Author: Gus Anderson

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Task Management 101: Advantages and Best Practices for Hourly Staff

Summary

  • Task management breaks down projects into smaller, more manageable duties.

  • Shift-based workforces can use task management to ensure daily work gets done efficiently and on time. 

  • Utilizing a checklist app makes tasks more manageable for shift workers.

Task management is the process of breaking down your operations or projects into smaller, more manageable tasks. It goes down to the granular level to identify every action item needed to run a productive shift or complete a project successfully.

In principle, you’re probably doing task management daily. An example would be going to work. Going to work involves smaller activities such as dressing up, making coffee, and commuting to the workplace. Task management functions in the same way. 

In organizations, task management helps managers and teams prioritize tasks, track progress, boost productivity, and ensure that things get done on time. However, while task management is closely tied to project management, they are different. Project management takes a 30,000 ft look at a project as a whole, whereas task management zooms in and deals with delegating and tracking specific jobs. 

Task management for shift-based businesses

Typically, task management is associated with white-collar organizations that run simultaneous projects, such as advertising agencies or software development companies. Such organizations usually work on long-running projects or implementations, using task management to assign and track action items. 

However, task management is also vital for hourly employees in industries like retail and hospitality. For these shift-based operations, task management defines what recurring tasks need to get done during every shift; this increases team productivity and accountability.

To successfully manage tasks, here are factors you need to consider carefully:

  • Time – When assigning tasks, ensure they align correctly with your schedule. For instance, stocking up on table essentials such as sugar packets and condiments is usually done before the restaurant opens and not in the middle of the day.
  • Resources – Take inventory of the things needed to accomplish a particular task. Consider tangibles such as supplies and tools and intangibles such as certifications or specific skills.
  • Dependencies – Are there any prerequisites to performing specific tasks? For instance, nurse handoffs are crucial from one shift to the next as they transfer vital and specific patient care information. Another example of dependency would be manager or supervisor sign-offs.

The goal of task management for hourly teams is to ensure productive shifts. The best way to do this is through a checklist system categorized by team and location. Take a look at this example:

Opening duties for restaurant FOH:

    • Set up tables and chairs
    • Sanitize surfaces and windows
    • Empty trash bins
    • Clean bathrooms
    • Arrange table napkins and other table placements
    • Restock tabletop essentials or condiment area with sugar packets, ketchup, salt, etc.
    • Stock bar with glassware and drinks

While the tasks seem part of a routine, they can easily fall through the cracks. Having specific to-do lists helps your team stay organized and focused on the tasks they must accomplish during the day. 

Why should you prioritize task management?

Want the short answer? Because it ensures things get done. At the end of the day, every organization wants an efficient and productive workforce – proper task management is one of the most effective ways to achieve this. 

Some dismiss task management because their daily operations remain fairly consistent. However, for some businesses, even a slight misstep can cause significant operational problems or even health and safety concerns. Task management shields your team from this kind of risk.

Here are some of the major reasons why task management is a must for hourly teams:

Increased productivity

Task management drives focus within teams, laying out precisely what needs to get done on a daily basis. Things like task checklists and due times ensure employees stay on top of their duties.

Autonomy and accountability

Task management gives your employees autonomy over their tasks. Because they know what they need to accomplish, they can manage their time better and focus on doing their tasks well even when managers are not around. 

Effective task management also signifies trust, and employees appreciate that. By handing off daily checklists to employees, they know it is up to them to complete these tasks on time and up to standard – and because it creates a paper trail, failure to finish tasks can easily be addressed. 

Better workflow

Teams work better when there are clear directions. Operations run smoothly when each employee knows their tasks on a granular level. Don’t mistake this for micromanaging. It’s about setting specific tasks and expectations for your team. 

Instructing your team to go ahead and have a productive shift is easy. But how do they do that exactly? This is where task management comes in. Think of task management as mapping out the necessary steps for achieving a successful shift. 

More visibility

Tracking shift responsibilities with software-based task management gives managers a glimpse into frontline operations. With checklists and due times assigned across an organization, managers can easily confirm that important work is getting done, who’s completing the work, and what time.

Improved prioritization

Task management enables you to allocate your resources better and prioritize tasks accordingly. Because everything is laid out, it’s easy to identify which tasks are more urgent than others. As a result, you can focus on what matters without overwhelming your employees.

Good customer service

Higher efficiency naturally leads to better customer service. When tasks are managed effectively, customers notice – it’s easy to sense if your operations are chaotic or your employees seem lost. Forgetting simple duties like restocking a particular shelf, cleaning a bathroom, or updating a menu can lead to poor customer experience. Task management keeps you from repeatedly making these kinds of mistakes. 

Best practices for task management

Task management seems like a straightforward process where you create a list of tasks for your employees per team, shift, and location. However, it may involve many moving parts, especially if you’re managing a midsize to enterprise-level hourly workforce. 

Here are some best practices to help task management work for you:

Use a task management software

Post-its and whiteboards are not cut for efficient task management. It’s best to utilize software designed to organize tasks, provide real-time task status alerts, and give you data and analytics on how your team is accomplishing tasks.  

Task management software keeps track of every task in each shift and notifies managers upon task completion. It also promotes transparency as everyone sees the same sets of tasks and has visibility on action items ticked off the list.

Track progress

More than completing things on time, a considerable part of task management is tracking completion. It’s important to see when tasks get done in real-time in order to stay on top of daily operations. Moreover, tracking completion helps you see where and when work is taking too long, what’s causing the delay, and how to address the inefficiency.

Evaluate your task management strategy

Just like performance management, task management should be an ongoing process. Day-to-day tasks can be repetitive but can change over time, especially when organizational shifts and market changes occur. 

For instance, demand will likely influence your team’s tasks. So consider when it will likely peak and ensure that your to-do lists are adequate to meet that uptick in demand. 

Meanwhile, revisiting your task management strategy allows you to pivot quickly in case of unprecedented market changes that will cause a significant shift in your operations. For instance, the disruption of COVID-19 caused in most workforces. 

Tie it in with the rest of  your workforce management

Task management shouldn’t be a siloed process. It would be best to integrate it with other areas of workforce management, such as employee scheduling.

Over time, task management will give you a wealth of data that can aid in optimizing schedules, tracking skills, and making critical workforce decisions.  

Webinar: How to Track Skills Development for Hourly Staff

Finding the right software for task management

Task management is no easy feat, but a reliable software system can simplify it. Workforce.com’s task management is the ideal solution for hourly workers. You can use it to create checklists lists for various teams and track real-time completion rates.

Workforce.com task checklist mobile view

Task management features are even better when synced with employee scheduling, time and attendance, and human resources. Employees can clock in, check their schedules, complete tasks, and get paid through a single app.

To learn more about Workforce.com’s task management platform and how it ties in with other solutions, book a call today. 

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PTO vs Vacation Time: Best choice for your company (2023)

Summary

  • Under a PTO policy, all leave time is lumped together into a paid time off bank. Vacation, on the other hand, is simply a specific type of leave categorized under a traditional leave policy. 

  • The pros of a PTO policy include fewer administration/accruals to manage, more flexibility for employees, and a more transparent relationship between employers and employees.

  • The cons of a PTO policy are that it may turn out to be more expensive, employees may work when they’re sick, and they may take a fewer number of actual days off.

  • While no perfect policy exists, creating the best one for you means you’ll have to evaluate state laws, consider your work environment (remote or on-site), and assess your software solutions.

Do you need to know why your employees are taking time off, or are you fine with them having autonomy over it?

Evaluating which leave policy suits your business requires careful consideration. Scheduling managers need to weigh the pros and cons of each type of leave policy, consider the nature of the business, take employee preferences into account, and pay attention to current trends. Only then can they make a decision on a leave policy that boosts employee productivity and optimizes payroll costs.

PTO vs. vacation time: What’s the difference?

PTO is standardized leave that covers all types of paid time off (sick leave, personal time, etc.) with no labels. Vacation time is leave specifically for vacation purposes. So, vacation is a type of PTO, but PTO may not necessarily be for a vacation.

Employers can find ways to retain employees by offering more flexibility around their leave. With PTO, employees don’t need to explain how they’re using their time off. Along with vacation days, employers may decide to offer other types of leave, which means employees have to take different types of leave for certain purposes, which can be restrictive.

The trend is definitely moving toward PTO banks. 63% of employees said they’d turn down a job offer if it didn’t include PTO. So it’s clear that a majority of employees would rather work for a company where they’re free to take personal days without having to state the reason why. Pandemic stress resulting in job reshuffling has only served to further highlight the importance of effective company policies for paid time off, as the workforce is prioritizing mental health now more than ever.

