Typical cost savings and ROI from implementing a Workforce-Management Solution

Like with anytechnical solution, the ROI is likely to be seen only once the solution issuccessfully implemented. Thus, the first questions we need to answer is ‘What is considered a successful implementation?’ and the second being ‘How do we achieve it?’ (but that will be covered in another article 😊).

The question ‘What is considered a successful implementation’ can only be answered by our Clientst hemselves, and unfortunately, often there is no simple answer to it…

Likely it will include some form of achieving Savings or a ROI. To begin to calculate savings and thus ROI, let’s start with present-state analytics questions;

• What is our currently way to manage Daily/Routine-, Periodic/Preventive-, Ad-Hoc-tasks, Urgent Service-Requests etc?

• Is this process efficient, or could it be greatly improved thru digitalisation?

• In today’s scenario, how does those ‘who need to know’, get updates on Task-status, overdue tasks and problem areas?

• Are we able to easily calculate man-hours used for various tasks, based on the data we have?

• Are we able to easily track and compare various team’s productivity?

• How often does errors occur in the workforce due to unclear or misinterpreted instructions?

• Do we have an effective Attendance-taking system for the field-force, which can provide ‘proof-of-presence’ and automatically generate time & attendance records for HR?

• Do we have an effective, digital way of doing Quality-Inspections, quality-audits or joint-inspections with our Clients?

• If we need to make any chances to tasks, deployments, accommodate changes in the workforce or new hirees, changes in Checklists and Quality-Inspection lists, how long time (how many manhours) does it take for us to implement such changes?

• If not yet digitally, in what way is your staff able to create a Report, write some notes, attach some images or even a video and submit the report automatically to a client in under one minute?

• In today’s scenario, do we have the capability to draw data and generate activities in an automated fashion with/from robots, IoT sensors, digital feedback panels, QR-code scans or similar?

• Do we have an easy and efficient way to disseminate training content to our distributed and/or field-force?

• Are we optimally set-up/organised for executing performance-based contracts, and or to make our response-rate faster and achieve savings?

• Do we have a digital/automated way to measure our success in Public Areas/with the Public?

• Do we have KPIs for our workforce which are set and backed by accumulated data?

• Do we have sufficient visibility on which Teams, Leaders, Sites or Shifts which are considered ‘leaders’ and those considered ‘laggards’?

• Do we have any effective way to obtain, perhaps for Client-Reporting needs, the ‘proof-of-presence’ from the field, or for specific sites/tasks?

• How much time (minutes/hours) is Used by our field and back-office staff in preparing Reports every day/week/month?

• How much time (manhours) are used each month by our Management team to consolidate and create Monthly Summary Reports?

• Is there any easy way for us to publish data/Reports and/or give access to our Reports to our Clients?

• In our current set-up, how effective are we at replicating what we are doing to new sites/projects and/or clients?

• Do you see your company growing without embracing digital technologies for the benefit of your and your clients?

With the answers to these questions on hand we can move on to setting some benchmarks/KPIs and targets for improvements.

Start by deciding on a set of the most important metrics/important KPIs. Next, set some realistic expectations for the desired level of improvement and time-frame from a solution-implementation.

Examples ofmetrics and goals to consider would include:

• Within 6 Months ALL our field-generated Reports should be digital (no more pen & paper).

• Within 3 Months reduce the time Supervisors/Site-managers are using to do Operational Weekly Reporting by at least 50%.

• Within 3 Months have ALL task-status visibility to be real-time for Management (as opposed to perhaps ‘end-of-the-day’ in current scenario).

• Within 6 Months be able to know the man-hours used for at least 50% of all our Periodic Tasks within a Month.

• Increase the amount of field-staff which we have real-time Attendance data on by 50% within 4 Months.

• Within 4 Months have at least 90% of all Quality-Inspections and Joint-Inspections done digitally.

• Within 4 Months, reduce the amount of time we need to train new hires in the HQ by 50% by implementation of mobile learning via the App.

• Within 6 Months be able to demonstrate to any prospect we have the end-to-end technical solution in place to manage and execute Performance-based contracts.

• Within 9 Months have established clear benchmarks for at least 75% of all field/site-activities based on accumulated hard data.

• Set up a method for the Public to give us Qualitative feedback on our performance at, at least one third of our sites within 6 Months.

• Within 6 Months reduce the amount of manhours used Management by at least 50% for preparing/generating Operations Monthly Reports.

Lastly, we can now look at the potential savings and thus the ROI on the investment in the digital solution;

Here’s an a very simplistic model for Monthly Expenditure & potential Savings;

‍