Making Workforce Management Work

With Q2 in sight, many companies are finally able to leave year-end activities behind and really take the time to evaluate whether current processes are working for your business.

It’s time for a gap analysis

Now is the perfect time to prioritize this year’s strategy for your business. That starts with an audit.

Take a minute. Think about how many software solutions you have running across your business. How are you handling HR and benefits administration, versus time and attendance? How are you proving service delivery to your clients? What areas are still manual, or tackled by pencil and paper?

While staffing and labor issues remain a huge topic in the industry, chances are that some of the gaps created by low labor participation could be solved by improving business efficiencies.

For example, by implementing a tool to track guard locations as shifts are completed, you can better forecast scheduling needs in the future and cut back on the amount of shifts you’re trying to fill with a smaller workforce.

Once you really grasp an all-encompassing list of wants, needs and already-haves, then you can really start filling the gaps.

Common gaps

In our conversations with industry contacts, there are some common gaps that are typically uncovered in this process.

Time constraints across all departments

Every part of business operations takes too long. Entire overhead roles are dedicated to manual benefits and time off management. Your managers are chasing down employees for paperwork, scheduling and job assignments. Duplicate data entry and redundant processes are eating into what really matters: your clients and your contracts.

Lack of visibility into operations and performance

You’re relying on word of mouth or paper daily activity reports to ensure the work you need done is actually getting done. Your clients are demanding comprehensive reporting before committing to a new contract or added scope of work. You have no data to support proof of quality delivered or to renegotiate contracts when needed.

Field access and employee engagement

Guards don’t have a way to access their schedules and shift expectations, manage what training they need to stay on top of, or even communicate to managers while out in the field. The tools they have to track their time or review tasks are hard to access or tracked only on paper. And, they send multiple messages to your admin team every time there is a question because they can’t access their own time off balances, insurance or pay stub information.

Keep these common concerns in mind as you review what’s working, and what isn’t working, for your operations.

What to do when you know what’s missing

Software is intended to make the work of a business easier. With automation, you can drive efficiency and improve the effectiveness of day-to-day activities – saving time, money and resources along the way.

Still, piecing software together can often serve the needs of one department, while creating nightmares in another. That’s the problem with siloed data, a hidden challenge many companies in the security industry are dealing with every day.

Siloed data happens when individual departments or teams use a standalone system to accomplish their work. It can create inconsistencies in reporting, duplicate processes, manual error and incomplete information. On top of that, it increases the amount of support contacts your company has to manage if issues arise, multiple release notes to keep on top of for features and enhancements, and even more billing requirements for your finance team.

So, the next step in your gap analysis should be to think about what functions make the most sense to come together under a single, integrated software solution.

Through this approach, you break down those data silos, creating a single source of truth to work through across your departments.

Solutions for now – and what’s next

It’s really important to think about long-term success when making any big business decision – including any software implementations. When you’re ready to start filling the gaps in your business, think about how many solutions are meeting your short term needs, but be sure to ask questions along the way about growth.

What happens if you grow your contracts? What about your workforce – can the solution scale to support their needs? If you’re not currently in the market for enterprise features (like accounting and financial suites) is there an option to implement those functions down the road when you do need them?

TEAM Software by WorkWave has spent the last 35 years working alongside our industry to better understand its unique needs and deliver solutions built to scale. For more information, visit teamsoftware.com.