New Careers in Workforce Management

What is Workforce Management?

Workforce management (WFM) involves the efficient staffing, forecasting, scheduling, and real-time changes in personnel that a company needs. The goal of workforce management is to have the “right number of people, in the right location at the right time, doing the right work”.

With the right technology, processes, and procedures, you can successfully manage your staff for optimum performance and reduce labor costs. However, workforce management is an art as well as a science. It is more than just creating timetables; it is a highly automated procedure that provides you with the necessary information to make educated choices. WFM can be taught and continually built upon to provide consistently excellent outcomes, and there are many reasons why you should study it. Read on to find out more.

“right number of people, in the right location at the right time, doing the right work”.

The Workforce Is Changing

Obviously, the conventional workforce is undergoing significant change right now. The COVID-19 pandemic imposed the need for social distancing, which has hastened the acceptance of remote working. This will likely have a long-lasting impact on workforce organization and management in the coming years.

Over the last several years, the traditional nine-to-five workforce has been gradually replaced by more flexible employment schedules, including remote working. As a result, many workers may work from home, arrive early, or leave late, and essentially establish their own work hours to better fit their personal schedules.

As the workforce evolves, it will become more challenging to manage, especially if you need to manage employees, freelancers, and/or subcontractors. Thus staffing and scheduling are becoming more complicated than ever before. With all these considerations, businesses may consider hiring someone with a graduate certificate in distributed workforce management.

Mobile Workforce Management (MWFM)

As our society adopts new technologies such as smartphones and enterprise mobility tools, more companies allow employees to become mobile. MWFM refers to activities used to schedule the employees working outside the company premises. Efficient MWFM helps distribute the workforce efficiently across all the different departments.

Workforce Management Software

Workforce Management (WFM) Software Tools provide the necessary data to coordinate staff scheduling and shift management. Managers use the software to create and manage schedules and shifts online. Once the staffing needs are determined, frontline workers can access the software via a simple app on their phones and set their own availability choosing the shifts they want to work.

There are a variety of companies offering workforce management and human resources software including Microsoft, Kronos, NICE- IEX WFM, AT&T Workforce Manager, Oracle, SAP, and ADP workforce manager, among many others.

Workforce Management (WFM) as a Human Resource Role

In the past, workforce management was not typically the role of the human resource department. However, with changing needs and more digital nomads of the payroll the human resources department has had to take on more active participation with a total workforce management system. According to the hrmhandbook, “The role of HR is discovering the obstacles and making the structure of the organization as lean as possible, allowing it to react quickly to changes in the external environment” and this corresponds quite closely with the goal of workforce management.

Job Opportunities

There will be plenty of job possibilities for workforce management professionals. As of this writing, indeed.com is listing several jobs for Workforce Management Analysts with starting salaries from $18-$23/hr. More experienced workforce managers can earn $55-$60,000/yr.

Changing careers is not easy to do, and it’s not an easy choice to make. However, since we spend so much of our time at work, and it defines us so much – for better or worse – we must work in the right place for us. There appears to be plenty of potential in the workforce management field so adjusting your career in this direction could be beneficial.

Overall, if you want to change professions but lack experience, getting this particular qualification could make all the difference. It could open up a variety of potential new employment opportunities.

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