WFM Providers Agree: There is more to better employee enablement and productivity than just a WFM Solution
November 2, 2021 / WorkJam Blog
Over the past 10 years, WFM and employee enablement have progressed across a steady but almost nuanced arc. So steady and nuanced was this rise that many Workforce Management providers are either in denial, missing the opportunity altogether, or have created a patchwork of partners hoping to placate the growing demands of the worldwide workforce.
Meanwhile across the past 5 years ‘digital transformation’ has become a pivotal factor in corporate success. Many forward-thinking organizations have vice presidents that report directly to the CFO just for this purpose. So given the CFO’s interest in digital transformation, and the CHRO & CIO’s interest in HR & WFM success there is a real convergence in corporate objectives occurring.
Of course, the pandemic impact – the black swans of black swans. It further exposed the reality that employers need a more-encompassing holistic solution to grow and retain their workforce. There was a sudden realization that a WFM solution on its own really doesn’t work if you are trying to maintain a relationship, with seasonal, part-time, or even laid-off employees and that the need for corporate digital transformation efforts to go beyond the head office and exempt management and encompass the frontline hourly associate.
Gone are the days of rigid employee management and the ongoing assumption that a bevy of hourly applicants will be there to cover any workforce churn and turnover. Further, employees want to work for something worthwhile as well. They are more purpose-driven than ever.
So where are the proof-points to our headline above?
Well, you can find most of them on their website where partners and marketplace apps show you what you need to fully enable your workforce and drive productivity. So depending on your business needs you may need to string a few of these solutions together. Let’s take a look and see what we mean.
1. Communications
Many WFM solutions say they deliver communication tools while at the same time offering solutions like the one linked HERE. Usually, these offerings are not as precise, compliant, and expedient as most businesses need. What you really want is targeted and real-time communications and most workplace solutions have yet to make that investment.
2. Mobile Learning
Upskilling is imperative for workforce flexibility in handling whatever is needed on the shop floor, back of house, frontline, or out in the field. Most WFM platforms have no ability to offer SCORM, xAPI, assessments, surveys or offer native course technology which is why solutions like this are often available on their marketplace. WorkJam delivers learning, rewards and recognition in a package where you can gate access to shifts incentivizing learning and earning.
3. Task Management
Ensure each location delivers everything as expected is another critical solution that is often offered as a separate app and in some cases it blends just the web experience at the sake of the mobile experience. None of these solutions offer closed-loop audit & enablement logic, and task auto-reassignment down to the employee shift.
4. Shift Swapping
There is a lot of confusion on this one, and WFM solutions like it that way. The reality is however that most WFM providers deploy and optimize their configurations from a management perspective, not an employee, which makes sharing employees across regions tedious if not impossible. There is only one digital workplace platform that cracked the code to better enable the workforce to pick more shifts while maintaining management control.
5. Earned Wage Access
Again, most WFM platforms do not offer this cutting-edge technology designed to alleviate financial stress, while driving retention and open shift coverage.
6. WFM Employee Self-Service
Surely, they must have this? For certain they do offer a self-service solution. The question here is usability and adoption. In some cases, the employee app is an after-thought and difficult to use thus impacting adoption. Further, if you are also asking your workforce to also adopt any of these other apps then that tends to be too many apps you are asking employees to download, often on their own device, and use.
WorkJam links and syncs with any WFM platform to offer all of the above in one app to achieve an average 89% adoption, 410% ROI, and what we call Frontline Workforce Orchestration.
