Transforming Human Capital Management (HCM) systems to the cloud has dominated the HR applications market for the past years, but now companies are looking into Workforce Management (WFM) solutions.
WFM solution market is quite fragmented. There are several solutions with full suite offering as well as point solutions with few specific functionalities. Scheduling, time and absence management are the heart of WFM. Leading WFM and HCM technologies in the market include functionalities that overlap. Hence, when considering a system renewal of either Cloud HCM or WFM or both, it is good to keep in mind the big picture and really consider what makes sense from the overall architecture point of view.
Local legislation and Nordic labor laws form a challenging set of requirements for any solution. Implementing new applications requires input from the customer side for requirement definition and testing in order to validate compliance. Also, payroll integration testing plays a big role as usually WFM systems give input to payroll. However, investments in this area will pay out: a configurable system gives companies possibility to react immediately to changes in regulations and local agreements without complex back-end accesses. The current shift in the labor market means that flexibility of this sort is demanded from tools and applications more than ever and the trend will only continue to grow. New solutions providing access to, for example, pay codes and absence codes enable easy and flexible maintenance and adaptability to changes. Error-free payroll data alone can make significant cost savings.
Before choosing the combination of technologies and deciding on the system architecture there should be a careful consideration on the requirements and thought put into the unique characteristics of each business. Employees working in operational functions have usually very different needs than those in the administrative tasks. The number of part-timers, lease workforce, amount of staff that need scheduling, industry specific legal and local requirements are examples of the points to think through.
Whereas the HCM tools are important to managers and HR, it might be that they are not as widely adopted in functions, where employees do not have constant access to computers during their workday. Usually adoption for these employee groups is high with WFM solution that has mobile features and content, which is crucial for their day-to-day work, such as schedules and time balances. Mobile solution reaches people on the go and ensures timely communication and information delivered to the employee regardless where they are. User-friendly and comprehensive mobile usability drive employee experience and give the end users a feeling of empowerment.
A successful combination of HCM and WFM systems enhances efficiency while driving user adoption and creating unique employee experiences for all functions of your organization.
Jasmiina works as a WFM & HCM Consultant in Tieto Cloud Born Enterprise Applications unit. She is an enthusiastic dancer and applies that same passion to support organizations in cloud HR transformations. As a WFM expert she leverages her extensive background in hospitality industry to identify with customers and their challenges.