Author: Gus Anderson

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Shift Swap Form: free template + 5 need to knows (2023)

Oil painting of two astronauts high fiving

Summary

  • Request and record shift swaps with a printable, free template

  • Make your shift swapping process more efficient and compliant by considering labor costs, schedule validations, and a bidding process

  • Manage employee shift swaps more efficiently with shift swapping software

Without the right documentation and protocol, letting your staff swap shifts can get a little messy. That’s probably why you are here, right?

Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered with this free template with fillable fields:

Shift Swap Request Form Template

Go ahead and make a copy, save it, print it, fold it, roll it – hell, you can even turn it into a paper airplane if you feel so inclined.

But hey, while you’re here, you might want to check out a few ways to improve the shift-swapping process at your business.

Five considerations for shift swaps

Allowing employees to swap their shifts can be as simple as a text message followed by a minor edit to the schedule. But a process as simple as this can run into problems, especially when you have a staff count over, say five. So here are a few ways to make shift swaps not only more efficient but cost-effective and compliant as well.

1. Allow for a bidding process

Sometimes, 1-to-1 shift swaps aren’t practical or efficient. Especially with larger workforces, singling out one coworker for a swap request misses out on potentially better-fit replacements.

As an alternative, consider letting staff members submit general swap requests, which anyone on their team can offer to cover. Managers can review the submissions, see all the bids, and decide on the most sensible swap. Using a bidding process like this eliminates the need for staff to hunt down a single person to swap with, and it allows for better collaboration and communication across your workforce.

Bidding processes also allow you to offer open shifts to your staff in case of last-minute call-outs or no-shows.

Webinar: How to Reduce No Call, No Shows

2. Don’t overlook qualifications & clashes

Whether you use 1-to-1 swaps or a bidding process, there is always a chance the wrong employee swaps in for another. Without proper oversight, you could have an unqualified employee taking a shift that requires special certification; this could land you in some hot water. You could also let a trade go through that accidentally clashes with an employee’s preexisting shift, leaving you with a broken schedule.

Make sure all shift swaps go through a schedule validation process to avoid these issues. Managers need an easy and immediate way to see missing qualifications and shift clashes; otherwise, they will slip through the cracks eventually.

3. Stay compliant with labor laws

Staying with the theme of schedule validations, it’s essential to know if a shift swap will violate any labor laws that apply to your workforce. For instance, if a swap puts someone over their maximum hours for the week or gives them a dreaded “clopening” shift, your organization could risk legal repercussions. Ensure the validation process catches these hazards before the DOL comes knocking.

4. Shift costs aren’t created equal

Once all compliance validations are accounted for, you should consider your labor costs. Ideally, you want to prevent shift swaps from costing you more. For instance, if a trade causes one employee to edge into overtime because their requested new shift is longer than their current one, you’ll be paying overtime rates that previously were never scheduled. Not great.

It’s a good idea to include wage costs, hourly rates, and work-hour totals on shift swap requests. Managers should be able to tell at a glance whether or not approving a trade will incur higher labor costs. This is where a bidding process comes in handy; managers can approve even swaps that result in no change to expected wage costs for the pay period.

5. Utilize the supercomputers in your employees’ pockets

Accounting for all the things above might seem like a lot of work – and it is if you are using paper shift swap forms. While you’ll technically have documentation of your swaps, you’ll have no real idea if you are doing them efficiently or compliantly. Luckily for you, there is a high likelihood that each of your employees has a supercomputer in their pocket at all times. Use them.

These days, employee scheduling apps come with real-time shift swapping functionality that makes shift change forms obsolete. Incorporating the modern-day extension of the human body into a workflow like shift swapping only makes sense, especially in fast-paced environments like hospitality and nursing. Shift changes take less time and are easier to manage when you condense all the admin work into a single, easy-to-use app.

Ditch the template: let the software do the work

A paper shift switch form – even ours – will not cut it if you want to manage shift swaps correctly. With Workforce.com’s shift swapping software, you can automatically validate every trade request for qualifications, maximum hours, employee availability, shift clashes, and overtime.

Shift swap requests on the Workforce.com app

Once approved, everyone gets notified over the app, and the work schedule is automatically updated accordingly. Sounds nice, right?

Leave the templates behind and get started with smarter shift swapping by contacting us today.

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Employee onboarding checklist: the basics [Free Template]

Astronaut Dog holding a clipboard and pen

Summary

You’ve been recruiting for a vacant position, and a candidate finally accepted a job offer. That’s great! But now comes the more crucial part — onboarding. Believe it or not, onboarding new hires involves more than a welcome email and signing an employment contract. 

Webinar: Best Practices for Onboarding Hourly Staff

Employee onboarding sets the tone for new hires; employers must show competency, inspire trust, and reduce friction. It is also where new hires get their first impression of company culture and see if the work aligns with what was discussed during the recruitment stage. 

*Psst! Click here for a free onboarding checklist. It’s comprehensive and all you should need to get started. 

The make-or-break stage

Half of hourly workers leave a job within the first four months or 120 days, according to SHRM. Turnover like this can be mitigated with proper onboarding techniques. 

While primarily an administrative process, onboarding is also an experiential process – this cannot be overlooked.

The most surface-level way to fulfill the experiential part of onboarding is to make it feel good. You also need to make it easy. Consider whatever system you use for onboarding; does the user interface (UI) delight the user? Is the user experience (UX) easy to navigate?

The experiential aspect of onboarding does not end after a pleasant-looking checklist is completed. You also need to integrate new hires successfully into the team and provide them with a sense of belonging. Typically, this takes at least 90 days.

Attracting candidates is only half the battle. The other half is retaining them, and that starts with onboarding.

How to improve your employee onboarding process

Employee onboarding can be daunting, especially considering its administrative and experiential aspects. A new hire checklist goes beyond gathering direct deposit information and signing tax forms. Here are some best practices to help you navigate this stage and ensure better employee retention.

Use employee onboarding software

If you find paperwork tedious, so does your new hire.

An effective onboarding platform significantly reduces the admin burden for the human resources team, hiring managers, and incoming employees. It streamlines the necessary paperwork and ensures data integrity by taking out manual processes.

Ideally, most onboarding-related admin tasks should be accomplished before the first day. For instance, with the Workforce.com onboarding system, new hires can upload the necessary pre-employment documents before they begin work. That means that contracts, W-4s, bank details, and employee personal information are all lodged into the system well before their start date. When these are done, you can focus on making a new hire’s first day more meaningful and productive. 

Prepare equipment and tools ahead of time

Aside from lengthy paperwork, you also need to ensure that tools and equipment related to the job are ready before a new employee’s start date. This includes uniforms, access to company systems and software, office equipment, or even vehicles if they are working on-site. 

The last thing a new hire should face on the first day is incomplete equipment or confusing guidelines. Welcome merch is all fun and good, but having the necessary work items and equipment ready can help your new hire settle in faster.  

Answer potential workplace questions before day one

Taking on a new role is exciting, but it’s normal for new hires to feel anxious about a new job. Much of this anxiety comes from the anticipation of meeting new teammates, acclimating to a different work environment, and easing into the organization’s culture.

Aside from discussing new hire paperwork and eligibility for benefits, it also helps to review smaller things like dress code, shift swap policies, unavailability, and day-to-day tasks.

Give managers support

Employee onboarding is a tall order, and the onus is on the team leaders and managers to ensure its success. 

Ensure managers have the support and tools to help them successfully onboard new team members. One way to do this is to let new hires fill out their own onboarding information rather than HR. When this kind of admin burden is taken from managers and placed on the employee, managers can focus on creating a better and more personalized onboarding experience for their new hires. 

Integrate onboarding with recruitment

Recruitment is how you attract top talent. Onboarding is how you keep it.

Recruitment is not just about selling the role to potential candidates and finding the best fit. It’s about setting expectations and painting a picture of what the position entails and what working for the organization is like. While the goal is to attract top talent, it’s detrimental to over-promise in terms of benefits, work environment, and growth opportunities.

Onboarding is the stage where the organization must meet the expectations set during the hiring process. This is the stage to follow through a good first impression. If employees find that the work is far from what was described during recruitment, they tend to quit even before they are fully onboarded. 

