In April 2020, WFS Australia was excited to be awarded the tender for the Department of Justice Western Australia’s Workforce Management System, which will roll out over the next twelve months.

This new workforce management system, powered by the cloud-based WorkForce Suite, allows for existing inefficient rostering and time and attendance processes to be replaced with a single, seamless solution.

The WorkForce Time and Attendance and WorkForce Advanced Scheduler will be rolled out to over 3000 employees at correctional centres and support locations throughout the state.

The WorkForce Suite will help the Department manage Prison Officers, Youth Custodial Officers and Nurses, and have ability to expand to other employee groups as and when required.

Matthew Negus from the Department of Justice Western Australia said, “Our aim is to reduce the Department’s reliance on manual forms, provide staff with a system to set their availability for extra shifts, view rostered shifts, request swaps, and book leave whilst providing management clarity and ensuring our people are paid accurately and on time.”

“To achieve this,” Negus said, “we went out to market seeking a contemporary, market-leading workforce management solution that would facilitate compliance with multiple complex industrial awards, agreements, and departmental policies. The solution also had to be flexible to cater for the special needs of our 17 unique facilities and be scalable to adapt to future changes.”

WFS Australia was awarded the contract based on meeting the unique requirements of the Department while delivering exceptional customer experience, according to Nick Bailey, VP of Revenue at WFS Australia.

“The Department of Justice’s existing rostering and time and attendance systems were, like many organisations, predominantly driven by manual processes that often result in payroll related issues and errors,” Mr Bailey said.

Mr Negus said there were four areas that WFS Australia stood out.

“WFS Australia clearly explained and demonstrated how their solution could be configured to meet the Department’s requirements. Secondly, the attention to detail WFS displayed in their demonstration, project methodology, and documentation provided our team with the confidence in WFS’ ability to deliver.

“We felt the WFS Australia team’s culture and demonstrated experience, both as a vendor and implementer, would complement the Department’s in-house capabilities, ensuring a strong partnership during the implementation, maintenance, and ongoing use of the WorkForce Suite.”

Matthew Negus

“Thirdly, we felt the WFS Australia team’s culture and demonstrated experience, both as a vendor and implementer, would complement the Department’s in-house capabilities, ensuring a strong partnership during the implementation, maintenance, and ongoing use of the WorkForce Suite.

“The final variable that has facilitated project commencement in these uncertain times was WFS Australia’s willingness to agree a fixed price implementation despite the complexities of the respective project teams being required to work remotely during lock downs and the uncertain availability of key personnel due to COVID-19.”

Bailey agrees, “The key reasons why we feel we earned the Department’s trust were because the WFS Australia team have committed to take the time to understand what the Department of Justice’s main challenges are and to configure the WFS solution to meets their unique needs.

“We are diligent in seeking feedback and precise with the quality of our communications, documentation, and presentations. And finally, our agile approach to the prevailing circumstances meant they felt we were the right fit for both the workforce management technology and a good cultural fit to support their implementation and management of the solution.”

“The WFS Australia team were always confident we had the right solution to manage the complexities the Department has around rostering and award interpretation, while offering their employees an enhanced user experience,” Bailey said. To learn more about how WorkForce Suite can meet the unique needs of your government department, visit The WorkForce Suite for Government and Public Sector.

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