A sunny day, an exuberant atmosphere, a new setup in the form of a 'congrestival': after a break of two seasons, the PlanMen WFM Congress 2022 finally arrived. About 400 participants took part in 27 sessions.

 

The kick-off was for Arno Folkerts (half of the duo Folkerts and Smit), who quickly refreshed the situation with people in organizations: change and innovation require a safe environment. Paul Smit provided part two at the end of the day with many recognizable examples of how our brain works. The rest of the day went into depth at the Zonheuvel estate in Doorn. Ziptone attended one number of sessions.

How do you select a WFM solution?

Ronald van Randeraad (formerly capacity manager at Coolblue, now WFM consultant at PlanMen) and Mark van Gerwen (WFM specialist PlanMen) list how you can approach the replacement or renewal of your WFM solution. Randeraad and Van Gerwen immediately became practical: make sure your motives are clear, make sure you know what you want to know from suppliers and make a stakeholder analysis. Purchasing, professionals, HR, ICT, finance, managers and WFM employees often all watch, but from their own different motives. Why do you want a different or new package? More convenience for staff, more efficiency, lower costs, better customer satisfaction? Make a stakeholder analysis: who decides or influences in which area and make agreements about the roles, which prevents delays due to resistance, for example, as does a careful communication plan in a later phase.

Essential in the RFP process: make sure you get a good overview of the differences between the packages. What is important from the perspective of the stakeholders in terms of properties and functionality and how will you weigh the various aspects in your selection process? Suppliers do not always give clear answers to questions, which sometimes makes comparison difficult. Invite suppliers from your shortlist for demos and look for references, asking about both the quality of the implementation process and the quality of the system. Tip: suppliers are not always eager to realize a PoC, but it is a good (and time-consuming) way to get to know the product.

WFM is also: insight into processes and costs

“Whoever controls the planning controls the organization.” Mark Elschot spoke on the main stage about planning with three top managers: Kees Veling dir. director care organization Derkshoes, Kjeld Ay (director at the Dijkzigt Hospital) and Julius Young (Director of Finance & Control and Workforce Management at Cygnific). All three are struggling with capacity issues. Although the passenger volume at Cygnific has decreased to 8%, the traveller/contact ratio has increased considerably (from 1 in 10 to 1 in 3). Derkshoes is now in talks with other stakeholders such as housing associations and municipalities, because the working area is aging rapidly (increasing demand for care, tighter labor market) and the institution is even suffering from inadequate public transport and scarcity on the housing market.

Dijkzigt has only just started looking systematically at capacity issues. The institution wanted to reduce the cost of 25 million annual overtime hours (because this weighs on the financial result) - and is now considering extending the hours during which departments operate. Think of a clinic that is also open in the evening. Cygnific also explores new possibilities and offers (new) employees the opportunity to work from abroad or from the Manila office for a number of months.

Stick Excel sheets together

According to Kjeld Aij van het Dijkzigt, WFM is more than planning. WFM also contributes to more insight, overview, peace and stability. However, because 'plan' often means change, decision makers prefer to avoid the subject. In addition, there is often a quick search for an 'owner' of WFM. Dijkzigt is mainly still busy piecing together 'Excels', because it is only now becoming clear that the correct management information must first be collected.

Veeling from the care organization Derkshoes in Drenthe is clear about ownership: WFM is a responsibility of the business. But “WFM goes further than looking at your schedule”, healthcare organizations also look at opportunities outside the WFM domain in the search for solutions to capacity problems. Final conclusion: WFM is relevant for all disciplines. Observation: HR is hardly mentioned as a discipline that can make a link with the workplace, (regulations regarding) working hours, travel time, recruitment, accommodation.

NN also increases insight into processes

NN is working hard on the adoption of WFM solutions within various parts of the organization. Gus Genuit, senior WFM employee at NN Bank, notes that the role of WFM is increasing, also in the back office. And within WFM, data is becoming increasingly important for forecasting and analysis. This not only concerns the question of who should do what and when, but also gain insight into work volumes and lead times.

Various parts of NN moving to the cloud version of Verint. This makes it easier to use the app, for example: your schedule on your smartphone makes life easier for employees and planners, but also contributes to the acceptance of other changes, such as working according to schedules.

As with the Dijkzigt, the implementation of WFM in the back office of the NN Income Collective division has first of all led to more insight, says Justin Timmers, senior WFM specialist.

Unlike the front office, where processes can be monitored down to the second, the back office lacked standards for lead times. Genuit foresees that with more insight into and grip on processes, it should be possible to arrive at, for example, a mortgage offer in a day.

Time for personal care: counting in shrinkage

Genuit and Timmers provided insight into the implementation of Verint Ops Manager in particular, which plans back-office tasks and assigns them to employees. In the first half of the implementation period, insight was gained into the size and priorities of workflows, skills and norms for lead times. The department had 9 products, 20 processes and 120 employees, but there also appeared to be 1.100 skills. The WFM team would rather say goodbye to the latter. When everything is set up properly, you can not only predict and plan, but you also know what the costs are of administrative process steps and you have a better idea of ​​where time can be saved. The second half of the period was used for support and adjustments.

Results so far are that more work can be done with fewer people, that there is better differentiation on skill levels (a beginner gets more time than a senior), and there is a much better insight into the speed and costs of processes. Employees found the change difficult, but are now satisfied: the work is allocated and distributed in an objective, i.e. fair manner. Interesting detail: NN includes the time needed for personal care in the time needed to perform tasks. In other words, personal care is seen as a shrinkage factor. With this, NN has put an end to the pee chain discussion.

Rabobank sets up internal WFM academy

Rabobank decided two years ago to set up its own WFM academy. This choice is the result of changes within the bank, in which WFM tasks from various parts of the bank organization - in addition to the contact center, for example, also financial advice - have been centralized.

According to Stephen Henzen en George Arnold was it difficult to grow internally from other roles to a position within WFM; in addition, the WFM roles within the bank are strongly separated. There was a need for more development capacity, also because the WFM team would grow strongly due to all the changes within the bank. In addition to the personal training budget (Time to Grow, Rabobank-wide) and the internal training programs, the WFM academy and a 'learning from each other' program have therefore been set up.

In the latter variant, new employees can learn from experienced employees; the development process consists of three levels and is divided into knowledge areas such as capacity, BI, traffic, scheduling or forecasting. External trainers are used for the third level (expert), so that 'fresh' knowledge is also brought in from outside. Testing the first two levels is still on the wish list, so that the development program can become a fully-fledged part of the permanent education that is part of the WFM registry belongs. Although only recently implemented, the WFM team is seeing more engagement, more feedback on the WFM process, and virtually no churn.

Ziptone looks back on an excellent conference with a lot of interaction during the sessions, but also plenty of room for casual networking and catching up. The only downside: the lunch was excellent and more than sufficient, but the kitchen brigade had some difficulty with the supply speed in the beginning. Let's say it's a matter of forecasting. (Ziptone/Erik Bouwer)

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