Workforce management (WFM) systems allow organizations to manage Workforce efficiency and related factors such as expected workloads, ideal staff numbers, and technical capabilities of staff. WFM software ensures that an organization is functioning with an optimally productive team.

It also helps in distributing the workforce efficiently across various departments in the organization. The core functions of WFM software include labor planning, time and attendance Management, payroll management, tasking and staffing, and performance reporting.

The Global Workforce Management System Market is growing at a CAGR of 11.25 percent for the 2014-2018 period. A few factors contributing to market growth are: 

• Increasing need to improve productivity within organizations
• Increasing need for cost savings
• Increasing demand from the retail sector
• Increase in demand from small and medium size enterprises

TechNavio analysts have pinpointed the top 16 workforce management system providers expected to fuel the market in the coming years:

"Kronos is the global leader in delivering workforce management solutions in the cloud. Tens of thousands of organizations in more than 100 countries — including more than half of the Fortune 1000® — use Kronos to control labor costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve workforce productivity. Kronos offers industry-specific time and attendance, scheduling, absence management, HR and payroll, hiring, and labor analytics applications. Kronos: Workforce Innovation That Works™."

“Today, 95% of HBS’s operations are in the area of providing software solutions for automating payroll and human resource functions. HBS has more than 1,500 clients in 47 states as well as an international client base in Europe and Canada.

HBS has custom-built systems for clients that range from less than 50 employees to more than 250,000 employees in a number of major industries, including: health care, manufacturing, financial institutions, insurance representatives, government agencies, grade schools/collegiate universities, utility companies, technology firms, pharmaceutical companies and oil/gas businesses.”

“Workplace helps consumer-facing sectors like retail, hospitality and leisure to increase sales. Our clients create schedules that improve customer service by deploying sufficient employees with the right knowledge and selling skills. This increases customer satisfaction and maximizes revenues.”

“Reflexis Workforce Management solutions enable retailers to execute their customer engagement strategy flawlessly and uncover profit. The Reflexis platform of real-time workforce optimization, time and attendance, labor scheduling (including budgeting, forecasting, and employee self-service), compliance, and analytics enables retailers to align store labor & activities to corporate goals and institutionalize best-practice response to real-time metrics and alerts."

“For more than 25 years ATOSS has been revolutionizing Workforce Management with innovative consultancy and advanced, leading edge software solutions. Now and in the future, our capacity for innovation in the field of Workforce Management will act as the driver of customer benefits, productivity gains and growth.”

“Uptivity is a leading provider of contact center workforce optimization and management solutions. With so many companies of all shapes and sizes offering workforce optimization (WFO) solutions, why is it so hard to find one that can do just that — and do it designed for you? Because they’re not Uptivity. Only Uptivity provides an innovative, modern, and unified solution for measurably and continuously enhancing agent performance and driving strategic business goals.”

“Founded in 1999, WorkForce Software has emerged as a key player in the competitive workforce management landscape for large employers. Since the company’s inception, WorkForce Software has continually grown by every measure—from the number of clients we serve, to the number of professionals we employ, to the revenues we generate and reinvest in our solutions. Today our solutions are in use by hundreds of companies around the world.”

“Infor is fundamentally changing the way information is published and consumed in the enterprise, helping 70,000 customers in more than 200 countries and territories improve operations, drive growth, and quickly adapt to changes in business demands.

Infor offers deep industry-specific applications and suites, engineered for speed, and with an innovative user experience design that is simple, transparent, and elegant.  Infor provides flexible deployment options that give customers a choice to run their businesses in the cloud, on-site, or both.”

 “Effectively managing a workforce of any size requires tight controls and policies be in place to avoid lost time and productivity. An integral part of this solution is having the right solution in place to track time, absences, and properly schedule your labor. Oracle's workforce management solutions allow you to forecast labor and workload demand, define and assign schedules to meet business objectives, capture time worked, absences and other labor data, track adherence to schedules and productivity, and adhere to labor laws and pay rules.”

“JDA and RedPrairie merged in late 2012 to create a global supply chain management company offering a broad portfolio of integrated planning and execution solutions and services to help firms manage the entire supply chain — from raw materials to finished products and into customers’ hands — through any channel.

The merger brought together JDA’s market leading supply chain planning, merchandising and price optimization systems and services with RedPrairie’s industry leading systems for supply chain execution, workforce management, store operations and e-Commerce to provide customers an unparalleled value chain processing solution for today’s complex, dynamic  global markets.”

“NICE Actimize is the largest and broadest provider of financial crime, risk and compliance solutions for regional and global financial institutions, as well as government regulators. Consistently ranked as number one in the space, NICE Actimize experts apply innovative technology to protect institutions and safeguard consumers and investors assets by identifying financial crime, preventing fraud and providing regulatory compliance.

The company provides real-time, cross-channel fraud prevention, anti-money laundering detection, and trading surveillance solutions that address such concerns as payment fraud, cyber crime, sanctions monitoring, market abuse, customer due diligence and insider trading.” 

“Empower Software Solutions provides innovative human resources solutions for thousands of organizations, from small businesses to Fortune 500® companies – including several of the largest U.S. retailers.  Empower Software’s integrated human resources suite features HR/payroll, tax filing and compliance outsourcing, Workforce Management, talent management, and time and attendance solutions.

Whether cloud-based or on-premise, via laptop or mobile device, Empower Software believes in providing flexible solutions and superior technology to help businesses efficiently and effectively manage the employee life-cycle and enhance company performance.”

“Tomax is a leading provider of innovative management solutions for the retail industry, addressing merchandising through store operations and point-of-sale operations. Our cloud-based retail management solution, Retail.net, is based on centralized, real-time architecture and infrastructure, and can be integrated to corporate, store, home and mobile channels.

Retail.net provides access to information, a single point of integration and is on-demand, scalable and secure. Gain complete, real-time visibility into operations enterprise-wide and achieve on business objectives with phased implementation strategies that align with your priorities and critical requirements.”

“SAP is at the center of today’s technology revolution, developing innovations that not only help businesses run like never before, but also improve the lives of people everywhere.As the market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and industries run better.

From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 251,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably.”

"Automatic Data Processing, Inc. (ADP) is one of the largest providers of business processing and cloud-based solutions – including payroll, talent management, human resource management, benefits administration and time and attendance – to employers and automotive dealerships around the world. We build configurable solutions that can fit your organization's unique goals and increase your productivity.

ADP serves about 620,000 organizations in more than 125 countries, including 425,000 small-business clients and 26,000 vehicle dealerships. Over 80 percent of FORTUNE 500® companies and more than 90 FORTUNE 100 companies use at least one of ADP's services."

“In 2012, the Amano group generated a turnover of 748 million euros with a range of solutions in 3 main areas: Workforce Management, Parking System Products and Cleaning System Products. Amano employs over 3,900 people in 83 agencies worldwide.

Since 2007, for the Amano group's alliance with Horoquartz has provided the opportunity to develop the software and services market and to promote the growth of its solutions in Europe. Traditionally focused on mid-market, Horoquartz solutions are complementary to those of Amano, traditionally designed for the SME-SMI market. Amano's investment policy aims to have a long term investment horizon.”