Anchored in the 30-year Altron-UKG partnership, this timely webinar – led by Riyaat Phillips, senior manager for pre-sales in workforce management at Altron Digital Business, and John Rowzee, principal solution consultant, Europe, the Middle East and Africa at UKG – boiled workforce management down to three moves that turn complexity into impact:
- Agile scheduling: converting demand signals into capacity in minutes, via an exception-first flow that flags only what needs human judgement.
- One-pane visibility: a real-time, single source of truth across people, cost and compliance.
- Governance by design: labour law, union rules, safety and Popia (Protection of Personal Information Act) embedded as guardrails, backed by artificial intelligence-assisted early warnings.
Together, these shifts promise control without red tape, and speed without chaos.
Agile scheduling: choice without chaos
Phillips opened with a blunt reality: even in high-unemployment markets, replacing people is expensive. Disruption, onboarding and overtime all add up. His “6am sick call” test landed the point – with exception-first scheduling, eligible swaps surface instantly, breaches (overtime, skills mix, rest) auto-flag and managers can get to a compliant fix in minutes. Employees still get choice and flexibility; operations stay intact.
The Hungry Lion example underlined it: overtime down, managers reclaiming hours previously sunk into schedules, peak periods staffed with top performers and a measurable revenue lift. As Rowzee noted, AI helps – but the real hero is disciplined workflow and business application.
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One-pane visibility: one truth, faster decisions
Rowzee showed how leaders can stop “swivel-chairing” between systems. A branch lead sees coverage, skills and exceptions in one view; a chief financial officer sees cost, variance and risk – and both can act in under a minute. Optimisation here doesn’t mean headcount cuts; it’s smarter skills mix, cross-training and flexible shifts.
Phillips shared examples: a multi-site retailer reducing payroll while lifting productivity, a healthcare provider cutting overtime in theatres and pharmacy and a logistics firm almost eliminating wage queries after moving to a single reconciled dataset everyone trusts.
Governance by design: control without gridlock
Compliance has to travel: South African labour and union agreements, safety rules, Popia, plus multi-country variants – without slowing the business. Rowzee unpacked how rules live in the system rather than in spreadsheets; overrides are auditable, alerts route to the right owner and early-warning signals (fatigue, burnout, disengagement) nudge intervention before issues escalate.
Phillips added the execution layer: devices, access control and service level agreement-backed support across South Africa, the UAE and Saudi. The Chalhoub Group rollout – nine countries, strong frontline adoption and an AI pilot with direct revenue impact – showed the model at scale.
Why it matters, and what comes next
This was workforce management in action: clear thinking, practical examples and experts who kept it real. The strategic takeaway is simple: in workforce maangement, agility is strategy. One pane of truth plus embedded guardrails will beat heroic effort every time. If this session was an invitation to adapt faster and manage smarter, the next step is execution.
