The Easy Way To WFM/ERP Integration

The assumption that your workforce is your largest controllable expense is certainly overstated, yet almost as certainly true. It’s also true that the expense and complexity of labor management is growing. The volume of data interchange between the employee interface (time clock) and the back office systems that manage labor budgets and regulations (ERP / Enterprise Resource Planning) is big and getting bigger. For businesses that manage large payrolls, it’s increasingly difficult to find a more vivid example of the “garbage in, garbage out” data axiom. What sets the “GIGO” cliché apart in the context of WFM is the fact that when labor data is inaccurate (or handled inefficiently, for that matter), the results are painfully expensive.

Key to maximizing workforce management (WFM) efficiency is process automation. From scheduling to timekeeping to managing attendance, payroll, and work rules compliance, the WFM process is filled with ripe opportunities for automation. Once achieved, WFM process automation increases visibility into labor costs, improves the accuracy of the data that affects those costs, and simplifies complex work rules. Collectively, these improvements reduce risk, create control, and save you money that was previously lost to inaccuracy and inefficiency.

All that said, achieving fluid WFM process automation is dependent on the integration of several dynamic parts, which is easily stated but not easily achieved. In the typical enterprise, WFM data resides in disparate silos, such as HR management software, ERP, and other systems. Without real-time data flow enabled by integration, WFM processes are often manual, always delayed, and typically error-prone. The result of each of these maladies is cost – the costs of inefficiency, unmanaged absences, inaccurate payroll, noncompliance with labor laws, labor fraud, under- or over-staffing, and top-heavy management oversight.