6 Best Workforce Planning Software of 2024

The 6 Best Workforce Planning Softwares of 2024

1. Connecteam — Best all-in-one workforce planning software
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   Start for free

   

   Connecteam is an all-in-one workforce operations platform that includes powerful features for workforce planning.

   Why I chose Connecteam: The software offers a range of tools to help you take on larger projects and grow your workforce over time. Connecteam also has many tools for managing work that complement its longer-term planning features.

   I break it all down below.

   Easily build employee schedules for now and later, monitor overtime, and more

   Connecteam enables you to assign employees to shifts using a drag-and-drop employee scheduling tool. Simply drag an employee’s virtual name tag onto a shift to assign them. I found that creating a new schedule takes seconds.

   You can also assign shifts to employees automatically based on their qualifications, preferences, and availability, which workers can update directly in the app. In addition, you can create reusable schedule templates and set shifts to recur daily, weekly, or monthly. 

   

   Seamless scheduling in Connecteam is crucial for workforce planning because it lets you see all your employees’ availability and quickly find the best way to cover every project on your business’s plate. 

   Also, since Connecteam lets you schedule based on employee qualifications, you can easily spot when there’s a persistent shortage of workers with specific qualifications—a strong indicator of when it’s time to hire.

   Additionally, Connecteam’s scheduling tool clearly displays the total hours assigned to each employee and alerts you if an employee has scheduled overtime. This helps you distribute work evenly and save money on overtime.

   You might be also interested in reading our in-depth review of the best employee scheduling app for 2024

   Upskill your workforce with built-in training 

   Training is important for workforce planning because one of the biggest struggles businesses face is not having enough employees with the right skills to take on advanced projects. With Connecteam’s employee training tools, you can avoid this challenge with ease.

   Create custom courses and materials—with videos, images, audio files, text, and more—to train new hires and upskill your existing workforce. Employees can complete training at their convenience from their mobile devices. 

   

   I especially like that Connecteam lets you add quizzes to training courses to test employees’ knowledge retention. You can use quiz results to spot knowledge and skills gaps, roll out additional training if needed, and track the effectiveness of your training program over time.

   Plan out tasks and get a clear overview of your team’s workload

   Connecteam helps you plan work by assigning tasks to employees. You can split tasks into subtasks, set up recurring tasks (even for months in the future), add forms and checklists to tasks, and more.

   For me, a key benefit of Connecteam’s task management tools is that they give you full visibility into what employees are working on. Through the admin dashboard, you can see all your workers’ open tasks and when they’re due. Plus, it’ll display how much time employees have logged for specific tasks, projects, clients, and more.

   With this data, you can compare your team’s workload to its total capacity. This is vital to effective workforce planning. For instance, missed deadlines and employees with a pile-up of tasks can indicate that you’re understaffed and need to grow your team. Or, if your team is working well ahead of deadlines, it could indicate you have the capacity to take on a new project.

   Simplify time off management with custom policies and balance tracking

   Mismanaged time off can seriously impact your business’s capacity. For instance, half your workforce taking a holiday week off would significantly strain operations and potentially lead to missed deadlines.

   Thankfully, Connecteam makes it easy to manage your employees’ time off. You can create custom policies for different types of leave, including paid time off, holidays, and personal days. Connecteam has a library of policy templates to help you get started, which I find super helpful.

   Within the app, employees can monitor their time-off balances and request leave. Requests go straight to you, and you can approve or deny them in seconds.

   

   Get new hires on the job quickly with streamlined onboarding

   When you’re hiring to increase your business’s capacity, getting your new employees to work as soon as possible is crucial. Connecteam speeds up the onboarding process by allowing new hires to breeze through required documents.

   Your HR managers can send new employees onboarding checklists that list all the documents they must submit before they can start work. New hires can then upload the documents independently using the Connecteam app. 

   At a glance, HR managers can see which documents an employee has uploaded and send reminders asking them to submit anything missing. This keeps the onboarding process moving swiftly and smoothly. 

   Monitor employees’ journeys with personalized timelines

   In addition, Connecteam offers employee timelines management that display each employee’s journey with your company. Timelines can show workers’ start dates, awards they’ve received, promotions, completed training courses, licenses and certifications, annual reviews, and even important projects they’ve worked on. 

   I find this feature especially useful for planning when you want to make an internal hire or promotion or select an employee for new training opportunities. 

   In-app chat, surveys, polls, and more—at an affordable price 

   Another great Connecteam feature is its online team chat. You can converse with employees individually or in groups in real time to answer questions and ensure work remains on track.

   You can also use the chat to plan for the future of your workforce. For example, it’s easy to message an employee to ask them about taking on a new project or mentoring a new hire. 

   A bonus for me is that Connecteam’s chat is fully secure and offers you complete control. As a manager, you can moderate messages, decide who can post in a chat, and more.

   I also like that Connecteam lets you create and distribute custom surveys and polls to get feedback and information from your team. For instance, you can ask employees if they can work overtime next month as you start a new project. 

   

   Connecteam offers these features and many more at competitive prices. Teams of 10 or fewer can sign up for the free-forever Small Business Plan, while larger teams can get started for as little as $29 per month (for up to 30 users).

   Connecteam also offers a free for life plan – Try Connecteam here!

   Key Features

   • Drag-and-drop scheduler 

   • Internal communication tools

   • Robust task management features

   • Full time off management (including custom policy creation)

   • Onboarding tools with self-service options

   • Customizable training tools

   Pros

   •  User-friendly mobile app

   •  Affordable pricing and free Small Business Plan

   •  Highly customizable to suit your business’s needs

   •  Additional work management features

   Cons

   • Needs internet or wifi access to work

   Pricing

   Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users

   14-day free trial, no credit card required

   Start your free trial
2. 

