Gone are the days where the workforce details are stored in registers, where editing and search for the old records was such a tedious process. After the advent of Windows, workforce details were stored in Excel sheets, by this storing huge data over a long period became easier but scheduling huge number of employees became a tedious process.

There are many workforce management solutions that can be deployed enterprise-wide. While special software is commonly used in numerous areas such as ERP, SLM, CRM and HR management, the management of the workforce is often still handled by using spreadsheet programs or time recording. A Software solution for demand-oriented workforce management, planners can optimize staffing by creating schedules according to the existing requirements. At the same time, a workforce Management solution helps users to observe all relevant legislation, local agreements and the contracts of individual employees including work-life balance guidelines.

A vital aspect of any workforce management solution is scheduling. This is achieved by establishing likely demand by analyzing historical data. Many workforce management systems also offer manual adjustment capabilities. The calculated forecast values are then converted into actual Manpower requirements by means of an algorithm that is adjusted to the particular use case. Current and future staffing requirements, short-term peak loads, availabilities, holidays, budget allowances, skills, labor law-related restrictions, as well as wage and contractual terms have to be integrated into the planning process to guarantee optimal staff deployment.

In the workforce management process, the integration of employees is an important factor. In several workforce management software, employees can log in their availability or planned absences and they can bid for specific shifts so long as they have the necessary skills for the activities planned for these shifts. Experience shows that professional workforce management systems realistically workforce management fulfill more than 80 percent of employees' shift requests. Here, employee scheduling software guarantees the best possible synthesis of optimized staff schedules and employee requests.

The more flexible the working time models and the more complex the staff scheduling becomes, the higher the requirements for correct time management becomes. As time recording and accounting of working times are closely connected to scheduling, the integration of time management into the entire process is the logical consequence. Using workforce management systems, working times are booked exactly to the required time accounts and made available for payroll accounting by means of automated processes.

Many software solutions offer a number of options for evaluating the planning in real-time, enabling short-term reactions to deviations from the forecasted demand or expected over- or understaffing. Control functions enable a permanent adaptation of the scheduled staff to the actual requirements. Thus the optimization process allows for manual data adjustment in the case of short-term fluctuations in demand or unscheduled employee absences.