Workforce management

This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. Please help improve it by rewriting it in an encyclopedic style. (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Workforce management (WFM) is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human resource management, performance and training management, data collection, recruiting, budgeting, forecasting, scheduling and analytics.

Workforce management provides a common set of performance-based tools and software to support corporate management, front-line supervisors, store managers and workers across manufacturing, distribution, transportation, and retail operations. It is sometimes referred to as HRM systems, Workforce asset management, or part of ERP systems.

As workforce management has developed from a traditional approach of staff scheduling to improve time management, it has become more integrated and demand-oriented to optimize the scheduling of staff. Besides the two core aspects of demand-orientation and optimization, workforce management may also incorporate:

• forecasting of workload and required staff
• involvement of employees into the scheduling process
• management of working times and accounts
• analysis and monitoring of the entire process.

The starting point is a clear definition of the work required through engineered standards and optimal methods for performing each task as efficiently and safely as possible. Based on this foundation and demand-based forecasts, workers are scheduled, tasks are assigned, performance is measured, feedback is provided and incentives are computed and paid. In addition, online training is provided along with supervisor-based coaching to bring all workers up to required levels of proficiency. Workforce management is a complete approach designed to make workforce as productive as possible, reduce labor costs, and improve customer service.^[1]

Workforce management also uses the process of field service management in order to have oversight of company's resources not used on company property. Examples include:

• Demand management – to help forecast work orders to plan the number and expertise of staff that will be needed
• Workforce scheduler – using predefined rules to automatically optimise the schedule and use of resources (people, parts, vehicles)
• Workforce dispatcher – automatically assigning work orders within predefined zones to particular technicians
• Mobile solutions^[buzzword] – allowing dispatchers and technicians to communicate in real time.^[2][3]

In the 1980s and 1990s, entrepreneurs focused on topics such as supply chain management, production planning systems or enterprise resource planning. As cost pressures have increased, managers have turned their attention to human resources issues. In all personnel-intensive industries, workforce management has become an important strategic element in corporate management. The process has experienced growth in all sectors, including healthcare. The rise of the gig economy has also gone hand in hand with the rise of workforce management practices.^[4][5]

As our society continues to adopt new technologies such as smartphones and enterprise mobility tools, more companies are allowing employees to become mobile. Mobile workforce management refers to activities used to schedule the employees working outside the company premises. It helps distribute workforce efficiently across various departments in an institution.^[6] The need for social distancing imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about major changes in both employer's and employee's vision of remote work, which will likely have a long-lasting impact on workforce organization and management in the coming years.^[7][8][9]

What is the Public Service

Good people are essential for managing a government's most important resource – it’s employees (the Public Service). While some work in human resources, most are line and staff managers, whose skills are vital for achieving results. Over time, managing human resources has evolved and includes activities like recruitment, classification, compensation, training, and evaluation.^[10] The public service is any service intended to address the specific needs of a community and is used to describe all public service departments, department agencies, interdepartmental executive boards, and interdepartmental ventures.^[11][12] The public service is experiencing unprecedented levels of change with ever increasing technology, evolving workforce demographics, budget pressures and expectations of trust and confidence from citizens who access public services.^[13]

In section 11 of the New Zealand Public Service Act 2020, the public service is described as: supporting constitutional and democratic government, enables both the current and successive governments to develop and implement their policies, delivers high-quality and efficient public services, supports the Government to pursue the long-term public interest, facilitates active citizenship, and acts in accordance with the law. ^[14]

In New Zealand, the current delivery of public services is overseen by five central agencies - the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Public Services Commission, the Treasury Department, the Ministry for Regulation, and the Social Investment Agency. These agencies work together to deliver results for ministers and everyone in New Zealand. They are responsible for coordinating the work of the government, acting as stewards of the machinery of government and ensuring that standards of fairness, integrity and efficiency are maintained across the public service.^[15]  The Head of the Public Service is a statutory appointment (a Public Service Commissioner) who runs the Public Service Commission. This role is to protect and enhance the legitimacy and integrity of the Public Service. This role is supported by two Deputy Public Service Commissioners, and they work together with the Public Service secretaries and chief executives to lead agencies as a single system in order to maintain the public’s trust and confidence in the Public Service.^[16]