Recruitment and onboarding must go hand in hand. You must integrate them to avoid unnecessary recruitment costs, staffing issues, and high turnover rates.  

Set onboarding milestones

Tracking new hire onboarding success is best done with a roadmap that includes a set of milestones. 

What do you want new hires to learn or achieve within specific timeframes? Typically, onboarding programs last at least 90 days. If that’s the case, you can set milestones for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. Goal setting is crucial for successful onboarding. A roadmap provides new hires structure and specific objectives to focus on and helps managers track and measure a new employee’s progress. 

Give and gather feedback

Giving and gathering employee feedback is a massive part of onboarding. While feedback is typically given during milestones or scheduled check-ins, it should be more fluid and quick and can be part of daily job training and interactions. Feedback doesn’t always need to be a sit-down meeting. It’s also helpful when it’s quick and more spontaneous. 

Constant feedback is essential for developing new hires, but managers also need it to improve the onboarding process or operations. When new hires feel that their feedback matters to the team, employee satisfaction matters. When they feel heard and valued, they are more likely to see themselves in the organization for a long time.

Also read: How to improve internal communications with your hourly workers

Consider using templates

You would likely onboard new employees for certain positions more than once, especially when you run an hourly workforce. You’d probably do a lot of onboarding during peak seasons, especially when hiring seasonal or contractual staff. Using templates means that you don’t need to spend as much time curating an onboarding plan each time. 

Templates in the form of checklists, training materials, and video guides are helpful. However, remember to update them to reflect any procedural or policy changes. 

Make sure that such materials are accessible to new hires, mainly since they would most likely refer to them in the course of the onboarding period. A sound self-service system is vital to this, as it enables new hires to find answers to FAQs, and managers can focus more on clarifying more complex questions or matters. 

Incorporate fun elements

The onboarding process is crucial but doesn’t have to be boring. 

You can insert some fun elements to help new hires feel at ease as they integrate into the team. For instance, teammates can record a short video message that describes what the team or department does in a fun and informal way or tidbits of non-work related information such as the best place to go for meal breaks or coffee. Short and informal all-hands sessions also help familiarize a new hire with other team members. If your company provides a standard welcome kit or swag bag to new hires, consider adding a short welcome letter from the team for a personalized touch. 

Fun elements for onboarding don’t have to be full of fanfare, but incorporating those helps enrich the early stages of onboarding. 

New employee onboarding checklist template

The onboarding process takes place before the new employee’s first day. Here’s a checklist of key things you must remember during onboarding. Feel free to copy and paste for your own use or download a document here.

New hire documentation

  • Accepted and signed job offer/job description
  • Tax forms 
  • Insurance paperwork
  • Employment contract
  • Compensation and benefits package

Guides and policies

  • Employee handbook
  • Job description
  • Safety procedures/manuals
  • Security rules and policies

Accounts, devices, and equipment

  • Setup company email
  • Provide time clock access
  • Secure work uniforms
  • Setup credentials or access to necessary software tools such as HCM systems and project management software
  • Add new hires to relevant work chats or email distribution lists
  • Issue work phone, tablet, or computer
  • Assign workstation/workspace

First day

  • Team introduction
  • Workplace tour
  • Give welcome kit/company swag bag
  • Finalize other administrative paperwork, if any.

Orientation

  • Run through paperwork and make sure they’re complete
  • Briefly go through job roles, benefits, and insurance plans
  • Go over essential points in the handbook. Inform them where they can find a copy.
  • Discuss important company policies briefly.
  • Assign a mentor or onboarding buddy.

Development plans

  • Create 30-day development plan
  • Create 60-day development plan
  • Create 90-day development plan

Milestones and follow-through

  • Check-in after the first week
  • Check-in after 30 days
  • Check-in after 60 days
  • Check-in after 90 days

As you follow through and provide feedback, optimize if your development plan needs tweaking.

Simplify your employee onboarding

The template provided above is just to get you started. For more on how to optimize your onboarding process, check out our free webinar below featuring NBC-HWC certified coach Laura Timbrook:

Webinar: Best Practices for Onboarding Hourly Staff

Are you eager to streamline your onboarding right now? Discover how to reduce onboarding tasks to just 3 minutes with  Workforce.com’s self-service employee onboarding by booking a call today. 

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Time clock rounding: best practices & compliance risks

Painting of a man adjusting a clock

Summary

  • The FLSA allows for time clock rounding, provided that it is done either neutrally or in a way that favors the employee.

  • Rounding to the nearest 5, 6, and 15 minutes are accepted under labor rules, but knowing when to round up or down can be tricky.

  • The right technology can equip companies to conduct time clock rounding while avoiding compliance violations.

Time clock or timesheet rounding allows organizations to round an employee’s clock in or out time by up to 15-minute intervals, often giving them cleaner employee hour numbers to work with. Still, the practice of time clock rounding has its limitations. 

While it is a common practice, there are liabilities that companies may face by relying on it, and the use of certain technology solutions may simplify the timekeeping and payroll process so that time clock rounding becomes easier. 

But first, let’s look at what labor laws say about it.  

Is time clock rounding legal?

According to the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act), employers can round their employees’ clock-in and clock-out time to the nearest 5 minutes, the nearest one-tenth of an hour or 6 minutes, or the nearest quarter hour or 15 minutes. 

So, yes, it’s legal, but you can’t just implement it haphazardly. The Department of Labor (DOL) allows this provided “it is used in such a manner that it will not result, over a period of time, in failure to compensate the employees properly for all the time they have actually worked.” 

On the other hand, the law also recognizes that there can be “infrequent and insignificant periods of time beyond the scheduled working hours, which cannot as a practical matter be precisely recorded for payroll purposes, may be disregarded. The courts have held that such periods of time are de minimis (insignificant).” However, it’s important to note that employers must count every actual minute spent working and should tread with timesheet rounding and de minimis time with common sense. 

When does timesheet rounding become illegal?

Time clock rounding becomes warrants legal action when it’s unfair to the employees and leads to inaccurate time cards.

At the maximum, employers can only round to 15 minutes or a  quarter of an hour. It’s a violation if an employee comes in at 8:12 and you round it to 8:30. Considering the 7-minute rule, you should round it to 8:15. 

If, for example, you round to the nearest one-10th of an hour or 6 minutes, and an employee clocks in at 8:58 and leaves at 6:04, it becomes a violation if you round to 9:00 and 6:00 because it is clearly to your advantage and you underpaid them for 5 minutes. It should be 9:00 and 6:06 to account for all time worked. Six minutes may not seem much, but if it’s consistently done, it can amount to hours of unpaid work overtime. And that can ultimately lead to wage theft and a costly lawsuit. 

While the law allows timesheet rounding, it can be tricky to navigate. And it would be best if you only did so unless it’s really necessary for you. 

Should you do time clock rounding?

It depends, but the most important thing to remember is that time clock rounding rules should be at least neutral and more to benefit employees. So, if your goal with rounding is to save on labor costs, there are honestly better ways to do this than timesheet rounding. Focusing instead on labor forecasting and scheduling based on demand as a means to optimize your costs is probably a smarter (and less risky) way to go.

Webinar: How to Forecast Your Schedule Based on Demand

The primary reason why business owners turn to timesheet rounding is for easier payroll processing, especially for those organizations that don’t have an automated system to track time. Rounding employee time gives organizations cleaner numbers to work with for payroll calculations.

Employers also do time clock rounding to promote flexibility and simplify billing and invoicing. 

But keep in mind that you need to consider employee perception in all of this. Employees might think that time clock rounding is being used to shortchange them. In the same vein, employees could also exploit the rules as a means of time theft.

The key here is to understand whether there is a need for timesheet rounding in the first place. And if there is, you must clearly communicate the policy to your employees. See to it that they understand why and how it’s done. 

Timesheet rounding rules

Three rules govern standard practices for timesheet rounding, and these are acceptable increments under the FLSA. You can opt to round time to the nearest 5 minutes, 6 minutes, or 15 minutes. 

