is because these plans make sure medical expenses are paid pretax for your workers.

Conclusion

If your business qualifies, having group health insurance can be beneficial.

These plans are more affordable than individual health insurance. They help to increase employee morale and you may even attract new talent to take your business to new heights.

4 Leadership Trends Impacting the Business Landscape

The world is changing fast, and businesses must adapt to the demands of the times. Businesses need leaders that can see their companies through the uncertainty.

As the business landscape shifts, leaders need to stay on top of the developments that either threaten their companies or present opportunities. Here are four leadership trends to watch in the years to come.

1. Focus on Change

No longer is it enough to simply direct a business through times of change. The concept of change leadership emphasizes that leaders must be a part of the evolution, using vision and inspiration to encourage the business to anticipate and embrace change. Doing so will allow people to direct change instead of just reacting to it.

2. Challenges of Flexibility

Teams have greater flexibility to work remotely and set their own hours. There are many benefits to allowing employees to work from home, including increased satisfaction and decreased costs. Businesses also have access to a wider pool of talent than ever before.

However, companies also face many challenges with these flexible models. Leaders must ensure worker productivity and develop and manage new types of workflows. Developing a cohesive company culture can be difficult when employees are not located in one place. The most successful leaders will be those who can adapt and reap the benefits of remote work while mitigating the difficulties.

3. Employee Wellbeing

The wellbeing of employees is an increasingly greater focus for businesses as they find that taking care of their human capital leads to more productive and satisfied workers. Leaders should develop programs that address both the physical and mental health of their employees.

Managing with employee wellbeing in mind will become imperative as the workforce continues to demand it. Those businesses that are unable or unwilling to keep up with this trend will find it difficult to hire and retain the best workers.

4. Ethical Accountability

Businesses will need to do more than pay lip service to the growing demand for ethical accountability in corporations. Stakeholders will only accept meaningful change. 

In addition to addressing obvious areas, leaders will also need to eliminate areas of unintentional ethical lapses. Reducing competitiveness in the company culture can help to do this.

Leadership must develop clear procedures for how to handle unethical behavior and follow those procedures consistently.

As the business world continues to see unprecedented change, leaders must anticipate and adapt when faced with the unexpected. Those that can will see their businesses flourish.

Advice on Managing Your Remote Employees

With more employees now working from home than ever before, business owners are finding it much more difficult to manage their teams. Whether remote working is only temporary or it’s something that you’re planning to embrace into the future, many workers are finding themselves separated from one another for the first time. The key challenges for managing remote teams are: 

●      Reduced face-to-face-supervision

●      Information flow breakdowns

●      Worker/social isolation

Fortunately, there are some proven ways to make managing remote employees much easier, ensuring that productivity and motivation are prioritized. Here are the best options to consider when you’re looking for ways to ensure that you're managing your remote employees more effectively: 

Daily Check-Ins

Having a set time every day where your team members can check-in and catch up is vital. This should become an established part of the workday and can take one of two formats. The first is one-on-one check-ins between employee and manager, while the alternative is team-based check-ins for entire departments. The more collaborative your workplace, the more beneficial team check-ins will be. Those daily meetings should be a chance for consultations and for addressing concerns or asking questions. You should also make it easier for remote workers to book additional time with their line managers or department heads. There are always going to be issues that will need to be addressed, and the easier that you make it for your employees to communicate as and when they need to, the more valued they will feel and more part of the organization.

Streamlined Communications

Improved use of more streamlined communication tools is essential for all businesses with remote workers. Emails may be quick to send, but they can be very inefficient because they can easily be ignored. Videoconferencing is a useful communications tool, but it’s not the only option. Your HR team should be very focused on maintaining the high standard of communications that are easy to achieve in a physical workplace, and they have access to more collaborative tools than ever. Cloud-based HR software can cut down on wasted time and ensure that every member of your team is being focused on. Cloud-platforms are indispensable for remote team management.

Remote Social Interactions

One of the main aspects of the workplace that is lost when teams go remote is the social element. This is more important than you might think. Those water cooler catch-ups and break room interactions are vital for team-building and can go a long way to improving internal communications and cross-departmental collaboration. There are lots of options to consider for remote social events. You could simply add ten minutes at the start of formal online meetings for non-work-related chat or go all out and host pizza parties or virtual tours of set locations. Team members must know that they aren’t working in isolation, and those remote social interactions can be one of the most important strategies to adopt while also being very budget-friendly.

There are lots of benefits to remote workers, both for the company and the employees alike. However, it does mean making sure that different management strategies are utilized. The more that you try out new options and adopt new management practices, the more aligned your company will be, even when your remote workers are working geographically distant from each other.