Public Service Commission role in workforce management

The Public Service Commission (PSC; Māori: Te Kawa Mataaho), called the State Services Commission until 2020, is the central public service department of New Zealand charged with overseeing, managing, and improving the performance of the state sector of New Zealand and its organisations.^[17] The Public Service Act 2020 provides a modern legislative framework that supports a more adaptive, agile and collaborative Public Service. The key enablers for this are public service culture and behaviour; an updated framework for employment; effective leadership; and a range of options for configuring fit-for-purpose public service organisations.^[18] PSC has an important role in workforce management.

Working with Chief Executives and Secretaries of government organisations, the Public Service Commission oversees the following key functions and responsibilities typically associated workforce management across the Public Service:

Promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI): the PSC will often work to ensure there is DEI within the public service. This will involve policies, action plans and practices that will support the composition of a workforce that is diverse, address bias and foster diverse leadership within the workforce.

Recruitment and selection: the PSC oversees (through advice and guidance) the recruitment practices of public service roles. This includes having fair and transparent hiring practices and policies to ensure that the best candidates are selected based on suitability and merit for the role.

Workforce planning: the PSC develops strategies that focuses on composition, capability and capacity. This is done through collation and analysis of public service workforce data that supports identifying and designing approaches to address workforce needs and forecasting future requirements.

Training and development: the PSC supports and enables the creation and promotion of professional development programmes for public servants to ensure they have the skills and knowledge needed to perform effectively in their roles as well as progress in their careers.

Employment standards and regulations: the PSC will also set and enforce the appropriate standards related to employment conditions. This includes remuneration and working conditions so that public servants are treated fairly and consistently. The PSC will also provide guidance on performance standards as well as advice on addressing issues related to employee conduct and performance.

Policy development and advice: the PSC will develop and provide advice on policies that are related to human resources management in the public service including recommendations on improvements to existing polices ensuring they align to the wider public service goals and regulations.

Overall, the Public Service Commission's role is to ensure that the public service operates efficiently, ethically, and in accordance with the Public Service principles of being politically neutral; providing free and frank advice; having merit-based appointments; open government and stewardship. All of which contribute to a high-performing and accountable public service workforce.

What is diversity and inclusion-based recruitment strategy?

Diversity refers to differences within a group.^[19][20] The word diverse takes it origins from the middle English word dyversite which means “difference, separateness, variety”.^[21] Diversity can include, but is not limited to, differences in race, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, disability, gender, identity and sexual orientation. Inclusion as it relates to a workplace environment, is where all employees are supported and able to effectively make a difference with the organization.^[22] Diversity can fall into four broad categories, although there is said to be intersectionality between the categories;^[23] these are defined as Internal, External, Organizational and Worldview diversity. Internal diversity relates to the way people are born, and includes factors such as race, gender identity, age and health. External diversity relates to characteristics of a person that are acquired in life. This includes interests, education, appearance, religious beliefs, and location. Organizational diversity includes job function, management status, and salary band. Worldview diversity is as its states – a person’s worldview, political views and moral belief systems.^[24]

Diversity and inclusion-based recruitment is an employment strategy aimed at creating more equitable and representative workforces. It uses processes free from bias for, or against any individual or group of candidates. Organizational workforces should reflect the general makeup of the society in which you live and work. Organizational leadership that embraces and cultivates an open culture for all individuals to thrive is the cornerstone of success in recruiting a diverse workforce.^[25]

What are its origins?

