Workday Delivers New Innovations to Elevate the Frontline Worker Experience

• Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization Tools Help Organizations Prioritize the Needs of Frontline Workers

Workday Inc., a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources, announced its latest workforce management innovations to support frontline workers and managers, including Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization — an intelligent, worker-first scheduling solution that matches labor demands with worker preferences. With this solution, organizations can better optimize shift schedules and empower frontline workers with flexibility and control for when and how they work.

Frontline, hourly, and shift workers have been integral to the global pandemic response and essential in helping to keep the economy in motion. And while they make up a large portion of the overall global workforce, organizations struggle to recruit, support, and retain this critical segment during a time of unprecedented change. According to the recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, a record 4.3 million workers voluntarily quit their jobs in August 2021, with nearly 40% representing frontline and hourly workers across healthcare, hospitality and leisure, and retail industries. In order to listen to and support their needs, organizations need the tools and technology to create better, more engaging experiences for frontline workers, helping organizations address worker shortages.

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Workday Scheduling, announced in May 2021, now combines with Workday Labor Optimization to enable organizations to achieve more precise labor coverage and labor cost-effectiveness with every schedule. Available now, Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization enables workers to manage their schedules, adjust and add shifts, and more on a mobile device — while offering managers new ways to measure and improve productivity and schedule quality.

Elevate the Frontline Worker Experience with Greater Transparency for Their Needs

Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization is part of a unified workforce optimization offering that includes Workday Time Tracking, Absence Management, Talent Management, Human Capital Management (HCM), and Payroll and helps organizations more easily attract, engage, and retain talent — all in one system.

With this suite of offerings, Workday is empowering frontline workers and managers with innovations to elevate the worker experience and better address organizational needs, including:

• Workforce Analytics. Frontline managers and operational leaders can make faster, data-informed decisions with a dynamic view of key performance indicators to monitor and compare how sales and productivity are tracking against actual versus scheduled hours. For example, retailers that want to monitor labor cost as a percentage of sales and revenue per hour of labor for each store can now do so — right in the schedule — making schedule adjustments as needed to hit corporate targets.
• Time and Scheduling Hub. Frontline managers can focus on their team’s well-being and success with a centralized dashboard to manage daily operations right in the flow of work to monitor trends and quickly act on time and absence issues. For example, luxury athletic resort brand Life Time, Inc. uses Workday to manage daily labor costs for its 20,000 employees across 150 locations, ensuring that managers are maximizing schedules, particularly as location hours and demands flex with local mandates related to the pandemic. This allows Life Time to monitor costs and adjust schedules as necessary, while prioritizing worker need and preference.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) Capabilities. Businesses with fluctuating labor demand, in industries such as retail, hospitality and food services, can harness Workday AI technology, which automatically adjusts schedules week-to-week, adds and removes shifts to match labor demand, eliminates unnecessary overtime, and helps keep labor costs in check. The Workday proprietary AI-based optimization engine can evaluate thousands of schedule scenarios in seconds by matching worker preferences against business needs, resulting in a schedule optimization score that measures how well a schedule meets organizational goals, which can vary from store to store. As the holiday season approaches, retail organizations that are already facing hiring and staffing challenges can retain high value employees by prioritizing shift preferences while still meeting their labor needs.

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Comments on the News
“Frontline workers are more essential than ever. As such, organizations are doubling down to ensure their needs are met by offering them tools to better manage how they work,” said Mariana Santiago, general manager, workforce, Workday. “With Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization, organizations can meet this moment with an elevated, end-to-end experience for frontline and hourly workers — built on an HCM foundation we continue to reimagine to support the evolving needs for all types of workers.”

“In order to address the tight labor market and better recruit and support our frontline workers, we need to empower them with more control over how and when they want to work,” said Jignesh Patel, director, technology, Life Time, Inc. “With Workday Scheduling and Labor Optimization, our more than 20,000 employees and managers can access, build, and manage schedules all in one system, allowing us to meet the needs of our workers and the business. We believe this differentiated experience is helping both attract and retain our talent, enabling us to continue delivering great member experiences across our 150 health clubs.”

“Businesses that employ frontline, hourly, and shift workers face unprecedented labor challenges, as the demand for workers far outweighs the supply. Yet, frontline workers seek employers that offer better benefits, more flexibility, and career growth,” said Stacey Harris, chief research officer and managing partner, Sapient Insights Group. “Bringing the power of Workday HCM and talent management together with workforce management addresses a major industry demand and helps customers provide the freedom and engagement frontline workers both expect and require.”

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