Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court was asked to answer these questions:
Whether an employee’s exposure to the N-word in the workplace is severe enough to send his Title VII hostile-work-environment claim to a trier of fact.
Whether and in what circumstances racial epithets in the workplace are “extremely serious” incidents sufficient to create a hostile work environment under Title VII, rather than nonactionable “mere utterances.”
These questions stem from Collier v. Dallas County Hosp. Dist. (5th Cir. 2020), which held that an African-American employee had failed to create a question of fact for a jury on his race-based hostile work environment claim based on his allegation that he had seen the one instance of the N-word scrawled on the wall of the hospital in which he worked (along with a pair of swastikas
While recognizing the offensiveness of the graffiti, the appellate court affirmed the dismissal of Collier’s harassment claim.
Though disturbing, the particular facts of this case ⌠are insufficient to establish a hostile work environment under our precedent. For example, we have found that the oral utterance of the N-word and other racially derogatory terms, even in the presence of the plaintiff, may be insufficient to establish a hostile work environment. âŚ
The conduct that Collier complains of was not physically threatening, was not directed at him (except for the nurse’s comment), and did not unreasonably interfere with his work performance. In fact, Collier admitted that the graffiti interfered with his work performance by only one percent. Moreover, Collier does not argue that he felt humiliated by the graffiti, nor would the record support such an assertion. Accordingly, on the record before us, Collier’s hostile-work-environment claim fails because it was not “sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and create an abusive working environment.”
We do not yet know if the Supreme Court will take up this issue, which remains split among the various appellate circuits. Regardless of your potential liability, however, if the N-word rears its head in your workplace, you have one, and only one, appropriate response. Stop it from happening again, period. Investigate and if you can determine the responsible party, terminate. If you can’t determine the responsible party, send a strong and clear message to all employees that such language and misconduct is not tolerated, and offenders will be terminated.
All employees have the right to work in an environment in which they feel safe and free from the risk of harm. That word creates the exact opposite environment, and should never be allowed. Hard stop.
The restaurant business runs on a careful balance of the right number of employees doing the right work at the right time.Â
But the first and most important step â putting together an effective schedule â is anything but simple.
Understaffing means restaurant workers will be busier than necessary and not have as much time for excellent customer service. Meanwhile, overstaffing means restaurant servers make less in tips, and the restaurant itself will overpay on labor costs.Â
You can avoid both of these wasteful work situations.
With the right processes, workplace culture, and restaurant shift scheduling software, you and your managers can avoid scheduling conflicts and create the most accurate schedule possible. Here are six best practices for creating an effective restaurant employee schedule.
1. Ask candidates about their scheduling preferences and constraints
The restaurant industry has one of the highest turnover rates â 81.9 percent as of 2019. Turnover has many negative downstream effects on a food service business, including an increase in the time and money needed to find, hire, and train new employees.Â
And your restaurant scheduling process could be contributing to employeesâ dissatisfaction. Consider the length of a shift when you schedule hourly employees.
Unless a restaurant employee specifically requests it, scheduling short shifts are a quick route to a disengaged workforce. A shift of four hours or less can have financial consequences. An employee may actually lose money working a short shift thanks to commuting costs and potential additional costs like elder care and/or child care. Â
Avoid creating schedules with too-short shifts by asking employees for shift feedback. Do they think the restaurant is adequately staffed for rushes? Or are they chronically understaffed at critical points in the day?
Keeping shifts in the 6- to 8-hour range will help employees stay fresh and engaged and give them plenty of time to earn tips.
