WFM: Change The Way You Work

By Erin Harris, associate editor

I attended the Infor10 WFM Workbrain User Conference, which was held last week in Miami. The conference focused on changing the way retailers maintain compliance, approve time, optimize labor, collect time, and more. Some of the savviest retail brands were in attendance — American Eagle, H&M, JCPenney, The Limited, and more. Executives from many verticals attended the conference, but the information delivered by the presenters hit the mark for every person in attendance. In case you missed it, here’s a recap.

Duncan Angove, president of product and customer service, delivered the keynote address on why Infor has put product first. “We have doubled down on product,” explains Angove. “Everything else will take care of itself in enterprise software.” Indeed, the company has hired 600 engineers to work on nothing but business applications, making Infor the product-driven company it is today. Angove also explained that speed will become as important as scale. “As a society, we’re obsessed with the notion of speed,” he states. “We wanted to build software solutions that allow customers to move and run faster than the competition.”

There were several actionable sessions throughout the three-day event. One session that proved very informative was delivered by Lisa “Lee” A. Schreter, co-chair wage and hour practice group, Littler Mendleson Lay Firm. During her session, “Punching Employers’ Time Clocks: How Payroll & Timekeeping Systems Are Under Attack,” Schreter explained that the Department of Labor (DOL) reports that 80% of employers are not in compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).  Schreter reviewed business cases for compliance as well as the top five reasons employers face noncompliance: automatic meal deductions, rounding, exception time reporting, time shaving, and short meal and rest periods. She urged employers to provide a robust complaint mechanism that that allows anonymous reports of wage & hour concerns. She also urged employers to promptly investigate any/all potential violations and record them.

At the event, I had to privilege of moderating a panel discussion on WFM and mobility titled, “Have You Settled On A Mobile Strategy Yet?” Tom Stogner, staffing, planning, and forecasting director of retail operations at JCPenney and Adrian Schauer, president and CEO at Vortex Connect sat on the panel and answered my questions about the future of mobility and workforce management. Both executives delivered actionable data on a mobile WFM strategy from customer experience, security, and investment perspectives.  

If you would like to learn more about the Infor10 WFM Workbrain User Conference, please feel free to post a thoughtful comment.