Keeping up with the biggest
2024 WFM trends
Introduction
We’ve got a new year ahead, which means new opportunities in the wonderful world of workforce management (WFM). There is so much happening and changing - some things can feel daunting, others exciting - so we want to provide you with a guide to the biggest trends to have in mind for 2024.
2024 marks a new chapter in the world of work and will be defined by AI-driven automation, a heightened focus on the employee experience, and a streamlined approach to managing people (and tech) in the workplace.
Our in-house experts at Quinyx have shared their knowledge, wisdom, and insights and identified the top three trends in WFM.
Let's set the scene
At Quinyx, we’ve focused on employee engagement since day one. We believe that a great employee experience is, now more than ever, the key ingredient to business success. Countless studies show disengaged employees lead to higher turnover, poor performance, inefficient operations, and poor customer service.
Yet still this is a big issue we see today. The latest data from the analysts of Gartner and Forrester shows there’s a huge need to change how companies engage and communicate with their frontline workers.
The research shows:
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Only 6% of communications executives feel confident in their ability to manage declining levels of employee engagement.
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Improving the employee experience (EX) is now a key IT objective, with 60% of IT professionals prioritizing it.
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Frustration with technology leads to disappointing employee experiences, and frontline workers are often neglected entirely in communication strategies.
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On top of that, employees suffer when they must continually switch systems. Eliminating such distractions is crucial to maintaining optimal workflow.
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Generic communication and content delivery often miss the mark. Personalization of communication and content for specific employee audiences is a top requirement when modernizing internal systems and processes.
The biggest WFM trends
we see in 2024
Make AI your WFM sidekick
AI will supercharge every area of WFM. So far, AI workforce management solutions have mainly focused on demand forecasting and automated schedules. But this is about to change.
For managers, AI Assistants help them understand things like what stores or units need extra attention, identify the employees who are thriving or the ones who need extra support, and suggest how schedules can be tweaked and improved to positively impact KPIs.
By giving managers suggested actions - and supporting them with powerful automation - AI will help managers do what they already do but in a better and faster way.
For example, AI will be able to do things like provide suggested actions in a schedule based on various data points using your KPIs, suggest changing start and end shift times as new data is continuously ingested, recognize repetitive tasks in the system, and complete the actions for the user, and alert managers if an employee is likely to call off for a shift.
From an employee’s perspective, AI will be able to give suggestions for upskilling, showcase what's important to finish on their shift, answer questions live based on process documentation, get benefits questions answered, and suggest shifts to pickup at nearby stores based on the employee's earning goals and growth plans.
AI in WFM won’t ever replace humans, and that should not be the goal. We have all probably said to ourselves, “If only I had more time in the day.” Well, AI can help give you that time.
The three main areas AI will expand into and improve in WFM in the coming year include:
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Compliance - AI can help companies follow relevant labor laws in each market or region
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Automation - helping you create fairer and more efficient schedules
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Optimization - helping you improve and streamline your work
And, let’s not forget, AI can help create more fair and unbiased schedules based on contract and availability data, creating a more evenly distributed schedule. Humans will always be the final stop in approving the schedule, but one of Quinyx’s customers has been able to reduce time schedules for their store managers by 33% with the help of AI.
Frontline workers can also have the opportunity to provide the WFM tools with data about needs and wants for flexibility or growth – allowing them to have more of a say in their schedule and development. And AI is there to help them do just that. Learn more about making AI your sidekick here.
Use an all-in-one approach
Many businesses still need to offer a coherent digital employee experience. As more technology emerges, there’s more and more silos, which adds layers of complexity. Complexity in using multiple systems, managing business operations, and making strategic decisions.
One of Gartner’s workforce management recommendations in the 2023 report is for companies to move from costly on-premise workforce management solutions to cloud-based tools.
WFM solution providers are more and more combining communication, learning, and chat features with more traditional WFM features, like scheduling, time, and attendance. This leads to better integrations, and fewer apps and tools while being more secure and cost-efficient in the cloud.
When you find the right software for your business, it can truly be a game-changer. Far too often we get sucked into the trap of looking for software packed with features and functionality, but none matter if the software fails to serve people.
