Navigating Visibility and Analytics for Contingent Shift Worker Management

Reliance on a shift-based contingent workforce has surged to record levels in the UK and Ireland. According to Gartner, contingent labor will comprise 35 to 40 percent of the global workforce by 2025. This estimate comes in response to companies seeking more flexibility in their talent approach amidst rising economic volatility and uncertainty. 

If your business already leverages or plans to depend on contingent shift-based workers for flexibility and efficient continuity in business operations, mastering their management is critical for the best results. Gaining better workforce visibility is a starting point towards that end.

In this blog, we explore the challenges that become apparent with the lack of visibility into the contingent workforce. We also deconstruct a tangible approach to leveraging technology and analytics to navigate better visibility.

What business challenges arise from a lack of visibility into contingent shift-based workers? 

Most companies follow fragmented and inconsistent processes in managing contingent workers. This often results in poor data capture. Consequently, a lack of clear insight into the workforce’s activities leads to productivity, resource allocation, and overall output inefficiencies. This manifests in ways such as: 

1. Cost control: Accurately calculating salaries or tracking hours worked by workers is difficult without real-time visibility into spending. This often complicates talent budget management, risking overspending and reducing profitability.

2. Forecasting recruitment needs: Accurately forecasting one’s talent needs is also a challenge without visibility. This leads to concerns around under or over-hiring which can lead to talent shortages in critical times or unnecessary payroll expenses in lean periods. According to Gartner, this can be acute as 58% of recruiting leaders face challenges in acquiring talent timely to support their business needs.

3. Risk management & compliance: Ensuring compliance with labor laws and health and safety regulations is challenging without robust tracking systems. Managing candidate eligibility at scale becomes difficult, and maintaining oversight of compliance throughout the worker lifecycle is problematic. Transparency is lacking in ensuring agency suppliers adhere to compliance standards, and efficient incident management and handling of compliance breaches are hindered. Additionally, keeping up with evolving legislation is difficult without proper visibility, further complicating compliance efforts.

4. Inefficient shift scheduling: Without clarity into worker availability, hiring choices end up becoming suboptimal. It’s easy to correlate how when there’s an absence of knowledge on real-time worker availability, scheduling shifts efficiently is nearly impossible. Mistakes often lead to poor worker satisfaction. It also risks ensuring fair and manageable shifts, leading to unintended non-compliance with labor laws and penalties.

What steps can improve your visibility of contingent shift workers in the organization?

Leveraging technology is the crux of enhancing visibility into your contingent shift-based workforce. To implement that, here’s what you need to do: 

1. Evaluate your technology infrastructure: If your current systems do not provide real-time visibility, consider implementing a centralized vendor management system with comprehensive workforce management capabilities like planning, fulfillment, time and attendance. If you choose a VMS that’s compatible to support shift-based workers, you’ll be able to create a single source of truth for all workforce information. Depending on your requirements, additionally ensure your VMS has the ability to integrate into your existing systems - or is robust enough to serve as an all-in-one solution.  

2. Streamline and standardize processes: Make sure to develop standardized processes and reporting formats to better manage contingent workers across the organization. Automate processes such as aggregating attendance data from clocking/biometrics, calculating salaries, and allocating shifts for efficiency. In addition, partner with third-party vendors with expertise in configuring these systems. This will help further optimize your workforce management practices.

3. Track and analyze key performance indicators (KPIs): Regularly track KPIs related to critical workforce management attributes. For instance, you can measure worker attendance, shift patterns, pay rates, and productivity. Tracking and analyzing this data will help identify inefficiencies and areas for improvement. For instance, you may locate overtime cases that may lead to noncompliance with labor laws, opportunities for saving costs by talent expenses, and so on.

4. Use analytics for strategic planning: Last but not least, take a forward-looking approach to plan your talent sourcing. Leverage your organization’s historical data to prepare for peak periods in advance to optimize talent hiring and workforce scheduling. Doing so will position you to boost productivity, reduce the need for overtime, prevent worker fatigue, and optimize your talent expenses.

Reimagine your contingent shift-based worker management with a holistic approach

With the right management tactics, leveraging contingent workers for business growth with optimized productivity and costs is possible. In addition to improving visibility, other supporting steps to mastering contingent shift-based worker management include: 

• Increasing speed and access to talent
• Optimizing for cost
• Empowering shift-based workers
• Ensuring compliance
• Embracing automation

Want to know the best way to get started with each of these?

Our ebook, 6 Steps to Mastering Contingent Shift Worker Management: Focus on the UK, shares all the details. 

Download and read now!

Disclaimer: The content in this blog post is for informational purposes only and cannot be construed as specific legal advice or as a substitute for legal advice. The blog post reflects the opinion of Magnit and is not to be construed as legal solutions and positions. Contact an attorney for specific advice and guidance for specific issues or questions.