Project Workforce Management Tutorial | A Definitive Guide

Introduction of Workforce Project Management

There are many logistic elements in the project.Various team members are responsible for managing every element and sometimes, the organization may have the mechanism to manage some logistic areas as well.When it comes to the project workforce management, it is all about managing all the logistic aspects of a project or an organization through a software application.Usually, this software hava a workflow engine explained in them.So, all the logistic processes take place in a workflow engine.

Following are the regular and most general types of tasks handled by the project workforce management software or a similar workflow engine:

• Planning and screening the project schedules and milestones.
• Tracing the cost and revenue aspects of projects.
• Resource utilization and a monitoring.
• Other management aspects of a project management.

Due to the software use, all of the project workflow management tasks can be entirely automated with leaving much for the project managers. This returns more efficiency to the project management when it comes to the project tracking purposes.In addition to various tracking mechanisms, project workforce management software also offer a dashboard for a project team.Through the dashboard, the project team has a glance view of the overall progress of a project elements.The dashboard is also a great place for the upper management to trace the progress of every project during executive meetings.Most of the times, project workforce management software can work with the existing legacy software systems like ERP systems.This simply integration allows the organization use a combination of the software systems for management purposes.

How does workforce management work?

According to the explanation, Workforce Management (WFM) is a set of processes meant to maximize the performance levels and competency for the organization.Workforce refers to the total number of people who are employed in a particular company, or are working on a particular task — i.e. human resources. And, as the very explanation suggests, the concept of workforce management is closely related to the optimization of workers’ productivity. This set of processes (WFM) involved all activities meant to build and maintain a productive workforce, and further improve their efficiency and the productivity levels.

There are more aspects to managing employees — and a typical WFM strategy include the following:

Real-time data collection:Gathering workforce stats about performance management

Field service management (FSM):Managing the company resources currently placed at the client’s property (e.g. vehicles, dispatchers, inventory…).

Human resources management (HRM):Managing the people employed or involved in the organization or company.

Training management (TM):Carrying out an employee training within an organization or company.

Performance management (PM):Making sure that employee activities and their outputs meet the company or organization goals.

Recruiting efforts:Reaching out, shortlisting, and then selecting the candidates suitable for a job positions in a company or organization.

Budgeting efforts:Planning and using the company’s monetary resources for an external or internal projects.

Forecasting:Predicting the future outcomes of the current work.

Scheduling:Planning, controlling, and optimizing a work in the company or organization.

Carrying out the analytics:Analysing the current situation in the business or company and then providing a recommendations on how to made improvements in the future.

Workforce management is a method that’s applicable to a wide range of businesses, companies, and an organizations.

Traditional Management Vs Project Workforce Management

The traditional management and the project workflow management have significant variances.There are at least 3 main differences when it comes to an operations and management.

Following are the 3 main differences:

1.A graphical workflow

The management of all the processes is done through the graphical workflow of engine.In this, the users can design, control and audit the various processes involved in the project.The graphical workflow is quite attractive for the users of the system and permit the users to have a clear idea of a workflow engine.

2.Work breakdown structures and organization

Project workforce management offers the facility for work breakdown structure and an organization of the same. The users can generate, manage, edit and report a work breakdown structures.These work breakdown structures are done in various abstraction levels, so the data related to such can be traced at any level.Usually, a project workforce management has approval hierarchies.Therefore, every workflow generated will go through several verifications before it becomes an organizational or project standard.This helps to the organization to reduce the inefficiencies of the process, as it is audited by more stakeholders.

3.Connected financial, workforce and project processes

In project workforce management software, everything is perfectly connected.Once workforce and billing management software are integrated, it offers the organization all the necessary data and management facilities.Due to the integrated nature of all these processes, the management and tracing functions are centralized.This allows the more management to have a unified view of the project activities.

Workforce management benefits

Implementing a robust workforce management process can help the team feel empowered to made an impact.In a perfect world where all parts of a successful workforce management process are in the place, see a positive impact on a wide range of tasks and also departments.Here are some of the top workforce management benefits.

Increased productivity

Productivity is at highest when a work is delegated and communicated correctly.By forecasting workload, tracing time, paying fairly, and communicating performance, workforce management can help the team productivity flourish.With increased productivity, team will not only see an improvement in the amount of work being generated but also in the quality of work. This is a win-win for both organizations and an individual team members.

