Why you need to integrate your WFM and HR systems

Why you need to integrate your WFM and HR systems

Connecting your payroll/HR solution with your workforce management (WFM) software is critical to effectively managing and growing your workforce. Your WFM and HR teams must be working in harmony to best benefit both employee and employer and having access to quality data is a prerequisite.

Without data integration, contact centers are forced to manage higher rates of inaccurate time tracking, including time theft and incorrect employee payments. You may deal with increased labor costs, as each disparate solution requires its own administrator that must onboard, off-board, and maintain agent profiles. There’s also a greater compliance risk should an audit spotlight data discrepancy between disparate systems.

Here’s how integrating your WFM and HR systems can solve these challenges: 

Inaccurate time tracking and payments

Disparate systems create more of a risk that time tracking will happen in the wrong place, not carry over during reporting, or not happen when it’s supposed to. About 75% of businesses are affected by time theft, according to a study by the American Payroll Association, adding to the already high cost of labor in the contact center. And when time is not reported correctly, employees aren’t compensated correctly. Integrating your WFM system with your HR/payroll system is a smart step to combat time-tracking issues.

Modern solutions like NICE WFM have direct integrations to HR and payroll systems, allowing authorized supervisors to set up integrations. NICE WFM seamlessly integrates with two HR management systems: Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) and Workday. For WFM users who utilize other HR systems, this important data exchange is still possible via NICE SmartSync. Once the systems are integrated, WFM can get time-off balances from the HR system and send time-off requests to the HR system.

Increased labor costs

Using disconnected systems means you’ll need at least one administrator for each who is well-versed in maintaining profiles, pulling reports, and cross-checking data against the other system’s reports. When your WFM and HR systems are integrated, your WFM team can focus on WFM, and your operations and payroll team can focus on their tasks. With no need to data-mine the two systems, both teams will save time. The right solution also will resolve any time off gaps between the two systems by allowing for a seamless automatic data exchange—no additional administrative licenses are required.

Greater compliance risk

Audits can be an immensely stressful process, and having data in disparate systems will only make your preparation process more difficult. In the case of an audit, the auditor will thoroughly review your documentation and reporting and will quickly highlight places where data doesn’t align. Integrating your WFM and HR systems will strengthen your reporting and ensure that data from both systems is aligned well before the audit team arrives.

A successful audit also relies on agents to track their own time accurately. Hybrid workplaces are here to stay and require an even greater focus on agent accountability; integrating your WFM and HR systems will provide greater visibility into this area.

It’s time to eliminate the middleware between your HR/payroll system and your WFM solution. Let your WFM team focus on WFM and your operations and payroll team focus on their tasks without having to spend time pulling and comparing data between the two systems. Learn more about how NICE WFM integrates seamlessly with Workday and Ultimate Kronos Group and enables data exchange with other systems via SmartSync.