Jana Reserva Archives - Page 8 of 9

February 6, 2021September 5, 2023

4 ways that health care organizations can build resilience

Health care organizations faced numerous challenges when the pandemic hit. Residents in care facilities faced a high risk of contracting the coronavirus as many are between the vulnerable ages of 80 and 90 years old with underlying conditions.

Beyond the physical stress, residents and staff alike experience mental health challenges. Employees are burdened with adapting to new ways of working, such as dealing with absences, implementing new health protocols, and the emotional toll of seeing patients affected by the virus. At the same time, residents can also pick up such cues and feel the burden themselves — restrictions such as limited visits from loved ones added to the toll too.

“Care organizations in particular have been under immense strain. We’ve never asked them to do more to protect the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Bryce Davies, general manager of Workforce.com UK. But there’s another story here, and that’s human ingenuity and creativity can be used to help us all adapt. It’s called resilience.”

The ability of organizations to bounce back from challenges and show resilience is what can help them thrive during a pandemic. Davies identified four core areas of resilience that can help businesses navigate through this time.

Keeping communication lines open

Communication is key for both staff and patients or customers. But with the pandemic, keeping communication lines open tends to become challenging given restrictions and volatile work patterns. This resulted in information getting diluted and not being communicated to the right person at the right time, which prevents teams from adapting quickly to circumstances.

“Identify your mission-critical communication channels and build redundancy into these,” Davies said. The speed of communication channels should also be considered and identify possible causes of delays.

Open and transparent communication lines are vital to empowering staff to step in and take over in case of a teammate’s absence or operational changes. Furthermore, it’s also critical to documenting processes, which lessens onboarding time and equips teams to stay agile.

Ensuring safety on shift

Fatigue is detrimental to the safety of patients and health workers alike. When care facility staff is exhausted, they are more prone to making errors, forgetting things, having difficulty processing information and reacting slowly.

Workforce managers can prevent their staff from experiencing fatigue through efficient scheduling and leave management. However, staff schedules can be difficult to plan and subjects staff to work in shift patterns, which fail to account for other factors such as demand, leave and time for training.

“Try planning your schedule out as far in advance as possible to lock in both the time for leave and training,” Davies explained. Monitoring annual leave balances throughout the year also helps allocate resources accordingly and make sure the staff gets enough time off to curb the effects of stress.

Also read: How leaders can boost employee retention by respecting work-life balance of hourly workers

Technology such as Workforce.com provides managers oversight into all the essential factors with staff scheduling. Minus the paperwork, managers can use the platform to make better decisions when creating schedules and ensure that time off, training, and demand are accounted for.

Promoting financial security

Labor costs and demand are difficult to control and forecast. If not managed properly, it can drive up expenses, resulting in the organization becoming less financially agile. This can make team members feel insecure about the company and may cause them to leave.

“Build a mock schedule well in advance and cost it using employees’ base pay and overtime to help predict cost. Test different scenarios,” Davies advised. Identifying key demand trends and indicators can also help in forecasting costs.

It’s also crucial to pay close attention to the variance between schedules and actual timesheets. Investigate probable causes of overspending and optimize your operations to address them.

More importantly, health care organizations should have a way to proactively manage demand and cost rather than acting on issues after the fact. Having access to labor analytics is vital to do that. Workforce.com captures real-time costs and revenue throughout the day, allowing managers to react quickly and make cost-effective decisions on the fly.

Also read: Labor analytics and reporting starts with access to the right data

Demonstrating HR compliance

Complying with labor laws is a must, but keeping up with changes can be tough.

“Promote compliance as a culture, not as one person’s job,” Davies said. Integrate compliance to every part of workforce management. Ensure that processes and systems are designed to stay at pace and adhere to labor laws.

Companies can start with digitizing their documents so that files can be remotely audited and monitored. Compliance can also be accounted for in creating employee schedules. Workforce.com’s employee scheduling platform factors in labor laws and alerts managers if a schedule is at risk of violating regulations. Legislation that affects payroll is also crucial for companies to pay close attention to as it impacts labor costs and treatment of overtime and holidays.

Also read: The rundown on wage law compliance: What organizations should know

When systems are integrated for labor compliance, all activities are tracked and fixing potential noncompliance risk would be quicker.

“Resilience is something that we can build into all of our businesses, and it’s never too late to start,” Davies said. Recognizing the gaps is half of the battle. The other half is finding the right solution to address them.

Workforce.com has been partnering with businesses in different industries to help them engage their teams, safeguard their finances and stay compliant. See our solutions in action and book a demo with us today.

December 8, 2020December 14, 2020

How SMBs can survive and thrive during and after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a curveball at businesses, but small and medium-sized organizations have found themselves in a unique predicament. With limited resources, smaller organizations need to realign their priorities given current market conditions and quickly do so.

A crucial part of the economy

As the pandemic continues, governments are focused on more stringent health and safety protocols. But at the same time, they try to keep the economy moving despite restrictions. SMBs are a crucial piece to doing this.

There are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, accounting for 99.9 percent of U.S. businesses. SMBs also account for 45 percent of total employment in emerging countries globally and 60 percent in the U.K.

Governments have offered different forms of aid for SMBs. While helpful, such assistance is more focused on helping SMBs survive in the short term. It’s essential to recognize that the speed of recovery will depend on the ability of SMBs to return to sustainable operations post-pandemic after current stimulus measures run out.

Here are some ways SMBs can quickly adapt and remain on track for recovery.

Reopen safely with technology

According to a Salesforce Research survey, 64 percent of SMBs have focused on safety and health policies due to the pandemic. Cleaning physical spaces is a huge part of it, but another way to promote health safety is to enforce social distancing and manage the number of customers coming in.

Reopen is a free tool that lets customers make appointments. Through the platform, businesses can set their operating hours and customers can book a time slot that’s suitable for them to visit. With bookings set in advance, businesses can control foot traffic, anticipate demand and let clients know that they are safely open for business.

Make cost-efficient decisions

Cost efficiency is crucial for SMBs, especially when demand tends to shift depending on changing restrictions. They need a mechanism that will enable them to optimize quickly to save on costs.

