Future technology: Are your staff present?

When it comes to times and attendance, increasing numbers of non-contract workers mean firms have to rely on more advanced software to track it all.

BY Miklos Bolza 20 Apr. 2016

Workplace trends tend to drive the adoption of technology, James Kissell, strategy director of WFS, said. For instance, the increased popularity of the contingent workforce has led to the need for more robust, automated workforce management technology.

“Contingent workers’ hours are varied and they often have separate pay rates,” he said. “For these reasons, organisations need a consolidated view of all their workers to carefully manage them and monitor their time.”

This growing workforce is also spurring the adoption of mobile solutions, he added, which gives workers everywhere access to applications covering time, attendance and scheduling.

Workforce analytics have also been useful here by filling a knowledge gap and helping HR make truly informed decisions.

“Automated workforce management systems also take out a lot of the ‘he said’/’she said’ type arguments – courtesy of the digital trail that shows the hours a worker is supposed to and not supposed to work.”

Kissell continued, saying that HR teams are more frequently using analytics to quantify the value that employees bring to the business.

“Workforce analytics around absenteeism rates, hours workers and annual leave rates give HR unbiased insights into workforces to back up decisions.”

The right use of analytics can also produce visual representations of workforce data so that HR can more easily identify patterns and trends, he said.

These benefits have spurred more firms to adopt cloud-based solutions in a shift away from on-premise HR technology.

“With the move to the cloud comes a greater demand for HR analytics to enable their organisations to drive greater insights from their personal data,” Kissell said.

One of the greatest demands from HR in the coming years will be the need for advanced HR analytics software to interpret, deploy and deliver competitive advantage to the workforce, he added.