Kerry Wekelo, managing director of HR at Actualize Consulting in Reston, Virginia, switched to the banked PTO policy. She says, “We made the switch because our people were not using their sick time and were complaining about not having enough time off. So we combined to a total of four weeks’ paid time off versus two weeks’ vacation and two weeks’ sick time. Our people love this, and, even as we hire new recruits, they rave about starting at a firm with four weeks’ vacation.”

The pros and cons of a PTO policy

HR managers must consider the pros and cons of a paid time off policy to determine whether or not their business should offer one. Each type of policy involves costs and benefits to the business and its employees, and a thorough analysis can be insightful in determining which one is right for your company. Here are some pros and cons of a PTO policy:

Pros:

  • Less administration required/accruals to manage: Under the traditional leave policy, the employer needs to manage different types of leave, which involves administration costs. Under the PTO policy, none of this admin is required since all of the leave is lumped together. A PTO policy is easier to manage.
  • Offers more flexibility to employees: Employees can use PTO however they want, without explaining how they’re using it. More flexibility could keep employees engaged, and also reduce unscheduled absences. 54 percent of employers that implemented a combined PTO program said unscheduled absences dropped by up to 10 percent when they started the new policy.
  • Creates a more transparent relationship between employers and employees: Employees need not lie about being sick under the PTO policy since they can just state they need time off. Under traditional leave policies, employees may feel forced to use their sick days, so they might lie.

Cons:

  • It may turn out to be more expensive when the employee leaves: A company may have to pay more if the employee leaves, depending on state laws. This is because they may have to pay out all accrued paid time off if the state law mandates it, but under the traditional paid leave policy, they may not have to pay out sick leave to an outgoing employee.
  • Employees may show up to work while they’re sick: Since there’s no distinction made between the two types of leave, employees may show up to work when they’re sick in order to earn more PTO. This can infect other employees, which can ruin the overall productivity of the company.
  • Employees might get fewer days off: Depending on the accrual rate for PTO at your company, new employees may accumulate PTO more slowly than longer-term employees. Research also suggests that employers who adopt PTO may give employees fewer overall days than they had previously. According to SHRM, employers with PTO policies give employees an average of only 18 days, which is fewer than the number of days employees get under a traditional leave policy.

How to create a leave policy that works for you

If you pick the right leave policy, your employees will be happy and productive, and your company will optimize its resources. That’s why, for creating an effective leave policy, you need to take the following steps:

  • Review your state mandates regarding unused time off: Most states don’t require you to pay an employee for unused sick time when they leave the company, unlike PTO policies where payment is required for all time accrued. So, if your state requires you to pay unused PTO, a PTO policy may be more expensive. Review this, and evaluate if bearing the costs of a PTO policy is worthwhile for your business.
  • Consider whether you’re a remote company or an on-site company: A PTO policy is better suited to remote companies where employers cannot scrutinize the reasons behind every leave an employee takes. It’s impossible to know if someone is actually sick in a remotely distributed company, so there’s no point in having separate sick leave. Therefore, choose the leave policy depending on the type of company you are.
  • Evaluate your resources to see if you can administer your leave policy: Under the traditional leave policy, your company will have to maintain two accounting systems — one for sick leave and one for vacation time. Choose the traditional policy if you can make the time to administer the policy, and choose the PTO policy if you want lower administration costs and more efficiency. A good PTO policy should prioritize employee self-service, meaning it should be accessible via mobile app and should sync fluidly with your scheduling and time tracking systems. Requesting, viewing, and approving PTO should be seamless, quick, and integrated with your workforce management.
  • Ensure your policy covers the basics: Make sure you cover some basics in whichever leave policy you choose such as how an employee can request time off or how far in advance employees must request vacation time or planned PTO. Also, consider whether or not employees can carry over their PTO hours at the end of the year. Think about whether you’re going to send home employees who are sick under the PTO policy. Decide how much time off can be taken at one time and how the time off accrues. Finally, choose whether or not employees can carry over unused PTO at the end of the year.

Unlimited PTO: A possible solution

Another option is to switch to an ‘unlimited PTO’ policy. The unlimited PTO plan gives employees the freedom to take off as much time as they need, as long as it’s approved by their managers. But critics say that with unlimited PTO, employees actually take less time off since they rely on company culture to determine the right amount of time to take away. So clearly, there’s no one-size-fits-all leave policy, and you must decide the best policy based on your unique situation.

Making leave management easy

No matter the type of leave policy you choose, it needs to be easy to utilize. Luckily, recording things like PTO, vacation, and sick time on schedules and timesheets, is becoming easier thanks to recent advances in workforce management. Learn more about it by contacting us today – we’ll help make leave management a breeze for you and your staff.

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How to improve internal communications with your hourly workers

Summary

  • Two-way communication is the most effective form of communication. 

  • Achieve bottom-up communication with consistent shift feedback.

  • Communicate from the top down by keeping employee profiles in a single system for announcements, scheduling, and performance reviews. 

Internal communication is crucial in any organization. It ensures an aligned company culture, boosts employee engagement, and ultimately creates a better product or service for the customer. 

With shift workers, internal communication becomes more complex – which means you need to make it more straightforward. Frontline staff often have different schedules, work in different locations, and may not have regular access to company email or other communication channels. Without a clear plan for internal communications, that often translates to miscommunication, staff shortages, and low morale.

Effective internal communication in such companies keeps employees informed, engaged, and feeling like they are part of the team. But true and effective communication is a two-way street. Leadership must communicate business goals, direction, and updates to employees, but they must also remain informed about what is happening on the ground. 

Technology, specifically workforce management software, plays a big role in facilitating internal communications with hourly employees thanks to features like automated scheduling, shift feedback, and employee apps. With these tools, you’ll streamline your staffing, get relevant feedback, and eliminate miscommunication with your shift workers.

1. Streamline last-minute staffing changes

Any human resource professional will agree that one of the biggest issues they face is employee absenteeism — particularly unscheduled absences or no-call, no-shows. Employees that are regularly absent wreak havoc on productivity as the burden of their work falls onto their team members, creating employee burnout. 

Frontline and shift-based industries like healthcare and accommodation tend to have higher absence rates when compared to their non-shift counterparts, according to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

An effective internal communications strategy takes last-minute call-outs and no-shows into consideration. Managers must communicate to the staff that a shift requires coverage, and they need a way to share information on when and where that shift is. 

Additionally, employees need the flexibility to request a replacement or swap shifts with coworkers easily. This gives them the freedom and opportunity to take care of any personal or family issues when they pop up. This is vital to help employees achieve a better work-life balance. 

Create predictable schedules with employee scheduling software

Employee scheduling software makes it possible to create reliable and predictable work schedules, helping employees achieve a better work-life balance. 

Predictive scheduling 

Predictive scheduling ses labor forecasting to help business leaders preempt increases and decreases in labor demand; this helps scheduling managers avoid over and under-staffing specific shifts. With properly planned schedules, fewer instances of overtime and last minute replacements occur – this is better for overall employee happiness. 

In some states and cities, companies are required to follow predictive scheduling laws that make scheduling more transparent and fair for hourly staff. These laws include measures such as:

  • A communication system that notifies employees of schedule changes well in advance
  • Sufficient rest between shifts
  • Removing the practice of “clopening” — when the same employee closes up at night and re-opens the next morning

Collaborative scheduling 

Collaborative scheduling creates an employee communication system where they have more say in which shifts to work, as well as the ability to request shift swaps. You can also implement a shift bids system. Here, the manager puts out a list of the shifts that need to be filled, and employees bid for the ones they want. The manager has the final say on who gets what shift. 

Take a healthcare organization that operates several departments within a hospital as an example. One day, the emergency department experiences an unexpected surge in patient volume, requiring additional staff to be called in to manage the workload. With automated scheduling in place, the availability of additional shifts is easily communicated to the staff, and the slots are filled quickly. 

2. Collect bottom-up, internal communication after every shift

Communication is the key to effective scheduling. Human resources professionals need to gather information from staff on the frontline to better understand how they can improve schedules and the employee experience.

A simple post-shift check-in with your hourly workforce gives everyone the opportunity to be heard and is great for engaging employees.  

Get insight into employee satisfaction with shift feedback tools

With employee engagement software, you can collect shift feedback using techniques such as a simple survey via your intranet, text message, or your employee app. Workers are prompted for feedback via automatic notifications on their mobile devices right after they complete their shifts. 

These surveys ask employees questions like:

  • Were you able to take your designated breaks?
  • Did you understand what was expected of you for this shift?
  • Did you have the right tools and resources you needed for this shift?
  • Were there any challenges or issues during this shift?

These questions help you take a satisfaction and well-being temperature check while also identifying any issues that need addressing. 