Workforce.com’s live wage tracker enables small businesses and their managers to make cost-efficient decisions on the fly because it tracks demand and labor costs in real time. Managers can see staff count, exact costs and spot potential areas for overspending.

Create schedules that stay on budget

Scheduling for SMBs can be more challenging these days. There has to be a balance between having enough staff, ensuring team safety and staying on budget.

Workforce.com offers a scheduling platform that allows managers to input their labor budget to create a schedule that stays within a set amount. The platform can also pull in data from their POS, which can help forecast demand based on historical data.

Ensure staff safety

Health issues are detrimental to how SMBs operate, especially now. Creating rotational shifts to minimize contact is a good step. It also pays to conduct health check-ins during each shift where employees can declare any symptoms they’re experiencing. This will help managers optimize operations, conduct contact tracing and assist employees should they need to be tested and isolated.

Also read: Staying resilient: 10 ways to use Workforce.com to manage the impact of COVID-19

Workforce.com provides ways to keep track of these things automatically. Managers can create and track qualifications for safety processes such as COVID-19 test results and quarantine expiration dates within the platform. They can also set shift questions that remind staff of sanitation requirements or ask them if they’re experiencing any symptoms.

Adapting to market volatility with technology

SMBs that utilize technology are better poised to overcome market challenges. According to the same Salesforce Research survey, technology influences SMB operations in different ways, especially with customer interactions (51 percent), the organization’s ability to stay open and in business (46 percent) and growth of customer base (40 percent).

The Workforce.com platform is designed to meet the workforce management needs of businesses of any size. It has different functionalities that can help SMBs thrive even in today’s volatile market. See how it can equip your team to make cost-effective decisions and optimize operations promptly. See it in action and try Workforce.com for free today.

December 6, 2020April 11, 2023

Labor analytics and reporting starts with access to the right data

Labor analytics and reporting are vital to making informed decisions for better efficiency and cost savings.

However, it might be easier said than done. Companies grapple with numerous issues surrounding labor analytics, from tracking the information they need to generating reports to making timely decisions that will actually impact their bottom line.

Lack of insight and failure to share analytics with frontline managers

It all begins with access to the right data. A common problem among companies is that they don’t have enough information to help them run an efficient operation and save money.

“While most companies know how much labor hours they’re scheduling, they face a challenge with comparing that with other vital areas such as budgets, predictable revenue and historical information,” said Travis Kohlmeyer, vice president of sales at Workforce.com.

Also read: The fair workweek squeeze on employee scheduling

Another issue is providing frontline managers with access to analytics, the very people who are creating the schedules and running operations. It’s crucial to provide them the analytical information before the fact or else data can only help after the money has been spent.

“If you don’t give managers the tools they need to schedule more effectively, historical costs tend to repeat themselves,” Kohlmeyer said.

Inability to capture data in real time

Leveraging labor analytics has a lot to do with how timely it is acted upon. Most companies face difficulties with capturing data in real time.

“This means managers and team leaders can’t make game-time decisions,” Kohlmeyer said. “If a company has to wait for 30 days to get their labor analytics, it’s basically useless. Yes, you can tell your employees to shape up here and there but not providing the insight to help them in the process tends to be less effective.”

Managers can better optimize operations when they’re able to see real-time costs and revenue throughout the day. With this insight available, managers can quickly see the peaks and valleys, decide whether to ask more employees to come in or let staff go home and ensure that the operation as a whole is cost-efficient.

Difficulty in generating and customizing reports

Reports out of data analytics provide a big picture view essential for labor forecasting and making organizational decisions. Sometimes companies fail to do this because generating and customizing reports tend to be a tedious task, automated reports don’t match their needs or they don’t have a mechanism for it at all.

“Every company is different, even those in the same industry,” Kohlmeyer explained. “Typically, most solutions can provide basic cost reports, but you need more than that to better optimize your operation. Having the technology that generates reports specific to key components of your business is harder to come by and where the bottom line is lacking.”

Overcoming labor analytics and reporting challenges

Having the right technology can address pain points that come with labor analytics and reporting. “One of the key advantages of the Workforce.com platform is its ability to give customers accurate labor expenses real-time. With the real-time alerts and advanced reporting, customers gain insights into their labor expenses and proactively plan ahead in the moment and in the longer term,” said Leon Pearce, lead software engineer at Workforce.com.

Being able to interpret labor expenses is helpful, but when you’re able to do so in real-time, it’s a game changer. With live insights, Workforce.com analyzes and interprets labor data even when staff are still on their shift. “It empowers managers to make strong decisions on the fly, think like a business owner and keep staff levels optimal for demand,” Pearce said.

Labor analytics are also crucial to anticipating demand and staying on top of a budget. Workforce.com gives a strong projection in that regard, allowing companies to add in their actual labor budget in dollars.

“This means that the platform can project real expenses of your schedule based on actual labor interpretation, giving you confidence that your labor expenses will be aligned with your budget,” Pearce said.

Employee scheduling validations can be configured into the platform to help managers avoid building schedules that can incur potential unnecessary labor expenses such as overtime and missed breaks.

Access to data and being able to get insights from it is vital to any business. For large operations, it can be harder with different areas and variables at play. Whether it’s improving clock punches, addressing understaffing leading to overtime, spotting missing breaks leading to compliance penalties, employers can handle such issues with full access to their data.

“Workforce.com’s advanced reporting gives businesses access to all of their data and provides an easy to use tool for creating reports using exactly the information they need to make strong proactive decisions,” Pearce said.

Data only becomes powerful when it is properly interpreted; this aids in better decisions and cost savings. Workforce.com is built to do precisely that. See our reporting solutions in action and book a demo or sign up for a free trial today.

November 25, 2020November 26, 2020

How to support employees’ mental health under changing COVID-19 restrictions

mental health, resources, health care, etc.

One of the critical workforce issues during the pandemic is managing mental health as employees deal with the impact of remote work, reduced hours and restriction changes.

Videoconferencing fatigue, blurred lines between home and work life and fear of getting sick are challenges employees contend with as they navigate the pandemic. But as months passed, coping with changing restrictions added up to these issues.

