Small and medium businesses make up the vast majority of the marketplace. While definitions of the space vary, more than half of the workforce in the U.S. is employed by an organization with under 1000 people. These small(er) organizations are certainly large enough to have complex talent and workforce management needs, but are small enough that they are even more likely than larger organizations to look for partners that can bring them both tools and knowledge to help them be more efficient and effective.

Unfortunately, most SMB organizations are not happy with their workforce management solutions today. As our Key Findings for SMB Workforce Management report found, roughly 60% of organizations with 50-1000 employees rated their satisfaction with their time and attendance, scheduling, and absence solutions at a 7 or below on a scale of 1-10 (59%, 61%, and 63% respectively). That’s a whole lot of unhappy organizations. So what do these organizations need to make them happy?

The number one driver of workforce management technology adoption for this group was controlling overtime, closely followed by improving employee self-service. Overtime is a big issue, not only for cost conscious smaller organizations looking to their workforce management tools to help them plan more effectively, but because of changing regulations. With the advent of new DoL regulations requiring overtime for as many as 4 million Americans making less than $46,000 a year, small organizations need to be better than ever at tracking time for more and more of their employees. And in fact, SMB organizations are 59% more likely than their larger counterparts to cite the need to comply with reporting requirements as a top technology driver.

SMB organizations are clearly expecting more out of their technology partners. 52% rated product capabilities as a critical selection criterion, while only 41% rated price as critical. Functionality is being seen as a wise investment, although 41% also said they would move to another provider who gave them their same current product capabilities at a lower price. But organizations are looking for more than what they have now. Business performance dashboards, data inquiry tools, predictive modeling, and greater visibility across their employee population all top the list of desired functionality. This is sophistication far beyond tracking when someone clocked in or building a schedule. They may be smaller, but they have big needs, and need providers to step up and deliver.