Workforce management software can help HR professionals and business owners track a multitude of employee-related metrics. But those workforce solutions – no matter how robust their functionality – are only as valuable as how well they help you improve organizational effectiveness.
If you’re struggling to enjoy significant ROI from your workforce management software, take a step back and reevaluate your workforce development goals. After nailing down what you need to achieve, you’ll be in a better position to take advantage of the technologies at your disposal.
What are you trying to achieve?
Workforce development goals aren’t always complicated. For some organizations, a goal might be as simple as improving scheduling accuracy or getting managers to provide more timely performance reviews.
On the other hand, “big picture” objectives can be much more complex. You might be facing challenges like:
- Reducing the number of customer complaints
- Changing your workplace culture
- Generating more revenue per employee
- Increasing the number of training opportunities
- Improving the effectiveness of your managers
Quantitative goals, by nature, are very straightforward to measure. However, in the case of qualitative goals like the “improving managerial effectiveness” example, it’s up to you to establish benchmarks by which to measure progress.
For example, maybe you can track a manager’s effectiveness by calculating the number of tasks completed by certain employees within a given time frame. To see whether changing approaches to management are having a positive effect, you can compare the number of tasks completed by those employees before and after the changes were set in motion.
In any case, the key to using workforce software effectively is identifying what you need to achieve. Upon doing so, you can start associating functionality in your software with those desired outcomes.
Can software alone help you monitor performance?
After establishing your goals and their associated benchmarks, it’s time to determine how – and whether – your software can help you track performance. In the example above, we looked at one way you might turn the qualitative goal of managerial effectiveness into a quantitative metric. But what if your goals are even less cut and dry? What if you’re trying to do things like transform your workplace culture or inspire employees to embody your company’s values? These goals are harder to measure, but that doesn’t make them unachievable.
For instance, you can’t specifically track employee motivation levels, but you can administer anonymous surveys that provide insights about each employee’s experience on the job. After administering the surveys and reviewing the results for trends, see whether your software can track metrics that correlate with employees’ experiences. If you can correlate metrics like time spent performing certain activities or attendance at company events with your employees’ motivation levels, you can get more value out of your software investments.
The bottom line: Many workforce solutions can help you or your HR team address pressing employee-related challenges. Sometimes, you just have to be creative about aligning workforce goals with technical capabilities.
At Talexes, we’re always helping organizations identify their goals and discover new ways to monitor progress, with or without full-featured workforce solutions. Contact us today to discuss your workforce development challenges and learn how to maximize the value of your technology and your people.