In the U.S. alone, restrictions have changed over time in each state; some tightened while others eased up. Likewise, in the U.K., a national lockdown has been imposed again until Dec. 2 with restrictions likely to continue as the U.K. introduces a new tier system. More than the impact on operations, such changes also affect employees’ mental health. Employers need to ensure that staff can cope with being back at work when these lockdowns and restrictions are lifted.

Encourage employees to take time off

With working dynamics disrupted, employees need to have some space to recharge and cope.

Managers can stay on top of staff time off through a leave management solution. With this in place, approving leave requests and optimizing employee schedules based on who is available becomes easier and more efficient.

Adjust working patterns to reduce overworking and minimize contact

Rotate teams in groups to prevent overworking and minimize infection risks. The Workforce.com platform allows managers to create segmented teams to work on rotational schedules.

Also read: Staying resilient: 10 ways to use Workforce.com to manage the impact of COVID-19

Stay transparent and connected

It’s vital to make everyone feel that they’re part of a team. Transparency is vital to effective workforce management, especially during this time.

Keep your staff informed and ensure that communication lines are always open for them. Workforce.com’s chat feature allows for instant communication between teams or individuals. It can be used to share essential information, celebrate wins and milestones, and allow everyone to stay connected.

Another way to ensure transparency is by setting custom events via the Workforce.com platform. It’s ideal for communicating operational changes to the team, such as reduced business hours or scheduling changes. That information will be visible to the schedule and mobile app, making it easier for staff to stay in the loop.

Implement wellness action plans

A wellness action plan is a way to spot mental health issues and identify the type of support employees need from their managers and leaders. It acts as a framework for staff to recognize the steps they need to manage their mental health. At the same time, it opens up avenues for managers and employees to work through experiences, address issues and support the team’s overall wellbeing.

A wellness action plan should have approaches to promote mental health. It should also have ways to identify poor mental health, stress triggers, impact on performance, support needed from leaders, action steps for both employee and manager, and a regular schedule to review the plan.

Companies can also consider subscribing to wellness apps or services to better support their employees’ mental wellness. Services that offer virtual counseling services can help employees cope and process their feelings and experiences, especially during the pandemic.

Also read: How to recalibrate work dynamics and embrace digital transformation in a post-pandemic workplace

Establish a support system for leaders and managers

Managers and leaders are in a unique position of facing the pandemic and taking care of a team. They equally need a support system that will help them identify best practices for managing their teams. Forming groups or seeking out advice from mentors and other industry professionals is a good first step.

Constant communication and transparency helps bond a workforce, whether in the office or remotely. Keep your employees’ wellbeing in mind and keep in touch with Workforce.com’s Workforce Chat.

November 12, 2020March 28, 2024

Retail workforce management success goes beyond productive operations

Productivity is one sign of a good operation, but many factors are at play to ensure success in the retail industry.

Jim Highfill, president at Lazarus Human Capital Services, sheds light on some of the challenges in retail workforce management and provides insight into what companies can do amidst a changing business landscape. With over 30 years in retail, he shares best practices on ensuring productive operations, creating efficient staff schedules, staying compliant with labor laws and adapting to different industry changes.

The real meaning of successful and cost-effective operations

If you’re a CFO, would you be open to a 10 percent increase in yearly sales resulting in an additional net profit of $100 million but no increase in productivity? Highfill conducted a thought experiment posing that question among 20 CFOs of multinational companies, and half of them rejected the idea.

“The point is, increases in productivity result from technology, process improvements, or clear communication, team involvement and training, the latter being most important,” he said. “It’s not always as simple as requiring more sales generated from fewer labor hours. When the workforce has clear goals and direct involvement in achieving them, they are more productive, more conscientious towards cost mitigating practices, and more rapidly adopt technology and process improvements.”

HR teams also have a crucial role to play as a human capital partner. They need to advocate for the workforce and ensure that communication of goals and the employees’ role in achieving those goals is clear and consistent.

“HR is a force multiplier when equally involved in any discussion of operational change,” he added.

Crucial factors when creating staff schedules

Staff schedules are at the core of any operation, especially for retail businesses. More than ensuring that all business areas are covered, there are other significant factors to consider.

“Everything starts with the forecast of sales, customer traffic and other related indicators that can predict labor demand. If you’re seeing large variances in productivity week to week, check the forecast variance first,” he said.

Also read: On-shift scheduling doesn’t have to be a headache for managers or employees

The other thing to identify is where and when labor is required. Companies typically use data for labor modeling, but they need to keep in mind how the human factor can also come into play.

“Even the most talented store managers can have what I call operational bias where they may over- or under-allocate hours to certain departments based on how well they understand those departments. Store-level modeling provides both a guide for allocating hours and evaluating any impacts of variance from the model. If you really want to leverage your company’s data science efforts, this is a level of granularity that shouldn’t be ignored,” he said.

Labor modeling is also crucial to identifying the right ratio of full-time to part-time employees. Weighing pros and cons and variables like flexibility, turnover and knowledge dilution helps strike a balance and create the right mix.

Most importantly, managers need to consider the needs of staff when creating schedules. It seems obvious but can be easier said than done, especially when managers get a handful of requests. “Using an employee self-service software is a great way to make it easier and more cost-efficient for the manager to handle this process, and when used with automated scheduling software, it can be a true game changer,” he said.

Workforce management challenges in the retail industry

Like with any industry, retail players are faced with a set of challenges. Highfill cited overcoming fear, facing political uncertainty, evaluating technology and figuring out the role of gig work as the top challenges that the retail businesses had to contend with.

Fear is usually a result of market volatility, and it can be felt from the executive, managerial and employee levels.

Also read: Work schedule laws and enforcement to expect in 2021

“You could almost call it a psychology problem,” he said. “There’s fear of business viability and financial uncertainty. Fear on the corporate level usually manifests itself as austerity on the store level in the form of draconic staff cuts in brick-and-mortar locations as more emphasis is placed on ecommerce. How does one cut back on staff costs without creating a death spiral where sales drop and more staff is cut and so on and so forth?”

Retailers need to recognize that their strength is in customer engagement. He explained that while it feels risky to invest in store resources, it is essential to preserving relationships with customers.

Political uncertainty is another thing that retail players need to navigate as it can influence how labor laws are being applied.

“HR departments must be prepared for a wide variety of scenarios on the federal, state and local level. It’s a monumental task,” he said.

Workforce management software is vital to retail businesses, but finding the most suitable technology can be difficult.

“The plethora of options can create a decision paralysis, especially for those that are navigating the selection process for the first time,” he said. “My advice is to evaluate five or six options, narrow it down to two for a proof-of-concept. Make a decision, go forward, and don’t look back.”

The rise of gig work is also something that retailers need to navigate. While it offers flexibility, it can also have an impact on an organization’s culture.

“Certainly there’s a place for gig workers in most sectors of retail. But there will likely be a lot of pain involved over the next several years as retailers try and figure out what best matches their needs while preserving the shopping experience and culture of the company,” he said.

Ensuring labor compliance when managing a huge workforce

Technology is vital labor compliance as it can help take into account various laws into the system and automate notifications when there’s a risk of penalty or non-compliance. However, companies need to pay attention to how technology is being adopted into the field.

Also read: Tracking time and attendance a basic but crucial workplace function

“Executives may see scheduling as a logic problem, which it is in many ways. However, on the store level, it is an emotional issue as well. It’s the emotional part that creates bias reflected in schedules, which can cause compliance issues. A well-meaning manager might give favorable schedules to longtime loyal employees to the disadvantage of others, or may fail to recognize that an employee has not been given the number of weekends off, ” he explained.

Retail employee scheduling software provides a clearer picture and helps managers recognize potential areas where non-compliance may happen, enabling them to optimize schedules before issues can occur.

Building resilience in retail

With COVID-19 throwing a curve at the workplace, managers need to be agile enough to optimize their strategy given how quickly things can change.

“The volatility in the labor market will be with us as long as the pandemic is active. Managers are faced with having to reduce or increase staff on short notice as areas experience fluctuating levels of economic lockdown. It not only has an operational impact but a psychological impact as well,” he said.

Given the uncertainty of today’s business landscape, leaders need to step it up and think creatively. Beyond productivity, they must prioritize engaging their people and empowering them to thrive no matter the circumstance.

“Managers must be creative. Cross-functional training, job sharing, and constant communication and goal alignment are the main ingredients in a recipe for maintaining a cohesive team that will thrive in this period of uncertainty and change,” he said.

October 29, 2020June 29, 2023

The rundown on wage law compliance: What organizations should know

Paying people properly is crucial to workforce management. But it goes beyond releasing pay on time. It’s about compensating workers according to the work they do and adhering to all the wage laws that apply — and there are many that organizations need to navigate.

Andrew Stirling, head of product compliance at Workforce.com, sheds light on what companies need to know about complying with wage laws, the real cost of failure to comply and the different ways organizations can meet requirements under varying rules and regulations.

Setting a compliance strategy

“To have a compliance strategy, you need to start by knowing what the rules are. That might sound trite, but you need a system for keeping current as the rules change,” Stirling said.

Businesses are generally good at evolving their practices in the face of law and regulation changes. While there’s a level of adjustment when new laws are implemented, companies tend to adapt efficiently, he explained.

Identifying the type of employment relationship a business has with its workers is crucial to getting the rules right. This has become more important as the types of work relationships have multiplied.

“With the gig economy growing, more and more workers are being engaged to work in nontraditional ways. Generally, a worker in your business will be either an employee or an independent contractor. Businesses need to be careful to assign workers to the right category, because getting this wrong means that they may not meet all the wage laws that apply,” said Stirling.

Once the rules are known, it’s time for the business to assess and implement solutions to comply with those rules. The solutions can be more than just the obvious.

For example, employee scheduling can play a key role in wage compliance. When creating schedules, managers need to be aware of when overtime will apply and how much the business must pay for those hours when it does. This becomes challenging for managers with a group of employees under different working arrangements. Without good solutions, things can fall through the cracks, resulting in underpayment or higher labor costs.

The real cost of noncompliance

Noncompliance can result in crippling financial repercussions, but it also can cause reputational damage.

“The financial costs of noncompliance are obvious,” Stirling said. “For example, if employees have been underpaid, the business might have to make large amounts of back payments in one hit. You need to have the cash on hand for that.” There are other financial costs, like penalties and legal costs to contest a court case.

But there’s also the real potential for reputational damage. That’s often a more significant motivation for employers to comply.

“An underpayment scandal can bring companies to their knees. Customers can decide to take their business elsewhere. People are less likely to visit a restaurant or shop that has been reported for underpaying their people,” he said.

Aside from a less favorable customer perspective, companies with underpayment issues can risk losing in the labor market, he said. When looking for a job, people tend to sort out who the good and bad players are, and wage compliance can be a huge factor.

Ensuring compliance at all levels

While wage compliance may mostly be seen as a job for payroll teams, HR and managers also play a crucial role. Payroll teams would primarily be responsible for the final pay outcome.

“From a payroll perspective, I would be focused on two things. One is making sure that I understand the complex wage rules that apply. The second thing is making sure that I have the correct data. Am I getting the information that I need to properly calculate pay? Are we capturing time and attendance accurately? Yes, knowing the rules are important, but the inputs need to be correct, too,” Stirling said.

HR has a leading role here. They need to have a good understanding of the business and the particular wage rules that apply. It’s also their responsibility to ensure that the right systems are in place for wage compliance.

“In my experience, HR will often document the duties of a position and then help to assign those duties to a particular minimum wage,” Stirling explained.

Managers, meanwhile, have a role in ensuring that all inputs are correct. They monitor that employees are recording time correctly and that there are no discrepancies.

“If rules in a particular jurisdiction require employees to be paid more for doing particular types of work, managers are the ones who will know,” he said. The extra payments might include allowances, commissions, bonuses and tips to the extent that they are relevant in a jurisdiction.

Managers generally play less of a role in ensuring the amount on a paycheck is correct. Still, they follow processes and systems that ensure all the information passed on to payroll is accurate.