Diversity in recruiting has evolved over recent decades to become an important strategy in all organizations. During World War II many industries required replacement labor as the male workforce was being drafted into the war. While some companies began to hire women and people from minority groups, racial discrimination was rampant. In an attempt to combat this, in 1941, American President Franklin Roosevelt issued an order prohibiting racial discrimination in defense industry jobs.^[26] Diversity theory has its origins in the 1960’s when equal employment laws (equity statutes and equal opportunity regulations) and affirmative action (policies and practices aimed at increasing marginalized and underrepresented groups) were introduced.^[27] This brought the issue of diversity and inclusion to the forefront and encouraged organizations to implement diversity training programmes and establish related policies. It is said that global spending on diversity and inclusion is projected to reach US$24.3 billion dollars by 2030^[28]

In recent times, social movements such as #Metoo and #Blacklivesmatter have intensified discussion about injustice, leading to deeper reflection on its impact within the workplace. As these issues gained prominence, the professional world was motivated to enhance and evolve its diversity and inclusion practices, resulting in the rapid redevelopment of recruitment and retention strategies focused on diversity and inclusion.

What are the organizational benefits of diversity and inclusion-based recruitment strategies?

Organizations often perceive themselves as being torn between increasing diversity and focusing on hiring for optimal performance.^[29] Despite this view, beyond meeting societal expectations, organizations can also benefit financially from increasing diversity in their workforce.  A 2015 study found companies with greater racial and ethnic diversity are more likely to achieve financial returns that exceed industry standards.^[30] Some of the other benefits of diversity in organizations are as follows:

Advantage in talent acquisition – Human capital is the core component of company success. A focus on diversity and inclusion opens the talent sourcing pool^[31]

Increased employee satisfaction – women and members of minority groups in particular report that diversity and inclusion is of high importance to them^[32]

Alignment with customer base – Focusing on diversity enables companies to better align with an increasingly diverse and globalized customer base, helping to enhance customer relationships which in turn strengthens their brand^[33]

Drives innovation, competitive advantage and market growth – the basis lies in diversity of thought, giving people a voice and empowering staff to feed into decision making and solutions^[34]

Employee turnover is costly and disruptive to organisations. Not only does it take time and cost to recruit and train new staff, turnover has been shown to negatively impact organisational performance, engagement and productivity and increase absenteeism.^[35] The estimated costs to replace staff range from 40 percent of front-line workers’ salaries up to 200 percent of managers’ salaries.^[36]

The public service faces additional challenges with turnover. Disruption to critical front-line services, such as health, education, policing and border control can have catastrophic impacts, and so workforce management that minimises the impacts of turnover is essential to ensure continuity of services.^[37] Furthermore, public services roles can be highly specialised making recruitment challenging, due to scarcity of suitability trained and experienced candidates. It is even more challenging to replace staff where there are existing workforce shortages, or the service is based in a remote community.^[35][38] Studies have shown that even when minimum capacity required for continuity is maintained, turnover introduces additional costs into service delivery, which are sometimes passed on to consumers.^[39]

Public service organisations seek to retain and elevate existing employees as much as possible. Employee retention strategies usually include a combination of:

-         Talent management strategies

-         Flexible working arrangements, such as working from home options

-         Clear organisational goals and purpose

-         Opportunities to develop and career progression

-         Clear connection between individual job descriptions and tasks and public value.

- Lifelong training and support focusing on digital skills^[40]

How the values and features of the public service alters the application of typical employee retention strategies

Public service motivation (PSM) theory suggests public servants are naturally altruistic and choose jobs in the public service because they can align their personal actions to public good.^[41] This means the relationship between intrinsic motivators and extrinsic rewards is not as straightforward as in the private sector.

