Workforce management initiatives will continue to be a top priority among Health and Human Services (HHS) executives in the new year. Organizations must work towards finding and retaining top talent to fulfill their workforce needs so that they may continue to provide high-quality care and services. However, workforce management is such a broad and all-encompassing initiative, that it’s essential to first break it down into its core components to understand the steps involved in creating meaningful goals and developing a plan to reach them.
People, Teams & Processes
At the most basic level, workforce management begins and ends with the individual people that make up your workforce. We’ve seen a fundamental shift in organizational strategy as businesses have gone from a customer-first mentality to one that’s employee-first instead. That mentality will continue to shape workforce management strategies in 2020.
Employee engagement became quite the buzzword several years back, slowing evolving into the broader concept of the employee experience. And now, in our increasingly digital world, we’re starting to think of it more as the human experience instead. No matter what you choose to call it though, taking care of your employees remains a top priority for any organization looking to ensure its ongoing success.
When we consider the employee experience, we need to think about the different stages of the employee lifecycle. This begins with the candidate experience during the recruiting phase and goes on to encompass onboarding, training, professional development, and succession planning. The employee’s needs at each stage will naturally change, and it’s essential to address these differences in order to drive engagement and retention throughout the employee lifecycle.
The employee experience is also shaped by the environment around them – including both the physical workplace and the people they interact with on a daily basis. How coworkers, managers, and teams interact – and are able to interact – greatly influences the employee experience. These interactions are also shaped by the specific processes and tools employees have available to them. Recognizing that people, teams, and processes are interrelated can help you understand how your organization can foster a workplace culture that enhances the entire employee experience.
Increasing Visibility to Maximize Resources
Creating the experience you want for your organization requires putting the right tools and resources in place. I’m sure everyone at your organization would love to see their salary doubled, unlimited benefits, and their perfect work environment implemented. The all-too-familiar reality, however, is that resources are limited. Employee time is limited. And there’s always a budget to be concerned about. In order to best serve both your employees and your clients, you will need to plan strategically and make the best possible use of the resources you do have.
This starts with increasing visibility into your workforce operations. What things are going well and where are the inefficiencies? Without visibility, you can’t answer these very simple questions. But when you are able to see into the details of your existing operations by drawing up real-time reports with the drill-down details you need, you can start to see the forest through the trees. Identifying any problem areas is the essential first step to making improvements, eliminating inefficiencies, and maximizing resources.
Ensuring the Future of Your Organization
Eliminating inefficiencies and maximizing resources isn’t just about saving money or making things a little easier today. The more important outcome has to do with your organization’s place within the industry. In particular, your organization needs to pay attention to what it’s doing today to ensure its future success.
Health and Human Services organizations don’t often have huge amounts of funds stockpiled for tough times, so ensuring financial efficiency in every process and workflow in the present day is of the utmost importance. Being confident about your organization’s future is necessary for taking care of your workforce’s future. Your organization can ensure this financial efficiency by gaining the visibility necessary to build efficient workflows. These processes enable employees to be their most productive and effective, which relates directly back to cultivating that positive employee experience. By breaking down the concept of workforce management into these core components, you can begin to build an actionable plan to achieve your workforce management goals.
