Workforce Management   by Alison Cole

It is often said that good people can make any organization work. Some even assert that vagueness in organization is a good thing in that it forces teamwork, since people know that they must cooperate to get anything done. However, there can be no doubt that good people and those who want to cooperate will work together most effectively if they know the parts they are to play in any team operation, and the way their roles relate to one another. That's where the role of workforce management comes in.

Designing and maintaining these systems of roles is basically the main function of workforce management. For an organizational role to exist and be meaningful to people, it must incorporate verifiable objectives, a clear idea of the major duties or activities involved and an understood area of discretion or authority, so that person filling the role knows what he or she can do to accomplish goals. In addition, to make a role work out effectively, provisions should be made to supply needed information and other tools necessary for performance in that role.

That's why we can relate workforce management with organizational skills. Like workforce management, organizing requires the identification and classification of required activities, the grouping of activities necessary to attain objectives and the assignment of each grouping to a manager with the authority necessary to supervise.

An organization structure should be designed to clarify who is to do what tasks, and who is responsible for what results in order to remove performance obstacles caused by confusion and uncertainty of assignment. Above all, to furnish decision-making and communications networks reflecting and supporting enterprise objectives. Organization is a word that is used by many people loosely. Some would say it includes all the behavior of all participants, whereas others equate it with the total system of social and cultural relationships. But practically speaking, the term organization implies a formalized intentional structure of roles or positions.

Workforce Management Systems

Although organizations have much in common with one another, they differ in many ways. Some organizations are large, and some are small. Some operate in one product area, while others operate in many diversified areas. Some operate in a small geographical area, whereas others do business in many countries of the world. That's where the role of workforce management systems comes into the fore. To cope with these varied objectives, strategies and situations, managers adopt different workforce management systems.

Departmentation is the process of dividing the organization into manageable subunits. The subunits are often referred to as departments, divisions or sections. Functional departmentation is the process of dividing the organization into units on the basis of the firm's major activities. It involves grouping employees according to the broad tasks they perform. Normally, separate departments are created in workforce management systems for all the key activities of the business.

If the organization or given department is large, or as the organization grows, major departments can be subdivided. These sub-divisions are called derivative departments. The essential idea is to take advantage of specialization. As organizations are not static, they grow in size either by broadening its product line or by expanding geographically.

Further, as the size of the organization increases, some of the disadvantages become more apparent. The organization is forced to look for other systems in tune with the requirements. In such situations, managements will opt for various other types of departments, in focusing on the product or market. One of the most common ways in which businesses grow is by increasing the number of products they make and sell. If the organization is successful, several product lines may attain such high sales that they require a separate division.

Workforce Management Solutions

Delegation is the buzzword when talking about workforce management solutions. Delegation is the process by which authority is granted to a subordinate by his superior. But for delegation of authority, organizations would remain forever small. Delegation is the only solution to cope with the increasing workload of managers as the organization grows.

Because of the constraints of time and availability, a manager cannot perform all the tasks himself. Therefore, he delegates a certain amount of tasks to subordinates. Authority, on the other hand, is the right to command. It is the discretion power vested with a manager to use organizational resources. Managers acquire authority by virtue of rank or title associated with this position. Authority is granted to individuals in a formal way in the organization. It flows from the top to down in the organization structure.

Responsibility, on the other hand, is obligation to perform tasks and account for their satisfactory completion. It is implied that an individual is expected to fulfill certain job requirements when accepting a position in an organization. In other words, the individual has to answer for the results of a task about to be performed. In contrast to authority, the responsibility of an individual in the organization is always upwards; that is, the subordinate is responsible to his or her superior.

This is a crucial step in that a few important questions like what to delegate? When to delegate? Whom to delegate? And how to delegate are answered. The effectiveness of delegation depends on how clearly these questions are answered. First of all, the manager has to decide the tasks to be delegated to the subordinates. For this, he must be able to distinguish between the routine and non-routine tasks. The subordinate can perform routine and single tasks, while the manager must perform the non-routine and very important tasks.

Workforce Management Software

When talking about workforce management software it is very important to see organizing as a multi-step process. It involves detailing all the work that must be done to attain the objectives. Secondly, you must understand the term differentiation, which is dividing the total workload into activities that can logically and comfortably be performed by one person or by group of persons. Then comes the important task of departmentation that involves grouping the related tasks in a logical manner.

The next step is setting up a mechanism to coordinate the work of members into a unified whole by establishing authority - responsibility relationships; this involves delegation and decentralization of authority. Last but not the least, workforce management software plays a pivotal part in monitoring the effectiveness of the organization and making adjustments to maintain or increase effectiveness.

The various steps stated above in organizing process results in a structure that facilitates the performance of tasks in a cohesive way. The resulting structure, however, is not a static form, like the structure of a building. Since structure is based on plans, major revision of plans may necessitate a corresponding modification of structure. As such, organizing and reorganizing in workforce management software are ongoing processes. Successful organizations continuously assess the appropriateness of their structure and change it in accordance with the dictates of the environment.

The managerial function organizing may be defined as defining and grouping the activities of the enterprise and establishing authority, responsibility and relationships among them. And that's where the creation of structure takes place, a structure that is most appropriate for the organizations objectives and other internal and external factors. The best structure is the one that enables the organization to interact effectively with its environment, to efficiently channel the efforts of its people, to make efficient use of its resources. Thus, when planning specifies the objectives, organizing facilitates the accomplishment of objectives.

About the Author

Workforce Management provides detailed information on Workforce Management, Workforce Management Software, Workforce Management Solutions, Workforce Management Systems and more. Workforce Management is affiliated with Workflow Management.