Business leaders can leverage technology to boost morale and productivity in workplace teams says Kathryn Chin See, manager, research and innovation at MC Systems.
Miss Chin See opines that investment in technology solutions for workforce management enables leaders to track trends that could potentially affect morale and implement changes to improve satisfaction among teams. She adds that this could also improve overall efficiency.
Workforce management (WFM) is the way in which business leaders strategically allocate people and resources, track attendance, and comply with constantly changing workplace laws and regulations. The objectives of the software solutions are to ultimately optimise productivity and reduce risk.
“The success of businesses depends on people, and we all have to work out how to get people to come together to achieve our goals. Businesses need the right people with the right skills in the right places,” she said. “This is important to the business’ strategic outlook and profitability.”
Ms Chin See was a presenter at the MC Systems BizPay Mingle held at the JN Financial Centre on February 8. BizPay is the country’s first cloud-based payroll solution, BizPay Central. The award-winning platform was initially designed as an “easy-to-use” payroll solution for small to medium-sized companies and organisations, but has since been expanded to include payroll for large organisations and other services.
She adds that outside of staff morale, workforce management was a good way to track efficiency and minimise risks.
“For something such as data entry and working with a spreadsheet, you can have a situation where someone puts a number in the wrong place, or even a decimal. When this happens, this results in people having to do over an entire spreadsheet which costs a company in terms of efficiency. With a workplace management system, the software can do that for you and so employees can focus on more important tasks,” she said.
Ms Chin See described some of the benefits of workforce management solutions – citing leave management as one such benefit. “It allows you to notice trends with how team members go on vacation leave or take sick leave. For example, when you look at the data you might have team member that calls in sick every year at the same time. You are able to engage her to understand the reason and support her with information and planning. This empowers the team member to make better decisions and allows you to manage your team resources as a leader.” she stated.
“Having the right people with the right skills in the right places requires that as business leaders we understand how the roles in our organisations are viewed. Some positions are viewed as ‘stepping-stones’, while others are viewed as careers. This understanding guides our expectations for staff attrition rates. The technology [in workforce management systems] supports planning and mitigation strategies for staff turnover,” she added.
The research and innovation manager points out that as workplace culture evolves, more technology has been employed to help companies minimise risks and improve compliance.
“Automation is not just about having your systems connected. It involves getting the processes to run on their own, correctly. Imagine your business has compliance and regulatory obligations such as ISO standards in manufacturing, for example, how are you meeting these requirements? The embedded artificial intelligence in workforce management systems analyses patterns and alerts us when there are deviations or inconsistencies in a process, allowing for quick correction, reducing risk, and maintaining compliance,” she explained.
Miss Chin See said the technology should be embraced because it allows organisations to focus on productivity and profitability, while prioritising our people.
“Leveraging technology in workforce management can create value for your business
through improvements in the flow of work, team relations, and customer service – and ultimately, positive financial impact,” she said.
MC Systems celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year.