In these hard times, workforce management software brings positive business benefits

By David M Williams
Sunday, 08 February 2009 18:18

Market

In this present turbulent economic time businesses would do well to consider the opportunity for process efficiencies and cost savings that technology can bring. Positive Workforce Solutions are doing their bit to help slash payroll costs without reducing headcount. That's the message from four large enterprises, each attesting to effiencies and reduced expenses.

Positive Workforce Solutions is an Australian software house that specialises in workforce management.

Simply put, this covers the gamut of scheduling rosters, recording time and attendance, and automating the cumbersome process of working out just how much to pay people. For contractors, Positive’s software also handles working out just how much to bill clients.

This is an area of business which holds everywhere. Every company has to pay its workers. For many companies, wages are the largest single cost. That’s one reason staff reductions accompany hard times. Yet, there are many other expenses associated with payroll and there’s definitely expense associated with running staffing levels blind.

Positive have recently released several case studies which bring the good news that their flagship product, e-tivity, is bringing cost savings through efficiencies and better information around this very important core process.

In one case, Michael Hill jewellers have rolled out e-tivity across 200 sites across Australia, New Zealand and Canada. The company has been in operation for three decades and employs more than 2,000 staff.

The Chief Financial Officer, Phil Taylor, explains the company did not have the right tools in place to manage staffing levels.

“Previously, store managers were manually creating rosters,” he said, “often on Excel spreadsheets – a task which was often overlooked when they were too busy or on leave. Managers had little idea how much they were spending on wages or whether they were triggering overtime for certain employees.”

Now, Taylor explains Michael Hill are looking at a saving of around $AUD 3 million per annum with only very minimal change to their processes, and certainly without reducing customer service.

Here’s how Positive achieved it.

CONTINUED