Eliminated paper rosters

Selecting a new workforce management system can seem like a daunting task. When it touches every employee on a daily or weekly basis, you want to get it right. We were engaged by a Government organisation recently who needed a system for more than 400 people across four different operational areas – an aquatic centre, operations and management, a library and community centres.

Each of these areas had distinct needs of the system. The aquatic centre alone needed a system that could manage staff availability for a majority part-time workforce, automate roster management and approval, allow self-service timesheets, manage staff qualifications (to ensure everyone working was qualified to do so) and more. The existing system was entirely manual.

We helped the client develop specifications and tender documentation, then assisted with evaluating the new system. When selecting a new system, we follow a simple four-step process.

Ensure commitment from stakeholders - by ensuring meaningful engagement at appropriate stages of the project, we helped build awareness and desire, thus optimising the probability of successful change management and acceptance of the new solution.

Documenting requirements - focus on measurable improvements by identifying significant automation opportunities. Take time to prepare unambiguous requirements ensuring the vendors have a clear understanding of your requirements, maximising the possibility of high-quality responses.

Evaluation Criteria – with specifications written up, use cases prepared and tender documents at the ready, we worked with the client to ensure there was an agreed evaluation criteria. You need to remove the emotion in procurement and focus on facts not sales people charm and presentation skills.

Final Selection - this step sounds like the easiest, but can take some jostling! This step involves getting consensus among the Evaluation Panel, looking beyond the feature /functions and understanding implementation approaches , risks , consultants experience , vendor roadmaps, project timelines and more. Once you have selected a provider/solution you need to put in place a firm contract with clear service level agreements. With a properly formed contract the process of implementation is made somewhat easier.

Need to implement a new system? Give us a call to chat about what this process might look like for you. Contact us on 03 9895 9600 or via email at votar@votar.com.au