Let’s go back to our hospital staffing scenario. The human resources team of the emergency department collects feedback after every shift. Through this feedback, they may notice that the nurses’ team feels ill-equipped to deal with difficult patients or situations. 

Based on this feedback, the human resources team can develop and implement targeted resources to help nurses handle difficult situations more effectively. This could include providing access to additional training or coaching on de-escalation techniques, offering support from social workers or mental health professionals, or developing policies and protocols for dealing with challenging situations.

Every now and then, consider one-on-one meetings between employees and management. These are more personal and are probably better platforms to discuss more sensitive issues like burnout or any friction between coworkers. 

Whitepaper: Modernizing Performance Evaluation

3. Facilitate top-down communication in real-time

Communication from managers to employees is just as important for improving internal communications within an organization. Managers often need to make announcements, send company updates, or share important information with their teams. To avoid confusion and ensure that information reaches everyone, it needs to be shared in a single place and in real-time.

Reduce confusion with employee communications software

A single space for top-down communications, like the company intranet or an employee communications app, helps reduce confusion as to where employees need to look to get the most updated information. Real-time communication is important, particularly for shift reminders, requests for shift coverage, or company announcements. If using employee apps, this is made much easier with the help of push notifications. 

An employee app is already used by shift workers to do things like clock in and update schedules, which makes it the natural space for top-down communication to occur — particularly since shift-based workers rarely have corporate email accounts. 

In our hypothetical hospital, the management team may need to inform employees about a change in scheduling policy or a new training opportunity. Rather than relying on email or in-person meetings, HR and management can use the employee app to send a push notification directly to employees’ phones, ensuring that all staff members receive the information in a timely and efficient manner.

Effective internal communication is two-way communication

Like in any relationship, truly effective communication is a two-way street, and this needs to be kept in mind when developing and implementing your internal communications strategy. Your workforce management software needs to handle top-down as well as bottom-up communication. This facilitates a better employee experience and harnesses a productive work environment. 

Workforce.com provides HR professionals with all the tools they need to achieve this, from automated employee scheduling to labor forecasting and shift feedback functionality. 

Get started with Workforce.com today.

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8 Top Hospitality Trends & Statistics (2023)

Summary

  • The hospitality industry is growing at a steady rate. – More

  • Hospitality businesses face seven supply chain challenges. – More

  • Unemployment rates in the sector have decreased significantly. – More

  • Restaurant profit margins and revenue are increasing slightly. – More

  • Hotels saw record-high average daily rates and revenue per available room in 2022. – More

  • 853 million passengers flew with US airlines in 2022. – More

  • Leisure travel is a priority for most people. – More

  • The outlook for business travel is looking similar to 2019. – More

The hospitality industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the US. With over 15 million people employed in various roles and sectors, this industry plays a critical role in driving economic growth and providing customers with unforgettable experiences. 

Hospitality covers a number of sectors, including the hotel industry, the travel industry (including business travel), and restaurants. For HR professionals and employers in the hospitality and tourism industry, staying informed about trends and statistics is crucial for making informed decisions that can positively impact their businesses. 

In this article, we will be presenting some insightful industry statistics and trends that will help you gain a better understanding of the current landscape of the sector.

The hospitality market continues to grow despite inflation

The hospitality industry, like practically any other sector, is experiencing a slow and steady recovery from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The market grew from $4,390.59 billion in 2022 to $4,699.57 billion in 2023, presenting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.0%.

The Russia-Ukraine war has proven to be a hurdle for economic recovery as the conflict brought about sanctions across countries leading to inflation and supply chain disruptions. Despite this, hospitality sectors are expected to grow to $5,816.66 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 5.5%.

The industry faces 7 supply chain challenges

Research by the AHLA and Avendra shows that there are seven market forces that have an impact on commodities and the supply chain:

  • Inflation – hospitality-related products will continue to see inflation rates between 5 and 10% for the next few quarters. This is more than twice the historical average.
  • Tight labor market – while the unemployment rate might be improving in the hospitality sector, other industries that it relies on, such as manufacturing and the retail trade, are still dealing with labor shortages. They have had to increase wages to retain workers, and this cost will be reflected in the cost of the goods and services they provide to the industry. 
  • Product availability – manufacturers and producers are rationing their products to catch up to their demand backlog. To avoid delays, hospitality businesses need to communicate well in advance with distributors. 
  • High product demand – has contributed to increases in the price of energy and items like seafood, beef, cooking oil, coffee, and to-go packaging. 
  • Russia-Ukraine war – has had an impact on inflation. 
  • Energy prices – Oil and energy prices are volatile due to supply constraints and the possibility of a recession.  
  • Transportation challenges and lead times – we are seeing high levels of US national average freight rates. Ocean and freight rates are decreasing but are still higher than pre-pandemic levels. Lead times on equipment and textiles are longer due to delays in the Asia-Pacific region.  

Leisure & hospitality unemployment rates have reduced drastically

According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the average annual unemployment rate in the leisure and hospitality industry in 2022 was 5.8%. This represents a 43% drop from the previous year and the third lowest in 10 years. 

The lowest rates were recorded in 2018 and 2019 at 5.7% and 5.2%, respectively. The COVID-19 pandemic saw unemployment rates skyrocket to 19.4% in 2020, largely due to the mandatory closures of many hospitality businesses. Last year’s decrease means that the industry’s unemployment rate has reached pre-pandemic levels, which is particularly impressive considering the country was also going through labor shortages and the Great Resignation. 

Restaurant profit margins and revenue have increased slightly since the pandemic

In the past year, restaurants experienced increases in both profit and revenue since the pandemic. 

Food service establishments reported an average revenue of $1.5 million in 2022 – a 7.4% increase from the year before. This increase was not felt across the board. Restaurants with over 80 seats were more likely to experience a revenue increase. A number of restaurants with smaller capacities actually experienced a decrease in revenue compared to 2021. 

Average profit margins were at 10% in 2021 and saw a slight increase in 2022 to 10.6%. Once more, higher-capacity restaurants were more likely to see an increase in profits. Establishments of 120 seats or more reported profit margins as high as 13%.

The food service industry is reported to see continued growth in 2023. The National Restaurant Association forecasts $997 billion in restaurant industry sales in 2023. This is partly due to higher menu prices. 

Hotel industry rates and revenue are reaching new heights

According to hotel industry statistics by STR, 2022 saw record-high average daily rates (ADR is the average paid for hotel rooms in a specific period) and revenue per available room (RevPAR). In 2022, ADR was up 13.6% from the pre-pandemic levels (2019) and reached $148.83. 

RevPAR is a crucial KPI for most hoteliers and owners in the hotel market. It is calculated by multiplying a hotel’s ADR by its occupancy rate (the ratio of rooms rented to the total available rooms). In 2022, the industry’s revPAR was $93.27, 8.1% higher than in 2019. 

Hotel occupancy rates, on the other hand, were still 4.9% lower than pre-pandemic levels at 62.7%. 

The report showed that hotel bookings and overall industry growth were not linear or even. The occupancy rate varied greatly depending on the month and season. In January 2022, the rate was 12 to 14% lower than 2019 levels, while less than 1% lower in October. 

Watch: The 2023 Hotel Industry Outlook with AHLA President & CEO

US airlines carried 853 million passengers in 2022 

The airline industry is on the road to recovery as domestic and global travel continues to increase, but air travel has yet to reach pre-pandemic levels. 

In 2019, US airlines carried a record-breaking 928 million passengers right before the onset of the pandemic. Travel restrictions brought these numbers down to just 3 million in April 2020.  

In 2022, US airlines carried 853 million passengers, a 30% year-to-year increase from 2021 and 8% lower than the record-breaking 2019 numbers. Of these, domestic travel accounted for 751 million passengers, and international travel accounted for 102 million. 

Most people are prioritizing and planning leisure travel this year

According to the American Express 2023 Global Travel Trends Report, the appetite for travel and tourism is alive and well. Eighty-five percent of respondents indicated that they plan on taking at least two leisure trips in 2023. Seventy-eight percent stated that they consider leisure travel as an “important budget priority.”

The research uncovered four major trends in travel tourism:

  1. Tourists want to discover hidden gems and “lesser-known destinations” while also supporting local communities.
  2. Travelers are looking toward pop culture when making decisions on where to travel and why. 
  3. Food is an integral part of the travel experience. 
  4. Restorative vacations are increasing in popularity, where travelers prioritize mental and physical self-care. 

These trends were found to be particularly prevalent among Gen Z and millennial respondents. 

Business travel is nearly back to “normal”

In a survey of 100 global corporate travel managers, Morgan Stanley found that business travel has bounced back from the COVID-19 disruptions. Many respondents believe that business travel budgets and expenditures are either back to pre-pandemic levels or, at least, very close. This is despite the fact that the costs of airfare and lodging are higher than pre-pandemic levels. 

Furthermore, there is an expectation that travel budgets in 2023 will be anywhere between 6% to 10% higher than 2019 levels. Corporate airfare budgets, for example, are expected to be 9% higher.

Three other trends affecting the business travel industry are:

  1. Global hotel room rates are expected to rise by an average of 8%. 
  2. In an attempt to cut costs, travel managers are looking for cheaper alternatives to upscale hotel brands for business trips. Thirty-one percent of respondents are disregarding hotels altogether and opting for short-term rentals instead. 
  3. Virtual meetings are still considered alternatives to business trips. It is expected that nearly 18% of business travel will be replaced with virtual meetings. The digitalization of business trips is not just a cost-cutting measure. Sustainability is also a driving factor as companies are looking to be more eco-friendly.  

Simplify & streamline hospitality operations with Workforce.com

The hospitality industry shows promising signs of recovery after what has been a turbulent few years. It has never been more important for businesses, from neighborhood restaurants to hotel chains, to find ways to improve labor efficiency and maximize profits. 

Our workforce management software for hospitality helps you simplify hospitality employee scheduling, improve communication, and optimize labor costs.

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

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9 crucial employee burnout statistics & trends (2023)

Summary

  • Fifty-nine percent of US workers are burnt out in their current job. – More 

  • Workplace stress was at a record high in the past year. – More 

  • More than half of the workforce cannot find a work-life balance. – More 

  • Employees with the least financial security are most likely to be burnt out. – More 

  • Employees aren’t using well-being perks and benefits. – More 

  • Hourly and shift-based industries are more prone to employee burnout. – More

Employee burnout is by no means a new concept. It was first introduced in 1974 by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. He described it as an “onslaught” that staff members experience as a result of “excessive demands” on their energy, strength, and resources, rendering a person “inoperative.” 

Decades have passed since then, and our personal and professional lives have become more fast-paced, increasing the risk of burnout and work-related stress. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed burnout as a syndrome and an occupational phenomenon in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).  

The WHO says burnout is caused by “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It is said to have three dimensions:

  • “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
  • increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
  • reduced professional efficacy.”

Less than a year after burnout was recognized by the WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic caused people to lose their jobs and frontline workers to fear for their safety, and many people’s homes doubled as their workplaces. This sent job burnout levels through the roof. 

Workplace burnout is a symptom that negatively affects employee well-being, wreaking havoc on the work environment as well as employee output. Here’s a look at some of the latest burnout statistics to help you better understand and tackle it.  

More than half of US workers experience burnout

The American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (Aflac) conducted a study between August and September 2022 and found that most US workers experience burnout. Thirty-six percent rated their level of burnout as moderate, 15% as high, and 8% as very high. 

These levels of work burnout are significantly higher than those reported in 2021 (nine percentage points more) and are two percentage points higher than 2020 levels.  

Workplace stress is at an all-time high

Stress is one of the main drivers behind burnout, so it is important to look at employee stress levels when trying to understand the prevalence of burnout.  

The latest Gallup State of the Global Workplace report found that workers around the world were experiencing record-high levels of daily stress. Pre-COVID, 38% of respondents said that they experienced stress during much of the previous day. When COVID hit, that percentage rose to 43%, and it rose to 44% in 2021 — the highest Gallup has ever recorded. 

Work-life balance is in jeopardy

A workplace culture and environment that provides workers with a sense of satisfaction and well-being helps people achieve a better work-life balance. Striking that balance means having the time and energy for family, personal relationships, and leisure, as well as employee engagement at the workplace. 

Harvard Business Review found that 55% of employees have been unable to establish a work-life balance. They also found that personal relationships have been negatively affected, with workers not being able to maintain a strong connection with family (25%), colleagues (39%), or friends (50%). 

According to psychologist Michael Leiter:

“These survey responses make it clear that a lot of people are having serious disruptions in their relationship with work […] It’s not surprising that people are more exhausted — people are working hard to keep their work and personal lives afloat.”

The most “financially fragile” are the most burnt out

Aflac’s study shows, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the groups with the most financial struggles are the ones that exhibit the most burnout symptoms — namely younger workers and Hispanic populations. US workers who reported “at least moderate levels” of burnout include:

  • 71% of Gen Z 
  • 69% of Hispanics
  • 65% of millennials
  • 57% of Gen X
  • 38% of baby boomers

They also found that more women reported feeling burnout (62%) than men (57%). The study also found that people who had more than one job were more likely to experience burnout than those with one job. 

Webinar: How to Manage Burnout of Younger Employees

Burned-out employees are struggling with mental health issues

According to the WHO’s guidelines on mental health at work, the workplace can be either a protective or a disruptive force for employees’ mental health. Workplace stressors and burnout have been found to go hand in hand with a number of mental health challenges, according to research done by Aflac. The most prevalent issues are anxiety, depression, and trouble sleeping.  

Webinar: How to Support the Mental Health of Hourly Staff

Job satisfaction, performance, and employee retention are negatively affected by burnout

Burnout also spells bad news for employers. It has been strongly linked with lower job satisfaction and job loyalty. It also affects workers’ opinions on whether or not their companies care for them. This effect can be seen when looking at the difference between employees who experience moderate, high, and low or no levels of burnout:

Job satisfaction rate “I believe my employer cares about my physical & mental health” The likelihood of looking for another job
High burnout 55% 47% 56%
Moderate burnout 57% 51% 29%
Low/no burnout 80% 67% 18%

All of this results in employees who are less productive at work. Nearly half (46%) of employees self-reported that their mental health situation has had a negative impact on their job performance. Similarly, just over half (51%) of employers interviewed said that the poor state of employee mental health has had an impact on the organization as a whole. 

This negative effect on mental health is felt somewhat stronger by hybrid workers (52%) and remote workers (49%) when compared to their on-site (41%) co-workers. 

Webinar: How to Stop Employee Turnover

Employee well-being programs aren’t utilized

In an attempt to safeguard employees’ physical and mental health, organizations are implementing different types of health and wellness perks and benefits for their employees. These include:

    • Paid sick days for the benefit of their mental well-being, to tackle emotional exhaustion, or when feeling overwhelmed.
    • Stipends for health and wellness expenses such as gym membership, therapy, healthcare costs, etc. 
    • Courses on stress management
    • Flexible work hours to help employees better manage their work-life balance.

In one study, Deloitte found that 68% of workers surveyed are not using the well-being resources and perks that their organizations are offering them. This is because they find them “too time-consuming, confusing, or cumbersome.” 

Shift-based industries have some of the highest burnout rates

One study surveyed employees from various industries to see which ones have the highest rates of burnout. The hotel, food services, and hospitality industry topped the list, with 80.3% of employees feeling burnt out by their workload. 

The next highest are manufacturing (77.4%) and medical and healthcare (76.8%). Wholesale and retail ranked sixth highest at 75%. 

One of the main causes of burnout? Your boss

Gallup found that the biggest contributors to employee burnout are “unfair treatment at work,” an unmanageable workload, unclear communication and support from management, and unreasonable time pressure. 

These factors are something management can address to reduce their staff’s burnout.

Download our whitepaper on how to reduce burnout of hourly employees

We’re living through a burnout epidemic, and as employers and human resources professionals, you have an important role to play in helping your employees and your organization. In our whitepaper, How to Reduce Burnout of Hourly Employees, we dive a bit deeper into the causes and costs of burnout as well as how to reduce it. 

Download the whitepaper here. 

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What is employee self-service? [Guide]

Summary

  • Employee self-service (ESS) is technology that allows employees to perform HR tasks on their own such as updating their personal information, viewing pay stubs, and accessing company handbooks.

  • For shift workers, employee self-service goes beyond streamlining HR. It’s also about giving employees the flexibility they need to be productive in and outside of work.

  • A truly effective ESS software is one that’s optimized for daily operations – think access to schedules, reviewable timesheets, vacant shift claiming, and PTO management.

Updating personal information, managing benefits, and filing leave requests —these are all HR tasks that can be delegated to staff through employee self-service (ESS). But what is employee self-service exactly, and why is it important, especially for hourly workforces?

What is employee self-service?

Employee self-service refers to technology that allows employees to complete various administrative tasks related to HR, IT, and operations on their own. 

It’s all about providing a way for staff to easily get admin work done without going through a middleman. Some common tasks done through ESS include updating bank details, accessing employee handbooks and company policies, requesting PTO, managing and enrolling for benefits, editing timesheets, and much more. 

How does employee self-service work?

Employee self-service is usually done through a portal where employees can view and manage their employment details. Sometimes, ESS portals are managed internally via a company’s private intranet. However, most businesses run their ESS portal through HCM software.

In this instance, employees get their own login credentials and profile, where they can then access various things like their schedules, timesheets, benefits, time off, and more. ESS features allow employees to edit this information themselves without having to get HR’s help. 

The benefit of ESS features

Employee self-service goes beyond streamlining HR processes for hourly employees. It’s also about ensuring employees perform at their best each shift. Here are some of the unique benefits of implementing employee self-service:

Flexibility

Flexibility for shift-based workers is not about extra vacation days or working remotely. It’s about knowing their schedules ahead of time so that they can plan their personal life accordingly. 

Self-service gives employees the ability to see their schedules in advance, file leave requests, pick up open shifts, view their timesheets, and access their benefits or wages. All of these are crucial not only for daily operations, but for giving employees the tools they need to plan their lives accordingly outside of work. 

Efficiency

Employee self-service features are typically only possible if your business runs its operations and HR on a single, online system. With all your data in one place, it’s very easy for employees to update whatever information they need. This, in turn, streamlines things like onboarding, leave management, and timesheet approvals.

Employee self-service features also improve your response time to unexpected absences. Mobile features like shift swapping and shift bidding enable employees to schedule themselves whenever call-outs or no-shows occur.

Finally, communication is also another thing that ESS simplifies for hourly workers. It eliminates the lengthy back-and-forth communication that often plagues fast-paced work environments. Whether it’s a question about their schedules or a clarification about their timesheets, ESS speeds up the correspondence. 

Reduced administrative burden

At its core, self-service functionality really just makes life easier for managers and HR. By offloading basic admin work to employees, managers can spend more time on the things that matter. 

Employee onboarding, for instance, is an area where employee self-service features come in handy. DIY onboarding checklists reduce HR’s time spent on paperwork and data entry by allowing employees to fill in their own information and upload required documents. At the same time, new hires can also access the employee handbook and other relevant company policies as they integrate into the organization.

HR can use the time saved to focus on things like strategic initiatives and skills development programs. At the same time, frontline managers can spend more time on the floor and coaching their teams. 

Webinar: How to Track Skills Development for Hourly Staff

Increased team morale

Employees tend to be more satisfied with their work when a strong employee self-service system is in place. They feel that they’re trusted enough to do specific HR tasks on their own and that the organization values their time. 

Implementing a self-service system signals to employees that management trusts them; this inherently makes employees feel more valued. When things like timesheets, schedules, and PTO details are readily available for them to access, it leaves no room for ambiguity or miscommunication. Employees can rest assured that everything is in the system, and they can refer back to this information if need be. 

Challenges with implementing employee self-service

Implementing employee self-service in an organization can be challenging. Here are some of the hurdles organizations typically come across when trying to implement ESS in their organization:

Adoption

Resistance to change is a common challenge for organizations trying to implement employee self-service systems for their staff. Some employees may feel like learning the new platform is time-consuming and may prefer the traditional hands-off approach.

Training time

There’s a learning curve to using employee self-service systems, which can affect how receptive employees will be to the new system. It becomes more challenging when you have multiple platforms that employees need to learn. For example, you have one portal for scheduling and another for onboarding and benefits. Employees may perceive this as additional work and struggle to juggle multiple accounts.

Maintenance

Deploying an employee self-service system is not a one-time thing. It’s an iterative process. More than building an easy-to-do-business model, it also needs updated information. 

Think of it as a knowledge base or portal for your employees. Any update on policies, employee handbook, or standard operating procedures must be reflected in the system, which requires regular evaluation and upkeep. 

Analyzing adoption

Getting an employee self-service system up and running is just half the battle. The other half is monitoring how the employees are actually using it.

Analyzing how the system is used is vital to understanding your return on investment. By monitoring adoption and use, you’ll discover how staff engage with the system, what works well with it, and what features need to be improved.

Improving employee self-service for hourly workers

Employee self-service is only effective when it’s implemented correctly. Here are some best practices to realize its ROI for hourly workers. 

Prioritize ease of use

An employee self-service system is only as good as its interface. People tend to gravitate toward systems that are easy to use and low on time commitment. Don’t adopt a dated system with a clunky UI – it will only make employees’ jobs harder. 

Keep it all-in-one

For shift-based workforces, it’s important to have all self-service functionality housed in a single platform. If you can, only subject your employees to creating a single account for everything they need since it’s often confusing for employees to manage different portals.

Make it mobile

Employee self-service platforms are more effective when they’re app-based. Shift workers can’t be bothered logging into a communal desktop to do things like check their schedule or submit timesheets – they should have 24/7 access to whatever they need right from their phone.

Get user feedback

Ask your employees what they think about the system, and act on their feedback. A system may seem good on paper, but nothing beats real-time insight from the people who use it. 

Gather feedback from your employees, validate it, and then see how you can improve your ESS. Remember that implementing it is an iterative process. It should be consistently updated to maximize employee efficiency and satisfaction.  

Finding the right employee self-service software

The best employee self-service system is one that’s optimized not only for HR admin work, but for daily operations. 

At Workforce.com, we’re all about shift workers. That’s why we believe ESS needs to go beyond viewing and updating personal information. For shift-based teams, it needs to be dynamic enough to streamline scheduling changes, timesheet approvals, and much more.

Screenshot of an ESS portal on a phone
Workforce.com’s Employee Self-Service app makes it easier for staff to manage their information.

Workforce.com has a specialized employee self-service platform that allows them to view personal details, access contracts, view time off balances, check schedules, approve timesheets, and bid for shifts, all in a single platform.

Learn more about how Workforce.com’s employee self-service software helps hourly workforces around the globe. Book a call with us today. 

 

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Labor Shortage Statistics & Trends (2023)

A small worker reading a big newspaper

Summary

  • If all the unemployed people in the United States of America were to find a job right now, there would still be over 4 million jobs left to fill. — More

  • Labor force participation is 1% lower than pre-pandemic levels or about 2.9 million fewer workers. — More

  • Lower-paid industries — like wholesale and retail — have been most affected by the labor shortage crisis. — More

  • You can use a workforce management solution to make your organization more agile in times of worker shortages. It can be used for things like labor forecasting, scheduling, employee engagement, and cross-training. — More

Last year, an impressive 3.8 million new jobs were added to the American market as businesses started to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, labor force participation remains below pre-pandemic levels. There are nearly 3.4 million fewer American workers now than in February 2020 in an epoch that has been dubbed The Great Resignation. 

According to the latest information from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the total number of nonfarm payroll employment increased last month by 263,000. The unemployment rate also decreased to 3.5% as 5.8 million workers were registered as being out of the labor market in September. 

When companies better understand the current statistics surrounding the labor market, they can adapt to stay afloat during the labor shortage. With workforce management tools like smarter scheduling and labor forecasting, companies can find smarter ways of working around short-staffing situations.

Here’s what the latest stats tell us about the labor shortage crisis

There’s a higher number of job openings than there are people in the job market

Even if all unemployed people in the United States were to find a job today, there would still be over 4 million jobs to fill. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce highlighted that there are currently 10 million unfilled jobs but only 5.8 million people unemployed. 

By comparison, in February 2020, there were also 5.8 million unemployed workers and 6.9 million job openings. 

Labor force participation is lower than pre-pandemic levels

Currently, labor participation in the United States is at 62.3%, which is 1% lower than it was in February 2020. Labor force participation refers to anyone who is currently working or actively looking for work. The 1% decrease in participation rate amounts to 2.9 million fewer workers contributing to the US economy. 

According to research by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are different reasons for this drop in participation:

  1. More women are staying home to take care of dependents.
  2. There’s a lack of “good jobs.”
  3. There are remaining safety concerns linked with COVID-19.
  4. Salaries are considered to be too low. 
  5. People are focusing on acquiring new skills or education before re-entering the job market.
  6. People have more money saved since the pandemic and can afford to stay out of work a bit longer.
  7. The pandemic drove a lot of people into early retirement – over 3 million older workers as of October 2021.
  8. More people have started their own businesses. In 2021, a record high 5.4 million new businesses were opened. 

The labor shortage has affected different industries differently

Lower-paid industries have historically been most affected by the labor shortage crisis. The most affected industries are wholesale and retail trade, durable goods and manufacturing, and leisure and hospitality. 