Whatever increment you choose, know when to round up or down. The threshold is the halfway mark between these rounding increments and would determine whether you should round up or down. Say you’re conducting 5-minute rounding; the threshold is at 2.5 minutes. So, for instance, if an employee clocks in at 8:02, that should be rounded to 8:00. 

The key here is to know how to round employee time according to FLSA rules. While it seems straightforward, it can be tricky as there appears to be some ambiguity around de minimis time. 

“The de minimis doctrine is important in timesheet rounding cases because it asserts that the law can disregard infrequent or insignificant periods of time that would be impractical to precisely record,” Michael Cardman, legal editor at XpertHR, said. 

In Corbin v. Time Warner Entertainment, for example, the plaintiff alleged that he lost $15.02 because of his company’s compensation policy, and the court ended up rejecting the plaintiff’s argument that the company’s rounding policy violated the federal rounding regulation.

Meanwhile, Starbucks saw a different outcome in Troester v. Starbucks Corp. The plaintiff would clock out at night and still have a few tasks to complete to close the store. It added up to a short period of time every night, Cardman said. Starbucks wanted to exclude that time under the de minimis doctrine, but the costs added up along with potential overtime pay. According to the California Employment Law Report, over 17 months, the plaintiff did not earn wages on 12 hours and 50 minutes of work, adding up to $102.67 in wages.

Best time rounding practices

Should you need to implement time clock rounding, here are a few best practices to consider:

When in doubt, round in favor of employees

If for some reason you can’t round neutrally, always round in favor of the employee and not the employer; this limits your liability in the long run. 

For example, say a staff member clocks in at 7:57 a.m. and clocks out at 3:56 p.m. Rounding the start time to 7:55 a.m. and the end time to 4:00 p.m. would be in favor of the employee and maximize their earnings. Putting the employee first is always a safe bet for rounding time. 

Follow FLSA rules

Always adhere to federal law for timesheet rounding. More than following the accepted increments and thresholds—nearest 5, 6, and 15 minutes- you must also practice fairness when rounding employee time.

See to it that you’re not unconsciously underpaying your staff. A 3-minute discrepancy today may not seem much, but when these variances frequently occur, they can quickly balloon into a considerable amount.

Be careful with unpaid meal breaks

Rounding break times is not advisable, as you can violate state-based and federal rules. Employees must take these breaks and should be free from any work duties at this time, so it’s best to track actual minutes.

A good time-tracking software dramatically helps with this. For instance, Workforce.com has functionality that allows employees to clock in and out during break times. This helps ensure they take breaks and use all their entitled minutes. Not only will this promote a good working environment, but it will also help ensure that you remain compliant with applicable break rules.

Audit your timesheet rounding policy on a regular basis

Like any HR practice or policy, you must regularly revisit your time rounding policies. Operations evolve over time, and it’s best to reevaluate whether this policy still serves its purpose periodically. If you’re timesheet rounding policy makes bookkeeping and payroll easier, then you’re on the right track. However, if the policy is in place purely to save on labor costs, you’re treading dangerous waters. The law clearly states that rounding should be at least neutral and for the benefit of the employees. Labor forecasting and demand-based scheduling are more sound strategies for optimizing labor costs than rounding times to save a few minutes here and there. 

Get it right with automation

Rounding employee time without the aid of time and attendance software is risky. Without the proper safeguards in place, you could find yourself with erroneous data and consistently underpaid and unhappy staff. 

A time and attendance system streamlines how you record time entries and saves you from non-compliance issues caused by inaccurate rounding practices.

Workforce.com is a best-in-class HCM platform that simplifies time clock rounding. It tracks and records employee work times down to the second and can be configured to automate your very own time clock rounding policy. 

Discover how Workforce.com can help you simplify time and attendance, employee scheduling, payroll, and labor compliance. Book a call to know more.

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A complete guide to attendance write-ups [free template included]

Oil painting of a man writing a letter

Summary

  • Attendance write-ups are warnings issued to employees to address time and attendance policy infractions.

  • Attendance write-ups should include information about the employee and their role, outline infractions and previous disciplinary measures taken, and explain how the employee must adjust their actions going forward.  

  • Click here for an attendance write-up template.

Employee attendance is crucial to maintaining productivity and operational efficiency within any organization. However, there are instances when employees fall short of meeting attendance expectations — leaving managers and HR professionals in a difficult situation. 

Absenteeism and chronic tardiness disrupt workflow and place additional burden on other team members, leading to increased stress and burnout. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, businesses in the service industry experience some of the highest rates of absenteeism. Workforce.com’s own research corroborates this, with 31% of businesses listing shift disruption caused by employee absenteeism as one of their biggest problems.

As an HR professional or manager, addressing attendance issues is essential to maintain a productive workplace effectively. This is where attendance write-ups play a significant role. Attendance write-ups are formal documentation (or written warnings) for addressing attendance infractions and reinforcing punctuality expectations.

Free Attendance Write-Up Template

Throughout this article, we will delve into the essential components of an attendance write-up, explore best practices for writing one, and provide a sample write-up letter for reference. By understanding the significance of attendance write-ups, HR professionals and managers can proactively tackle employee attendance issues, promote a culture of accountability, and create a more productive work environment.

When should you use an attendance write-up?

An attendance write-up should be used in situations when an employee’s attendance falls below expected standards or violates company attendance policies, including the following examples: 

  1. Regular tardiness: When an employee consistently arrives late for work without valid reasons.
  2. Excessive absenteeism: When an employee develops a pattern of no-call, no-shows, or unscheduled absences. 
  3. Violations of company attendance policies: These could include failing to properly request time off or abusing paid or sick leave policies. It could also include failing to notify supervisors and/or HR managers before taking a leave of absence or not providing a doctor’s note after taking sick days. 

It’s important to note that the decision to use an attendance write-up should be consistent, fair, and in accordance with established company policies and applicable labor laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). 

What your attendance write-up should include

Write-ups should include several key components to address attendance problems and communicate expectations to employees effectively:

    • Employee information: This includes the employee’s name, position, and any other relevant identifying information.
    • Employee absences: Highlight the employee’s attendance record, explicitly showing the dates and times when they were late or missed work. If you use an attendance point system, be sure to provide a history of where, when, and how points were accrued. 
    • Outline any previous action taken: This could include anything from verbal warnings to disciplinary action. 
    • Outline the company’s employee attendance policy and how it was violated: Provide clear references to the HR policies or guidelines to ensure transparency and avoid misunderstandings.
    • Explain the importance of the company’s attendance policy: Highlight the negative consequences of violating it. Show how unexcused absences negatively impact coworkers and harm the organization as a whole. 
    • Highlight any further disciplinary action: Outline what the company’s policy says about what disciplinary measures will be taken after an attendance write-up. This could be anything from another written reprimand to termination. 
    • Instructions on how employees can reply to a write-up: It is essential to give employees the opportunity to respond to a write-up by providing feedback and/or insight into their poor attendance and or excessive absenteeism. Your write-up should explain how they can do this and through which channels. 
    • Manager and employee signatures and dates: Include spaces for the employee, supervisor, or HR manager to sign and date the write-up. This acknowledges that the employee has received the write-up and understands its contents.

Maintaining consistent documentation and following company protocols is essential to ensure fairness and compliance with legal requirements.

Attendance write-up best practices

The purpose of issuing an attendance write-up is about more than punishing or scaring an employee. It should be seen as a step toward finding and implementing a solution. Here are some tips that will help you get the most out of attendance write-ups. 

Be sure to have all of your facts straight

Presenting an employee with an attendance write-up is a serious measure to take, so it’s vital that it is based on indisputable facts. If an employee is chronically tardy for work, pull up their attendance record and highlight where they haven’t kept to their work schedule. If you use a digital time clock, you can get this information from past timesheets in the form of punch-in variances or even from point totals if you use a point system. 

Whatever data you use for a paper trail, you should be able to find it in your time and attendance software. Be sure to link these infractions to the policies that have been violated. 

