Who doesn’t love striking a deal? We sure do. Deals are great. But not all deals are equal, and before striking any deal you’re always going to ask yourself: “What’s in it for me?”
What ROI you can expect from adding a new WFM solution is one of the first questions we’re asked by new customers.
Just remember - all businesses are different. What works for one business might not work for you. But the better you understand your business, your employees and your customers, the easier it is to measure the impact of a WFM tool.
So let's start with getting to grips with your business. Take a few minutes to answer these questions:
- What are your most important KPIs and how are they measured?
- How are you performing against your targets?
- How are your different units performing compared to each other?
- Which factors contribute to your KPIs?
Was it tricky?
We expect nothing less. The best WFM tools help you everywhere, from scheduling and communication, to forecasting and compliance. That means there’s a ton of metrics to measure in order to see the impact of a new piece of software.
To see how your ROI plays out, here’s a list of five metrics we recommend you to keep track of.
1. Cost efficiency and staff costs
With a best-of-breed WFM solution you can, in real-time, see your actual staff costs compared with your budgeted costs - and focus on spending money in the right places. Not only does this make your scheduling more precise, over- or understaffing are now deliberate decisions - where you can see the consequences of these decisions in advance.
A WFM solution gives you a better overview, allows you to spend more efficiently and gives you control to reduce costs without sacrificing your service. We bet you’ll notice huge cuts in costs!
2. Scheduling changes
Being able to see how many times your schedules are changed - and how long it takes you - is a great way of measuring how successful your WFM tool is.
Dealing with scheduling changes is much easier and more efficient with a modern WFM tool. You can publish open shifts, reduce complexity with automation and even autofill shifts where appropriate.
On average, a manager saves 9 hours a week creating schedules with a WFM tool. Better use of time is also a clear indicator of increased productivity.
3. Employee engagement & retention
For many businesses, reducing staff turnover and improving retention is the main reason they decide to implement a workforce management solution. Measuring staff turnover is, therefore, a must to gauge the impact the solution is having.
Retention is often improved with a WFM solution because it gives employees a better work life balance, more flexibility in their schedules, better recognition and rewards and greatly improved communication.
Another thing you might want to keep track of is how fast your employees respond to questions or workforce issues, and how engaged they are. With real-time Pulse surveys - sent out through your WFM app - you can identify trends and challenges in your workforce before problems arrive.
For more inspiration on the power of employee engagement, listen to this podcast where we talk to NSP about the digital steps Burger King and KFC took to increase their employee engagement and how checking-in with online surveys is making the difference for them.
4. Forecast and budget accuracy
AI-driven forecasts will capture different demand drivers like transactions, footfall and revenue per location and department. With them you can identify peak and dull periods on 15 minute, day and week level forecasts with industry-leading accuracy.
When you measure the variance of the forecast to the actual results, you’ll see how accurate the forecast was. Combining your historical data with a wide variety of forecasting techniques your Workforce Management system offers, allows you to get the best forecasts every single time.
5. Compliance
Compliance covers everything from employment laws and payroll through to breaks and leave.
Market leading WFM solutions come with advanced compliance capabilities – supporting organisations to stay compliant by, for example, helping workforce planners follow regional employment laws or local agreements. By being able to see a list and warnings of any potential violations, you’ll be able to act on it and stay compliant.
By measuring violations in your schedules - and comparing them to before you started using a WFM solution - you’ll easily be able to see the impact the solution is having.
Without a Workforce Management solution, you're spending twice as much time on admin, your workforce efficiency is 10% less than it could be, you're making 5% less sales and your customers are 5% less satisfied. Have a look for yourself with our calculator.
