Sability WFM History and Evolution

Workforce Management Fundamentals Series

Scott BrownPresident, Sability

Rob LeonardChief Operating Officer, Sability

The History and Evolution of WFM

Origins of Organized Labor

• Humankind pools resources to produce goods and services.

• Set the stage of how we think about organizing our labor

Early Workforce Management

• Apprentice to journeyman• Craftsmen formed guilds• Regulation and standardization follow• Excellence = certification

Industrial Age

• Industrial Age ushers in sweeping changes

• Mass employment• Focus on productivity• Fair and safe working

conditions

Birth of Modern Labor Market

• Industrialization makes guilds obsolete• Creates demand for new organizational

methods• Parallel organizations evolved slowly• Workers dissatisfaction rampant by late 1800s• First labor union formed by NCR employees• Unions now represent less than 2% of the

workforce

Origin of WFM as a science

• Fredrick Taylor’s Shop Management published in 1903

• Asserts that humans are production units, analogous to machines

• How-to guide regarded by unions as exploitive• Taylor’s practices were subject of

Congressional hearings

Division of Work Emerges

• Henry Fayol introduced the theory in 1918• Work is:

– Broken down into tasks– Grouped into functions– Performed by workers

with specialized skills

Shedding Light on Productivity

• Experiments begin in 1924 to explore the link between illumination and productivity

• Hawthorne Experiments prove that both higher and lower illumination deliver higher productivity

• Western Electric & Harvard University continue experiments until 1932

• Conclusion of study: Productivity boosts are result of focus on workers

Organization Behavior is Born

• Psychology is significant factor in productivity• Sets tone of Harvard Business School’s

management philosophy• Dominates for next century• Results still pertinent

World War I Impact

• Increase in government bureaucracies

• Department of Labor is founded

• Continued focus on productivity and output

Depression-Era Legislation

• Davis-Bacon• Norris-LaGuardia• National Industrial Recovery Act• Wagner• Welsh-Healey• Fair Labor Standards Act

World War II Impact

• Manpower shortages necessitate government to keep prices artificially low

• Labor policy through presidential decree• Taft-Hartley allows state to pass “right to work”

laws• Worldwide, legislation is passed• Management sciences provide incremental

productivity gains

Information Age

• The Information Age dates from the 1950s• Applying technology to business applications• How do we manage complexity?

Productivity is the Driving Force

• Commercial use of computers begin in 1950s• IBM estimated world market at 5 computers• Current estimates of PCs is 1.4 billion• First applications related to WFM were payroll• COBOL & FORTRAN emerge• Automation & complexity outstrip

programming ability

Systems Still Challenged

• Computer problems not all hardware-based• Birth of information as a science• First relational database introduced in 1978 by

Relational Software (Oracle)• 1985: Intel co-founded Gordon Moore

predicts integrated complexity will double every 18 to 24 months

• He’s right!

The Holy Trinity

• Increasing computer power, relational databases, & GUIs lead to:– Client-Server Architecture– Unmatched applications champion: PeopleSoft– First HR software shakeout

Why Should I Care?

• Patterns have emerged• Unless recognized and managed, they will be

problematic in all stages:– Implementing– Upgrading– Launching– Maintaining

The Shift to the Web

• Causes global stampede– Virtually no installation– No version mismatches

between client servercomponents

– Ubiquitous– Invented by Al Gore!

The Shift to the Web

• Disruptive technology• Drivers

– Cost– Infrastructure

• Challenges– Stateless– Though graphically rich, provides less true

functionality than early Green Screen systems

Acquisitions spike

• Side effect of (disruptive) technology boom• Acquisitions, while a cause of customer

concern, result in:– A dispersion of talent– The creation of software alternatives– Increased competition– Customers benefit long-term

WFM Systems

• WFM systems come into being• Evolution from “time clock” applications• Integration with HR• Push forward into

– Scheduling– Absence Planning– Workforce Planning

• Future of WFM

Successful Long-Term Systems Strategy

• Expect to replace systems regularly• Employee schedule optimization – a WFM

breakthrough – drives labor costs down in large organizations

• Meta-patterns: don’t be doomed to repeat them

Thank You

[email protected]: #scottabrown

#sability