A workforce management company runs people-related operations for its clients, and its own account teams carry the weight of that promise. Account teams carry the promise made to clients, so their load and the people placed at client sites come first.
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Share your requirementsA workforce management company helps employers manage large workforces: rostering, attendance tracking, workforce planning, vendor management or the operational side of people programmes. Its own people include account managers who own client relationships, operations coordinators who run daily processes, analysts who prepare reports and implementation staff who set up new clients. Each client has service levels, reporting deadlines and its own way of working, and the firm is judged on how steadily it delivers. Teams are often split by client, with some on the client's premises and others in a central office. Growth means taking on more clients without losing the quality of delivery. See also HR for professional services.
Who does the work
Account managers are stretched thin
Each holds several clients with different demands, and the loudest one gets attention while the quiet one drifts.
Embedded staff belong to nobody
People placed at a client's premises take instructions from the client and drift from the firm's standards and career paths.
Service levels depend on a few experts
One coordinator knows how a client's process works, and their absence causes missed deliverables.
New clients overwhelm operations
A big win brings an implementation that pulls the best people off existing accounts and service on them slips.
Reporting is manual and repetitive
Analysts spend long hours assembling the same monthly reports, and errors creep in at each copy.
Roles blur between teams
Account, operations and implementation staff each assume another team owns an issue, and clients are the ones who see the gap.
Set account load limits and a backup
A maximum number of clients or contract value per account manager, and a named second person for each account. The workforce planning work helps set the numbers.
Keep embedded staff connected
Regular check-ins with a firm manager, the same appraisal and training as office staff and a route to move between clients. The employee engagement process covers it.
Write each client's process down
A run-book per client covering steps, contacts, deadlines and exceptions, so work does not rest on one person.
Plan implementations separately
A dedicated implementation team or time-boxed allocation so a new client does not drain the existing ones. The HR transformation and change management work shares the approach.
Automate the standing reports
Template reports generated from the data source on a schedule, with checks, so analysts can spend time on insight. See reports automation.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
Account and operations capacity planned against client numbers and implementation pipeline.
Clear ownership between account, operations and implementation teams.
Keeping client-embedded staff connected to the firm and its standards.
Scheduled reports that remove repetitive manual preparation.
Every engagement starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes. Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in professional services, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
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It depends on the size and demands of each client. Use your own record of when service slips to set a limit and name a backup.
Keep a regular check-in with a firm manager, give the same development and appraisal as office staff and agree with the client who directs what.
Use a dedicated team or time-boxed allocation and track existing service levels during the project. Do not draw on the same people without a plan.
Write the client's process down, have a second person shadow and rotate duties periodically.
If the same report is prepared every month by hand, yes. Start with the one that costs the most time and has caused errors.
Our first discussion would cover how many clients and how much contract value each account manager carries, which accounts depend on one coordinator, and how often anyone from the firm speaks with embedded staff. Account load limits with a named backup could be the first piece of work. We then write the scope down and agree it with you.
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