Organizations were forced to rethink operations in 2020 & 2021 and shift their strategies overnight, prompting new investments in workforce management. So, what’s to come in 2022? 

We have been living in the most uncertain times possible and the workforce is unarguably experiencing the most disrupted times in the history of work. The definition of work, workforce and workplace has changed. Effectively managing a workforce amidst ongoing complexity in a way that is both aligned with an organization’s strategic goals and consistent with its values is now a critical business necessity. However, legacy workforce management practices might not be enough to lead the future of work and the management systems may be increasingly outdated to create value for the employees and organizations.

Albert Einstein was right: "You can't use an old map to explore a new world." Businesses must take into account today's norms and conventions to adopt a technology that reframes the concept of work, their workplace, and their employee experience. However, before we take a plunge into assessing the technology and start planning investments, we need to take a step back and acknowledge the changing dimensions of workforce management.

The new dimensions of work

​​Pandemic or no pandemic, several workforce-related trends were inevitable, including the rise of the gig economy, the contract workforce, internal talent marketplaces, and talent assembly – in which teams are constructed from different types of workers to solve specific problems in hot areas of the business.

Further, organizations have begun to look closely at how human capital quantitatively drives business value; the use of Big Data, analytics, and executive dashboards to determine what is and isn’t working in talent acquisition, learning, scheduling, and performance; the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to combat unconscious bias and measure productivity; and the focus on data quality, integration, and governance.

Lastly, the new form of work models–hybrid which has impacted the way people collaborate, communicate, and contribute and has diminished the old notions of being continuously monitored to keep productivity and efficiency intact. Technology has proved to be table stakes in ensuring seamless workforce management in the last eighteen months.

The capability you need to manage the future workforce today

Today’s multigenerational workforce expects a personalized technology experience that helps them be productive and engaged during their workday— and it needs to be as familiar and intuitive as the applications they use outside of work. 

Some of the capabilities that you should consider while selecting the technology:

A consumer-grade experience for your entire workforce through an attractive, intuitive user interface and easy personalization. The system allows you to get the data you want, exactly how you want it. You can follow employee information through each application and make changes at any point, and perform the most frequent workflows with a minimum number of clicks.

• The ability to work anywhere on any device.
• Collaborative scheduling gives employees and managers more input into and control over how their schedules are built.
• Timekeeping for salaried employees simplifies the tracking of duration-based, project-based, and non- worked time for professionals.
• The ability to meet industry-specific requirements to help you reach your specific objectives for productivity, compliance, cost control, and employee engagement.

How UKG can help you build the predictive capabilities you need to make smarter, faster business decisions

UKG harnesses the power of evolving technologies in four key dimensions — cloud, mobile, data science, and social — to develop tools that increase productivity and drive better business outcomes.

UKG Dimensions can help solve some of your most critical workforce management issues by providing proactive insights and recommendations before potential issues negatively affect engagement and the bottom line. It has the predictive capabilities you need to make smarter, faster business decisions:

• Personal Digital Consultant that automates routine, time-consuming manager decisions by aggregating data across multiple sources, analyzing that data, and acting on it. The system is designed to constantly learn and improve to help solve increasingly complex problems for managers each day.
• Real-time compliance management provides visibility into potential compliance risks with real-time projections that predict possible violations before they occur, automatically helping to keep your organization in regulatory compliance— and freeing up valuable time for managers.
• Analytics: UKG Dimensions Dataviews allow you to access and analyze data by employee, organization, and project using easy Excel-like functionality. One can sort, filter, group, and calculate data to discover trends and visualize using charts and graphs displayed right in the Dataview.
• Forecasting: UKG Dimensions applies machine learning via the powerful UKG D5 platform to analyze historical trends, learn from that data, and constantly update the system to provide more accurate and efficient forecasting and scheduling. 

As the pandemic resets major work trends, HR leaders need to rethink major workforce management, experience, and performance. The need of the hour is to invest in a platform that supports the workforce of the future.

To know more about how UKG can help you with the capability to workforce management, click here.