Compliance challenges per industry

Different industries face varying compliance challenges. A lot of this difference comes from meeting customer demand or expectations.

If customer demand comes in after standard business hours and on weekends, that’s when employees need to be at work. Working outside standard business hours often will entitle an employee to overtime or other financial obligations.

“If you’re in retail or hospitality, you’d miss out on opportunities if you just open from 9 to 5. Efficient workforce management can meet these demands with cost-effective shifts without compromising service and wage law compliance,” he said.

Similar issues arise in industries that make use of machines and equipment that are most efficiently run 24/7. Mining, oil and gas, and manufacturing companies often run this way. Stirling said that this scenario also puts businesses in a space where they pay different penalties that come with varying shifts and work hours.

On the other hand, there are many industries where working standard office hours is still the norm. “Calculating pay for people who get to work at 9 in the morning and leave at 5 in the afternoon is usually relatively easy,” he said.

Ways to stay at pace with labor law changes

There are many moving parts involved with wage law compliance, and staying on pace is crucial.

“Going to the source is always best. That’s a good start,” Stirling said. He advised signing up for government websites that explain what the law is. Businesses can often sign up for alerts to be updated should any of the laws change.

There are also subscription services to stay abreast of the labor law, including publications and journals. Another option is to join employer associations that can help keep track of changes as well.

Overcoming wage compliance challenges

Having the right people, implementing the right systems, and investing in the right technology — Stirling believes that these things can help businesses comply with wage laws.

Computers are binary and will give an output based on the input. Automated compliance is more efficient and effective than human-driven compliance. Companies must implement the right systems to make sure that both people and technology can function effectively.

“I’m a big believer in technology as a solution to a lot of these problems,” he said. “That’s where the future is. As technology becomes more powerful, the types of work that people are doing will change. They’ll spend less time crunching numbers, for example, to make sure pays are right and spend more time checking that the inputs into the technology are right.”

September 29, 2020February 23, 2021

How Domino’s Israel saved 25,000 hours and increased employee productivity 11%

Domino's Israel, workforce management technology

Domino’s has always been a company that embraces and utilizes technology to make daily operations smoother. Case in point: They implemented an online delivery service in Israel as early as 2009.

Domino’s saw the opportunity in digital platforms and were strategic enough to adopt early. As they continue to leverage technology in the business, they also embrace digital information to manage their people. And they have reaped the benefits ever since.

So it’s no surprise that after rolling out the Workforce.com platform, Domino’s Israel has reported to save 25,000 hours across 42 locations, increased sales per labor hour by 11 percent, and dropped wage costs from 33.5 percent to only 29.5 percent of their revenue.

Challenges that come with business expansion

“Expanding fast means that you need to create a good and solid structure of operation and training,” said Arie Elbaz, chief operating officer and co-owner of Domino’s Israel franchise.

Elbaz, along with the rest of Domino’s Israel management team, recognized that as they open more stores, they need to have enough employees to consistently deliver quality service to their customers. Being strategic with how they create employee schedules is essential to that. It means that they need to cover all their bases in an efficient way that saves on costs and time.

“Before I was introduced to Workforce.com, every store manager did scheduling according to what he feels or believes; according to his instincts,” Elbaz said, adding that it’s not the most efficient way to schedule. They also needed a more efficient way to forecast staff availability and the amount of hours required per store per week per month.

Another challenge is adapting to higher labor costs.

“Here in Israel, we had five increases with minimum wage, and we needed to find a solution that would allow us to be more efficient on one hand, but of course, we won’t compromise on service and the number of employees that we need,” Elbaz said.

Technology and transparency

After transitioning to Workforce.com, Domino’s store managers gained better insight with the scheduling software and discovered how many staff they actually need in each shift.

“This was the first time that every member of my staff can see the same schedule. The delivery guys see what I see, what my supervisors see, and what my store manager sees. Everyone works on the same platform,” said Yonatan Taz, one of Domino’s operations managers.

Store managers also get better insights on peak and slow hours, allowing them to schedule smarter. “Before, we had a problem that I thought maybe the peak would start at 6 o’clock. But the platform showed me that it starts at 5:30,” said Idan Eini, a Domino’s store manager.

Transforming shift management for success

Domino’s Israel started implementing Workforce more than a year ago, running a pilot between December 2019 and February 2020. A full rollout of the system was completed in three weeks following the pilot. “For me, it was a revolution,” Elbaz said. He also shared three advantages of having Workforce.com

Workforce.com provides one platform for shift management. Because everyone uses the same system, it’s easier to see who’s working when and where. There’s less need to remind everyone, and managers can anticipate where the gap is going to be.
Workforce.com shows recommended hours. The platform enables managers to see recommended hours alongside with scheduled hours and actual hours. “As a result, we can better analyze our labor cost and create more efficiency,” Elbaz said.
Workforce.com gives analysis and actionable insights. The system can make sense of labor data and provide insight into aspects like savings, service metrics, etc. The team now has full control over this information.

Going further

Now that Domino’s has an efficient staff management system in place, Elbaz and his team will continue improving their online platforms and seek better ways to provide the best service to their customers as they expand.

Domino’s enables its people with technology and smart solutions to simplify once complex and repetitive processes. This allows them to focus on the more important parts of the job, build their skills, and realize the value they bring. Building up your workforce this way is one of the smartest business decisions.

Just like Domino’s, are you ready to take your workforce further? Book a demo and see how Workforce.com can help you.

September 7, 2020June 29, 2023

How to cultivate innovation in the workforce

Innovation is key to an organization’s success, but what is it really? Workforce.com recently caught up with Victor Assad, managing partner of InnovationOne, LLC and author of “Hack Recruiting: The Best of Empirical Research, Method and Process and Digitization,” to discuss how companies can foster innovation and see actual results from doing so.

DEFINING INNOVATION IN THE WORKFORCE

Workforce: We always hear that innovation is key to success in an organization. But what does it really mean?

Victor Assad: It means that an organization is churning out innovations that drive financial value in products, services, or new business models for its customers in a manner where it leads its peers. Typically, for companies to do that, they have to know what their customers need, and secondly, they need to have great cultures of innovation that are very transparent and very agile.