Keep it professional

Objectivity is key when it comes to writing employees up. As mentioned above, your attendance write-ups should be based on facts and should not include any subjective opinions. Including something like “John is lazy and irresponsible; he clearly doesn’t care about his job and is always trying to avoid work” can lead to employees becoming defensive, which would make the situation worse.

Instead, highlight the specific issue at hand, such as “John has been late for work on three occasions in the past two weeks, arriving an average of 15 minutes past his scheduled start time without any valid reasons or notifications.”

Don’t view them as final warnings

An attendance write-up shouldn’t be seen as a precursor to termination. It’s just a warning and should be perceived as an opportunity to improve an employee’s behavior and promote good attendance. 

Map out the next steps

Your write-up should include what happens next — like what an employee needs to do to get back in line with your attendance policy and when this progress will be reviewed. 

On the other hand, you should also state what measures will be taken if the employee continues to infringe on your policy. 

Templates

Feel free to copy and paste the templates below for your own personal use. You can also download a file with each template right here. 

Attendance write-up template

[Date]

[Employee’s Full Name]

[Employee’s Position]

Dear [Employee’s Name],

This is an official warning regarding your violation of [Company Name]’s time and attendance policies. 

Attendance infraction:

On [Date(s)], you were observed [mention infraction with details on how it violates the company policy].

Expectations and policies:

[Quote the relevant areas of your time and attendance policies and include a hyperlink to where they can access them directly.]

Previous action taken:

We have discussed this matter on [X] previous occasions. We first [action] on [date]. Additionally, we [action] on [date].

Corrective action and further consequences:

This attendance write up serves as formal documentation of the infraction. Going forward, we expect you to prioritize punctuality and adhere to the established attendance policies. 

Failure to improve your attendance and address this issue may result in further disciplinary action, including [list specifics according to your company policy].

Improvement plan:

To rectify this situation, we recommend that you review and familiarize yourself with our company’s attendance policy and procedures. Additionally, we encourage you to make any necessary adjustments to ensure your timely arrival at work. 

If you encounter any challenges or have concerns related to your attendance, please communicate with your supervisor or the HR department for guidance and support.

Please sign below to acknowledge that you have received and understood this attendance write-up. If you have any questions, feedback, or concerns regarding this write-up, please inform your supervisor. 

Employee’s Signature: _______________________

Date: ________________

Supervisor’s Signature: _______________________

Date: ________________

Please note that this write-up will be kept in your personnel file for future reference. We trust that you will take this matter seriously and make the necessary improvements to maintain consistent attendance.

Sincerely,

[Supervisor’s Name]

[Supervisor’s Title]

[Company Name]

Tackle employee absenteeism at the source

HR managers and supervisors should spend less time and energy on drafting attendance write-ups and implementing disciplinary action. The process can be demoralizing to both employer and employee. 

Having proper time-tracking technology alongside a fair attendance policy can help HR and Ops teams achieve lower absenteeism rates, increase employee loyalty, reduce labor costs, and improve the company culture. 

To find out how, check out our webinar, How to Reduce No Call, No Shows.

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3 non-obvious ways to advance your HR career

Astronaut winning a gold medal

Summary

  • Work in human resources on a small team at a small company. – More

  • Focus on strategy by automating administrative work. – More

  • Understand how HR impacts your company’s bottom line. – More

When it comes to most HR career advice, the conversation is often dominated by talks of SHRM vs. HRCI accreditation, postgraduate study opportunities, or job hopping to get ahead.

While these are all legitimate pathways to career growth, you’re probably already aware of them. They also lean further towards how to get a pay raise rather than how to become better at HR. So here are three ways you may not have thought about that can boost your HR expertise and advance your career.

1. Do HR at a smaller company

Running HR at a small company gives you the ability to take more ownership, see how every part of HR operates, and take part in more strategic initiatives.

This is often discouraged because many processes aren’t built out at smaller companies, but this is precisely why it’s a great opportunity. You get to be the one that builds out HR from the ground up.

What constitutes a small company is hard to define, but an excellent place to start is somewhere smaller than where you currently are. Other good rules of thumb are fewer than five people in the HR department or less than 1,000 total employees.

 

2. Give yourself time to work on strategic HR

Probably the biggest complaint about career advancement is that there isn’t time to work on strategic HR initiatives because HR is bogged down in busy work. This is a fair assessment. Some of the biggest culprits are collecting onboarding documentation, updating employee details, and fielding payroll queries.

Don’t accept this reactive approach to HR. 

Get rid of the paper onboarding, let staff add their own availability and PTO, and allow them to access payroll details like their direct deposit information and electronic pay stubs.

By automating these processes, HR is no longer the middleman between front-line staff and an outdated HRIS. Instead, HR actually has time to pursue valuable strategic initiatives like employee retention and talent development.

3. Understand the commercials of your company

For most people, advancing their careers often involves promotions to more senior positions. While your technical HR skills help you on this journey, a firm understanding of how your company operates financially becomes probably the most essential tool in your toolbox as you develop seniority. 

The most crucial part for HR is understanding budgets. Both overall and team budgets, as well as HR budget metrics, like labor spend, cost of employee turnover, etc. This will help you justify the value of HR initiatives and show their impact on the bottom line.

Secondly, you need to understand the business you’re in. Learn who your customers are, how your service or product solves their problems, and what role each team plays in that process. Doing so will help you make better decisions in HR, but it will also help to make other teams respect you. 

Both of these are essential if you ever want to become a CHRO.

Next steps

You’re probably not going to be able to do everything listed. Moving to a smaller company is a big step, but eliminating busy work to free up time for strategic HR and understanding your company’s commercials are two steps you can begin immediately. 

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3 things to remember when calculating labor costs

Astronaut Dog Crunching Numbers on a Board

Summary

  • Calculating labor costs can be complicated, involving things like benefits, taxes, and overhead expenses.

  • While labor costs are a natural part of running a business, there are ways to cut down on them without sacrificing employee or customer experience.

  • Scheduling and labor forecasting software is vital for calculating labor costs accurately. 

A crucial part of any company’s profitability is calculating labor costs correctly. Whether you’re a small cafe, a chain of restaurants, or a global enterprise, you need to know how to calculate the cost of your labor and understand how it affects your bottom line. 

Here are three essential things to consider when trying to figure out how much you’re actually spending on labor, how to remain profitable, and how to ensure your employees are getting paid accurately. 

1. Labor costs go beyond wages. 

Obviously, wages make up the majority of your labor costs; however, you need to remember that you are spending much more on employees than just wages. 

For employee compensation alone, wages and salaries cost employers 69% of the total cost, while 31% accounts for benefits, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). On top of that, there are other things to account for, such as taxes and overhead costs. Here’s a quick rundown:

  • Salary – As mentioned, this takes up a considerable portion of your labor costs. This is the monetary value that you pay your employee for the work they perform.
  • Payroll taxes – Some of these are taxes withheld from the employees and are typically matched by employers by a certain percentage, including Social Security payroll tax and Medicare payroll tax. 

Meanwhile, there are payroll taxes that are shouldered by employers alone, such as the federal unemployment tax (FUTA).

In addition, you should also account for payroll taxes imposed on a state and local level.

  • Benefits – Benefits such as paid time off, health insurance, and dental insurance also factor into your labor costs, particularly if the majority of your workforce is salaried.
  • Overhead costs – These are costs associated with running the business, such as building costs, utilities, property taxes, transportation, and administrative costs. 

Clearly, calculating labor costs should be inclusive of both direct and indirect expenses. Direct expenses are for producing a product, such as the wages of people in charge of production or rendering your services. While indirect costs are supplementary to that, such as administrative staff wages and building and equipment costs. 

Navigating the different factors affecting your labor cost is complicated and laborious, but it’s vital to understand all the costs and expenses that go into it. Doing so helps you determine profitability, spot areas where you can save, adjust your pricing, and determine business feasibility. 

2. Yes, you can save on labor costs. 

A lot goes into labor, and, of course, most of its cost is necessary. However, the good news is that labor is your most controllable expense; this means that the easiest way to reduce your overall operating costs is to optimize where and how you are spending on labor. Here are some of the things you can do to cut down on unnecessary labor costs:

Eliminate time theft

Time theft occurs when employees receive pay for time spent not working while technically on the clock. Buddy punching, inaccurate clock-ins, falsifying timesheets, unrecorded breaks, and attending to personal affairs while on the clock are some of the ways time theft is committed. 

The thing about time theft is it can be difficult to notice since instances of it are typically small and irregular. But over time, these occurrences can balloon into significant dollars lost. 

Solving time theft ensures everyone is working when and where they should be. To do this, you need an airtight time and attendance system complete with geofencing, photo-ID clock-ins, and pin numbers. All of these measures and more help ensure the right people are recording their time accurately and truthfully. 

Also read: 5 ways employees commit time theft (and how to reduce them)

Build schedules based on demand

Accurate demand forecasting is the key to both saving on labor costs and improving your ability to meet customer needs. Knowing exactly where and when you expect high foot traffic or sales can prevent accidentally over or understaffing shifts. Being prepared also helps reduce instances of unnecessary overtime as you’re less likely to request staff to keep working after the end of their shift due to an unforeseen rush. 

This all sounds well and good – but how does one actually forecast demand? What factors go into it?

Webinar: How to Forecast Your Schedule Based on Demand

 

Well, a lot of factors affect demand and required labor. To have an accurate forecast, you need to look at things like historical sales, booked appointments, economic trends, weather, foot traffic, and more. A robust labor forecasting system uses machine learning to account for all of these factors. With it, you can paint an accurate picture of your upcoming demand and schedule your staff accordingly.  

Classify employees correctly

Managing labor costs starts with classifying employees correctly. Salary, benefits, tax rates, and eligibility for federal and state-based policies depend on their classifications.

Assigning the correct classification to employees is critical to paying them correctly and complying with labor laws. Therefore, you also avoid the risk of legislation and penalties due to non-compliance.  

Sync scheduling and time tracking

Tracking where you are overspending on labor helps solve a majority of your labor cost issues. By syncing your scheduling and attendance systems, you’ll be able to see variances on timesheets between scheduled time and actual time worked. At a glance, you’ll be able to quickly see the shifts where you are spending more than expected. 

Global pizza chain Domino’s saw tremendous success using this technique, reducing labor costs by 11% across Europe, Oceania, and Asia.

Case Study: Domino’s Pizza

 

Boost employee engagement

Employee engagement has a significant impact on the cost of your labor. According to Gallup, disengaged employees cost the world $7.8 trillion lost in productivity. That’s 11% of the global GDP. Aside from low productivity, poor employee engagement can also result in high turnover – this means increased recruitment, onboarding, and training costs. 

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Employees

While employee engagement programs usually come at a cost, that doesn’t mean you must break the bank for these initiatives. At the end of the day, it’s all about employees finding value in the work they do. Tailor programs that foster growth, flexibility, and good communication. Prioritizing these things doesn’t always mean hosting lavish events and activities; what’s more valuable is integrating regular feedback loops into daily workflows. 

3. Technology is vital to calculating labor costs, but…

You need to find a software system that suits your business; otherwise, it will just cause confusion, additional admin work, and potentially higher costs. When you use an inadequate system, you risk forfeiting a healthy ROI due to constant reworking and prolonged training expenses. 

When looking for an HCM platform to help you with labor cost calculations, here are a few functionalities you’ll need to consider:

Labor forecasting 

Go for a platform that has a robust labor forecasting capability. With solid labor forecasting, you can accurately schedule your employees according to demand. This, alone, can curb your labor expenses as you’re not at risk of over or understaffing, and you can keep overtime and differentials to a minimum.

Many platforms claim to have some form of labor forecasting, but not all are comprehensive enough. Look at how the platform forecasts and which factors it takes into account when creating demand predictions. Is it only creating predictions based on historical sales data? If so, there is a good chance it lacks flexibility and only looks at surface-level data.

Accurate time and attendance tracking

Time and attendance tracking is vital to paying people correctly, preventing time theft, and optimizing labor costs.

Make sure you go for a system that enables employees to clock in and out easily, whether on-site or out in the field. Another vital area is the speed by which these clock-ins are recorded on timesheets. A platform that can do it in real time would be ideal.

Determine how the system spots and flags potential issues with time and attendance. The last thing you want is to scour through timesheets manually to spot irregularities. 

Timesheet to payroll processing is another crucial element. What are the safeguards the platform has in place to ensure accurate computations? How easy is it to transfer approved timesheets to payroll? What’s the level of admin work needed, if any? 

Strong payroll system

Payroll systems have a basic but extremely important task: withhold necessary deductions, pay employees on time, and pay employees accurately. This might seem straightforward, but this whole process can be tedious when different employee classifications, benefits, and pay rates come into play. It can become even more difficult if scheduling and timesheet data have already been corrupted upstream due to poor time and attendance management. 

Labor compliance

To avoid costly DOL fines and class action lawsuits, you need to prioritize compliance with both federal and state wage and hour laws. Like forecasting, many HCM platforms claim to have some form of labor compliance feature. But not all are robust enough to keep pace with federal and state-based regulations. 

An ideal HCM system ensures compliance at every step of the employee lifecycle. This means it should be able to flag potential risks during employee scheduling, timesheet export, and payroll calculations. Furthermore, it should be consistent with any developments or changes in federal and state-based rules.

Employee engagement tools

How the platform handles employee engagement is another vital feature you should be looking for. Most HCM software help with sending out and processing employee engagement surveys. While that’s important, it also pays to have a feature that allows for more immediate feedback and employee recognition. It also pays to understand how they process the information gathered from these surveys and feedback loops so that you’ll know whether it would be beneficial in your decision-making process. 

Control your labor costs with Workforce.com

While it might seem like a daunting task to find a platform that covers all these areas, there is actually a fairly simple solution. 

Workforce.com is an HCM platform tailor-made for calculating labor costs for shift-based businesses. Within its ecosystem are tools for time and attendance tracking, demand-based employee scheduling, labor forecasting, labor compliance, employee engagement, HRIS, and payroll. 

Find out more about how Workforce.com can help you calculate labor costs by booking a call today. 

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What does floating holiday mean? Guide + Template

Summary

  • A floating holiday is a paid day off that an employee can use at their discretion to substitute for a public holiday.

  • Employers have no legal obligation to offer floating holidays but do so to increase retention and make their benefits packages more attractive.

  • Carryover and encashment rules are usually up to employer discretion unless there’s state-based legislation that dictates how they should do so.

Aside from paid time off, some companies offer floating holidays to make their benefits package more competitive and appealing. But what is a floating holiday exactly, and how does it work?

A floating holiday is a paid day off from work that an employee can use at their discretion, typically serving as a substitute for a public holiday. There’s no set date to take one; hence these holidays “float.” Click the link below to see what a basic floating holiday policy looks like:

Floating Holiday Policy Template

Like paid time off, floating holidays are not legally mandated by law, so it’s up to the employers whether to offer them or not. And if they do, they also decide how to implement them unless state-based legislation tells them otherwise.

According to statistics, 48% of companies offer floating holidays, allowing employees to observe a holiday on any day of their choosing.

Floating Holiday vs. PTO

A common question regarding floating holidays is how they differ from paid time off. The main difference lies in how they are given to employees. 

Floating holidays are typically awarded at the beginning of each calendar year or as soon as an employee joins a company. In contrast, PTO is usually accrued over a period of time. Furthermore, some paid time-off credits are carried over the next calendar year and encashed once an employee resigns. Floating holidays, on the other hand, are typically not rolled over the next year and are not paid out upon termination.

Floating holidays also take the place of public holidays, unlike traditional PTO. So, for example, a single floating holiday credit representing Easter could be used on a random day in February – this would mean, however, that the employee would then need to work on Easter. PTO, on the other hand, can be taken whenever without replacing a holiday. 

When are floating holidays used?

Floating holidays are typically provided to offer more flexibility. Therefore, they are usually taken whenever an employee wants. They can be used to observe a religious or cultural holiday that’s not typically part of regular federal holidays, celebrate a birthday or special occasion, or take a break or recharge. 

Can floating holidays be used for federal holidays? It depends. If your business also goes on break during regular federal holidays and you pay time off for your employees, there’s no need for your employees to take a floating holiday. 

If you’re open during holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas, employees who choose to work on those days can take a floating holiday another time. Remember that not all employees observe these holidays and may opt to work and take time off on a date that’s more relevant to them instead. For instance, a Muslim employee may opt to work on Christmas and take a floating holiday to observe Eid Al-Fitr. 

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Employees

Setting parameters for floating holidays

The key to implementing a floating holiday policy is to set clear parameters. Here are vital parts it should include.

Eligibility

Will it apply to all employees, or will there be exemptions like contractual or part-time workers? Typically, floating holidays are given to all employees to help improve retention. 

Hiring date is also another thing to consider. It’s common for companies to offer two floating holidays at the beginning of the year. For instance, new hires joining from January to June can receive both days. However, employees hired in the middle of the year can be entitled to only one floating holiday for the remainder of the year. 

Number of days

How many floating holidays are you going to offer? It’s typical for most companies to give two floating holidays a year, but it’s vital to consider the nature of your business to come to an ideal number. 

Approval process

Define how employees should file for floating holidays. Include how many days in advance they must give notice and what system to use to log their request. Having these details specified allows employees enough room to plan. 

Carryover and encashment rules

Indicate what will happen to unused floating holidays. For example, can they be carried over the next calendar year? In case of resignation or termination, will unused floating holidays be encashed?

Whatever you decide, make sure that it’s clearly discussed in the policy. Unused floating holidays are typically not carried over to the next calendar year nor paid out upon employee resignation. However, in California, floating holidays are somewhat treated as paid vacation leaves. This means employers should encash unused floating holidays upon termination and allow unused leave credits to roll over the next year. 

Blackout dates

Blackout dates refer to periods or dates when employees are discouraged from taking time off or floating holidays due to high demand or extra busy operations. Again, make sure that it’s clearly stated in your policy if this is something you implement. 

Benefits of floating holiday

Employers are not mandated to offer floating holidays, but there are advantages to doing so. Here are some of the top reasons why companies choose to include them in their benefits package:

A way to give importance to diversity and inclusion

Giving floating holidays is a way to promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace. It helps to recognize that employees have different cultural and religious backgrounds and that you allow them to freely practice their beliefs.

Survey shows that employees who feel included are three times more likely to feel excited and committed to their organizations. Furthermore, a company’s inclusiveness is a primary factor that different respondents look at when considering career decisions or moves.  

Flexibility

Floating holidays offer flexibility to employees by allowing them more control over how and when they would like to spend a holiday. Aside from religious and cultural holidays, employees can use this to spend time on a hobby, attend to other important things, or have a restful day at home.

Less admin burden in managing holidays

If inclusion is a priority for you, that doesn’t mean you must create an exhaustive list of holidays to account for all religions and cultures in your workforce. Instead, you can choose a few major federal holidays to include in your paid holidays policy and supplement these with additional floating holidays, which employees can use as they see fit. Aside from giving your employees flexibility, you also free up your HR team from the burden of maintaining and updating that list.  

A more competitive benefits package 

To retain and attract top talent, you must have a competitive benefits package. Floating holidays help do that.

The US is one of the more advanced economies, but 1 in 4 US workers have no paid vacation benefits. Furthermore, there’s no law mandating organizations to provide PTO. Having a PTO policy gives you a more competitive edge, but offering floating holidays can improve your chances of employee retention. 

Best practices for implementing floating holidays

Floating holidays are only effective when implemented correctly. Here are some best practices you can apply to get the most results from this policy.

Be clear with your policy

We can’t stress this enough. You need to eliminate any inch of ambiguity so that your employees will be encouraged to use their floating holidays. Since floating holidays do not roll over into the following year, any unused hours will go to waste – make sure your employees understand this with constant reminders. In addition, make sure that the policy is readily available to your team. It’s best to use an employee self-service platform to make this policy accessible to your staff at all times. 

Use a PTO tracking app

The best way to stay on top of PTO and floating holidays is to use a comprehensive leave management system featuring mobile PTO tracking. 

PTO tracking software is vital for efficiently managing leave requests and approvals. It ensures managers don’t miss requests or accidentally schedule staff who are on leave. 

But it shouldn’t just be helpful for managers. PTO tracking apps should be user-friendly for frontline staff; otherwise, introducing one will create even more confusion. Make sure basic tasks like viewing leave balances and floating holiday credits, submitting PTO requests, and seeing time off on schedules is as straightforward as possible for your staff. 

Encourage employees to use their floating holidays

This actually extends to all leave types. Statistics show that of US workers who have paid time off, only 54% of Americans say that they use it for vacation or holiday. 

The only way that you’ll see floating holidays positively impact your culture is if they are used by staff. It all boils down to communication and culture. Sometimes, employees need a little nudge or reminder that it’s okay to take a break and go on holiday.

Use labor forecasting to identify necessary blackout dates

The appeal of floating holidays is that employees can take them whenever they want. But blackout dates take a little bit of that away. The key is identifying only necessary dates when employees are discouraged from utilizing their floating holiday. 

Accurate labor forecasting looks at seasonal trends, historical sales data, booked appointments, foot traffic, weather, and other relevant information that can affect demand during any shift. Labor forecasting software shows you which days and shifts you can expect to be the busiest. Based on this, you can make calculated staffing level projections and narrow down the periods that need to be blacked out for leaves and holidays.

Webinar: How to Forecast Your Schedule Based on Demand

Stay compliant

While floating holidays are not legally mandatory, consider state-based legislation. As discussed, California looks at floating holidays like vacation days. Therefore, employees are required to encash remaining credits upon termination. Be careful of these specific rules to avoid violations and penalties.

It can be challenging to stay on top of compliance and how labor rules come into play with your benefits and policies unless you have a robust compliance engine within your HCM platform.

A good compliance feature automates labor compliance in every stage of workforce management—from onboarding, scheduling, administering benefits such as floating holidays, calculating payroll, and offboarding.

Floating Holiday Policy Template

If you want to get started on drafting a floating holiday policy for your company, here is a standard template to get you started: 

All (type/s of employees) are entitled to two floating holidays per year aside from (Company Name)’s regular paid holidays and time off. These two floating holidays can be used for any reason the employee deems necessary. It may be used for reasons such as birthdays, religious holidays, cultural festivities, or state and federal holidays during which [Company] remains open. 

Employees must submit a request at least five (number) days before they intend to use their floating holiday. It must be logged through the leave management system and approved by the manager. 

Meanwhile, floating holidays may not be used during blackout periods of (date range) due to high demand and seasonal events. 

Floating holidays are given at the beginning of the calendar year. Employees hired during the first half of the year will be entitled to two floating holidays. Meanwhile, employees hired in the middle of the year will receive one floating holiday. Floating holidays cannot be carried over to the next calendar year and will not be compensated upon termination.

Perks like floating holidays are just one of the many facets of managing a workforce. Make sure to implement them well with a robust system like Workforce.com. 

Aside from demand-based scheduling, labor forecasting, and time tracking, Workforce.com has an extensive leave management system that automatically tracks PTO and holidays while keeping you compliant with local labor laws in your state. 

See Workforce.com in action. Book a call with us today.

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A guide to writing employee performance reviews

oil painting of a hand writing on paper

Summary

  • Provide employees with clear, constructive, and actionable feedback.

  • Give employees an opportunity to offer valuable peer and managerial feedback with performance management software. 

  • Use objective, measurable criteria when reviewing or setting performance goals.

  • Focus where an employee has room for growth and opportunities to improve.

Without regular performance reviews, an employee’s work may not align with the job they’re paid to do. This can negatively impact managers, from missing early indications of underperformance to losing out on opportunities to celebrate an employee’s achievements. 

Annual performance reviews can also have a significant impact on your company culture. These assessments help confirm that team members’ overall performance supports the company’s goals. They also strengthen working relationships by ensuring a continual feedback loop with your employees. 

When conducting performance evaluations — especially for the first time — it helps to work from an established template to ensure your evaluations are thorough and your performance review period goes smoothly. In this guide, we’ll review some critical areas to cover in a performance review. When done right, performance reviews can keep employees motivated and engaged while resulting in higher achievements for the team.