Be proactive in the interview process and ask your potential hires about their scheduling preferences. Perhaps they prefer evenings since they are in school during the day? Or want to be scheduled on weekends because they enjoy busier shifts? Some will ask you to split up their off days when you build out a schedule while others like consecutive days off.Â
You may not be able to accommodate every schedule request or preference. But by asking, you can improve employee engagement and reduce turnover in restaurants. Youâre showing your team that you care about them as people, not just as employees.Â
2. Build flexibility into your scheduling
As a manager, your flexibility when building a schedule counts, too. While many on your team are fine with a schedule that varies days and hours, some hourly employees need stability because of other responsibilities that limit when they can work at the restaurant. Honoring those requests will make those employees more loyal, productive, satisfied and less likely to leave.Â
You also can add more flexibility to your restaurant scheduling with shift swapping capabilities. Shift swapping software is like a scheduling assistant that gives managers the peace of mind that all shifts will be covered. They can rely on employees to find their own work replacements through the scheduling app, provided that the switch is in compliance with labor laws and not threatening the restaurant with unnecessary overtime pay.Â
3. Provide the schedule as far in advance as possible
Last-minute and unclear schedules can have negative consequences on hourly employees, making it more difficult for them to plan their lives outside their jobs.Â
Finding child care, holding a second job (which many restaurant workers need to do to afford basic necessities), or taking continuing education classes all become more difficult when shift workers donât know what their hours will be.
A wave of predictive scheduling laws in the 2010s required that organizations with shift workers provide employees with their schedules up to two weeks in advance, giving employees more stability and flexibility.Â
This type of law only exists in certain cities and states, but the reality is that any hourly restaurant employee would benefit from predictive scheduling policies.
Look at the calendar; donât make employees wait until the last day of the month to see the schedule. Be transparent and consistent since staff schedule changes can be disruptive for employees. Building and posting the work schedule ahead of time relieves some of the stress that can accompany a flexible schedule.
One way to start scheduling in advance without the hassle of paperwork is with a schedule spreadsheet.Â
While this is a good start, the more data you have available, the more options you can access, the more accurately you and your managers can create shift schedules with the right number of employees at work at the right times.Â
The software analyzes operational data about the specific restaurant, outside forces like the time of the year and weather, and even how long it takes employees to complete specific tasks.
So, it can predict how busy your restaurant will be at any given time, thereby helping you and your restaurant managers accurately forecast labor needs.Â
When you plan well-informed, data-driven schedules, you can plan for optimally-efficient labor costs.
4.Hire the right employeesÂ
Some 36 percent of restaurateurs say that hiring, training, and retaining staff are their biggest challenges. Building a restaurant schedule that reflects properly staffing a restaurant goes a long way to easing those challenges.Â
With over 660,000 restaurants in the United States, pay and the right employee work schedule are big differentiators when people choose a job. Your ability to balance the proper number of employees with their schedule requests will determine their level of job satisfaction and your ability to make payroll.
Fewer employees means your restaurant staff is more likely to feel overworked and burned out. With too many employees, they may not get as many hours as they need in a job. This is especially true for smaller restaurants, which must carefully manage their labor costs.
As Lil Roberts, CEO and founder of fintech company Xendoo, has suggested, you can use behavioral-based questions in the interview process to assess potential candidates.Â
These behavioral questions shouldnât be binary, which might yield a yes-or-no answer that isnât helpful. The question, âAre you organized?â would give a more generic answer versus something like âIf I opened your closet, what would I see?â Roberts said. A more organized candidate might end up being a phenomenal host or hostess, she added, while someone with different strengths may be a better server.Â
If youâve had many employees who donât consistently show up to work on time, you and your managers can reconsider the questions you ask candidates. Vet candidates for vital qualities like culture fit and job expectations.Â
âIf youâre a business owner and youâve got a revolving door [of employees leaving], you need to not say, âOh, the workforce is bad.â You need to look internally and say, âWhat process can I change?â â Roberts said in an August 2020 Workforce.com interview.Â
With an overwhelming 95 percent of restaurant owners agreeing that technology improves the efficiency of their establishments, as managers go to hire new employees, having Workforce.comâs scheduling platform is particularly effective for restaurant operations. The simple, paperless onboarding feature sets the right tone for new staff once they are hired.Â
5. Donât forget about time off, sick days, and holiday schedules
In spite of your best efforts, youâll have last-minute changes when scheduling employees. Employees get sick and have personal emergencies.Â
Be clear with your staff that itâs OK for them to take sick days off of work. Some organizations have cultures where employees feel shamed or discouraged for taking time off to take care of themselves, and thatâs a health hazard in a place of business where people are preparing, cooking, serving and eating food.