WF: How can companies start innovating and see actual returns or impact from these activities?

Assad: Organizations need to first think through where they need to innovate. What is their desired end state, and how quickly do they need to get there? Is it new products? Is it new services? Is it a new business model? Is it digitizing their processes to move more quickly? Or a combination thereof?

To get that vision, they need to reach an agreement among the executive staff and articulate it to their workforce and external partners. It’s important to articulate it so often and so fervently that executives feel nauseated by talking about it. And when you’re nauseated talking about it, then they have made a good first step.

The next thing is to share data on new technologies, social-economic trends, and marketing trends with the workforce and external partners, who can also be customers. Invite employees and partners to get involved. Executives have to make sure that their middle management is on board with this and that they will be leaders who will entertain questioning and allow people to collaborate, go off on their own, come up with something and experiment. They need to have a well-known process to move ideas forward. Everyone has to know that process, and it has to be credible. Meaning, everybody that makes a suggestion is going to get a response. It might be yes, It might be no and here’s why.

Finally, organizations have to overcome what I like to call, the graveyard of innovation. And that is to get your organization’s attention to commercialize your innovation. Different functions like marketing, sales, manufacturing, service centers, and quality assurance are all focused on making the numbers for this quarter. You have to work very hard to get their attention to produce this new innovative product and develop a market for it.. That’s very different from what all those functions do for a mature, profitable product.

WF: Innovation takes time and resources. What return or value can organizations gain with innovation activities?

Assad: At Innovation One, we have an index that measures innovation. And organizations that score on the top quartile have 22 percent higher financial measures like profit.

In addition, they attract the best talent. They lead in the market. And when they keep these cultures going, they have all sorts of significant financial returns and other good things that happen to them.

TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

WF: Are there certain types of technology that can help with innovation?

Assad: Every company these days needs to be a digital company. Helpful technologies include big data analysis, (true) artificial intelligence, digital project management software, and chatbots to accelerate communications. Coronavirus, the digital era, our politics have exposed every organization’s weak points. And the first ones to figure out the new normal are going to be the winners as we re-emerge.

Remote work and the pandemic uncovered that there’s a false narrative about innovation — which is you have to work together, face to face, to be innovative and collaborative. While there are advantages to that, you can also do it digitally. There are tools for whiteboarding, internal crowdsourcing, and project management. I’ve been to virtual meetings where you have 60 people, and you can all go into digital breakrooms and come back as if you’ve had a day at a conference.

According to a study from McKinsey, companies that lead in adapting these digitization tools, not just in R&D, but in sales, marketing, supply chain and across the HR platform — the early movers get the best returns.

WF: How can organizations find the right type of technology to invest in?

Assad: Artificial intelligence and digital technology are tools, not a strategy. What’s important for the chief people officer and the executive team is to determine what’s important for talent strategy in the workforce. Do you want to get rid of all the paperwork and have more digital streams of information? Terrific. Prioritize that.

The advice that I would give is to only buy digital tools that are 80 percent out of the box. Don’t buy something that they say would be under development and given to you in three months by the time they will launch it for you. Buy 80 percent out of the box and go in there knowing the criteria for your needs, whether it be to improve your recruiting, talent management, driving out bias, or improving diversity and inclusion.

Companies need to be very good at using an approach to involve the workers to put in place new technology. Digitization efforts may fail, and technology may not be used broadly when there’s a lack of worker involvement and collaborative culture.

INNOVATION IN HIRING TO RETENTION

WF: Is there a connection with HR or workforce management tools and how innovative an organization is?

Assad: Yes, there is. HR has the same tools that have been available to different functions like sales and marketing and R&D. It’s time HR use those same tools to build an employee brand for new employees and current employees. These tools are data analysis, artificial intelligence and chatbots.

Technology now can help in finding, tracking, and screening the best talent without bias.

So what’s the leading cause of bias in the hiring process? The human being. So human beings have an incredible amount of unconscious bias that is there to protect us. It may be something we experienced. It may be something that we have been taught as children or culturally taught.

But research shows that we make decisions in five minutes about somebody, and we spend the rest of the interview trying to verify that decision we made. And you need to break that. A great way to break that is through a structured interview where you’re going to see if somebody has the competencies you need on the job. You need to be trained to interview this way.

Another way is to use artificial intelligence before the interview. There are tools that go on the internet, and they take the competencies that you need and find those who exhibited those competencies by where they worked or what they put on their online resume. This is very different technology than a LinkedIn or an Indeed search.

The artificial intelligence technology ranks results from top to bottom candidates. It gives you the ranking, but you don’t see a job candidate picture. You don’t see a name until you’ve picked a group of candidates based on the competency and experience matching. And then, you can unblind it, learn more about the job candidates, and reach out to them.

It’s not going to protect unconscious bias in the interview. Hopefully, structured interviews will. It’s also actually fantastic for matching people who are already in your applicant tracking system but haven’t applied for a job opening. It can find that talent in an instant where a recruiter would be hunting for many hours inside their applicant tracking system.

Another area where technology can help is by quickly providing information to staff. Most HR (and IT) organizations get the same 20 questions regardless of the company. A chatbot can answer these common questions, like when does open enrollment begin? How do I get into a VPN when I have lost my code? Where do I get information about onboarding? Chatbots or intelligent digital assistants curate these data and enable employees to find answers quickly in Teams or Slack, allowing HR staff to focus on other matters.

These technologies can foster innovation from the get-go by helping find the right talent. While others equip them to have easy access to information, allowing them more time to focus on activities for innovation.

FOSTERING A CULTURE OF INNOVATION

WF: Culture is an essential element in innovation. Why is it necessary, and how can companies foster that?

Assad: Without innovation companies will fall behind the competition in our fast changing, digital world. Protecting the status quo is a sure bet for failure. The empirical evidence shows that companies seldom become innovative from one great idea or technology. It takes a culture of innovation. Innovation requires an evolution of ideas that are continually developed by their workforces and external partners, aligned to common goals. Executives foster this by continually articulating their strategies for innovation, deploying innovation goals, sharing competitive information, promoting real time learning, inviting employees to suggest ideas and collaborate, and providing an easy and well known process to advance ideas, prototype, collect data, and make decisions rapidly.

