Workforce management software is used to automate and streamline core processes that organizations use to optimize their hourly workforce. These include capabilities like labor forecasting, scheduling, time tracking, absence management and compliance. In today’s competitive labor market with the complexities that accompany hyper-localized workforce rules and regulations, workforce management (WFM) software can play a key role in ensuring organizations have the right people in the right place at the right time to ensure the best possible use of their total labor pool while providing an experience that drives engagement and productivity.
WorkForce Software’s WorkForce Suite is a comprehensive WFM platform that provides highly customizable capabilities in the core areas previously mentioned plus a host of others, including task management, communications, and analytics and insights. The technology supplier was rated Exemplary in the 2022 Ventana Research Value Index for its commitment to its customers, products and technology.
The company’s May annual user conference, VISION 23, had the theme of “Essentials,” with WorkForce sharing its focus on creating software in support of organizational agility in the
face of ongoing turbulent macroeconomic conditions. We agree with that approach, and assert that by 2025, three-quarters of organizations will have identified use cases that specify HCM system requirements for optimum organizational agility. WorkForce CEO Mike Morini stated that agility is rooted in an organization’s ability to attract and retain talent, and to make smart investments in its people’s efficiency and engagement. To those ends, WorkForce has chosen to focus its product strategy on supporting their customers in four essential areas: maximizing productivity, ensuring compliance, promoting the best possible employee experience and optimizing the labor pool.
The strategy of focusing on essentials, with the bulk of the product roadmap linked to those four core deliverables, has come to life under the leadership of new CTO Nicole Neumarker, who leads both the engineering and product teams. As previously mentioned, WorkForce’s products are highly customizable, which can be a boon for buying organizations with diverse workforce rules and needs but can also place undue burden on product and development teams charged with delivering net new product capabilities while also ensuring existing customer needs are met. Neumarker has created clear goals for her teams in support of the overall organizational objectives, removing much of the friction that comes with what can sometimes seem to be competing deliverables. For 2023, the product roadmap will focus on ensuring the applications are delivered from a modern cloud platform, timesheet innovations, seamless integrations with other common HCM applications, optimizing the user experience and suite-native tasking, all in support of WorkForce Software’s commitment to helping its customers get the most out of their investments in the technology that promotes the engagement and productivity of their human capital.
WorkForce Software boasts a strong product suite with robust capabilities in all key areas of workforce management. That said, there are two critical areas that require attention. First, WorkForce’s design has not traditionally been mobile-first, leading to disparate user experiences and even functionality between the desktop and mobile platform on both the back- and front ends of the systems in some key areas, like timesheets and time off requests. WorkForce is working diligently to close those gaps, but consistency of experience is always difficult. When customizations are added to the equation it becomes even more challenging. The physical spaces on mobile screens are limited in what they can actually display, and designers must consider how much a user is willing to scroll, or what is the tipping point for number of tabs a user is willing to toggle between before the experience becomes completely degraded. User experience was a major area of focus at the Vision 23 event, though, with company groups dedicated specifically to conversations with attendees about their priorities, with the intent of using those aggregated responses to help steer product design and development decisions.
The other topic that may cause concern for potential buyers is that only parts of the suite are fully WCAG 2.0 compliant. An organization as focused on user experience as WorkForce Software must consider the experience for all users, including those with disabilities. As with mobile functionality, improvements have already been made to platform accessibility, and WorkForce has invested heavily in this arena with more to come over the next 18 to 24 months.
WorkForce Software is a leading provider of global WFM software with a depth and breadth of capabilities available in a single platform well beyond many of its competitors. With its focus on delivering essential core capabilities with organizational agility and employee experience at the center of its design and roadmap decisions, WorkForce continues to be well-positioned in the category. Buyers considering WFM software should include WorkForce Software in their evaluation. Existing WorkForce customers clinging to legacy software would do well to consider migrating to the WorkForce Suite to optimize their investment through improved productivity, increased automation and a better employee experience.
Regards,
Quincy Valencia
Authors:
Ventana Research
Ventana Research, now part of Information Services Group (ISG), is the most authoritative and respected market research and advisory services firm focused on improving business outcomes through optimal use of people, processes, information and technology. Since our beginning, our goal has been to provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies. In short, we want to help you become smarter and find the most relevant technology to accelerate your organization's goals.