1. Evaluate how the employee’s current duties fit with their job description

As a starting point, compare what an employee does daily to their duties as outlined in their job description. This provides a baseline for determining if the employee is doing their primary job functions as assigned.

If an employee isn’t meeting the duties of their job description, you can begin to plan the next steps to address performance issues. If they’re performing their job duties as expected, you can move forward with your standard process for evaluation.

Comparing an employee’s current duties with their assigned duties also helps identify who might be going above and beyond in the workplace. If an employee has taken on more responsibility than their job description, they may be on track for a promotion or a raise, or they could be at risk for burnout.

2. Be comprehensive in employee evaluations 

Performance appraisals are about more than whether or not an employee is fulfilling their daily responsibilities. Evaluations also help address their competencies holistically. Below are various areas to consider including in your performance review template.

  • Attendance and punctuality: Is the employee working their assigned days and shifts? Do they consistently arrive at work on time and stay until their scheduled end time?
  • Quantity of work: Is the employee completing the amount of work they’re supposed to? Are they meeting productivity requirements?
  • Quality of work: Is the employee’s work being accomplished to your expected quality standards? Are there frequent errors? Are they going above and beyond?
  • Achievement: Is the employee meeting other standards or metrics for success?
  • Problem-solving: Does the employee help solve problems and find solutions when faced with challenges?
  • Time management: Does the employee meet deadlines as assigned?
  • Communication skills: Is the employee communicative about the status of their work and proactive with issues that arise?
  • Teamwork: Does the employee work well with the rest of the team and clientele?

3. Be specific and use objective criteria

Vagueness can create uncertainty and confusion in performance reviews. Use specific language and examples whenever possible. 

For example, instead of relying on general phrases like, “Is usually good with customers,” try, “Excels at helping customers find the product they need and find alternatives when a product is out of stock.” Do point out where someone makes mistakes in their work but frame it as constructive criticism. Help employees understand how to do better, especially if it involves a skill they already have and could further develop.

Use objective, measurable criteria when you review or set performance goals, such as deadlines met, tardiness and absences, or sales goals. You should have solid data to support your performance assessments. This can also help when considering promotions, bonuses, and other incentives.

4. Use relevant data when applicable

As mentioned in the previous point, numbers are essential. Broad discussions about performance goals tend to go nowhere, especially when conducted too frequently. It helps to back up your performance reviews with concrete, historical data. 

For hourly staff in general, this could take the form of attendance points. When conducting a review, ensure all the points an employee has accumulated for attendance infractions are clearly laid out for them. Visualizing these numbers brings urgency to the conversation and helps employees better understand where they fall short with attendance and how to improve. 

Webinar: Points-Based Attendance

For sales associates, relevant data could be closed deals, while for retail workers, it could be something like time taken to serve a customer or sales per labor hour. No matter your industry, there is almost data to back up a staff member’s performance. Just be sure that your performance review does not hinge entirely on data – account for the human behind the numbers as well. 

5. Cover areas of improvement and where the employee has already improved 

Review areas where employees need performance improvement and provide constructive feedback. Also, offer positive feedback on areas where they’ve shown improvement since their last review. 

Don’t just tell an employee what is going wrong — provide examples and make it a conversation. In addition to telling them about potential solutions you see, ask for their ideas and feedback. Invite them to collaborate and offer their own ideas.

Cover both strengths and weaknesses of the employee throughout their review. You might tell a direct report, “Your knowledge of our add-on products could be more thorough, and I know with your demonstrated work ethic that you can master those.”

Review areas where the employee has shown improvement and reflect on their growth. Discuss how these improvements have positively impacted the employee’s work, team, or company, if possible.

6. Set realistic, actionable goals and plans

Create plans that include specific goals for employees with clear expectations for their professional development.

Wherever possible, use SMART goals — Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. If you’re setting goals for an employee who is frequently late, a SMART goal might be for them to arrive to work on time for every shift for the next quarter.

Be transparent about what’s needed from employees so they understand what they’re doing well and what they need to work on. Provide a written plan at the end of the review or send them a follow-up later. Include potential development opportunities where they can grow in their position and their career.

7. Consider adding self-evaluations and other employee feedback.    

When you include a self-assessment as part of the performance review process, you may capture insights that would be otherwise missed. Employees may have ideas for their own development that help support their career goals and the company. This participation can increase employee engagement.

You can go beyond a manager-to-employee review and self-assessment by incorporating 360-degree feedback. With this Workforce feature, employees can provide feedback to each other at all levels. Peers can review each other, employees can review managers, managers can review direct reports, and more.

Performance review periods also present an opportunity to ask employees to engage in other types of assessments. If there are business processes you want to improve, for example, consider sending a survey to employees for their feedback. Or, promote employee recognition by asking your team to offer positive feedback to their coworkers.

Make use of tools that can help you track ongoing performance.

While formal performance reviews typically happen on a fixed schedule, be sure to connect with employees regularly. Workforce.com can help you do both with performance management software that’s mobile-first, non-intrusive, and designed for shift-based workforces.

To find out more, get in touch with our team today.

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The staffing shortage will be permanent

Most hourly staff businesses have struggled with labor shortages since the pandemic. Government restrictions, initial mass layoffs, and a shift in consumer preferences have all been touted as the underlying cause of the pandemic-induced staffing shortage.

Except the pandemic wasn’t the main cause, the staffing shortage was already underway.

Prior to the pandemic, unemployment was already at record lows at 3.5%.

The actual cause is America’s changing demographics. Its aging workforce has caused a collapse in the US labor force participation rate, dropping from 67% at the turn of the millennium to 63.3% in February 2020. A 2019 study by the Brookings Institution estimated that the labor force participation rate would decrease to 58% by 2050 due to the aging workforce. However, because of the pandemic, we’re already four years ahead of schedule. The pandemic simply accelerated the staffing shortage timeline.

While the severity of staffing shortages will rise and fall with the business cycle, it will continue to worsen. Every business will have to pick how they adjust to the shortage:

  1. Pay higher salaries to attract staff from a shrinking talent pool
  2. Reduce the operations and revenue of your business
  3. Schedule smarter and become more efficient with your staffing levels

If you’re not actively pursuing (3), you’re accepting the first two by proxy. It might not occur in the next three months, but it will happen. The inertia of our aging workforce is half a century in the making.

The path to avoiding higher wages and reduced operations requires you to fine-tune the way you run your workforce. 

How to staff more efficiently 

Use precise labor forecasts

Choosing staffing levels based on manager intuition has been the default for most companies. This approach may prevent egregious over and understaffing, but it misses the small shift details that add up. Staffing based on a “busy lunch rush and a quiet afternoon” isn’t specific enough and will create many instances of overstaffing, even if it’s only 15 minutes of someone’s shift. 

Across a whole team, these 15 minutes per worker can result in your needing multiple extra staff over a day. To thrive, you must know your demand indicators, create staffing ratio to demand units, and then ensure all your managers are building schedules according to this demand. 

Adjust staffing levels during shifts

Another outdated concept is the belief that a schedule is finished once it’s published; this assumes that nothing changes once a schedule is created and staff are working their shift. The problem is that call-outs, no-shows, and random downturns in demand are almost inevitable. Your managers must be prepared to anticipate and react to these challenges during shifts, adjusting labor accordingly. 

Enable your managers to make the right decisions

You can’t leave staffing levels to chance. Your managers need the right tools to support them so they can optimize their schedules to customer demand. Beyond this, you need to have complete visibility into when, where, and how managers are actively adjusting their labor – this is the only way to know for certain that you are staffing efficiently.

Many businesses won’t do this. They will continue on their current path of paying higher labor costs to attract a shrinking talent pool, as well as reducing their operations and losing customers because they don’t have enough staff. 

You need to make the choice not to be left behind.

