Workforce management (WFM) is part of the Greater Human Capital Management (HCM) Model, and encompasses all the activities, processes, and tools needed to manage a workforce.
A comprehensive WFM includes planning, forecasting, scheduling, and tracking workers to optimize the balance of customer, employee, labour laws, and organizational needs.

Buyers – Originally used by HR, Payroll and IT Department for human resources functions, but Finance and Operation Departments are beginning to utilize WFM for more strategic, productivity applications.

Users – Originally viewed to be for hourly shift workers, but is now moving towards the entire workforce, and can be used in any industry. Companies with contingent, salaries, and offsite workers are beginning to realize the benefits of implementing a WFM solution.

• Reduce payroll errors
• Reduce total payroll processing time
• Reduce unauthorized absences
• Improve labour reporting
• Reduce payroll inflation
• Eliminate costs associated with paper timecards
• Eliminate the risks of employee buddy punching or time fraud

Various aspects of WFM solutions include:

Time and Attendance – labour tracking, data collection, time tracking

Absence Planning – managed leaves, unmanaged leaves, productivity

Workforce Planning – long term forecasting, variance management

Scheduling – optimizing, short term forecasting, shift tracking

Companies with multiple locations have the option to install a time clock at each location, or implement an employee/manager self service solution. Either way, all information can be gathered into one centralized system that can be easily managed.

Biometrics is a form of technology that identifies a person according to their unique physical characteristics (i.e. fingerprint or hand geometry).

A person’s fingerprint or hand geometry is enrolled into the biometric terminal and it recognizes the person by comparing their unique characteristics with the information previously stored in the system.

Using mathematical algorithms, the system creates a unique user number or template of the employee from an image captured of their finger. There are two different types of biometric fingerprint systems.The first is a verification system where the employee enters their ID number using a keypad or badge, and then places their finger on the scanner. The system then compares the fingerprint with the template previously enrolled for the employee in the system to verify their identity.The second type is an identification system. This is when the employee simply places their finger on the scanner and then the system will compare the fingerprint with all of the templates in the system to identify a match.

Since employees need to physically be at work to punch in and out, biometrics eliminates the risk of buddy punching and time fraud. Biometrics can save organizations a significant amount by resolving this issue and overall, improve a company’s employee attendance and payroll accuracy.

Items such as building keys or access cards, which can be lost, stolen, forgotten or misplaced, are now, no longer necessary with biometrics.

Buddy punching is when an employee punches the time clock on behalf of another employee, who is leaving early, arriving late, absent from work or not scheduled for work that day.

This allows employees to get paid for time in which they are not on the job, and is the basis for payroll fraud or time theft. Studies show that buddy punching can account for up to 5% of total payroll costs, which can costs companies thousands or even millions of lost dollars per year.

Biometrics do not store images of the hand or fingerprint.

The information of the employees enrolled is a template of their hand or fingerprint, created using a series of algorithms.

These templates are meaningless to other devices and cannot be used to ‘reverse-engineer’ to replicate a person’s hand shape or a fingerprint.

The implementation of biometric terminals is as simple as implementing traditional badge or PIN terminals. Enrolling employees into the system is fast and easy, so companies of all different sizes can utilize biometrics.

What happens if employees forget to punch in or out?
There are web based solutions available for employees who forget to clock in or out, that companies can customize to allow employee or manager access.

Business Intelligence is a method used to identify and analyze company information, such as key trends, gaps, and opportunities. The computer-based system allows businesses to make decisions about their operations, to ultimately improve business performance.