Workforce Management Blog

For many businesses, variable production quotas are a reality. Particularly in the manufacturing industries, but in other industries as well, demand is subject to seasonal variance. Your business may require flexible staffing to meet flexible production targets. 

Does your company utilize a contingent workforce? There are several types of contingent employees, but, essentially, they are all on-demand employees used to meet rapid changes in staffing requirements. They may be used for a short time or, in some cases, they may become permanent employees of your organization. It can be difficult to motivate your contingent workforce. 

Every business has certain issues that they must deal with; one issue that is common to all businesses is employee turnover.  There are significant costs related to employee turnover.  Interviewing, selection and training of new employees requires a significant investment of resources.  In addition, your business suffers lost productivity until these employees can be replaced.  Consistent high turnover also leads to reduced morale for the employees who are left.  There are two types of employee turnover, involuntary and voluntary.  Involuntary turnover is also called attrition. 

At the most basic level, all businesses are very similar.  All businesses take in some kind of raw material, whether it is iron ore, ingredients or information, processes it in some way, and outputs finished products.  These business processes are always subject to restrictions that limit the maximum production capacity.  When one of these restrictions severely limits production, it is often referred to as a bottleneck.  One of the primary challenges of business process management is to find and eliminate bottlenecks in production.