6 Considerations When Looking for a Total Workforce Management Tool

When’s the last time you had to pull up an employee’s time and labor information, benefits enrollment data, or track completion for company-wide training? 

If the answer is, “Way more than I ever expected,” then you likely fall into the common category of appointed, or de facto, HR directors that are understaffed, overtasked, and inundated with employee data tracking.  Tackling the task of total workforce management has been a hot topic of discussion among payroll, human resources, and business professionals nationwide. As companies financial resources get strained, and there are endless new government regulations, businesses need to find efficiencies wherever possible. Total workforce management tools help with those efficiencies.

In the following blog, we’ve lined up 6 questions to consider when considering how a total workforce management tool can make your one-man HR show sing like a gospel choir! 

6 Considerations When Looking for a Total Workforce Management Tool:

1. What is Total Workforce Management?

• Let’s start in the beginning!!! Total Workforce Management in it’s broadest term looks at employees holistically within an organization and how information is tracked at every step in an employee’s lifecycle.  Whether it’s recruiting, a new hire orientation, annual merit wage increases, issuing a payroll check, or a life changing event, a total workforce management tool keeps all of the information accessible and in one place.

2. Is it Really a Total Workforce Management Tool?

• There’s no secret that “Workforce Management” is a phrase being bantered about by almost every provider of payroll, HR, and time & labor.  Many providers are rushing to the market with re-branded, slightly updated versions, of the products they’ve had on the market for years.  When buying a Total Workforce Management tool ask some important fact-finding questions:
• • When was the software first available for use on the open market?  This may take some research, many companies re-brand the same product, multiple times over its lifecycle.  If you’re not able to get concrete empirical data, and the software looks disjointed, it’s most likely been on the market for decades under different names. You may be looking at “lipstick on a pig”…no offense of course to Miss Piggy!
  • Is the solution cloud based, or a traditional software?  The availability, security, and functionality that has been gained with cloud based software solutions, have been remarkable over the last 3 years.  When it comes to traditional software, buyers beware, many companies are marketing their products as cloud based when they utilize a Citrix(r) web connection to transmit information, or access their product through the internet.  In reality if you’re not able to open an internet browser, and log directly into a companies solution then it’s not a Cloud based tool.

3. Does it keep me compliant with ACA and the IRS?

• For the first time since the IRS introduced the Quarterly 941 form, the Affordable Care Act  has introduced new regulations that are impacting how payroll and human resource administrators communicate with one another, track information, and report health care to the IRS.  All while having the real possibility of IRS penalties levied on their business due to incomplete data, or misinterpreted results.  Levies which could total thousands, to tens of thousands of dollars! Having all of the necessary data in one workforce managment tool allows automated access to all of the data needed to satisfy the IRS regulations, instead of manually pulling data from multiple sources and hoping its accurate and up to date.

Related Blog: Obamacare Data Collection: Essential Elements of ACA 1095-C Completion

4. Integrated HR Solution or “Silo”?

• Besides asking the questions of when a product became available, you must also take a hard look at the way data flows within a total workforce management tool.  There was an industry shift in 2007-2008 where everything needed to be “Integrated”.  Payroll, HR, and time & labor companies scrambled to come up with a solution. At the time, everyone had separate payroll, human resources, and time & labor software solutions that needed to share information between the different software databases. Having multiple “silo’d,” or standalone software solutions, introduced increased complexities in data management leading to synchronization issues, data integrity problems, and the simple fact that if an employee had a name change it needed to be updated in 3 or more separate places.  
• A true integrated solution will have the feel of a tightly woven basket, where there’s a single login, a single employee database, and HR professionals can track and manage all payroll, hr, benefits, and time & labor functions in a single integrated HR solution! Boy that sounds nice, doesn’t it?

5. Cloud or Not to Cloud…that is the question?

• With today’s technological challenges, more and more companies are looking to the Cloud to find financial savings, flexible solutions, and expandability without the hassle of developing endless software versions to stay current with industry ebb and flows. 
• For cloud users, the accessibility has an immediate impact with new tools that are available at their finger tips. Mobile applications are helping make frequent tasks simpler and less time consuming, keep employees happier and more engaged with Self Service features and easy access.

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6. How does it make BIG data small?

• Big data has been a buzzword for several years, but the reality is that every employer is already swimming in big data.  And, the regulatory changes with the Affordable Care Act has turned swimming in big data into treading water for survival. With a total workforce management tool the ability of changing the tide from big data into actionable small data becomes a valuable solution. With data in a centralized location it gives decision makers the holistic view of their workforce that is needed to make sound decisions. It’s crutial to ask for a demonstration when shopping to see how employee information is organized and reportable.  Is information easily accessible and are there any tools that help with the heavy lifting?