6. Manage scheduling in real time based on changing conditionsÂ
The unexpected does happen occasionally, meaning that restaurant managers must be able to change their employee shifts at a momentâs notice. Managers need a scheduling tool that allows them to react quickly and confidently.Â
The Workforce.com Live Wage Tracker allows managers to adjust staffing levels in real time. Both overstaffing and understaffing can be dangerous for a restaurant, which generally runs on small profit margins. Any staffing decision that can cut labor costs will help.Â
With the Live Wage Tracker, making operational decisions on the fly to tweak your restaurant employee schedule is as seamless as possible.Â
Meanwhile, for those food service businesses with multiple locations, you can get complete oversight of staff numbers in all teams and at all locations. You can see how many employees are currently working and which teams or locations have the largest variance from your shift schedules.Â
See how to build your restaurantâs employee work schedule with ease and accuracy. Sign up for a free trial of Workforce.comâs restaurant employee scheduling software today.
To a nation waiting for action, let me be clearest on this point: Help is on the way.
Those were the words of President Biden in announcing the ordering of 200 million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses, a hike in the distribution of doses to states, and a promise that there will be enough doses to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of summer.
It’s an ambitious plan, but it’s what we need to end a pandemic that has already claimed the lives of more than 425,000 Americans and will claim hundreds of thousands more before we close the book on COVID-19.
Vaccines, however, only work if people actually accept syringes in their arms. Too many of us say that they won’t.
According to one recent survey, 39 percent of Americans say that they either probably or definitely will not get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them. Another survey pegs the number at 37 percent. While these percentages are trending down, and more of us say that we trust the vaccine and will get it, the needle on this issue isn’t moving quickly enough. According to Dr. Fauci, to reach herd immunity (the only thing that will end this pandemic), we need between 75 and 85 percent of the population to be vaccinated.
To overcome this vaccine hesitancy, some employers are offering their employees a financial incentive to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. Retailers such as Trader Joe’s, Dollar General, and Instacart are offering small incentives such as a couple of hours of additional paid time off, or nominal (e.g., $25) stipends. Nursing homes, whose employees come in contact with our most vulnerable population, are offering similar incentives to their workers. Others are offering free marijuana (full disclosure: they are marijuana dispensaries).
If you are considering offering a financial incentive to entice your employees to obtain the vaccine when it’s available to them, I caution you to tread carefully to make sure that you do it within the bounds of our equal employment opportunity laws.
1. Vaccination rules must have exceptions for employees’ disabilities under the ADA and employees’ sincerely held religious beliefs under Title VII. For this reason, if you are offering employees a financial incentive to get vaccinated, you better be prepared to offer the same exact incentive to those who cannot get vaccinated because of one of these legally protected reasons.
2. Incentive programs must comply with the EEOC’s wellness program regulations. Admittedly, these regulations will not be final until March 8.
Given that COVID-19 vaccinations will stretch for months beyond that date, however, employers should be aware of these rules and the risks they pose. Under these proposed and soon to be final rules, employers may not offer any more than a “de minimis incentive” to encourage employees to participate in a wellness program such as one that incentivizes the receipt of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The EEOC does not define “de minimus,” but uses the example of a water bottle or a gift card of modest value as “de minimus” and a $50 per month reduction in annual health care costs, paying for an annual gym membership, or an airline ticket as “not de minimus.”
Employers are considering bribes because they work. We just need to make sure that we are doing so within the confines of the law. We don’t want to solve one problem only to create another.
Specifically, the president is “asking the U.S. Department of Labor to consider clarifying that workers who refuse unsafe working conditions can still receive unemployment insurance.”
Allowing employees who quit in the name of “safety” to receive unemployment benefits presents a potential staffing nightmare for employers, especially considering that the America Rescue Plan (Biden’s the $1.9 trillion stimulus package being debated on Capitol Hill) proposes an additional $400 per week unemployment payments through the end of September. In Ohio, for example, that payment would increase the maximum weekly unemployment benefit to $1,072 (equivalent to an hourly wage of $26.80 or an annual salary of $55,744). At those numbers, lots of employees might opt to leave their jobs and take an extended, well-compensated vacation until the pandemic ends.