Research has shown that when employees have low PSM, money and promotion rewards have a positive impact on engagement. However, when employees have high PSM, these extrinsic incentives negatively impact engagement. This is because the extrinsic rewards are seen to undermine and crowd out the intrinsic values that drive public servants – the altruistic qualities that drew them to public service careers.^[42][43] Instead, public servants tend to be more motivated by pursuit of public good, and the perception of personal fit with their organisation’s values and purpose.^[44]

New Zealand public service organisations tend to be characterised by organisational values relating to social good, fairness and the pursuit of delivering public value. The public service also tends to be highly unionised – in 2010 around 70 percent of public servants in New Zealand were members of a union.^[45] These core values affect the ways in which talent management is used to retain and develop employees. For example:

-         Public service values: Talent management strategies tend to blend a focus individuals’ strengths and contribution to organisational performance with the ethos of public service and the pursuit of delivering public value. Rather than only focusing on the highest performers, public service organisations also seek to motivate and develop a common set of values and skills across all employees, and take a longer term focus to building capability.^[46]

-         Standardisation: New Zealand public service organisations tend to be organised by top-down design, with standardised position descriptions for comparable roles, and fixed pay bands. This means job crafting is uncommon, and compensation is considered in the context of relativities across team members.^[47]

-         Pay philosophy: The culture of fiscal restraint in New Zealand public service organisations reinforces a match pay philosophy, where organisations pay market rates rather than seeking to compete for workforce via compensation. Compensation tends to be treated as a cost to the organisation, rather than a strategic talent management tool.^[48] This is in part due to the lower effectiveness of performance pay regimes within the public sector compared to the private sector.^[49]

-         Strong focus on diversity and inclusion: Public service organisations aim to reflect the people they serve, particularly for senior management teams. In New Zealand, talent management strategies aim to develop a diverse and representative pipeline of future leaders, with resources provided to public sector managers by the Public Service Commission.^[50]

With public sector organisations facing challenges with budget constraints, rising demand for services and complex operational environments, partnering with community has become a key strategic shift, highlighting the need for public sector human resource strategies to integrate policies and programs that foster the skills and cultural competencies required to manage these partnerships effectively, a 2021 survey by the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ) found that 80% of HR professionals identified strong collaboration and relationship management skills as essential for managing external partnerships effectively.

According to Suggett (2012),^[51] the public sector faces significant challenges in designing and implementing effective engagement strategies, due to the undervaluation of these skills across the sector. These skills are not consistently reflected in performance evaluations or professional development opportunities. The process of designing, conducting, and analysing stakeholder engagement has evolved beyond simple communication tasks and demands a comprehensive set of abilities, including relationship management, needs analysis, negotiation, and extensive knowledge of specific policy or service areas. Despite recognising staff capability as a major challenge to their effectiveness, the public sector is yet to develop organisational strategies to address this issue.

Essential Skills for Effective External Partnerships in the Public Sector.

Public sector employees in New Zealand and around the world need a broad range of skills to effectively manage relationships with external partners. In response to this need, the Public Services Commission launched the Capability Review Programme in June 2023. This initiative aims to boost the effectiveness of the Public Service in fostering collaboration (Commission, 2023).^[52] Developing these skills is essential for creating productive, inclusive, and responsive partnerships that address the needs of all stakeholders. Traditionally, public sector organizations have worked within their own systems, providing services through internal channels. However, community organisations are now increasingly recognised as vital partners in tackling these challenges for several reasons:

1. Enhanced Collaboration: partnering with community organisations promotes collaboration, resource sharing, access to funding and leverages external expertise to enhance service delivery. To effectively manage these partnerships, public sector employees need to develop the skills in collaboration, including negotiation, joint problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement.
2. Local Expertise: Community organisations bring specialised knowledge about their local areas, which compliments the capabilities of the public sector. Training programs will need to incorporate cultural competence and local context awareness for better integration.
3. Flexibility and Responsiveness: Unlike the often-bureaucratic nature of the public sector, community are more adaptable and responsive to local needs. Training in change management and leadership can help public sector employees align better with flexible approaches of community partners.
4. Access for Vulnerable Populations: Partnering with community organisations improves access to services for vulnerable populations. Training should focus on inclusive practices and key strategies for engaging with marginalised groups to ensure equitable delivery of services.

