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Understanding workforce management in security

In an increasingly connected business environment, decision-makers need to more effectively leverage the human resources they have at their disposal. According to dormakaba South Africa, this is where a good workforce management system that can manage personnel as a strategic asset becomes imperative.

Such a system must be able to adapt to the context of the environment and provide management with the ability to track employee records. It must also link employee performance to the success (or failure) of the organisation and empower decision-makers with the ability to better place employees according to strategic business goals. Throughout all this, the system must still be able to adhere to all compliance requirements.

Functional offering

Department heads need a system that enables them to see and maintain personnel records as well as where the respective teams fall within the broader organisation. From a functionally perspective, the system must offer the ability to view the entire HR management structure.

Apart from personnel details, the workforce management system must track the amount of time an employee has worked, the person’s overall performance, training received, certifications gained, and the general aptitude of the individual.

The system’s ability to report static and dynamic succession planning is essential. This delivers the ability to manage roles in an organisation (or a department), allocate resources, and rate potential successors. Such a solution would also enable the viewing of timelines for the start of a position, be cognisant of resignations, and even factor in employees who are retiring.

One should be able to view and manage what goes into a specific role or position to match the right person to the right role. Ultimately, such a component would help significantly during the recruitment process.

Security conscious

From a security company perspective, there are certain unique requirements of a workforce management system to be cognisant of. The solution must adhere to several regulatory requirements including being registered with PSIRA (Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority), for example. This means criteria are determined by the extent to which a solution covers compliance and must factor in:

• Criminal checks.

• General screening (recruitment and retention).

• Qualification tracking.

• Training schedules and cycles.

Of course, there are products available in the market that can meet all these demands, but generally they are separate and not provided as an integrated solution. This makes the market for finding the best solution that matches the need of the security company quite a competitive one.

From a regulatory perspective, a security company must be able to show that it meets all the relevant criteria for each client, job, or project. Service providers are using various media outlets to provide snippets of what their solution can do. Whether this is enough to ensure a clear stand-out factor is debatable, but it is certainly a starting point.

Workforce integration

In this dynamic environment, the main issue revolves around the cross-operation of systems or solutions. Workforce management provides the context for the ecosystem of each company. There is already a drive to standardise how systems from different vendors engage with one another to exchange data.

For example, the recruitment module must get feedback from a criminal check solution. An access management component may need master information from the HR system to form an integrated offering to ensure the right people enter the right area within a company. This access management solution would then facilitate a move to higher grade identification technology.

By focusing on more standardised ways for solutions to interact, vendors can bring forward their specialities in the areas required by workforce management. Solution managers and consultants play a critical role in being able to analyse, package, and present workforce management solutions in the context as required.

This role must cover continuous development to identify and track existing and new technologies and solutions coming into the space. Subsequently, current and future problems can be resolved as a total solution that does not fragment development.

Workforce management, especially in a security-led environment, becomes a critical competitive differentiator for an organisation. The ever-changing regulatory market means businesses must do everything in their power to implement solutions that are effective at managing the people at their organisations.

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