Allowing employees to qualify for unemployment merely by “refusing unsafe working conditions, which would make the employees the masters of whether or not they qualify, I proposed that the DOL instead limit qualification to employees who have tangible evidence of a health or safety violation by the employer that does not allow the employee to practice social distancing, hygiene, wear protective equipment, or otherwise unreasonably exposes the employee to a greater risk of contracting COVID-19.” A great starting point is the new COVID guidance President Biden has ordered OSHA to draft and emergency temporary standards Biden has ordered it to consider.
We need to make sure that we have rules that strike the proper balance between employees who have a legitimate reason not to work because of COVID-19, and employees who simply don’t want to work. Merely allowing employees to make that decision in their own exercise of discretion, and paying them a substantial benefit as a result, does not strike any balance at all.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of the identification of the first COVID-19 case in the United States.
On Jan. 20, 2020, the state of Washington and the CDC confirmed that someone in Washington State had contracted the virus. Since then, 24,809,840 additional Americans have contracted COVID, and 411,520 have died from it.
All the while, OSHA, the federal agency charged with protecting health and safety in the workplace, has done very little to address the pandemic, and we still lack a national safety standard on keeping COVID-safe at work.
President Biden’s OSHA will fix this glaring omission. He has called on Congress “to authorize the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to issue a COVID-19 Protection Standard that covers a broad set of workers.”
What issues should we expect this OSHA standard to address?
Mandatory masking.
Mandatory physical distancing.
Required sanitization and housekeeping.
Standards for engineering and airflow.
Required employee training.
Increased reporting requirements.
Some of these, like masking and distancing, should be second-nature at this point, but sadly have become overly politicized and ignored by too many. I applaud anything President Biden does in an attempt to get his pandemic under control and save lives so that we all can get back to living ours.
As you should hopefully be aware, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), the federal law that provided paid leave to employees for COVID-related absences, expired on Dec. 31, 2020, with an option for employers to voluntarily expand leave through March 31, 2021. The problem, however, is that while this leave has expired or will soon expire, COVID-19 is not expiring any time soon.
Help, however, may soon be on the way, as part of President-elect Biden’s America Rescue Plan. A key part of that plan is a significant expansion of the FFCRA.
What would change?
The FFCRA would be reinstated and extended through Sept. 30, 2021.
The 500-employee cap on coverage would be lifted and all employers, regardless of size, would be required to provide paid leave for covered COVID-related absences.
The exemptions for health care workers, first responders and small employers would be eliminated.
The total leave entitlement would be expanded to 14 weeks.
Employers with less than 500 employees would be reimbursed for this paid leave through an extension of the already existing payroll tax credit. Employers with 500 or more employees would not receive the tax credit.
I applaud this expansion, which is sorely needed as we navigate this virus until we reach a vaccination critical mass. I also hope it is a step toward more broad-based paid sick and family leave for employees, an issue on which this country sadly lags behind every other industrialized nation in the world.
While we’ve all been mentally overcome by the rebellion that unfolded at the Capitol and the civil war that I fear it started, COVID-19 continues to rage around the country. Hundreds of thousands are falling ill each day, hospitals are stretched to capacity, and thousands are dying daily.
The circle of people with COVID is closing in personally, and the number of calls I am receiving from clients with the question, “We’ve had an employee test positive; what do we do?” has increased exponentially. All the while, the rollout of the vaccine, which was supposed to save us from this pandemic, has been too slow and uneven.
The bottom line is that COVID-19 continues to win.
So please, let’s not forget that we are still in the middle of an awful pandemic even as our democracy is splintering. Wear your mask (over your mouth and nose), keep your distance, wash your hands and please stay home, especially, but not only, if you’re sick or have been exposed to the virus.
While the vaccine rollout has been mismanaged and mishandled, the vaccines still offer us a light of hope of a return to normalcy. I’d like to make it there, and I’d think you would, too.