Effective communication

An efficient workforce management process can increase communication and self-reliance, especially when working with the multiple teams.While one person may be in charge of the majority of WFM tasks, support key stakeholders across an organization to share their observations and feedback for more effective processes. With a WFM strategy that connects tasks, workflows, and systems, can streamline communication channels and lessen the load on your internal communications team.Not only will effective communication help to improve team collaboration, but it can also help to work stay on trace and meet quality standards.

Improved morale

Team morale can be affected by the number of variables—both negatively and positively.Whether that’s due to workload, pay and benefits, scheduling, or all of these factors, morale can made or break a productive team. There are steps can take to increase morale with the help of a workforce management plan.Both curiosity and empathy generate an engaging dynamic between the managers and team members.These simple, yet powerful, attributes can help to improve the overall working environment for the team and contribute to high morale.

Resource maximization

With increased productivity and increased communication and tracing, able to maximize the resource utilization.Not only will this increase the amount of work that able to generate, but it will also lower labor costs.Resources can be anything from the tangible product to something intangible like time—both of which are invaluable and shouldn’t be wasted.

Reduced expenses

Automating time tracing, scheduling, and pay calculations not only saves hours of work for managers and payroll departments but also remove costly human errors and compliance risks.The time spent on these tedious tasks can then be used for high productive means. Workforce management processes also gives an organizations the data they need to adjust a staffing levels as needed.When companies are able to forecast the flows of their workload, they can deduce labor costs and unplanned overtime.

Quality work

In the end, the quality put out results in what get back.So if the quality is not up to par, won’t see a significant revenue stream.That’s why improving quality is such an important part of workforce management.Process optimizations could be anything from product changes to the website development and beyond.The possibilities are a truly limitless.

Workforce management benefits

From hiring employees to forecasting, there are more parts that made up a workforce management process.

While a project manager cannot necessarily manage all of these tasks, it’s helpful to ensure key initiatives are running smoothly by partnering with department leaders and gathering team feedback.

This is especially important considering that nearly 70% of workers feel be better equipped to hit the targets if had clearer processes to manage work in a place.

Each of the workforce management elements and how they work to generate a solution that can implement for the team.

Time tracking

Time tracking is simple enough, but there’s more to it than punching a time clock.Not only is tracking time good for analysing efficiency, but it’s also helpful to identifying patterns of overtime or undertime.Implementing a time tracking process ensures that are:

• Track future workload
• Hire an appropriate number of the team members

Delegate tasks correctly

Effective time tracking can also help to improve the time management skills and generate an overall productive daily routine.The best way to do this is by using a work management tool to track work in a real time. With effective tools and good time management best practices,every team member has the autonomy to get the best work done.

Staff scheduling

In addition to time tracking, it’s also important to properly forecast and the schedule staffing needs.This helps to generate a successful workforce management process that offers work-life balance.Whether have multiple staffing levels within an organization or manage a team at the same level, employee scheduling can be difficult.Need a system that takes into account variables such as vacation, availability, workload, and absences to generate a schedule that works for the entire team.

Workforce management benefits

• Managing a staff scheduling
• Resolving overstaffing or understaffing problems
• Forecasting for a team growth

With a reliable scheduling system in place, companies can rest assured they won’t be understaffed during the critical times or overstaffed when business slows down.

Forecasting and budgeting

Analyzing historical data can help to forecast when labor demands change so can optimize deployment and balance workload. For example, a retail store may need twice as mor associates working during the holidays than they would in the off-season.

Other ways can use WFM processes for forecasting include:

• Addressing the high turnover rates.
• Taking “shrinkage,” or wasted time, into account.
• Preparing for special days or events when workload is as significantly impacted.
• Examining past project data for accurate labor and a resource estimates.
• Can also incorporate workforce planning into the budget.
• For most companies, human capital is likely most costly—and most variable—expense.

A WFM process automates scheduling, shift swaps, and adherence to labor laws to ensure that aren’t spending more than need to on labor costs.That workforce management solutions have the highest return on the investment of all HR technology investments.

Conclusion

Project workflow management is one of the best methods for managing various aspects of project.If the project is difficult, then the outcomes from the project workforce management could be more effective.For simple projects or small organizations, project workflow management may not add to much value.This is due to the fact that small organizations or projects do not have a significant overhead when it comes to the managing processes.There are many software systems in the market for project workflow management, but in more cases, organizations are so unique to adopt such ready-made solutions. Therefore, organization gets software development companies to developed the custom project workflow management systems for them.This has proved to be the most suitable way of getting the best project workforce management system acquired for a company.