Reporting. Big Data. Integration. Data Warehousing. BI. Analytics. Feeling confused or overwhelmed yet? Every business needs workforce management (WFM) reporting, but how do you get it right? For many people, it often feels challenging or even impossible.
At Axsium, we know good reporting isn’t just a nice to have—it’s an important part of a successful WFM project. So here are a few keys tips to help you make sure you know what you need at the right stage of your project to get the best outcomes.
To Get Good WFM Reporting at the End, Start at the Beginning
When do you start thinking about your reporting? If, like many people, you’ve heard you should start discussing it at the end of your project, we may have found part of your problem. Yes, reporting uses data that you can extract from your WFM solution once it has been implemented and tested. But you need to start thinking about it right away.
Make the outputs you need for your reporting part of your overall solution design. You’ll find making sure you can produce the right outputs will impact how you implement the solution. Leave this discussion to the end of your project and you risk failing to meet your WFM reporting objectives.
Challenge the Norms
let’s talk about what you should report. I assume you’re implementing a new WFM solution to update your old WFM processes. If you’re updating your WFM solution, why not do the same for your reporting requirements?
Review your current reporting outputs. Think about what’s working and what could be improved. This is your opportunity to fix long established work arounds, so take advantage of what your new solution has to offer. Like everything else in a successful business, reporting requirements don’t stay the same. New legislation, operational changes, and many other elements all have an impact.
Give your WFM reporting requirements the same treatment you’re giving your WFM solution. You’ll find your reporting will only benefit when you challenge your assumptions.
Engage with Your WFM Reporting End Users
Your WFM solution doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s influenced and has impacts throughout your business. The same goes with your reporting requirements. If you engage with a variety of stakeholders throughout your company, you’ll uncover detail to your reporting requirements you wouldn’t expect.
In all likelihood, you’ll discover workarounds, manual processes, knowledge gaps, wish list items and so much more. I couldn’t tell you the number of times I’ve had clients tell me “I didn’t know we had that report!”
Talking to your end users will give you a better picture of what reporting is currently available. More importantly, it will tell you what’s currently used. Knowing this will help you know what’s redundant and what improvements could become big wins.
The Devil is in the Detail
You’ve identified new and improved high-level reporting requirements that will give your end users what they’ve been looking for. Now it’s time to start the deeper dive into the detail. For example, identifying that you need a Head Count report is a great starting point. But you’ll need to discuss the finer details, like how an FTE is calculated.
This process can uncover interesting and tricky requirements you weren’t aware of and may need further investigation. This finer detail can add complexities and create timeline impacts, so you need to identify and understand it early on.
The Big Picture
Hopefully, I’ve made it clear that your WFM reporting requirements are a vital part of your overall WFM solution implementation. There’s a lot to think about and you’ll likely uncover even more as you go through your planning. But you don’t need to go it alone.
Work with your software vendor and IT department. They’ll help you understand your WFM solution and integration landscape. From there, you’ll be able to determine the best location from which to source your reporting.
Reporting direct from a solution, and perhaps using native reports, can be a great option. However, if your IT landscape includes a data warehouse you could produce more analytical reports with data from multiple solutions. This also gives you the flexibility to update your reporting outputs as your organisation grows and develops.
And you don’t just have those technical resources to provide support. If you need help or advice to identify your organisation’s reporting requirements or optimised your data, Axsium’s experts are ready.
