Kronos Empowers Employees and Managers with Workplace Chatbot

Collaboration with Microsoft Extends Next-Generation Workforce Dimensions Innovations to Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Power BI

LOWELL, Mass.--()--Kronos Incorporated today announced a new collaboration with Microsoft that, through the Workforce Dimensions Technology Partner Program, delivers innovative, future-ready tools that empower the entire workforce – whether hourly or salaried, a manager or employee.

Featuring a Workforce Dimensions-powered chatbot within Microsoft Teams that is already available to help employees and managers navigate workforce management questions, the collaboration also delivers powerful integrations between Workforce Dimensions and Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Power BI that help employees and managers make the decisions that matter most to them in the moment, from anyplace and any device.

News Facts

  • Organizations that deploy Workforce Dimensions, the next-generation workforce management solution from Kronos, and Teams, Microsoft’s digital collaboration platform for businesses, now have access to a virtual assistant chatbot that provides immediate answers to everyday questions.
    • Employees utilize the chatbot to ask for and receive time-off in real-time without logging into multiple applications, reducing software friction that draws out processes and disengages employees. The chatbot provides time-off balances and schedule details, including previously requested time-off, upcoming shifts, and punches an employee may have missed.
    • Before assigning extra shifts, managers can ask the chatbot who is approaching overtime to ensure fair distribution of work and avoid mistakenly contributing to employee burnout. The chatbot lets managers know if everyone has clocked in – which is important for a manufacturer who cannot start line production with an absence – or where an employee may be working on a particular day – such as a nurse who floats between units in a hospital.
    • Embedding Workforce Dimensions within Teams results in quicker business decisions, allowing managers to initiate instant messages or video conference calls to resolve scheduling resource questions, collaborate on Microsoft SharePoint documents, or share their Workforce Dimensions screen with a colleague in real-time without ever leaving Teams.
  • Employees and managers can save time by submitting, reviewing, and approving time-off requests and timecards directly from Outlook, further empowering users to complete these common activities from the application of their choice.
  • Workforce Dimensions continues to transform front-line managers into problem-solving business analysts. A connector to Power BI, Microsoft’s business analytics suite, empowers managers to combine workforce and operational data to explore trends in real-time and create high-impact visualizations that illustrate otherwise hard-to-spot connections, such as links between scheduling and safety.
  • The Workforce Dimensions Technology Partner Program fosters close collaboration in the delivery of new-to-the-world workplace tools through Workforce Dimensions and the future-ready Kronos D5 platform. Kronos D5 is the first modern, intelligent workforce platform built to leverage new technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning and easily integrate with existing systems through open, developer-friendly APIs.
  • According to Gartner’s report Prepare Yourself for the Future of Workforce Management1: “the latest generation of workforce management (WFM) applications include capabilities and features that can augment, transform and disrupt most industries that operate with a large proportion of hourly-paid workers (such as in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and the public sector). These capabilities include: automation of manager experience, employee experience, flexible workforce, virtual assistants (VAs), and new platforms.”

Supporting Quotes

  • Michael May, senior director, Workforce Dimensions Technology Partner Program, Kronos
    “As we build the workplace of the future, employees and managers must be empowered to work their way, completing everyday workforce activities from any device, at any time, and through digital social hubs – such as Microsoft Teams – where users already collaborate and communicate all day long. Requiring users to switch between workplace applications is an antiquated approach to IT strategy that undermines employee engagement and creates unnecessary friction between the user and the task they are trying to accomplish.”
  • Mike Ammerlaan, director, Microsoft Office 365 Ecosystem, Microsoft Corp.
    “The integration between Workforce Dimensions and Microsoft Teams is a new experience that brings together people, conversations, and content so customers can better collaborate to achieve more every day. We’re pleased to work with Kronos to help improve the flow of communication in the modern workplace.”

Supporting Resources

  • See Kronos present at the Microsoft Build 2018 Developer Conference on Tuesday, May 8 at 4:00 p.m. PT on developing apps for the modern workforce.
  • Read a complimentary copy of Gartner’s full report, “Prepare Yourself for the Future of Workforce Management.”
  • Learn more about the Workforce Dimensions Technology Partner Program.
  • See a demonstration of Workforce Dimensions.
  • Connect with Kronos via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Kronos Incorporated
Kronos is a leading provider of workforce management and human capital management cloud solutions. Kronos industry-centric workforce applications are purpose-built for businesses, healthcare providers, educational institutions, and government agencies of all sizes. Tens of thousands of organizations — including half of the Fortune 1000® — and more than 40 million people in over 100 countries use Kronos every day. Visit www.kronos.com. Kronos: Workforce Innovation That Works.

© 2018 Kronos Incorporated. All rights reserved. Kronos and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks and Workforce Innovation That Works is a trademark of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. See a complete list of Kronos trademarks. All other trademarks, if any, are property of their respective owners.

Footnote 1: Gartner, “Prepare Yourself for the Future of Workforce Management,” Sam Grinter, Chris Pang, et al., February 23, 2018.

Contacts

Kronos Incorporated
Dan Gouthro, +1 978-947-7310
Daniel.Gouthro@kronos.com

Release Summary

A workforce management chatbot from Kronos provides an engaging self-service tool for employees and managers to quickly access everyday information.

Contacts

Kronos Incorporated
Dan Gouthro, +1 978-947-7310
Daniel.Gouthro@kronos.com