Understand the relationship you have in place with your software provider and the teams managing them.

This is important so you understand what the provider offers from a service perspective. Some providers offer enhanced customer success options to support the tracking and evolution of software offered. The majority will offer a self-serve approach to enable you to take control of how you track elements. If you don’t fully understand the relationship make-up then do and ensure your business does as well. Assessing who is accountable is paramount to success and who should be doing what.

Have clear goals and objectives in place.

Yes an obvious one I know, but how can you track the value you are getting without these in place. Every provider should propose how to approach the creation of these, but you should not just take what a provider tells you. You must ensure that any objectives are set well before you select a provider(s) so you can ensure that which ever way you look to achieve them, it’s with the right provider(s) to get you where you expect to be. And then work with your selected provider(s) to drive towards achieving them.

Identify KPI’s and how you are going to track them.

KPI’s should come hand in hand with setting those objectives, without them you will struggle to ascertain any value. Your provider(s) should act as a good sounding board on how to effectively track value via their software, where possible. For example, if one of your KPI’s is to gain a specific rating from business managers on their experience of utilising key processes, then work with your provider(s) to set up all important satisfaction reviews at the end of processes is a must.

Make sure you agree a baseline on where you are now and where you want to be. It’s highly likely that you will need to report on the return on investment (ROI) to stakeholders. KPI’s become even more important at this point and having the right providers in place to support you is key.

Understand who is utilising the software and gaining feedback.

The users of any process managed by external workforce software is one of the most important factors in my eyes. If you don’t have visibility on user’s opinions then you don’t get a real view of how the population feel about the processes/services you are managing. The value you are looking to gain might have a positive or negative effect on your user community so getting a snapshot on the impacts is important.

Ensure you can report, and extract data, on key workflow steps and financial information.

I have always lived by the mantra of “If you can’t report on something how can you judge the effectiveness of what you are doing”. Of course, we should never forget about how our gut feels about a situation, but to justify your feelings having data to back it up is essential. It should be a given in today’s software world, but still double check that you can report on all those key elements of your processes. For example, you may have objectives around improving the time it takes to onboard workers into your business, that means that you need to be clear that each step in that process is reportable so you can be data driven in your decision making. Don’t forget the detail, there might be a specific check or process that is causing you issues and without the data behind it you 100% will not be able to identify what’s working well and what’s not.

Have data alignment between integrated systems and your provider(s) software where necessary.

The synchronisation of business structure, financial data and specific data associated to engaging extended workers is a significant element to have. In the last ten years I have not come across many businesses that don’t utilise an integrated solution into extended worker software. Where I have seen businesses have issues with tracking value has been around the post implementation maintenance of data. For example, I have experienced several businesses that implemented an integrated solution for managing purchase order numbers which on go-live worked seamlessly. They fell short because no validations were implemented to monitor the performance and alignment of that data which then had downstream impacts on invoicing KPI’s. If your data is not aligned correctly then you will see impacts on the value you look to expect.

Governance in place to monitor and manage software gaps, issues, and enhancements.

Some providers offer these services as a part of their software, but there are a number that don’t. Whatever the method is, please ensure that you have one in place. If you are not capturing and tracking gaps, issues, and enhancements you can’t review what’s going on and what’s been done to enhance the value you are getting. It’s important to remember that the project of engaging software is not just about implementation. The project should be seen as the full length of your engagement with providers, implementation is just one phase, going into ‘business as usual’ is another phase. I have seen more success from businesses that treat the management of software this way, it ensures that resources involved forge to a common goal. Gaining specific objectives can just be seen as new milestone to work towards, just like you would with an implementation go-live.

There may be bespoke items you have agreed to gain value on that could fall outside on these, but for sure you will be able to track what you need if you think about these points. And remember these are just my personal thoughts without knowing the detail of your business and what value you are looking to achieve.

Once you have the foundations in place how should you manage

Put your hand up if you have ever forgotten to review something you had scheduled to do? (my hand is up!). The biggest cause of failure is the follow-up and monitoring of tracking your objectives, whether you are on target or not. Taking accountability and delivering on actions is paramount to success and you need to have the right resources and governance in place to do this. These resources need to have a united culture and motivation to succeed. Managing an extended workforce program is a niche area that if not managed correctly can have serious impacts on your business, from talent attraction right through to achieving important business projects.

When I look back at my experiences, the use of a quarterly business review (QBR) commonly gets deployed as the primary way to monitor and track value. I personally don’t care for this terminology and approach; I have seen examples where a lot tends to hinge on this type of management and removes any agility to succeed. We have a tendency in the workforce arena to think that having a QBR shows justification that we are ticking all the governance boxes, but this approach can cause challenges due to limited frequency, lack of actionable content, the subjective nature they can operate in, and that a ton of data tends to be shown for data sake. I’m aware not everyone shares my views on this, but that’s what it is, a viewpoint.

My preferred approach is to focus on the motivation and culture of the resources in play. With the right people, and mentality, you can implement several methods that ensures you are utilising the software you use for success. Then from this it’s all about applying a more frequent and targeted approach to managing the value you expect from your software. I have seen greater success when considering: