Achieving workforce success (WS) means being driven, open-minded, empowering, and the ultimate master of your work. In this part of the series, we’ll focus on being driven. WS Champions are driven because they are doers who maximise their resources in order to deliver quality outputs. One readily available, indeed ubiquitous, resource is data. How do you use data to achieve WS?

Today’s professionals constantly and consistently use the cloud, analytics, mobile, and social technologies. Data, and how we share data, is at the very core of how we get work done. From the way we calendar meetings to how we collaborate on reports and track progress, some form of technology is likely to be involved.

The applications of technology have gone far, but they can go much further, right into the heart of business: workforce management. No company or organization will survive without its workforce, and yet the systems we use to manage it are often the last to be updated. Data and digital technology are highly transformative, and businesses need to take advantage of it.

So what does it mean to have a data-driven workforce? It means harnessing technology to not only solve challenges in the workplace, but also to optimize it. Investing in the correct workforce technology can empower employees while resulting in long-term savings for the business. Below, we explore how your organization can develop a more data-driven workforce.

Automating time and attendance

Cloud, analytics, mobile, and social technologies are key innovations that have had an impact on the workplace. Integrating any and all of these into day-to-day operations can revolutionize the way you work. One way to do that is via cloud-based automation of time and attendance. This is a popular solution because time and attendance are “highly necessary but tedious processes that are the fastest and cheapest to automate,” according to Terry Walby of the FinancialDirector.

When you shift to a cloud-based HR platform, you can expect reduced administrative costs, automated onboarding for new employees, and more accurate timesheets. You will no longer need to manually track leaves, sort out onboarding documents and attendance records, or calculate payroll manually. And you won’t ever need to worry about being accused of wage theft.

Read more: Taking Back Time: Solving the enduring wage theft problem in Australia

Wage theft, and the millions in back pay some businesses have had to comply with, is not an issue with the correct automation software. With all this out of the way, managers can spend more resources planning for the business and improving morale. Integrating automation  Besides time and attendance, management firm Ascentis also recommends automating benefit calculation and legal compliance.

Optimizing shifts and shift swapping

Cloud-based HR can also help you optimize shifts by ensuring that you have the right person, in the right place, at the right time without having to physically check in on your employees. Software like Tanda can predict staff counts: it determines staffing levels with smart algorithms and facilitates updating your roster to reflect that. This way, you can save money on labor while delivering the best possible service to your customers.

Even better, Tanda’s new feature, Shift Swapping, takes shift management in service-oriented industries to another level. Hospitality staff, for example, can request to drop or cover a shift right from their app, while the manager controls all swap approvals and roster updates. Absences are inevitable, but unfilled shifts are not, so the shift swapping feature is a useful addition to service-oriented industries.

Read more: Achieving Workforce Success: Shift Swapping for Managers

Using data to expand business

Finally, a data-driven workforce means being able to use data to not only succeed in the day-to-day tasks but also to expand the business. More systems today are being integrated, facilitating a better analysis of how the business works. They make it easy for owners and managers to generate financial and operations reports. Seeing the big picture and planning for the future is easier with the right data at hand.

With cloud-based HR, managers and business owners have access to insights that were not available before. Different types of data can be correlated for better benchmarking purposes. For example, Tanda lets managers track business revenue and labor costs in real time while complying with all the labor and data privacy laws. Managers can make smarter decisions and ensure that the business will grow over time, without having to do excessive administrative work.

Read more: The Digital Workforce Success Revolution: Why you need to shift to cloud-based HR today

Data has had an unprecedented impact over the way we do things at work. Indeed, it is almost impossible to imagine a time before the cloud, analytics, mobile, and social technologies. The long-term benefits are more than worth the initial birthing pains, as most businesses see an increase in workforce productivity and savings. Taking advantage of these innovations may well determine if a business will succeed in this increasingly fast-paced world.

Ready to find out what Tanda can do for your business? Book a demo today.