With 62% of employees worldwide using a hybrid working style (Owl Labs, 2022), Workforce Management Software (WFM) is more crucial to consulting businesses than ever. For an industry where your people are your product, it's amazing that any consulting business with more than 10 people operates without a system for forecasting revenue, planning capacity, and workforce management, even if their work is in the office.

Overview of workforce management for consultancies

Workforce management is about managing, regulating, and distributing labour in the workforce. Having the right software to manage your workforce enables you to get the best out of your people. For example, you can identify gaps where no billable work is planned, so your sales team can see what capacity needs to be filled, when, where, and by who.

Workforce management software will help control labour costs and increase the return on investment of your people by predicting future demand and then forecasting how many workers you will need daily, weekly or seasonally.

In addition, professional service automation tools optimise employee performance by allowing managers to identify who has capacity and filter them by skill. This means you can find the right person for the right job at the right time, without spreadsheets creating errors and version control issues.

Why is workforce management more important than you think?

In Professional Services, people typically make up 80% of the organisation’s costs. Managing what these people are doing with their time is the single most crucial operational task for leaders of a Professional Services business.

Make better hiring decisions

Workforce management allows you to plan, organise, and evaluate your team to predict future staffing level requirements. Planning with real data will enable you to understand peaks and troughs in your upcoming pipeline and inform your future hiring decisions.

Bridges the gap between strategy & the labour market

Integrating Workforce Management into your Professional Services firm empowers your business to be more resilient when it is hard to hire. Planning work appropriately enables a reduction in employee burnout when compared with other consultancies which is a big part in both attracting and retaining talent. In addition, appropriately managing your staff's time reduces the need to hire by encouraging better utilisation of your team.

Provides a strategic edge

Implementing budgeting and financial tools in your company will show which projects, clients, and people are actually making the business money, and which need intervention. These tools will allow you to analyse margin by project, customer, individual, or team - all in real time. With these insights in hand, you can better allocate people to the right priority projects, and resolve potential issues proactively rather than reactively.

Workforce scheduling

A digital solution allows you to react flexibly and quickly through fast, direct, and uncomplicated communication channels. Ideally, your software will enable you to comment on resource allocations and audit who changed what, bringing transparency to the process, while people try to snag the best resources for their projects. Equally, you can plan out potential projects with shadow resources and swap them out for real people later. This function will show you unmet demand that needs to be matched to people, whether they are staff, contractors, or future hires.

Assists with time-tracking

Accurate time recording is crucial for any Professional Services firm, as time is what you are selling. By using modern, easy to use, time-tracking tools you can ensure time is being recorded correctly, and that the friction often associated with legacy time tracking methods is minimised. Workforce Management software will illuminate where time is spent and provide the data you need to track utilisation targets for billable work.

Easy payroll processing

Only 60% of employees believe that their pay deductions and net pay are accurate. (Netsuite, 2020)

Customised reports can be generated using professional workforce software, making payroll processing uncomplicated and accurate. Integration with accounting platforms such as Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB will ensure your time entries flow straight through to smart invoices. Saving you and your accounts team time and money.

Must-have features

An efficient workforce management software is designed to help businesses manage all aspects of their workforce, including a variety of tasks, such as the following.

Flexible timecodes

Time management enables managers to track the different types of work their employees engage in, such as regular work hours, overtime, public holidays, annual leave, etc. Make sure the time-tracking software is easy to use, mobile-friendly, and enables staff to save timecodes on the timesheet that they wish to log time on again.

Expenses tracking

Workforce planning software allows the company to record, review and approve time & expenses, even managing sub-contractors and on-charge costs to customers.

Resourcing

Secure the best people to work on your projects using skills mapping, allowing you to see who has future availability to be resourced on projects. Planning how you will resource your staff will allow you to identify over or under-utilisation in advance and adjust accordingly.

Revenue Forecasting

Workforce Management software makes revenue forecasting and budgeting clearer, enabling you to accurately view when revenue will be coming into the business. Forecasting allows you to not only see months ahead but also gain practical business insights by analysing historic results compared to projections.

Top 10 workforce management software options

When choosing the best Workforce Management software for your company culture, there can be lots to choose from and many factors to consider. Here are 10 of the top WFM software options to look at.

1. Projectworks

Well, obviously, we are biased here, but if you are a Professional Services firm or consultancy, Projectworks is undoubtedly the best software out there for you to manage your workforce. Projectworks is the top-rated business management software designed for Professional Service firms. It will support your firm with world-class tools to plan, track and grow.

Unlock your premium experience with Projectworks by signing up for a free trial today.

2. Paylocity

This all-in-one software platform allows HR pros to easily manage daily tasks in payroll, benefits, talent, and workforce management. Paylocity caters for industries such as non-profit organisations and, hospitals & health care.

3. ADP Workforce Now

ADP Workforce Now is a cloud-based HR suite that adapts to your way of working. Built on a single database, it equips your company with the tools to track HR information and helps you manage your workforce by making data-driven decisions.

4. Rippling

Using Rippling’s software is a way for businesses to manage their HR, IT, and Finance–payroll, benefits, computers, apps, corporate cards, expenses, and more–in one global workforce platform.

5. BambooHR

BambooHR is a top human resource platform that helps your growing organisations automate, centralise, and connect your people data in one place. They specialise in computer software and information technology services.

6. Papaya Global

Papaya Global’s software completes payroll solutions, workforce management from onboarding to benefits, end-to-end EOR and global payroll service. Papaya Global is in over 140 countries and covers contract worker management and immigration.

7. Deel

Deel is a global payroll and compliant hiring built for remote teams. Companies can compliantly hire full-time employees or independent contractors worldwide in minutes using a tech-enabled self-serve process.

8. ClickUp

Offering docs, reminders, goals, calendars, and even an inbox, ClickUp is fully customisable and works for every type of team. Using the same app to plan, organise, and collaborate.

9. Oracle HCM Cloud

Oracle designs, manufactures, and hosts database and middleware software, applications software, and hardware systems. It helps you manage data in a more organised way representing it in a well-described way so that anyone can access it.

10. UZIO

A cloud-based SaaS platform provides you with an all-in-one HR, payroll benefits management, and time & attendance solution. UZIO is designed for businesses of all sizes.

Find the software that suits your unique needs

There has always been the need for software to assist Professional Services, which is why our founders put their brains together to create Projectworks. Tired of disparate systems and not getting the data they needed while running a large Professional Services firm, they made a solution for everyone.

Projectworks is now the number one Workforce Management software across various industries, integrating easily with the accounting, reporting, and HR systems you already use. Set-up is quick, with a range of direct connections available for you to plan, track & grow your professional services business.

Book a demo with our friendly team today to learn how Projectworks can be your secret weapon.