Research indicates that such training is essential for building effective partnerships and overcoming the inherent challenges of integrating external organisations into public sector operations (Bryson, Crosby, & Bloomberg, 2014).^[53]

Cultural Competency

According to (Dergarapet, 2020)^[54] public organisations are increasingly required to address the needs of culturally diverse populations which is vital for managing external partnerships successfully. In New Zealand, this competency includes understanding and integrating Māori perspectives and practices into public services, reflecting the country’s commitment to cultural inclusivity in accordance with Māori Crown Relations Capability Framework for the Public Service - Individual Capability Component. HRINZ (2021) reported that 65% of HR departments in the public sector have integrated cultural competency training into their professional development programs to ensure effective engagement with Māori and other communities.

As public services encounter the limits of traditional management approaches, new practices stress the need for ongoing learning and reform. Managers who embrace complexity are increasingly using relational resources to enhance their learning.^[55] Adapting to changes in partnerships and evolving cultural and political contexts requires strong change management skills. For future public sector workforce planning, integrating skills training and cultural competencies into HR strategies will be essential for improving effectiveness and service delivery.

Workforce management solutions^[buzzword] can be deployed enterprise-wide and through mobile platforms. While special software is commonly used in numerous areas such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), SLM (service lifecycle management), CRM (customer relationship management) and HR (human resources) management, the management of the workforce is often still handled using spreadsheet programs or time recording. This often results in expensive overtime, non-productive idle times, high fluctuation rates, poor customer service and opportunity costs being incurred. By using a software solution^[buzzword] for demand-oriented workforce management, planners can optimize staffing by creating schedules that at all times conform to the forecasted requirements.^[56] At the same time, a workforce management solution^[buzzword] helps users to observe all relevant legislations, local agreements and the contracts of individual employees – including work-life balance guidelines.^[57]

A key aspect of workforce management is scheduling. This is achieved by establishing likely demand by analyzing historical data (such as the number and duration of customer contacts, sales figures, check-out transactions or orders to be handled). Many workforce management systems also offer manual adjustment capabilities. The calculated forecast values are then converted into actual staffing requirements by means of an algorithm that is adjusted to the particular use case. The algorithm itself is based on the work of Erlang though most modern adaptations of workforce management have shifted towards a richer state management, and optimizations to the original idea.

Current and future staffing requirements, short-term peak loads, availabilities, holidays, budget allowances, skills, labour law-related restrictions, as well as wage and contractual terms have to be integrated into the planning process to guarantee optimal staff deployment. In the workforce management process, the integration of employees is an important factor. In several workforce management systems, employees can log in their availability or planned absences and they can bid for specific shifts so long as they have the necessary skills for the activities planned for these shifts.^[58]

The three methods of delivery for contact center technologies are on-premises solution^[buzzword], hosted or cloud-based computing.^[59]

• An on-premises system is one in which hardware and software must be physically installed, deployed and maintained at the business. All equipment is purchased up front. It is traditionally associated with large enterprises with the budget and the space to acquire the capabilities deemed necessary, and the personnel available to configure and modify systems.
• A hosted system relies on an outside service provider. Software is purchased and installed in a data center on either physical or virtual servers that may be owned or leased by the business. Implementation is similar to an on-premises solution^[buzzword], but the cost is typically lower because hardware need not be purchased. However, the business must pay an initial provisioning fee as well as a monthly fee for the rental or usage of the hosting center’s equipment and personnel.
• Cloud computing converts such physical resources as processors and storage into Internet resources. By developing applications in a virtual environment, a company’s computing infrastructure is treated as a utility service, and the company pays only for the time and capacity it needs. Cloud eliminates issues such as computing capacity, physical space, bandwidth and storage.^[60][61]

• Medical outsourcing
• Meeting scheduling tool
• Project workforce management
• Project management
• Strategic service management
• Time and attendance
• Time tracking software
• Workforce optimization
• Employee Scheduling Software
• Timesheet

• AMR Research, 2006: The Human Capital Management Applications Report, 2005–2010^[62]
• DMG Consulting: 2009 Contact Centre Workforce Management Market Report^[63]
• Workforce Asset Management Book of Knowledge (John Wiley & Sons Publishing, 2013)^[64]
• Portage Communications, LLC:^[65]