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With dispersed and mobile workforces, managers need help scheduling and optimizing staff. Enter workforce management.
For the GEO Group Inc., whose 9,000 employees build and manage prisons and mental health facilities, people management is a problem that extends beyond the inmates and patients it cares for. To meet investors' expectations, the $614.5-million company must staff operations efficiently. "It's a matter of doing more with what you have," says Neil Schwartzman, CIO of Boca Raton, Fla.-based GEO.
So Schwartzman recently deployed workforce management software, which coordinates staffing levels with workload, among other functions. "It's the kind of product that not only provides efficiencies but can bring about a cultural change in your organization," he says.
Workforce management software has been around for decades, but it's now a rapidly growing sector as companies struggle to accommodate workforces made up of telecommuters, flexible-shift employees and overseas workers. And its adoption rate is particularly swift among medium-sized firms. Workforce software sales in the midmarket are growing in the double digits, compared with the single digits for larger enterprises, according to research firm Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn. Research firm Frost & Sullivan in Palo Alto, Calif., predicts that for the market as a whole, sales will more than double in the next six years, from $203.7 million in 2004 to $522.8 million in 2010.
The need is clear. For a manager, ensuring that all the bases are covered by staff in numerous locations or that any staffing or union rules are incorporated into employee schedules is a considerable challenge. "It's largely a matter of coordinating and balancing your employee resources," says Vicki Herrell, executive director of the Nashville, Tenn.-based Society of Workforce Planning Professionals.
In practical terms, this means tasks such as optimizing worker schedules and routines, distributing workloads, planning for vacations and sick days, matching employees with available equipment, and gaining insight into employment practices. "You don't want employees sitting and twiddling their thumbs, but you don't want unhappy customers either," says Jim Davies, a Gartner analyst.
"The software can also help organizations plan for seasonal needs, production changes, and other events and trends that may raise, lower or in some way alter staffing levels," says Jason Corsello, a senior analyst at Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston.
On the analysis side, workforce management software can help managers identify trends that lead to policy changes or identify workers who are abusing the system. "[It] can help you look at the way you manage absenteeism in your organization or locate that guy who's taking advantage of your lack of policies in a certain situation," says Corsello. "The technology is designed to bring metrics to an area that many companies still tend to manage by assumptions and instinct."
The costs of the software vary. Most vendors have adopted a managed-services delivery model and charge a per-employee, per-month fee of $1 to $5 per month, says Corsello. Typical customers have 500 to 3,000 employees, he says.
Organizations with large numbers of employees who deal directly with the public, such as retail, health care, and municipal police and fire departments, tend to get the most out of the technology. Other prime candidates are contact centers, IT departments and utilities.
To serve those diverse markets, more than a dozen vendors offer various types of tools. The enterprise resource planning giants, which offer the technology as a module within their product suites, probably make up 60% to 70% of the market, says Corsello. Workforce-specific vendors, such as Kronos Inc. in Chelmsford, Mass., and a plethora of boutique vendors are also attempting to carve out niches.
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