   Deel — Good for hiring worldwide
   

   Available on

   • Web

   

   Deel is an HR tool designed for companies with international teams. It offers features for hiring employees and contractors around the world.

   Why I chose Deel: Deel uses automated employment contracts that comply with local requirements, making it much easier to hire global talent. Deel also serves as the Employer of Record in dozens of countries, so you don’t need a local office to hire from any country.

   The software includes analytics platforms to help you and your HR managers understand hiring costs and achieve headcount plans. It can also help run international payroll and manage taxes across multiple countries.

   I like that Deel can also reduce onboarding time. It lets you give new hires access to internal software and accounts. It also helps you send essential equipment, like computers, anywhere in the world. However, Deel doesn’t offer any features for training new employees.

   Learn more about Deel

   Key Features

   • Country-specific employment contracts
   • Ability to run background checks before hiring
   • 15 global payment options
   • 24/7 customer support

   Pros

   • Can hire in various countries without a local office
   • Reduces onboarding time

   Cons

   • Lacks employee training features
   • No tools for managing employees’ workloads

   Pricing

   Starts at $49/ month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

3. 

   ActivTrak — Good for hybrid teams
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   ActivTrak is a performance management platform that enables managers to monitor their employees’ productivity.

   Why I chose ActivTrak: The software lets you ‌directly compare hybrid employees’ productivity when they’re in the office to when working remotely. This helps you understand whether remote work is the right approach for your company.

   I like that the software doesn’t log keystrokes or take videos of employees at work. Instead, it tracks mouse and keyboard movements and which software an employee has open at any time. However, employees can game the system and distort the data by moving their mouse around when they’re not at their computer.

   ActivTrak assembles visual reports about how employees spend their time at work. These reports can help you spot workload imbalances or wasted time, but ActivTrak doesn’t provide tools to reassign work or plan for upcoming projects, which I would have liked to see.  

   Learn more about ActivTrak

   Key Features

   • Employee monitoring
   • Range of software integrations
   • Comparison of in-office vs. remote productivity
   • Remote installation on employees’ work devices

   Pros

   • Analyze whether remote work is right for your company
   • Interpret data easily with visual reports

   Cons

   • Employees can distort data
   • Doesn’t offer tools to rebalance work among employees

   Pricing

   Starts at $9/user/month Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: Yes

4. 

   Runn — Good for planning for future projects
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • Windows
   • Mac

   

   Runn is a workforce planning software that takes a high-level view of upcoming work. The platform’s goal is to help you ensure you have the employees and capital resources necessary to take on big projects on the horizon.

   Why I chose Runn: Runn includes an attendance management tool that lets you see the number of employee hours you’ll have available on any given day. You can also see how many hours your team spent on a project on any day in the past. I like that this gives you a chance to increase headcounts or react to employees’ time-off requests before there’s a crisis.

   One downside I noticed about Runn is that its time tracking features are quite basic. The platform offers a Chrome extension to help employees track hours, but this only works well for employees in the office. You can, however, integrate Runn with other time tracking software.

   Learn more about Runn

   Key Features

   • Employee availability forecasting
   • Google Chrome time tracking extension
   • Clockify and Harvest integrations for time tracking
   • Project assignment in calendar view

   Pros

   • Can build schedules based on employees’ qualifications
   • Includes tools for budgeting projects and forecasting revenue

   Cons

   • Time tracking doesn’t work well for employees in the field
   • No task management tools

   Pricing

   Starts at $10/user/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes

5. 

   Lightcast — Good for enterprises growing their headcount
   

   Available on

   • Web

   

   Lightcast is an enterprise workforce planning software platform aimed at helping large companies achieve their hiring goals. 

   Why I chose Lightcast: Lightcast uses big data analytics to help your company offer competitive wages and benefits when hiring. It also helps you identify the best labor markets for specific job roles, which can inform decisions about where to open new offices.

   I also like that Lightcast offers advice to help you set realistic diversity goals for your recruitment efforts. The software provides data on peer companies’ diversity statistics and demographics of a specific labor market.

   Unfortunately, Lightcast’s services stop at helping your company decide where and how to hire. The software doesn’t have tools for onboarding new hires or helping you plan your headcount needs.

   Learn more about Lightcast

   Key Features

   • Demographic data for labor markets by city
   • Data about peer companies’ workforce diversity
   • Wage data for specific job roles
   • Consulting for HR managers and business leaders

   Pros

   • API for integration with internal hiring platforms
   • Good customer service

   Cons

   • No onboarding features
   • Doesn’t help with planning your headcount needs

   Pricing

   Contact vendor for price Trial: No Free Plan: No

6. 

   Planday — Good for point-of-sale integrations
   

   Available on

   • Web
   • iOS
   • Android

   

   Planday is a workforce planning platform that offers time tracking, employee scheduling, and messaging.

   Why I chose Planday: The software includes a useful shift planner that allows you to assign employees to shifts. I appreciate that the planner has functionalities to help you cut down on overtime costs and schedule workers based on qualifications. However, I was disappointed to see that there’s no way to have Planday automatically create a new schedule.

   In addition to workforce planning, Planday serves as a workforce management solution. For example, it enables employees to clock in and out from a mobile app and builds timesheets automatically. Employees can also assign time entries to specific projects—but Planday doesn’t offer task management tools, which was a letdown for me.

   Learn more about Planday

   Key Features

   • Tools to track time on the go
   • Scheduling features
   • One-on-one and team messaging
   • Payroll integrations

   Pros

   • Shift planner calculates the salary cost of each schedule
   • Can monitor time employees spend on projects

   Cons

   • Lacks task management tools
   • Can’t create schedules automatically

   Pricing

   Starts at $2.49/month + $2.49/user Trial: Yes Free Plan: No