Human Capital Management is the most discussed and studied domain by all people leaders as they climb the
hierarchical ladder in the Service Industry, even though the leader was
once part of the people or work force he/she is set to lead. This reemphasizes the fact that workforce is the most important ass et each organization’s success is dependent on.
Workforce management is the most critical imperative to ensure we have no surprise operations.
Hybrid work models are becoming a norm and this will create a varied workforce scenarios for managers to run the operations a
nd teams. This further compels the need for
comprehensive framework and tools, that will help run successful business operations and also result in engaged workforce, which is becoming a most important success metric.
2. Contents
1. Introduction to Workforce management
2. Need for the framework
3. The Change – approach
4. Use case demonstration
3. Introduction
Human Capital Management is the most discussed and studied domain by all people leaders as they climb the hierarchical ladder in the Service Industry, even though the leader was
once part of the people or work force he/she is set to lead. This reemphasizes the fact that workforce is the most important asset each organization’s success is dependent on.
Workforce management is the most critical imperative to ensure we have no surprise operations.
Hybrid work models are becoming a norm and this will create a varied workforce scenarios for managers to run the operations and teams. This further compels the need for
comprehensive framework and tools, that will help run successful business operations and also result in engaged workforce, which is becoming a most important success metric.
.
• Lack of employee satisfaction, engagement and increased churn
. Low customer service impacting the overall business and organization
• Increasing costs to support business in reaction to close of business scenarios that resulted in lack of
intraday management
• Lack of ability to do accurate forecasting and planning leading to negative impact on Service Level
commitments and employee well being due to overtime
• Gaps in readiness to handle the variability of volume or impact of events not usually planned
• Ineffective allocation of work leading to backlog and increased overtime resulting in employee demotivation
and lack of performance culture
Key Business Challenges with lack of efficient Workforce management framework
4. Need for the framework
As we drive the change in the ways of working through improvements to technology and operating models, enhancing workforce engagement becomes easier by providing avenues for
work and process optimization in distributed environments.
Workforce management is not just about forecasting or managing people, it is about having the right people, with right abilities, in the right place and at the right time.
It is important to have a holistic, data-led, transparent, human-centric approach — one that complements the culture of the organisation.
CapAbility
Skill Matrix, Staff tenure, Peak performance levels,
Consistency, Fungibility
Usability
Right task – Right resource, Load Balance, Shrinkage,
Efficient distribution
Engagement
Right measurements, Work/life balance, Support Need
identification, Skill development, Predictive and intelligent
operations
Variability
Inter – Personal, Regional, Departmental, Events, Diversity in
workforce, Time trends
Effective Workforce management insights/outcomes
Combining workforce management insights with process metrics will lead to identification of RPA/process improvement opportunities, location based analytics and others..
5. Discovery Plan Setup Test Embed Improve Adjust Sustain
o Landscape of
operations
o Ways of working
& practices
o Challenges &
expectations
o Onboarding
approach
o Milestones
o Roles &
Responsibilities
o Budget
o Team Setup
o SOP creation
o Approvals
o Tech Setup
o Governance
kickoff
o Test synopsis &
Assumptions
o Adjust framework
o Readiness to
implement at
scale
o Implement for
scope
o Onboard all staff
o Baseline captured
o Kick start
changes
o Change
management in
action
o Benefits realized
o Lessons learnt
used
o Design
continuous
improvement
framework
o Continue delivery
of value
o Use CoE to
sustain behavior
o Scope
o Challenges &
Goals
o Rollout plan
o Realization plan
o Tech ready
o Analytics pilot
o Validated metrics
o Feedback
incorporated
o Implementation
o Insights & Action
plan
o $ impact
o Data availability
o Ways of working
for future
o Quicker decision
o Better human
capital
o Objective not
clear
o Leadership
engagement
o Standardization
of SMART
metrics
o Business Case
o Privacy &
Compliance
o Cost/Time
increase
o Exclude few
scenarios
o First time
experience
o Tech challenges
o Employee
reception
o Insights abuse
o Negativity
o Lack of FLM
partnership
o WFM exposure
o Priority change
o Perceived as project/lever of PEX
o Partnership
approach, not
Top down
o Transparency is
priority not the
choice of tool
o Openness to
adapt feedback
o Do not force fit
solution and do
customization
o Invest time in
relationships
o Create joint
ownership with all
teams
o Engage upfront
o Partnership at
action with
Delivery, HR and
Compliance
o Focused Project
management
o Do scientific
identification of
test cases
o Highly
collaborated team
for testing
o Data usage rules
created with HR
o Extensive comms
(Roadshows,mail)
o Transparency on
impact of insights
(no adverse
actions)
o Best practice
sharing
o Leadership –
walk the talk
o Testimonials
o Close monitoring
of compliance
o Reward good behavior
o Continue scope expansion
o Upgrade insights & address new
operational issues
o Awareness &
Alignment
o Achievable plan
with all resources
aligned
o Readiness to test
and scale
o Design and
System validated
o Part of the
operations DNA
o Intelligent
operations
o Happy workforce
o Cultural shift and WFM is a norm
The change
The success of the embracing the workforce management framework depends on varied factors like measure what matters, act on insights and not just numbers, co-relate operational
practices with findings, recognize and reward good behavior along with good performance, integrate with data sources and avoid making the data capture additional workload and most
importantly focus on cultural transformation than operational transformation…..
The below implementation approach combines change management, cultural transformation, shift in operational focus and the benefits…… .
Discover Change – 60 days Be the Change – 90 days Live the Change - Ongoing
Actions
Outputs
Challenges
Remedies
Impact
6. Scenario – demonstration
Below analysis could help identify the cross training opportunities of the workforce while also allowing to identify other insights and behaviors…
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Avg.
Normalised
volume
per
day
Avg. Production hours per day
Q1Q2
Q4Q3
S.No Associate
Avg Productive
hrs
Avg. Normalised
volume
1 John 7 100
2 Eddie 6 110
3 Ravi 5 90
4 Smith 7 75
5 Krish 6 90
6 Ciara 5 130
7 Lakshmi 7 85
8 Pooja 9 95
9 Adam 8 60
10 Bianca 6 60
11 Deepak 10 70
12 Fiona 10 120
13 Guru 11 140
14 Harry 7 105
15 Murray 11 80
16 Neha 10 60
17 Tim 4 50
No. of associates: 17
Data for month of Jan 2022
Target Avg. Productive hrs – 8 per day
Target Avg. Normalised volume – 80 per day
Summary of findings:
Q1 – Associates available for cross training/additional productivity
Q2 – Associates with good performance, however sustainability is an issue
Q3 – Training intervention required to improve the time taken for processing
Q4 – Supervisor intervention required if target hours were not reduced
* We can also overlay tenure in the organization and process metrics to identify the reasons for both increased or reduced time & volume.