Member Article

Under and overstaffing a financial drain for UK businesses managing deskless workers

AI automation holds the key to improved workforce efficiencies of more than 20%

In response to research revealing businesses with deskless workers are consistently mismanaging staffing levels and creating schedules only 70% effective, Quinyx, the world leader in AI-powered workforce management, has released an extended product offering to its solution, to boost efficiencies by more than 20%.

With COVID-19 exacerbating the natural ebb and flow of many UK operations, recent research by Quinyx of 450,000 schedules, highlighted that on average businesses are either over-staffed by 30% or under-staffed by 16%.

Erik Fjellborg, CEO and founder of Quinyx, explains: “Over the past year, many operators have needed to pivot their working arrangements to keep trading – that includes reducing or increasing headcount, taking on new contracts at short notice and quickly upskilling team members, all while navigating uncertainty in the UK economy and the latest COVID restrictions.

“This continued state of flux makes the job of managing optimal workforce levels extremely problematic. Yet, the downside of not having the correct employee numbers in place can result in compliance violations, poor customer service and a loss in productivity – ultimately leading to reduced revenue.

“From our conversations with customers in the retail, healthcare, logistics and manufacturing industries, plus others, we know that the pandemic has exposed flaws in scheduling processes and long-term workforce planning for deskless workers. We’ve therefore bought to market an improved offering, which features advanced AI-driven solutions including demand forecasting, strategic planning and labour optimisation.”

The new offering allows businesses to reconfigure their operations by revolutionising the way they manage, forecast, engage and optimise their teams. The benefits include increased employee productivity, better time and attendance recording and improved staff engagement. The addition of strategic planning features also aids long-term staffing and budgeting decisions. It is already being used successfully by one major healthcare provider who is on target to save $7.5 million this year, thanks to reduced employee costs and admin time-savings.

Guaranteeing near-perfect scheduling accuracy based on hyper-localised forecasts which factor every single location and company characteristic, the improved offering was developed using the combined capabilities of Quinyx and AI workforce optimisation company Widget Brain, which Quinyx acquired at the end of 2020. Organisations already using it include Canadian-based Wello virtual healthcare and Finnish food-delivery platform, Wolt.

Fjellborg concludes: “We are enabling businesses to save money and meet their business KPIs by ensuring optimal staffing levels. Hiring and re-training decisions are made easy with advanced AI-driven analysis of current employee pools and potential future headcounts.

“We are proud to bring to market an improved solution that will help businesses optimise the way they currently manage their deskless workforce and give them vital tools to be ready to thrive in 2021 and beyond.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Quinyx .