Frequently Asked Questions
What is workforce management?
Workforce management technology is fully focused on automating and optimizing your day-to-day workforce operations in order to help you get the right workers with the right skills, to the right place at the right time.
Our workforce management platform comprises recruiting, scheduling, attendance management, worker communications, and reporting tools that give you real-time visibility across locations to keep your operations running as smooth and as efficient as possible.
How is Workmate different from my existing HRMS solution?
A big majority of our current clients use Workmate to complement their existing HRMS software. While the core functionality of an HRMS is to store and manage your employee database, Workmate focuses on the day-to-day deployment of your shift-based workers. To maximize the synergy between these two technologies, we can integrate with your existing HRIS software to automate the onboarding of new workers in your database into the Workmate platform.
I’m currently using an outsourcing agency. Can they use the Workmate technology to manage my workforce?
Yes! In fact, we have several agency partners who use our technology to manage their clients’ workforce. While this allows your agency to deliver more efficiently, this also allows your team to gain real-time visibility into your agency’s performance and the workers hired under them.
What types of roles are available in your worker network?
Currently, we support blue-collar workers ranging from warehousing and logistics workers (picker, packer, admin, drivers, couriers), F&B crew (kitchen crew, cook, cashier, server), cleaners and hospitality staff, events staff and more. If you have specific requirements that our current product does not meet, we would be more than happy to work with you and explore potential solutions.
How do you verify a worker’s qualifications?
When a worker gets onboarded to the Workmate network, he or she must declare their previous work experience. On top of that, we record all performance data including their attendance, tardiness, overtime, and supervisor ratings from previous jobs done on the Workmate platform to predict their reliability for particular types of jobs and shifts.
Beyond the digital screening test we’ve developed for each role, we also have a team dedicated to vetting and approving workers into the system, so you get double the vetting with none of the effort.
How does Workmate recommend workers when I post a job?
When you request for staff on Workmate, our machine learning algorithm runs through 50+ data points ranging from previous employment, performance ratings, attendance data, location, and skills to find the best worker for you. Through these data points, our system is able to know which workers are most likely to show up for your shifts and find lookalike workers with similar characteristics.
What if I don’t have any supervisors on-ground to clock my workers in?
No worries at all! We have also built a GPS clock-in solution, so your workers will be able to clock in and out as long as they are within the area you have predetermined. This data will automatically get synced with the assigned schedules you have set up and sent to HR for approval.
What if I already have a time and attendance tracking tool that I want to keep using?
This is a common concern, as a lot of our clients have previously used finger scan or biometric systems for tracking time and attendance. The reason they are switching to Workmate is due to the benefit they get by having attendance data enrich shift scheduling decisions and even more importantly, their hiring process. By having a single integrated system, the data captured from our in-app attendance management system is used to recommend the best shifts for the best workers based on their historical attendance and timeliness, which has proven to increase hiring quality and reduce no-show rates.
How does the system deal with dropped shifts or no-shows?
If the platform has failed to receive a confirmation from the worker on their assigned shift, it will automatically find a replacement worker for you to assign instead, based on their historical attendance data and availability. This ensures that you meet your daily productivity targets without having to scramble to find additional workers on the spot!
Can I hire workers from the Workmate network without taking advantage of the workforce management platform for my day-to-day operations?
Helping you hire the right people is our core objective and is the reason why Workmate exists in the first place. We have learned that the challenge with improving the quality of hiring, however, is the difficulty in understanding worker reliability. This is why we have built the workforce management platform. The biggest benefit of using this technology is that the platform collects worker performance and behavioral data to predict the type of workers that are most reliable and most suited to you.
Is the Workmate platform available in local languages and currencies?
We are committed to making our technology super easy to use by blue-collar workers and on-ground supervisors in the markets we operate in. This means we’ve invested a lot of time into making sure our product is fully localized with local languages, currencies, and adapted to fit the behaviour and needs of workers in the region. If your workforce speaks another language other than English, Thai, or Bahasa Indonesia - please reach out to our team and we would love to explore what we can do to help.
What type of support can I expect from the Workmate team, especially during the onboarding process?
You will have a dedicated account manager as your point of contact for any questions or training you may require.
Before you get started, we will run a kickoff training session with your team to walk them through the platform. We will also provide training materials (videos, pamphlets, presentations) that you can distribute to your supervisors and workers if needed. Depending on the requirements, we may also provide on-ground support during the first few days to ensure that workers and supervisors have understood the new process well.
I am worried that my blue-collar workers and supervisors won’t understand how to use the application.
This is a common concern some people have. However we have found that in the last 5 years with smartphone penetration increasing, and the growth of apps like GoJek, Grab, FoodPanda, workers are more tech-savvy than ever.
One thing to remember is that our platform is custom-built for blue-collar workers in SEA. We have made it easy to use, and have had 200k+ workers use our platform successfully in the last few years.
How does Workmate bill me?
We will send a monthly invoice based on the number of active workers in the platform multiplied by the agreed price per user.
Will Workmate be paying the workers directly?
As a workforce management platform, Workmate takes care of recording attendances that your HR can approve in the click of a button. This can then be downloaded as a CSV to upload into your existing payroll system for immediate processing. In this case, the payment of your workers will not be handled by Workmate.
However, we do offer managed services on top of the platform offering to take care of payment disbursement for you if this is what you prefer.
Still got burning questions on your mind?
Our team of account managers is more than happy to help! Book a free, no-obligation demo session now!
