Workforce management involves performing all the activities needed to maintain high productivity in employees. A workforce manager works in the human resources department where he ensures staff optimization, sets goals and objectives, maintains employee records and facilitates effective communication among workers. Although the qualification requirements for this position vary with organizations, you typically need to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration or human resources management and have great communication skills.

Setting Goals

Setting objectives, developing new workforce policies to transform the workplace and revising roles and responsibilities can foster greater workforce productivity. A workforce manager can set performance goals for individual employees, a team or department, in accordance with institutional policies. For example, a workforce manager working in a retail store with an underperforming marketing team may ask it to work toward increasing product sales by 15 percent in a period of two months through extensive product promotion. Setting goals helps improve employee focus and determination.

Coordinating Programs

The holder of the workforce management position coordinates numerous programs designed to improve the productivity of employees, including training, talent acquisition and performance evaluation. For example, if top management at a firm wants to evaluate the performance of all employees for appraisal, promotion or termination actions, the workforce manager establishes appropriate and transparent systems for performing this task. He might, for instance, contract an external performance auditor or create an internal auditing committee to conduct the reviews and make recommendations.

Enhancing Communication

In a workplace environment where numerous people with different personalities interact on an daily basis, the workforce manager must promote effective communication to achieve improved productivity. This professional must work with other department heads to create an interactive communication system that promotes openness and minimizes workplace conflicts. If you are hired for this position in a health organization, for example, you can establish a central communication office, from where staff members at all levels and patients' families can send and receive information.

Maintaining records

A workforce manager updates and maintains employment contracts, attendance reports, personnel data and benefit packages. This helps a company to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act, which requires employers to keep accurate records of workers and track employment history, skills and qualifications to define employee-specific job duties. As a workforce manager, you can collaborate with IT experts to develop customized record keeping software that can ease the storing and accessing of information. Suitable record keeping software should provide for creation of employee accounts for easy monitoring of personnel data and reporting inaccuracies.