How Real-Time Labor Data Helps Employers Make Better Staffing Decisions

Staffing decisions sit at the forefront of almost every business. Industries like hospitality, retail, food service, and healthcare rely on public-facing employees while others function with behind-the-scenes labor to keep things running. Whatever your type of business, real-time data can help you make adjustments before patterns become entrenched.

Develop a Staffing Strategy

A staffing strategy provides a clear picture of hiring, training, and retention. It helps you determine if the right people are in the right roles, and optimize staffing budgets for growth and success. A staffing model, says recruiter Marilyn Beck, “is a structured framework that outlines how a business plans to meet its workforce needs. It involves assessing current and future staffing requirements, identifying necessary types of employment, and developing strategies to attract and retain talent.”

To best develop your strategy, she says, you need to determine which of the six staffing models fits your company structure best:

• Fixed staffing. A staff of mainly full- and part-time employees with no specified end date.
  
• Variable staffing. Staffing depends on demand; you may add seasonal workers, for example.
  
• Staff augmentation. You hire contingent staff on a per-project basis.
  
• Outsourcing. Delegates certain functions or processes to third-party organizations.
  
• Freelance and gig economy. A staff comprised of all independent contractors.
  
• Hybrid staffing model. Combines various staffing approaches depending on need.

Labor Metrics to Watch

When gathering real-time labor data, you could focus on metrics such as:

• Attendance. Timekeeping software provides real-time attendance data through a mobile app easily accessible to all employees. In-app schedule changes, shift swaps, and messaging keep employees aware of changes as they happen, lessening absenteeism. If employees do miss shifts, you’ll know right away and can react accordingly.
• Productivity. Time-tracking software can provide real-time data about how your employees use their time at work, time spent on certain projects, and collaboration patterns. 
• Error rates. In manufacturing or healthcare, for example, errors can bring serious consequences. Tracking errors as they happen can help reveal lapses in safety compliance, training gaps, and skills deficiencies. 
• Location tracking. For service or delivery businesses, real-time GPS data can indicate time spent at each stop, diversions from the expected route, and even speed. This data can help your company plan routes effectively, adjust worker assignments, and even provide incentives or accolades for meeting benchmarks.

Gathering this information requires the right tools. WorkforceHub is the ideal solution for timekeeping, scheduling, and HR, providing detailed insights into employee data that you can use to make staffing decisions.

How Real-Time Data Can Inform Staffing Strategy

Manual data collection generated as a report is a glimpse into the past. It’s not invaluable, but past data can’t always reveal the big picture. Worse, there may be patterns emerging that can compound into problems before you even know they’re happening. Because staffing involves human emotions and decisions, you run the risk of losing important team members based on concerns that may have been resolvable if they were caught earlier.

A 2020 report by Deloitte found that “while 83 percent of respondents said that their organization produces information on the state of their workforce, only 11 percent of organizations produce the information in real time; 43 percent said they produce it either ad hoc or not at all.”

Since then, there have certainly been tremendous innovations in data-gathering tools, and more of an appetite to consider how real-time data can mold and shape your company’s workforce. For example, a hotel can use AI tools to analyze booking patterns, traffic, and weather to predict ideal staffing levels, and managers can adjust the schedule accordingly. Adjustments help staff feel prepared for demand spikes and prevent overwork and burnout that come with understaffing. In hospitality, customer experience is the highest priority, since the industry relies on positive reviews and word-of-mouth references. 

Address Concerns Before they Worsen

Real-time labor data allows you to address issues before they become costly in relationships, reputation, and productivity. Use data to:

• Optimize scheduling. Data helps you schedule the appropriate number of staff per shift, observe effective pairings, and reveal training competencies that allow for improved customer service. 
• Offer more training. Data reveals training gaps that may be easily resolved. Sometimes employees don’t know the right questions to ask or even that they’re making mistakes. Proper training allows each worker to demonstrate competence.
• Increase productivity. Productivity metrics reveal where lags exist in the process. They can help you determine what tasks need more management attention.
• Offer incentives. Data can help you form incentive programs, structure salary increases and bonuses, and observe employees who are prepared for promotion.

Real-time labor data can help you form a staffing strategy and make decisions based on valuable labor metrics, improving employee satisfaction, boosting retention, and increasing productivity.