Businesses that rely on frontline workers need to find easy-to-use digital solutions and apps, that include communication functions, and have everything they need in one place.
This last point is crucial. You need to invest in tech solutions that give your employees everything in one place. Stop making them manage a multiverse of different apps every day. It makes perfect sense for a WFM solution to be the place where everything lives.
Why? Well, first, from a frontline worker's perspective, they will be regularly checking their schedule, logging hours, booking shifts, and swapping shifts. So the WFM tool already gets a lot of traffic and attention and is a daily tool for a frontline worker compared to, say, logging into a payroll solution. Integrating communication, information, training, and learning into the same interface makes life so much easier for the end user– a.k.a your frontline workers.
For instance, consider a global retail coffee chain that seamlessly incorporated these features into its WFM tool. The results spoke for themselves, with a remarkable 96.8% mobile adoption rate achieved within just a year. This success highlights how, with the right tools, the adoption process can be remarkably smooth.
Second, by consolidating the employee experience into fewer apps, the whole digital employee experience becomes much more coherent and streamlined, which again improves the daily lives of frontline workers.
For context, our State of the Frontline Workforce Report revealed that one in three frontline workers currently juggles four or more apps and digital tools in their work routine. This kind of digital fragmentation can easily cause your workers to feel overwhelmed, limit their ability to carry out tasks efficiently and hinder their overall productivity. Implementing an integrated solution addresses these challenges, providing a more seamless and efficient experience for frontline workers.
And finally, there’s the benefit of combining data. For example, if you have task management and scheduling in the same application, you can use the outcome and the data from the tasks when you create the new schedule. And, you can use the information about the booked shifts and satisfaction with the schedule from the frontline workers when you create future schedules, so everything ties together and everyone wins.
Double down on employee experience
Your people are the driving force behind everything you achieve. They’re your soul, your heartbeat, your lifeblood.
Yet, as we enter 2024, frontline worker churn emerges as a massive issue. The question looms: What are organizations missing? Perhaps, the key lies in an improved employee experience.
Consider this: When was the last time you missed a birthday? Or a celebration? Or your kid’s ball game? Being able to do something simple like swap shifts might seem small, but over 40% of frontline workers have no say over their schedules. And 45% report that their work schedule caused them to miss family and social events, or holiday celebrations because they have to work on weekends or evenings.
Drawing on insights again from our recent State of the Frontline Report, we discovered that lack of scheduling flexibility is the number one stress trigger for frontline workers. Even with the overwhelming amount of apps and digital tools they use in the workplace, many frontline workers still don’t have access to an app for swapping shifts.
It’s easy to see things like pay rises, bonuses, or perks as magic bullets for retention and engagement. But they aren’t enough. They don’t solve the core of the issue. Frontline worker churn is one of the biggest issues right now, and employee experience and autonomy over their schedules is the main contributor to that.
Employee experience goes beyond scheduling. You need to help your frontline workers turn up and bring their best selves to work. That’s why, with employee power rising, smart businesses are switching to a labor empowerment rather than a labor-efficiency model.
This means employers aren’t just thinking about wage and bonus bumps, they’re offering tools that better enable and empower their employees as people while giving them more autonomy at work. This includes enhancing employees’ training and skills for the long term to encourage their empowerment rather than their mere compliance.
By acknowledging and addressing the fundamental contributors to frontline worker churn, organizations can create an environment where employees can bring their best selves to work.
Conclusion
The key to unlocking the full potential of the frontline workforce lies in addressing the issues that matter most to them.
With a holistic approach to managing and engaging the frontline - which includes streamlining communication and technology, offering genuine opportunities for career growth, fostering a culture of recognition, and prioritizing work-life balance - your business will thrive, especially when it’s supercharged by the smart use of AI.
You can create a comprehensive, supportive, and empowering environment for your frontline workers by investing in initiatives that address their desire to expand their skills and grow within their careers, by implementing technology that silences the noise of an overcrowded and messy tech environment and scheduling automation that reduces stress and provides work-life balance.
Most important of all – don’t be afraid of AI! Harness its abilities to improve the frontline worker experience, and help everyone on the team get a little bit more time back in their days (while still getting everything they need to done).
In doing so, you’ll reap the rewards of a reinvigorated and re-engaged workforce.