A growing number of organizations are relying on workforce management (WFM) software — for good reason. These tools make it easy to streamline operations, improve productivity and boost employee engagement.
In fact, the right workforce management system yields return on investment (ROI) in ways that go beyond what many business leaders expect, from lower labor costs and higher customer satisfaction to better compliance and security.
Wondering what WFM software can do for your company? Let’s look at the biggest ROI benefits and what they mean for your business.
1. Increased productivity
The most common trait of competitive companies? Productive employees. Research shows highly engaged, productive workforces experience 21% higher profitability than their disengaged counterparts. Why? Because when teams work as efficiently as possible, the entire organization benefits from better performance and higher customer satisfaction.
Workforce management software makes it easy to achieve this. These tools automatically collect real-time employee activity data to show how, when and where people are most productive. They allow you to calculate, benchmark and monitor productivity — both across individuals and teams — and show you how to improve it. Together, these insights empower you to see how productivity changes over time and which factors influence it. You’ll know if people are overworked and at risk of burnout, and when workloads need to be redistributed across team members to help them work more efficiently.
2. More accurate headcount
Does your organization regularly monitor workforce capacity? If not, it should. Keeping an eye on headcount makes it easy to plan for future changes, such as reorganizations and seasonal hiring, and to identify underutilized employees with capacity for more work. It also allows you to make more informed decisions around staffing.
When you use workforce management software that includes headcount planning, it’s easy to determine how much your organization can achieve with current employees — and when it’s time to add more staff. The result is fewer wasted resources, with right-sized teams capable of producing higher-quality work, faster.
3. Right-sized workloads
Overworked employees are one of the biggest enemies of success. When people burn out and become disengaged, the organization suffers from high turnover, poor-quality work and low customer satisfaction. And the more overtime people work, the worse it gets — research shows continually working more than 40 hours a week is unproductive and useless.
This is another area where workforce management software drives tremendous ROI. The right tool alerts you when employees are struggling with workloads, empowering you to step in and provide support before they’re overwhelmed and start to underperform. It also shows you if any team members are underutilized and have the capacity to take on more work. Some tools even come with location-based insights to reveal when and where employees are most productive, allowing you to create flexible work policies to meet those needs.
4. Greater cost savings
Looking for a simple way to reduce costs? This is where the ROI of WFM software really shines. In addition to the reduced headcount and labor expenses discussed above, workforce management tools help you reduce total costs in several other areas.
For example, many companies use WFM software to maximize office space utilization. Predicting how much space remote and hybrid employees actually need helps you avoid overpaying for unused real estate and equipment. It’s also a great way to reduce SaaS costs, with data to reveal which subscriptions teams rarely or never use. Workforce management software even helps reduce time cost — the indirect costs incurred when an activity takes longer than expected — by showing opportunities to save time otherwise wasted on distractions and unnecessary meetings.
5. Lower compliance risk
Did you know three in four companies are at risk of a cyberattack? Or the businesses that experience a data breach face an average cost of $4.88 million? Failure to abide by the latest data protection laws exposes you to all kinds of risk in the form of fines, penalties, reputational damage and potential lawsuits.
Workforce management software, and the employee monitoring data that comes with it, helps lessen your compliance burden. The ROI in this one area alone is worth the investment. These tools help you stay ahead of potential risks by enabling you to set alarms, secure work environments based on location, customize access to sensitive resources and more.
Drive ROI with ActivTrak’s workforce management software
If you aren’t already using workforce management software, now’s the time to start. This technology is designed to help make your workforce as efficient and profitable as possible, in turn driving all kinds of ROI for your organization.
However, not all tools are created the same. And selecting the right one makes all the difference.
That’s why more than 9,500 organizations use ActivTrak. On average, ActivTrak customers increase workforce productivity by 20%. They also lower costs by 18% while boosting employee work hours by 25%. In fact, our award-winning workforce management software has helped companies identify as much as:
- $4.2 million in productivity gains
- $800,000 in savings on unused software licenses
- 4x ROI from billing reconciliation
Best of all, you can get started today at no cost. Sign up for your free account to start collecting and analyzing your workforce data. Then, if you’d like to unlock even more ROI, get in touch to learn about advanced features like enhanced productivity management, compliance alarms and technology usage trends.