According to the September 2022 BLS employment situation:

  • The leisure and hospitality sector added 83,000 jobs. Employment rose in food services and drinking places by 60,000. The sector is still experiencing a labor supply below pre-pandemic levels by 1.1 million or 6.7%.
  • The healthcare industry welcomed 60,000 new workers last month, finally returning to its pre-pandemic level last seen in February 2020.
  • Professional and business services are experiencing an upward trend in hiring rates. The sector currently has an average job growth of 72,000 per month this year.
  • Other industries experiencing upward trends include manufacturing (22,000), construction (19,000), and wholesale trade (11,000).

How to stay ahead during a labor shortage

There are many ways to utilize workforce and scheduling software to make your operations run smoothly during a labor shortage. 

1. Utilize labor forecasting

Labor forecasting helps you estimate consumer demand, allowing you to schedule shifts to match it. With demand-based scheduling, you avoid under or overstaffing. Your employees are also less likely to burn out and, ultimately, quit. 

Luckily there is an easy way for businesses to schedule like this. 

Labor forecasting software allows you to look at historical sales, foot traffic, weather, and economic trends to better determine the amount of labor you’ll need to schedule to meet upcoming demand. This leads to smarter scheduling, such as utilizing your most experienced employees during busier periods for increased efficiency. 

2. Stay ahead of your scheduling

Scheduling your shifts in advance allows you to be more agile and adaptable. It gives your employees enough time to review and make any changes needed without causing any major, last-minute disruptions. In turn, they have a better work-life balance and can fully focus on the job when they’re on the clock.

Employee scheduling software centralizes scheduling and provides standardized methods for shift swaps and replacements, increasing administrative efficiency and staff agility. It also helps you manage time off requests in a way that ensures you have enough employees to cover demand. 

Workforce.com’s scheduling software also incorporates breaks into work schedules. This way, you make sure your staff is taking the breaks they need to remain engaged and productive. Breaks are also automatically included to remain legally compliant with federal and state laws.  

Webinar: How to Schedule While Understaffed

3. Keep your employees engaged 

Happy and engaged employees are less likely to leave. Use communication and feedback tools to boost engagement, retention rates, and healthy production levels. 

Communication tools allow for quicker and more transparent updates and make it easier to share important company announcements. This way, employees feel valued, and it helps to bridge the gap between them and management. 

Feedback is an essential part of making your employees feel more appreciated. You can use shift feedback tools to cover various aspects of shift performance. Shift feedback tools work both ways – employees receive valuable feedback from management, but they are also able to provide feedback on things like staffing-level issues. 

Webinar: How to Retain Hourly Employees

4. Cross-train your staff

Cross-training ensures that your employees can deal better with short-staffing challenges. Your staff can handle a wider range of tasks and are therefore more adaptable. By encouraging your staff to mentor and train each other, you also create more cohesion across the company. 

To start, create a list of all your team members and the skills they currently have. From there, build a cross-training program that incentivizes staff members to learn from each other and progress as individuals. 

Employees who are cross-trained can fill in for each other during times of short-staffing and emergencies. 

See how Workforce.com can help you adapt to labor shortages

Workforce.com can better equip your organization to deal with the ongoing country-wide labor shortages. Features like labor forecasting, smart employee scheduling, and shift feedback tools will not only help you handle short-staffing situations but will also improve your operations long term.

To learn more about how Workforce.com can help you stay ahead during labor shortages, schedule a call or start a free trial today. 

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The real causes of manager disengagement

Summary

  • The causes of disengagement differ for managers and frontline staff.

  • Autonomy, mastery, and purpose are at the heart of managerial engagement.

  • The easiest way to improve manager engagement is to remove friction rather than start new engagement programs.

Almost all manager engagement programs won’t work. It’s not because the programs themselves are bad; rather, it’s because they are based on the assumption that the causes of manager disengagement are the same as front-line staff – like how you’re not actually bad at basketball when you keep missing the shots at a carnival.

a person playing a basketball hoop carnival game
While the hoops at a carnival appear the same at first glance, they’re not exactly regulation dimensions (see below).

real hoop size

What you need to do is adjust your approach. If we’re still talking about winning the carnival prize, then you’re better off not playing or looking online. Unfortunately, choosing to ignore manager disengagement is a bad strategy, although you can also find help online too.

The fundamentals between manager disengagement and front-line employee disengagement stem from what motivates each. For front-line staff, the primary driver of motivation often comes from extrinsic motivators, such as compensation or piece-rate bonuses/tips. While these are also important for managers, it’s not what primarily motivates and keeps them engaged.

Daniel Pink’s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us explores this in depth. To save you time, it shows that managers are motivated by intrinsic factors. What it practically means is that they are motivated by having autonomy, mastery, and purpose in their role. And when you have a manager that is disengaged, and you dig to the root cause, it’s going to be one of these factors.

Autonomy

Autonomy for managers is the extent to which they are able to make decisions without approval. 

It includes both explicit approvals (e.g. a policy requiring managers to get sign-off), as well as implicit approvals (e.g. there’s no policy, but the manager feels like they need to show their manager first). Implicit approvals are the most dangerous because if it were a risk the company should already have a formal approval process. This means it’s probably not a major risk for the manager to make the decision themselves, but they are paralyzed to make the call. 

How do you identify if a manager doesn’t have enough autonomy?

If you see a manager constantly asking for permission, they believe they need implicit approval and don’t have autonomy. The other side is when there are too many formal approval processes that impede great managers from making the best decisions. Whether you have the right balance between internal controls and manager autonomy is its own topic. However, one early sign is managers becoming hyper-agreeable and passive because they don’t feel like they can contribute new ideas. This will manifest as an increased turnover of high-quality managers. 

How do you give managers more autonomy without creating anarchy?

The first step starts with who you hire and promote as managers. When you have great managers, they make great decisions, not anarchy. When you’re not confident in your managers’ ability, it causes you to add in approval processes as guard rails to prevent bad decision-making. Hiring and promoting the right people creates a loop of needing less process, creating more engaged managers and better business outcomes.

Secondly, many businesses suffer from a culture of implicit approvals because they focus on tasks instead of outcomes or projects. Focusing on small tasks creates an environment that requires constant checking in for the next tasks and entrenches the implicit approval approach. 

The better way to manage workload is to assign outcomes (e.g. customer satisfaction, sales per labor hour, revenue), or specific projects (e.g. creating a summer menu, running a promotional event, etc.) So how do you deal with specific tasks that still need to get done?

You can keep task management simple by creating lists of tasks that you can regularly check on for completion. This way, you can see that work is getting done without constantly having to micromanage managers.

Mastery

Mastery is the continual pursuit of becoming the best at your role or a skill within it.

It’s what turns a job into a calling. Managers find meaning in becoming the best at what they do, which helps to insulate their engagement levels from fluctuating environmental factors (e.g. strategy changes, layoffs, new management). It also has the added benefit of making them more effective and productive in their role.

What are the signs that managers lack the ability to master their role?

A major sign is that there is little or no investment from the company in skills development and training of their workforce. This flags to managers that senior management doesn’t care to invest in their development. Usually based on the belief that training and development yields little ROI – it’s actually the opposite.

Another sign, albeit unconventional, is when the organizational structure creates layers of general managers instead of functional leadership. It stems from the idea that those that have the most expertise within a domain should be the ones making the decisions. Experts leading other experts. This gives the opportunity for managers to learn and be mentored, as well as promote a culture of excellence within a function. 

When a company relies more heavily on general managers, they have to hire managers that are functional experts that know more in their domain. It means these managers don’t have someone more senior to learn from. X is then prioritized over domain excellence and dilutes the mastery culture that thrives in functional leadership structures.

How do you create a culture that fosters managers to master their craft?

Before updating training and development programs, you need to know what skills each team and individual should focus on improving. Conduct a skills gap analysis to identify these skill deficiencies, and then you can start to develop a training program.

The effectiveness of these training programs is also much more likely to be successful when you can lean on functional leadership that has a deep understanding of how to train and improve it. That’s why you should consider whether you have an organizational structure that has senior management with functional expertise.

It then also enables you to run mentoring programs for managers so they have support to master their roles.

Finally, culture is partly a sum of who you promote and recognize. If you have managers that simply want to coast and show no interest in improving, then you need to consider whether they are right for your company.

Purpose

Purpose is how a manager can see how their role improves their company, customers, and society. 

It’s what helps them persevere through the parts of the job they don’t like without being worn out. Managers that don’t have a purpose will still have to do this tedious work, but it will grind them down and make them disillusioned with their role.

What are the signs that a manager lacks purpose?

The most immediate sign is that the company itself cannot articulate its purpose. Whether by not having an overarching purpose or having a meaningless purpose. Most of these companies see their purpose as making a profit and don’t see the need to have a bigger vision. Don’t get me wrong, making a profit is probably the most important thing a company needs to do; otherwise, they’ll go out of business. But if they want to keep their best staff and get them to consistently perform at a high level, then they need to motivate them through purpose.

Secondly, a telltale sign of managers lacking purpose is when they believe their role doesn’t add value. It’s often caused when they are a first-time manager transitioning from being an individual contributor where it’s easy for them to define their output, to an overseeing role where they are coordinating and not directly producing tangible output themselves.

Finally, a manager looking for the next opportunity is potentially a sign that they don’t have a purpose in their current role – particularly when they are looking to do a different role within the company or asking to transfer teams. This is a flag that, while they may align with the company’s overall purpose, their values may not align with their individual role’s purpose. 

How do you give managers purpose in their role?

This is probably the hardest of the three parts of motivation to actively change. Many aspects of finding purpose for managers are dependent on their outlook on life. That being said, there are some important things you should get right.

Ensure that your company has an overarching purpose that makes the world a better place. It doesn’t have to be revolutionary like going to Mars. A restaurant could simply have the purpose of serving affordable food for parents short on time. What you need to avoid is having a purpose so vague that it doesn’t convey anything. UKG has taken this to the extreme with their “people is our purpose” slogan. It’s super vague, could apply to most businesses, and your managers will be able to detect the bullshit a mile away. Try to do the opposite of UKG.

Next, you should help managers link how their role helps to achieve business outcomes, particularly when they don’t have a direct output like an individual contributor. They are taking responsibility for the work of their team, so make sure they get some credit for the good work that their team achieves.

Lastly, check that they actually want to do their role. Sometimes everything else can be in place, yet the managers still aren’t satisfied. If they fundamentally don’t enjoy or see purpose in their role, it may be best to see what opportunities exist for them to move into another role.

How to increase manager engagement

The easiest way to improve manager engagement is to remove friction rather than add new engagement programs. For managers, this means removing obstacles to autonomy, mastery, and purpose. These include:

  • Autonomy
    • Hiring managers that you trust and are capable of being autonomous, removing the ones that aren’t.
    • Setting outcomes and projects for managers, as well as automating task management and completion checking.
  • Mastery
    • Conduct a skills gap analysis to see what needs to be focused on in training and development.
    • Ensure managers have senior management with functional expertise that they can be mentored by.
    • Move on from managers that aren’t interested in self-improvement.
  • Purpose
    • Ensure the company has an overarching purpose that’s specific and makes a positive impact on the world.
    • Show managers how their role, even though indirect, has an important impact on the company’s success.
    • Check if they are passionate about the role, and if not, see if there are other roles they could move into.

Know that whatever you implement needs to take into consideration the fact that every manager is motivated and engaged by different things. Make sure your approach isn’t a blanket one.

Final thoughts

Focusing on compensation or pizza parties is not a good idea if you’re having challenges with manager engagement. The cost of disengaged managers is simply too high for a business to sustain in the long term.

You need to hone in on the extrinsic motivators of autonomy, mastery, and purpose to stand a chance of turning the tide. Be prepared to make bets on different HR policies, have difficult conversations with senior management, and leverage technology that helps increase engagement.

If you are interested in learning more about improving manager engagement, check out our webinar below:

Webinar: How to Increase Manager Engagement & Retention

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The hidden costs of disengaged managers

Summary

  • While employee disengagement is a common problem grappled with by HR, a much more costly problem is managerial disengagement.

  • The cost of manager disengagement takes the form of failed initiatives, underperforming company culture, and higher safety violations.

  • Address manager disengagement early on with daily feedback initiatives. 

Most of the employee engagement discussions have focused on front-line workers; after all, they are the staff getting the core work done. What often gets forgotten is the engagement of front-line managers, where up to two-thirds are disengaged. In fact, manager disengagement is even more detrimental to the success of hourly workforce businesses.

This probably stems from a few key misconceptions about a front-line manager’s job. Maybe it’s under the guise that they must be bought in because they’re willing to take on more responsibility. Maybe it’s because they’re willing to work overtime without being paid extra, and only someone that really enjoys their job would do that. Or, maybe it’s from the belief that managers are incompetent and only do busy work, so any investment into their engagement wastes resources.

Based on the last belief, Google undertook some of the most comprehensive field research to prove the hypothesis that managers don’t matter. Many of their individual contributors were frustrated with their overpaid and meddling managers, and they probably became even more frustrated when Google released the results.

The managers at Google were shown to significantly increase employee performance and decrease turnover when they were good managers. This distinction is essential because when front-line managers become disengaged, their performance slips, and they can become bad managers, whether they work in software or hospitality.

So what are the most significant costs to companies when front-line managers become disengaged and ineffective?

The hidden costs

Manager turnover immediately comes to mind as a significant cost amid rising disengagement. This is because one day the manager was there, the next they’re not – you can physically see the change. 

What often doesn’t get noticed is the degradation that leads up to the resignation – where the manager is still there, but they’re not present. 

 

A disengaged manager incurs significant hidden costs long before they even leave a company.

 

New initiatives fail and don’t roll out

The top reason new initiatives fail isn’t that they’re inherently a bad strategy, it’s because they weren’t executed well and never get adopted. It’s a failure to execute the change. If you reflect on your working experiences, this seems self-evident, but it isn’t the narrative on LinkedIn and other expert circles. 

Once you’re operating across multiple locations or above 100 staff, the complexity of rolling out a new initiative will require some form of basic change management. In fact, this complexity creeps up much sooner than most would expect.

A graphic showing increasingly complex lines of communication
The nature of how lines of communication scale mean that change and learning by osmosis only works for small teams.

For this to work, front-line managers must be bought in and eager to see this change through. While you can conduct the initial training, roll out the software, and run progress meetings, you won’t have the capacity to ensure all your front-line staff are following it. You need your front-line managers to step up to make sure everyone is doing the right thing every shift.

When front-line managers are disengaged, they’re less likely to go above and beyond. Instead, they will do the minimum work required. In change management terms, this means they become ‘resistors’. 

Ultimately, if your managers are disengaged, they will resist change because they don’t care to make the extra effort, and they won’t make sure their team is doing the right thing. This apathy leads to many well-designed initiatives failing and incurring massive costs.

Firstly, the investment in the initiative itself. This includes the upfront cost of resources such as software, materials, and consultants, as well as the ongoing costs like staff training, progress meetings, and reviews. When the initiative fails to materialize, it means all of these costs were for nothing.

ckup image of a Google Meet invite depicting the financial cost of having it
Unfortunately, this is only a mockup, though many meetings would probably become emails if this were made.

Secondly, the opportunity cost of not being able to do the initiative. Hopefully, the initiative was prompted because rolling it out meant it would resolve a major issue to hit a key business outcome. When you compare the cost of not hitting the business outcome, it’s usually even higher than the initial investment (i.e. it had a positive ROI). This can manifest into serious long-term consequences, such as declining market share, lower customer satisfaction, and reduced profitability.

Quickly infects company culture and lowers performance

Not only can manager disengagement prevent you from tackling new business priorities, but it can even take your organization backward – rapidly.

Gallup research found that disengaged managers had a greater negative impact on their team’s performance than engaged managers had a positive impact. This caused lower worker productivity, higher absenteeism, and more staff turnover, even when the staff members were engaged in their own right. 

What might actually be the most concerning aspect is that a disengaged manager can quickly infect the rest of the organization. Unsurprisingly, managers have a greater presence and influence in the organization based on the nature of their role in interacting with more staff. It means their impact on company culture, good or bad, is heavily amplified within the rest of the organization.

Unengaged managers can also become bottlenecks for other teams, where their lower performance makes it harder for other teams to complete their own work. When executives don’t address these manager bottlenecks, their colleagues become frustrated, and it can create a disengagement loop across teams. 

For example, a Head Chef is disengaged, creating an environment where meals are prepared slowly. This makes it harder for the Head Server and their team to get orders out promptly. Senior Management is reluctant to replace the Head Chef because they’re talented, and it would be difficult to replace them. Now the Head Server sees the problem is unlikely to be resolved, so they become disillusioned, and their team morale and engagement drop off.

Teams that interact with and rely on the Head Chef or Server (e.g. Maintenance, HR, or Payroll) are also likely to fall victim to the inertia of this disengagement. The more it spreads, the harder it is to rein in, and it spreads significantly faster when it’s the front-line managers that are disengaged.

This is why it’s vital that front-line manager disengagement is not only addressed but is fixed as soon as possible. 

Increased safety incidents

When it comes to safety, the bottom line is that disengaged managers and staff lead to 3x the number of safety incidents.

This arises from reduced attention to detail and apathy toward following safety rules. When a front-line manager displays this lax attitude toward safety, it further compounds the lack of care from the rest of the team. This managerial apathy indirectly signals to junior staff members that it’s okay to disregard essential safety measures. 