A lot of organizations these days have only a compliance culture. Do what I tell you to do and don’t ask questions. Companies employ this to assure goal attainment, quality and reliability because nobody wants a pacemaker that won’t work. No one wants to fly on a jet where the engine is going to conk out. We need to have good reliability.

Companies can have both predictable quarterly results and innovation. It is a matter of focus. HR has a big role in this culture change by realigning the goal setting and performance management systems to motivate and reward innovation and quarterly goal achievement. When executives prioritize excellence for this quarter’s goals and their best innovation projects, great business outcomes are achieved.

July 21, 2020June 29, 2023

How to effectively use data analytics for workforce success

There’s a lot of emphasis put on data-driven decision making. But how do organizations start that process? Serena Huang, global head of people analytics at the Kraft Heinz Co., shared some helpful insights into how leaders can use data to better understand the workforce and improve overall management and performance.

Workforce recently caught up with her, and she shared her thoughts on how to use data analytics and gather information and employee feedback for better workforce management.

Workforce: What do leaders need to know about the relationship between strategic business planning and data analytics?

Serena Huang: I’d encourage leaders to think of data analytics as a new mindset and a new language rather than a new tool from IT. There are several areas where analytics can improve business planning, such as more accurate demand forecasting and a better understanding of consumer behaviors.

WF: What is the importance of using analytics in managing people? How did the COVID-19 pandemic highlight this?

Huang: It’s always been important to use analytics in managing people. Many companies would say that “people are their most important asset” and even the most technologically advanced companies cannot operate without people. Instead of relying on intuition, analytics can help organizations make more informed decisions faster and at scale.

Employees’ health, safety and engagement have never been more important. The pandemic has provided an opportunity for HR to become heroes by caring for employees and ensuring business continuity. At Kraft Heinz, this is critical because our employees are crucial to making food that everyone needs. We have a responsibility around the world to feed people, and our employees make it happen.

WF: What are the common misconceptions about people analytics and its role in workforce management?

Huang: One of the biggest misconceptions is that data must be perfect before you can do analytics. I always recommend starting with the business problem rather than the data. You’d be surprised how much usable data already exists. Another misconception is that you need data scientists or know how to code to start doing people analytics. It is much more important to focus on the right questions before hiring a data scientist or learning how to model.

Also read: Labor data analytics can inform better talent decisions

WF: How can organizations effectively use and make sense of the data they have?

Huang: Visualizations and dashboards are great ways to turn data into insights. To know where to start, it’s best to align with business leaders on solving problems.

For example, in workforce management, companies often have significant data on time and attendance, so a starting point can be using analytics to optimize labor costs. If there are different systems, it’s helpful to choose a country or location that needs the most help and start with a pilot.

To create the most value, it’s important to monitor data quality on an ongoing basis.

WF: How can organizations track the right type of data for their workforce? How can they identify metrics of success?

Huang: It’s crucial to stay closely connected with the leadership team on strategy and business problems. If you can figure out the top three to five pain points, you can then frame questions to answer and think about what data you’d need.

The metrics of success will vary from one problem to another. I’d recommend thinking in different time frames and ask yourself what success looks like in six months, 12 months, and two to three years.

WF: How can managers use data to improve productivity and boost employee engagement?

Huang: Managers can certainly leverage surveys if they have a large organization. Often organizations conduct engagement surveys on a regular basis, so start with existing surveys for potential areas of improvement.

For managers with smaller teams, it is most beneficial to conduct regular check-ins and one-on-ones. Managers must create an environment where there is psychological safety, so team members feel comfortable sharing concerns openly.

WF: What are different ways companies can collect feedback or listen to their employees, especially in the era of remote work?

Huang: There are several ways companies can listen to employees, including surveys, virtual focus groups, and Q&A during employee town halls. It’s helpful to monitor the participation rates as it could signal overload if participation decreases. It’s also important to encourage managers to connect with their team members directly on a regular basis in addition to this corporate-level feedback.

WF: What are the factors to consider when choosing the right tools, methods or technology to measure and improve employee engagement?

Huang: A good starting point will include an evaluation of how many employees, how many languages, local legal requirements, reporting/analytics for users, text analytics capabilities. In my article published on LinkedIn, I explain why there isn’t the “right” number of times to pulse employees, and it depends on how quickly the business leaders can act on feedback.

WF: What do you think the future of work will look like given current times?

Huang: It’s hard to predict what will be a temporary rather than permanent shift in the future of work, but I see more focus on flexibility, diversity and inclusion, well-being and skills development.

Data from COVID HR-Pulse show that fewer than 50 percent of companies had a remote work program before the pandemic, and now office employees have been working virtually for months. Employees will demand more flexibility, and organizations can use flexibility to attract new hires.

We have seen different businesses get creative during the pandemic. At Kraft Heinz, we’re focused on being agile at scale because we believe that agile and nimble organizations will outperform those that cannot pivot quickly when needed. To be truly agile in workforce planning, an organization should know the skill sets needed to deliver business results and the skills its workforce currently has.

Also read: A midterm outlook on the future of the workplace

The recent tragedies have brought diversity and inclusion front and center for many organizations. Companies that can create an inclusive environment where everyone belongs will continue to be able to attract and retain talent.

While mental health remains a difficult topic to discuss, especially in a corporate setting, the pandemic has made it more critical to talk about this topic. We will likely see a focus on employee well-being extend beyond the pandemic.

July 13, 2020October 4, 2021

Human capital management: Enriching your human resources

Human resource management is an ever-evolving discipline in business management.

Dating back to the early 1900s, experts recognized that managing a workforce goes beyond carrying out transactional tasks and ensuring that there are hands on deck to get the job done. Gradually, more attention is given to understanding employee well-being and its importance in delivering quality work.

One expert who delved into the study of the workforce was James R. Angell, president of Yale University and the Carnegie Corp. He started a joint initiative between the Engineering Foundation and National Research Council to propel a research movement that looks into the science behind workforce management through unifying modern engineering, labor management, and educational bodies. It has given birth to Workforce.com today and for 98 years, this initiative has delved deep into the issues within the workforce and understand best practices in human resource management.