Posted on

7 employee & job satisfaction statistics & trends (2023)

Summary

  • Flexibility has become a vital component of employee satisfaction — More

  • Restaurant workers have a net promoter score of 14% — the lowest-scoring industry — More

  • LGBTQ+ employees rank their workplace experience 6% lower than non-LGBTQ+ workers — More

  • Executives reported a 1.3x higher overall job satisfaction than non-executive employees — More

  • Work atmosphere and career development potential are the biggest contributors to employee satisfaction — More

  • About half of US workers are “quiet quitters”— More

  • A company’s digitalization levels have significant, indirect effects on employee satisfaction — More

Tom Smith, co-founder of Partners in Leadership and three-time New York Times bestselling author, once said, “An attitude of accountability lies at the core of any effort to improve quality, satisfy customers, empower people, build teams, create new products, maximize effectiveness, and get results.”

That attitude of accountability is directly related to employee satisfaction. Harnessing job satisfaction should be a top priority for human resources professionals, but it’s become increasingly difficult since the pandemic.

Work is changing. As hybrid and remote work have become a priority for many workers, the Great Resignation rages on, and quiet quitting is a new workplace phenomenon.

In this article, we’ll share current employee satisfaction statistics and trends affecting today’s work environment. We’ll also provide tips on how utilizing technology like workforce management software can increase your team’s job satisfaction rate.

Satisfied employees mean higher levels of employee engagement and retention. Job satisfaction has a positive effect on people’s well-being, which, in turn, boosts productivity and innovation.

1. Flexibility from hybrid and remote work leads to higher levels of satisfaction

Flexibility is a key to job satisfaction. According to Future Forum, 80% of respondents said they wanted flexibility on where they work, and 94% cited flexibility on when they work as important.

Full-time, in-office workers reported lower scores relating to employee experience than their hybrid or remote colleagues. Only 21.6% of in-office workers said they were happy with their work environment, compared to 28.3% of hybrid workers and 35.4% of remote workers. Only 17.1% of in-office employees were satisfied with their work-life balance, compared to 25.1% of hybrid workers and 33.2% of remote workers.

According to research by UBS, 69% of workers are ready to leave their current jobs if they’re unable to work how they’d like — with more flexibility.

Creating flexible work environments can be particularly tricky for shift-based companies. By using a digital scheduling solution, this becomes simpler. Employees have greater control over their own schedules in a way that’s visible to their colleagues and management through dashboards and employee apps.

Shifts get covered quickly and easily, making it easier for employees to move things around when needed. It’s also easier to pick up additional shifts if they’re looking to earn some extra cash.

2. Restaurants and other labor-intensive industries are struggling with low employee satisfaction levels

Restaurants have the lowest net promoter score among employees at 14%, according to Statista. This was followed by the commerce industry (20%) and the public service sector (22%). In fact, resignation rates in leisure and hospitality were the highest recorded — 971,000 in August 2021.

A report by One Fair Wage shed some light on why restaurant work, in particular, exhibited low job satisfaction statistics and employee turnover rates. They found that 76% of restaurant workers were leaving their jobs because of low wages and tips.

Hostility and harassment were also factors behind restaurant employees wanting out. Thirty-nine percent of restaurant workers had concerns about hostility and harassment from customers and 26% from their coworkers and/or management.

Restaurant owners and HR staff should not take these figures lightly. There needs to be an open and constant dialogue with employees about working conditions and employee well-being. Schedule regular team and one-to-one meetings, and have anonymous feedback forms available in order to find out more about your employees’ concerns.

3. LGBTQ+ employees report lower employee job satisfaction than their colleagues

When asked to rate their companies, LGBTQ+ employees ranked their workplaces 6% lower than non-LGBTQ+ workers, according to Glassdoor. Transgender employees rated their employee experience the lowest at 3.43 out of 5.

The highest-rated industries for LGBTQ+ employees are real estate, IT, and legal. The lowest-rated industries are retail and wholesale, restaurants and food service, and personal consumer services.

According to Glassdoor data, these employees are less satisfied with their jobs due to burnout and discrimination. To ensure a safe and equitable environment, companies can provide ongoing DEI training and include zero-bullying policies in their employee handbooks.

4. There is an executive-employee disconnected when it comes to work experience

The executive-employee disconnect was observed by Future Forum in the fall of 2021. According to Future Forum’s 2022 data, executives continue to report higher scores related to employee experience compared to their non-executive teammates.

In the past year, executives reported a 1.3x higher overall satisfaction with their work environment than non-execs. Non-exec employees scored 1.5x lower than executives for work-related stress and anxiety.

Companies need to remove this disconnect and ensure non-exec employees are enjoying the same levels of satisfaction (if not more) as executives. This involves training managers to move away from being information gatekeepers and move toward being coaches who empower their teams.

Managers must be trained to give regular feedback and recognition. According to SHRM, 68% of human resources professionals feel that employee recognition activities contribute to increasing employee retention. Fifty-three percent of employees strongly feel their organization’s culture through being recognized or celebrated. 

Giving feedback through solutions like shift feedback tools helps to foster a company culture of feedback and appreciation. Managers provide staff with regular and standardized feedback in all areas of work via the app. This shows employees which areas they’re succeeding in and which require some improvement.

5. Work atmosphere and development possibilities are key to employee satisfaction

Research by Statista shows that a favorable work environment and opportunities for career development are the factors most connected to an employee’s satisfaction in the workplace. Other important factors the study found include diversity and the company’s image. Surprisingly, salary and compensation only ranked fourth.

Workforce management software has an important role to play in creating a positive work atmosphere and helping employees be better prepared for further career advancement. Employee self-service (ESS) through the use of technology means that team members are empowered to handle more tasks related to HR, IT, and other administrative needs they might have.

ESS makes employees feel more empowered due to increased accountability while lightening the administrative burden on other departments. These factors all contribute to a work atmosphere that’s centered on empowering employees and equipping them with better career development prospects.

Workforce.com’s Employee App is built on the concept of ESS, allowing employees to take more control of things like shift management and cross-departmental communications.

6. At least half of US employees are quiet quitting

Gallup estimates that 50%, if not more, of US workers are quiet quitters. Quiet quitting refers to how people are doing just enough to meet their job responsibilities and not get fired.

In the second quarter of 2022, they found that the ratio of engaged employees to actively disengaged employees currently stands at 1.8 to 1 — this is the lowest it has been in nearly a decade.

Gallup attributed quiet quitting to poor management, and they offered four tips on how to improve it:

  • Address manager engagement. Gallup found that, currently, only one in three managers are engaged at work. They recommend managers be trained to be better suited for new hybrid ways of working.
  • Managers need to speak with employees and find ways to reduce disengagement, minimize burnout, and prioritize mental health.
  • Managers should have at least one meaningful one-to-one conversation per week. These conversations could uncover the initiatives and changes management needs to make to create more satisfying work environments.
  • Managers need to create a sense of accountability among employees. Employees should see how their work affects the overall business goals. This is obtained by creating more transparency and including employees in conversations about individual goals and performance indicators.

7. Digitalization has an indirect but significant impact on satisfaction

In their research, Statista found that a company’s level of digitalization provides the greatest variety of employee satisfaction scores across industries. While digitalization itself was found to have a low impact on employee satisfaction, other important factors are influenced by digitalization — such as the need for good working equipment. Improving a company’s digitalization leads to improvements in other areas that are directly linked with satisfaction.

Digitalization makes it easier to adapt, which increases a company’s ability to remain stable and competitive in ever-changing environments. This means great job security for a company’s employees.

Satisfaction with digitalization was found to be lowest for employees with repetitive tasks. This shows an opportunity for workforce management solutions in shift-based industries that involve such tasks. Workforce.com is a great operations solution that promotes greater productivity through the optimization of frontline operations.

Workforce.com offers labor forecasting functionality that allows HR professionals to schedule based on demand. It uses historical data to accurately forecast future demand and help build the most effective schedules. This way, companies avoid understaffing and overstaffing, resulting in less stress and burnout among employees.

Boost your employee engagement strategy

Building a workplace culture that fosters employee engagement requires time, dedication, and a clear leadership mandate.

Download our ebook Boost Your Employee Engagement Strategy.

Learn more about how to implement and measure your strategies and how HR and senior leaders can work together and utilize technology to make this happen.