Workforce Management: With security in the cloud

According to the Lünendonk study "Fit for the digital transformation", one compelling criterion in favor of the cloud is the fact that on-premises systems do not even support many new technologies, for example AI or big data analytics.

Currently, many of the SMEs surveyed still rely on the private cloud, especially for business-critical applications - but the public cloud is also experiencing a strong upswing. The fact is that human resources management can no longer avoid the cloud.

The good news is that any enterprise software can now run in a different public or private cloud. This also applies to workforce management solutions that combine time tracking, working time management and workforce scheduling.

The term for this colorful mix of different cloud solutions and providers is the multi-cloud. The prerequisite, however, is that the integration of these systems is simple and possible according to common standards.

This is an extremely complex process that deters many companies. In any case, workforce management software should ensure a smooth connection to cloud-based HCM systems such as SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central or existing ERP, payroll and time management systems.

Because only then can the platforms be merged efficiently and without loss of productivity. However, cloud-based workforce management must not only have standard interfaces, the software must also meet the increasingly stringent compliance requirements.

With new working time laws and the ECJ ruling on the systematic recording of working time, the legislator is putting the protection of employees first. Changes to collective agreements, for example at IG Metall, and the Nursing Staff Lower Limits Ordinance (PpUGV) in the healthcare sector are also intended to improve or maintain the work-life balance and thus also the health and performance of employees. The high level of complexity that arises from flexible and employee-oriented working time organization is quite simply no longer manageable without digital tools.

Workforce Management primarily stores and archives employee master data, time management information such as attendances and absences, and data from workforce scheduling and access management.

Although reputable cloud providers take comprehensive measures to secure data and communications, authorization often remains a weak point, according to Mindsquare's "Software Trends in Human Resources" study.

This makes it all the more the responsibility of the provider to prevent unauthorized access, for example, through differentiated authorization control or two-factor authentication. Compliance can also be ensured through highly customizable configuration and parameterizable dialogs and views. Various reporting formats, a comprehensive change log, and direct delete commands also safeguard the rights of data subjects as standardized in Articles 13 to 21 of the GDPR.

Software as a service and managed services based on it are increasingly becoming the focus of companies. This enables them to reduce complexity and costs and concentrate more on their core competencies. One fifth of the companies surveyed by Lünendonk already have a cloud-first strategy, and one quarter are planning it.

However, personnel master data and information relating to working hours are extremely sensitive. In the HR sector in particular, it is therefore advantageous for software and hosting to come from a single source. In any case, the chosen provider should work with a certified German data center. If the software meets all the requirements for security, data protection, scalability and high availability, the path to the cloud is also open to the Human Resources department.