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Why Every Startup Needs an Effective WFM

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It’s not the easiest of things to start up a business; it requires diligent planning, human and financial resources, brainstorming, and patience. It’s stressful and can fail even when you think you have given it your best shot.

Your ultimate aim will be to deliver exceptional customer service since that is the only thing that will ensure you have a competitive advantage. This is of very high essence knowing that 20% of startups in the U.S. fail after one year, and about 50% will fail after four years.

A potent reason for this failure is the level of productivity from your workforce, and that is why you need effective workforce management (WFM) in place.

What is WFM?

WFM is simply workforce management, and that is a term that describes the set of processes you can use to ensure that your workforce is as productive and efficient as possible. Your workforce determines your relevance in the global market; it’s what you produce that your customers will purchase; you need a system to build, manage, and maintain a productive workforce; that is what WFM does.

Technological advancements are almost making WFM completely automated now. To ensure you have a competitive advantage in the global market, you cannot do without WFM.

Some years back, WFM was just used for staff scheduling; call centers used WFM to ensure their activities were more efficient, productive, and consistent; today, however, WFM has become a multi-faceted management framework.

It’s no longer restricted to call centers; it’s used in all industries and for different job functions. For startups especially, it has become an absolute necessity for survival.

Activities included in WFM

It’s not enough for startups to know that they need WFM, they must know every detail about WFM, to make its implementation effective. The activities you need to know include:

1. Forecasting and budgeting

WFM enables you to forecast employee requirements; you cut off understaffing and overstaffing; you understand where you have to outsource some tasks. It gives you a clear picture of the different types of resources you will need for any type of project you want to embark upon.

Some events in the year call for extra hands, you will have a clear understanding of how these events will impact your workforce and the need for hiring where necessary. Essentially, one of the determinant factors that ensure the survival of a startup is funding; even where you have the fund, you must know where, when, and how to apply it.

With WFM, it becomes easier for a startup to know how many employees it can afford to employ and at what time of the year it becomes necessary. A study has revealed that by implementing WFM, you get an average payback of $12.24 for every dollar you spend.

2. Schedule automation

Your startup will not gain anything from employees that may unintentionally pad the schedule while carrying out their tasks manually. With WFM automated software, this problem can be easily resolved.

WFM makes scheduling more efficient, it will factor in the variables in your business processes, automatically assess the availability of employees, vacations, absenteeism, and workload. Automating a schedule reduces the number of hours your employees spend carrying out their tasks manually.

3. Attendance patterns

Attendance at work is essential for productivity; with WFM, you have a clear time management plan and can have a clear picture of attendance patterns of employees, as well as a measure of the time they put into their tasks. Why and when you need to disengage with the services of some employees due to lateness or absenteeism are things you can easily handle with WFM.

You will also be in a good position to increase payroll accuracy and map out coverage gaps.

4. Measuring employees’ performance and engagement

Startups depend seriously on employees’ productivity to ensure survival due to the high competition they have to contend with. For this, you need to have relevant insight into your employees’ engagement and performance.

WFM gives you the insight you need to push up your employees’ productivity and incentivize them to carry out their tasks in a way that is commensurate with their values.

4. Being compliant with operational regulations

Startups need to conserve their funds in the face of the stiff competition they have to face in the global market; they cannot afford to waste resources due to non-compliance with local, state, and federal laws. WFM tools enhance compliance and can save you from fines and lawsuits.

You must ensure you are operating legally to avoid unnecessary embarrassment by tracking certifications, training, and licenses.

5. Easier processing of payroll and benefits

Your startup needs to hit the ground running, and leveraging WFM systems makes payroll and benefits processes easier and faster. With customs reports at the ready, instant payment options, and timesheets that you can easily sync with your payroll, your problems are half-solved.

The importance and benefits of WFM to startups

Business operations depend on employees, and you need the best way to ensure that your startup is operating most cost-effectively. WFM ensures you have the correct insights to put the right people in the right positions, understand the real position of your startup in the market, eliminate unreasonable fines and lawsuits, and get the best from your workforce.

WFM enables startups to have better plans, reduce operational costs, satisfy customers, and easily track employees’ productivity. With WFM management tools, your startup stands to increase profits and productivity by ensuring that your workforce operates optimally.

Startups need to maximize resources, run at lower labor costs, and produce quality service to be relevant; WFM enhances these and improves customer experience that you can source from quality service providers.

Conclusion

A startup in today’s global market needs to set out with payroll efficiency, insights into employees’ training, reduced admin costs through automation, agile operation, transparency, and high workforce morale. These and more are what you gain by deploying WFM.

 

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Kossi Adzo is the editor and author of Startup.info. He is software engineer. Innovation, Businesses and companies are his passion. He filled several patents in IT & Communication technologies. He manages the technical operations at Startup.info.

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