As market trends change and employee behavior and preferences shift, an organization’s human resources management practices should also pivot to meet these developments. Today, it is all about engaging the workforce to push the business forward and is a key component of business success.

Human Capital: Investing in your organization’s best asset

Human resource management, as its name suggests, is an area of business management that ensures a holistic experience for the organization’s most important resource — its people. It’s involved with the following:

Recruitment: Recruitment is the core foundation of building an organization’s human capital. It is involved in identifying the needs of the company and the particular roles that can fill those gaps. Attracting, screening, and onboarding candidates are all part of the recruitment process. The goal of the recruitment process is to successfully find candidates whose skills, values and motivations are aligned with the organization’s goals and culture.
Compensation and benefits: Compensation and benefits refer to what the company gives its employees in exchange for their work or service, and they include monetary and non-monetary components. A company’s compensation and benefits package includes an employee’s salary and government-mandated benefits. Other perks and incentives can be part of the deal such as insurance coverage, gym membership, housing allowance, company-sponsored trips and events.
Labor law compliance: Running an organization is governed by employment laws. Human resource management is involved in creating company policies that comply with labor regulations. Labor law regulations vary per region and they can change from time to time. That being said, a crucial part of human resource management is staying at pace with these changes and ensuring that company policies remain compliant.
Training and development: Training and development are focused on nurturing the potential of employees. Training refers to programs that are geared toward improving skills or learning new technical knowledge needed to perform tasks. Meanwhile, development is focused more on programs that enrich an employee’s overall growth concerning soft skills, leadership, communication, and adapting to certain situations.
Retention and engagement: Human resource management is also involved in creating strategies to keep employee turnover to a minimum. Retention and engagement programs are proactive steps to ensure that employees are motivated to perform their best not just for a paycheck but because they have a clear alignment of values with the organization. All of these parts should move cohesively to ensure the best experience possible for staff at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Overcoming human resource management problems

Human resource management involves a lot of moving parts and these can come with their own sets of challenges. Here are common challenges in human resource management and ways to solve them.

Difficulty in attracting the right talent.

Delays in hiring can be costly, but an unfit hire can also be detrimental to an organization. So how do you know a candidate is fit for the role? While skills and experience are important in assessing whether an applicant is qualified or not, it’s also essential to look into whether they can fit into your company culture.

How to solve:

It’s all about clarity and a good candidate experience. Create your job ad in such a way that it highlights what you’re looking for and what’s in it for a qualified candidate when they get in. Provide information about the working style and culture that you have in your company. This will attract people who both have the required skills and similar values as you. At the same time, this can also filter out candidates who have a different working style and culture preference. Another common challenge is convincing candidates who are highly skilled and qualified yet passive. These candidates are most likely in touch with a lot of recruiters and are considering more than one job offer. How do you stand out? Look into what motivates this type of worker. Investigate what that person is looking for in an employer and see if that aligns with your goals, culture and compensation package. Customize your messaging accordingly.

Boosting your brand as an employer can also help increase your chances of attracting the right talent. According to research from Glassdoor, organizations that invest in employer branding are three times more likely to make a quality hire.

Poor candidate experience can also be the thing between you and a quality hire. Communication is at the core of solving this. Make sure that all details and instructions are clear at every stage of the process. Timely feedback and response are also crucial. Take a look at your current process and see how it’s affecting candidate experience and employer brand. Glassdoor found that organizations that create a strong experience for candidates improve their quality of hires by 70 percent.

Dealing with too much paperwork.

Human resource management deals with a lot of information — from employee details, company policies and other essential business documents. And too much paperwork can be a burden, especially when done manually. It can take time away from more valuable tasks like strategizing and optimizing programs and processes.

How to solve:

There are digital solutions that can remove the tedious task of processing paperwork. For instance, digital employee onboarding solutions help eliminate the long forms that new hires need to fill. They enable new staff to log in their information and upload important documents online. This ensures better accuracy of information, improves the employee onboarding experience, and allows for a better way for a new hire to spend his first day at work.

Understanding and applying labor laws.

Staying compliant with labor laws is a must. However, understanding regulations, applying them in policies, and staying at pace with labor law changes can be very challenging.

How to solve:

Implement a compliance strategy to avoid any potential financial and reputational repercussions of failing to comply. A compliance strategy is a set of programs and processes that’s geared towards ensuring regular updates and audits of policies and communicating any changes with staff promptly. Given the ever-evolving nature of regulations, it’s best to build a strategy and assign a working group to focus on compliance. Technology is also helpful in staying at pace with changes. For instance, some solutions automate labor law updates and ensure that these are reflected in the payroll computation.

Retaining employees.

Attracting the right talent is just half of the battle. The other half is retaining them and keeping them satisfied with their role, especially those that are performing above and beyond.

How to solve:

It’s all about consistent growth and learning. Employees are more likely to stay the course when they are given opportunities to grow and are recognized as a vital part of the organization’s success.

Training and development programs are essential to retaining employees. But creating these programs is not a one-time thing. That’s why it’s important to have regular alignments with your staff. Regular check-ins can help you get a pulse on their current sentiment about working in the organization, satisfaction with their roles, and the challenges or gaps they’re facing. From there, you can customize programs or identify next steps that can help them stay engaged.

It also pays to have a competitive compensation and benefits package. One of the things to keep employees happy and make them know that they are valued is by providing not just what they need to get their job done, but also offering other incentives that will motivate them to perform better and stay aligned with the values of the organization.

Engaging talent at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Human resource management plays an important part in engaging employees, and it is a continuous process throughout every stage of the employee lifecycle, from onboarding up until the time an employee leaves an organization. All of these stages affect culture, staff morale, and the success of the company.

An organization is only as good as its employees. It’s imperative to nurture and cultivate staff no matter where they are in their tenure with the organization. Doing this takes time. That’s why it’s important for human resources to have the right technology in place so that they can reduce time on administrative tasks and focus more of their energy on engaging employees.