What is workforce management (WFM)?

The term is used most in shift-based operations such as contact centres, retail, hospitality, healthcare and logistics, where demand varies by hour and day. There, WFM covers four linked steps: forecasting demand (calls, footfall, orders or patients), working out how many staff are needed in each interval to meet a service target, scheduling people into shifts that cover that need, and tracking adherence and absence on the day so the plan can be adjusted.

WFM also includes the administration that sits underneath the schedule: time and attendance, leave requests, overtime approval and compliance with rest and working-time rules, which differ by country. WFM software automates much of this, but the forecast and the rules it works from still need human judgement.

In a wider sense, workforce management overlaps with strategic workforce planning: deciding over a one- to three-year horizon how many people, in which roles and skills, the organisation will need, and whether to build them through training, buy them through hiring, borrow them through contingent workers or redeploy existing staff.

Hiring is where the two meet. A forecast that shows sustained overtime or a rising backlog is a signal to open requisitions early, because recruitment lead times are usually longer than the forecasting window. Linking the WFM forecast to the hiring plan avoids the cycle of overtime, burnout and rushed hiring.

Also called: WFM, workforce planning, labour scheduling.