Any decent person should care about the safety of their team without qualification. Morality hasn’t always been a strong business case regarding safety. If you are trying to put a cost on safety, it’s approximately $1,100 per worker (not per injury).

Outside of direct incident costs, safety issues can cause public relations fires that lower revenue from customer boycotts, make it harder to hire staff, and start OSHA investigations and civil lawsuits. 

How to prevent manager disengagement

The most crucial aspect of avoiding manager disengagement is to find the underlying issues that are actually causing the issues. Applying general employee engagement programs may help, but it won’t be permanently solved unless the root causes are unearthed and addressed. While there may be patterns in the causes of disengagement, any program designed to fix them should be tailored to the individual manager.

You can find the issues first by ensuring you are measuring managers’ engagement. This takes two forms:

  1. Running standard satisfaction surveys or eNPS to identify which managers aren’t engaged
  2. Getting regular feedback from front-line managers and their teams so you can find issues

Satisfaction surveys will only help you find who is having issues. Collecting regular feedback will actually help you investigate what is causing disengagement. 

Because of the potential of manager disengagement to rapidly infect other managers and staff within the organization, it’s vital that you collect regular feedback. That way, you can identify the issues, investigate further, and resolve them before they snowball across the rest of the company.

Fixing manager disengagement may seem daunting – but the best time to solve it is now. Address it early on with daily feedback to prevent the hidden costs from getting out of control. 

If you are interested in learning more about improving manager engagement, check out our webinar below:

Webinar: How to Increase Manager Engagement & Retention

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What is labor forecasting? A two part equation

Summary

  • Labor forecasting helps businesses determine where, when, what kind, and how many employees are needed to meet predicted customer demand.

  • Together, demand forecasting and labor modeling make up what is known as labor forecasting.

  • Labor forecasting software lowers labor costs, reduces burnout, improves customer satisfaction, and improves hiring.

Labor is a significant expenditure for any business – at times being the largest. Typically it constitutes about 35% of gross sales; however, in some industries, it can be much greater.

Knowing how to keep labor costs from chewing up more of your revenue than necessary is a tricky game. So, how do you win this game?

It all comes down to predictable labor allocation. Knowing where and when to schedule staff helps you spend smarter, keeping you on budget. But more than this, it lowers employee turnover costs.

Data from a recent study suggests businesses with highly unpredictable hours that provide schedules less than ten days in advance suffer the most from employee turnover. Retaining workers is more important than ever in today’s economy, and many are turning to labor forecasting to help.

Indeed, labor forecasting has arrived – and it is here to stay for hourly workforces. But what exactly is it?

What is labor forecasting?

In short, labor forecasting is a process that helps businesses determine where, when, how many, and what kind of employees are needed to meet projected customer demand.

Okay, so that is a basic definition. But what does labor forecasting really involve? Perhaps an easier way to understand labor forecasting is to break it down into a simple equation.

The labor forecasting equation

Don’t worry; this math is about as easy as it gets. Labor forecasting can be broken down into the following equation:

 

Demand forecasting + labor modeling = labor forecasting

 

Without a proper demand forecast, a business is simply left with a labor model blind to the external habits of the market. This is not a complete labor forecast.

Without a labor model, a business merely has a mess of forecasted demand data with no real plan to quickly and efficiently deploy staff to meet that demand. Again, this is not a complete labor forecast. 

To properly forecast labor, a business first needs to predict future demand, and then it needs to build out a model to distribute employees and shifts according to that demand.

Now that we have established a broad understanding of labor forecasting, let’s take a closer look at its individual parts. 

Demand Forecasting

The more widely known of the two labor forecasting components is called demand forecasting. It helps organizations project things like sales and foot traffic for upcoming weeks, giving them a better understanding of their staff and scheduling requirements. 

Here are a few different demand forecasting methods: 

Qualitative Forecasting

The most basic of demand forecasts, qualitative forecasting, is for when a business doesn’t have enough historical sales data to use as a reference. It primarily involves conducting market research on industry trends, seasonality, and targeted customers to generate extremely broad predictions in demand.

Average of Past Dates

One of the most common forms of demand forecasting, the average of past dates method, creates basic demand predictions in the hospitality, food and beverage, and retail industries. Its accuracy is quite limited, however, as it only uses sales data from your POS system, omitting many variables that come into play when forecasting customer demand. 

It works by averaging historical sales data across a specified date range, using these averages as rough predictions for demand going forward. 

For instance, a user might choose to average out their sales from last year’s Black Friday weekend to use as a forecast for this year’s upcoming Black Friday. Or, they can simply take sales averages from the past three weeks and project them forward on a continual basis. 

AI Forecasting

Recent developments in AI and machine learning offer the most accurate options for demand forecasting currently available.

AI forecasting works by feeding customer data (sales, foot traffic, orders), external data (weather, holidays, events, etc.), and demand patterns (seasonality, trends, weekdays) into a machine learning algorithm. This algorithm then learns the relationships between all the different data sources to create demand predictions up to four weeks out. 

This technology makes it possible to incorporate a wide range of demand-influencing factors in your forecasts – something more basic demand forecasting software cannot do.

Labor Modeling 

Once you have your demand forecast, it’s time to put together an effective labor model. Doing this gives you insight into your current labor supply and the supply of labor you’ll need going forward. It also helps you determine the best way to distribute staff across your business. 

Simple internal modeling

This form of modeling simply looks at your staff availability and business operating hours. Its purpose is to keep just enough staff on hand to operate the business during operating hours, nothing more.

Since it heavily focuses on internal requirements and excludes external demand variables, simple internal modeling often results in problems with understaffing and overtime. 

Delphi method

A step above internal modeling, the Delphi method anonymously surveys many different team leaders and decision-makers in different locations to get an aggregate understanding of an organization’s labor needs. 

While the Delphi method takes into account much more than just employee availability and operating hours, it is still quite inefficient due to its qualitative and anonymous nature. 

Ratio-based

With this advanced model, AI creates ratios of required labor to meet forecasted demand down to specific teams, locations, and roles. These ratios guide scheduling managers away from potential over/understaffing issues and reduce overall labor costs. 

For instance, for every 20 pizza delivery orders a business receives on a Thursday, this model might suggest a ratio of 3 delivery drivers and 2 cooks to properly meet that demand. These ratios take the guesswork out of labor models, helping managers plan their staffing around customer demand and not just internal requirements. 

Benefits of effective labor forecasting

As labor forecasting becomes increasingly more intertwined with employee scheduling and workforce planning, businesses everywhere are beginning to reap the benefits of optimized forecasts. 

Here are some of the ways proper labor forecasting directly improves your bottom line:

  • Lower labor costs: Matching staffing levels to accurate demand forecasts eliminates accidental overstaffing and cuts down on incurred overtime costs.
  • More purposeful hiring: Labor forecasting reveals gaps in your workforce, helping you hire employees with the right skills and availability to meet your labor model needs. 
  • Higher customer satisfaction: When you consistently have proper staff coverage all day, every day, for every shift, customers notice. Knowing your upcoming demand and reacting appropriately ensures your customers are never met with poor service, long wait times, or annoying mistakes. 
  • Less employee burnout: Just like your customers, staff will also benefit from labor forecasting. Predicting demand and knowing your labor ratios on a granular level prevents understaffed schedules, meaning employees will always have the support they need during busy shifts.

Implementing labor forecasts with Workforce.com

Understanding labor forecasting is one thing; effectively utilizing it is another.

The best way to implement a labor forecasting strategy is to use labor forecasting software. It automates the entire process for you, running predictive demand calculations and generating labor ratios in minutes. 

This kind of technology is rapidly evolving the way businesses manage their labor – and Workforce.com is at the forefront of this evolution. Here’s why:

40% more accurate forecasts

Workforce.com’s industry-leading AI uses historical sales, economic patterns, and external variables to generate intricate demand predictions that fuel your labor forecasts. This method is significantly more accurate than the typical labor forecasting platform which only uses historical sales averages. 

Granular labor ratios

With Workforce.com’s labor forecasting, managers can see the number of staff per role needed to meet expected demand for every location, team, and shift – details that far surpass most other labor forecasts that just give general staff count recommendations. 

Automatic scheduling

Managers can automatically create schedules in a single click based on their labor forecasts, eliminating hours of admin time previously spent manually plugging staff into weekly spreadsheets. 

To find out more about how labor forecasting works, check out the webinar below featuring Jack Light, a Labor Economics PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago.

Webinar: How to Forecast Your Schedule Based on Demand

To get started on implementing a labor forecasting strategy, contact us today. We’d be happy to chat.