WFM as a Value-Add to Your Organization

WFM as a value-add to your organization: This tip originally appeared on SWPP and comes from one of their members, Scott Engman of Optum.

Many people have told me that Workforce Management is a cost center. There are some that don’t use that language, but most who use traditional terminology would agree that WFM isn’t a profit center — we don’t directly produce any revenue.

We do, however, add VALUE to our organization and to our organization’s customers. I think we all intuitively understand that, but there are folks around us who may not. Help them.

Keep track of your value. Tell people about the value you provide. Keep a log of the questions you answer every day. Quantify the problems you solve in terms real dollars saved (through early release, proactive PTO planning, etc.), cost avoidance (dollars the company would have spent if not for our information, i.e., cancelled training classes or reduced overtime due to optimized schedules or cross training), or opportunity costs (i.e., customer dissatisfaction or customers lost as a result of not spending or investing in service).

If you were to keep a running tally of the value you add to the company, there is no doubt it would be a staggering figure. Being able to show this to others is well worth the effort.

Scott may be reached at [email protected] . 

You can find out more about the Society of Workforce Planning Professionals (SWPP)  here.