Employee retention is a continually evolving metric for businesses and HR departments worldwide, set as a central guiding principle for maximizing profitability while simultaneously decreasing the expensive means of employee turnover and new hire training.Â
You could even argue that employee retention statistics are among the top markers any business could use to project its growth and overall health. So why is employee turnover such a big problem for companies?Â
Employers don’t always set proper expectations
One of the most common problems employers run into with high employee turnover is the simple fact that they don’t set appropriate expectations for their hourly employees. While many have focused conversations about the expected number of hours worked, uniform policies and job duties, unanswered questions left on the table can be the dividing factor between employees going or staying for the long haul.Â
Setting the precedent of days worked is a significant factor for many individuals, as most have outside priorities that can tie them down and change their availability. Effective communication is the lifeblood of any organization.Â
Having conversations about upcoming work events, potential scheduling conflicts, and holiday expectations is a simple way to ensure streamlined problem solving and proactive decision making. While unexpected situations are inevitable, stressors will always exist where systems do not.Â
Placing greater emphasis on employee expectations and companywide strategies can facilitate greater teamwork and minimize stress for all parties involved.Â
Build trust to improve productivity
Assumptions can crush employee morale, workplace productivity, and trust. When employers can set clear expectations, they can eliminate many of the common false beliefs created due to starting a new position at a new company. Leaders must be on high alert to ensure this has no place in their new hire’s thought process.Â
Prioritizing continuous and straightforward conversations with employees will cost you nothing on the front end and save you much more on the back end. Employee feedback is crucial for success, but if leaders and managers aren’t asking for that feedback, they may never get it.Â
The first step of giving feedback is asking for feedback, as this opens up the door for effective communication and will build trust with your employees. Plus, employees who can provide their input will feel a part of the company’s decision-making process and perceive it as an individual investment in the company’s future.
When leaders don’t ask the questions to get the answers they’re looking for, trouble starts to brew and may not show its ugly head for days, weeks, or even months down the road when an employee begins to act out of the norm.Â
Flexible leadershipÂ
The last piece of the puzzle involves company leadership, as this is a continually evolving role with its fair share of highs and lows. Being a flexible leader is crucial for maintaining integrity and high employee retention outcomes, as it facilitates high-level thinking and empathy towards your employees.Â
No one could have foreseen the unpredictability and chaos that 2020 has placed us in, so having a flexible approach to scheduling hours may be the deciding factor for workers who have children at home to take care of or another job to get to. Simple things like allowing someone to be flexible with their structured hours to enable them to pick their children up from the babysitter may be the reason why they decide to stay around for the long term.
Hours can always get made up, but personal responsibilities will always weigh heavier than a previously desired set number of hours to work.Â
Retaining employees versus hiring new ones
As with nearly everything in life, it will always be your responsibility as a leader to implement these strategies. Knowledge is useless without application. Keeping your existing employees happy through consistent communication is the fastest way to company growth and prosperity.Â
Technology can also be a great way to streamline scheduling changes and unexpected work events, as workforce management applications can make a big difference in eliminating unnecessary costs and time. Implementing these steps will lead you down a prosperous path of success and a fruitful career in leadership.
He just had a way of breaking down language into its most simple parts. Whether it was The 7 Dirty Words or The 10 Commandments, Carlin was just brilliant with language. For example, he dismantled each of the 10 Commandments into just two:
First:
Thou shalt always be honest and faithful, especially to the provider of thy nookie.
And second:
Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless, of course, they pray to a different invisible man than the one you pray to.
I thought of this yesterday after stumbling upon a tweetstorm authored by Kate Bischoff reacting to the New York Times article suggesting that Jeffrey Toobin’s long and esteemed career justifies that he should get his job back despite his Zoom full monty faux pas.
After asking, “Is this even open to debate,” I settled on my one work rule to rule them all. Here it is:
Don’t be the asshole!
Don’t believe me?
Don’t cheat or steal = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t sexually harass = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t refuse to wear a mask or follow other safety rules = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t no-call/no-show = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t fight = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t be insubordinate = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t whip it out at work, or a Zoom call = Don’t be the asshole.
Don’t use the n-word = Don’t be the asshole.
If you don’t want to lose your job for something you do or say, don’t be the asshole. Employees, it’s really that simple.
Advanced workforce management software features such as custom fields improve that flexibility and support immediate, real-time decision making.
The benefits of custom fields
Custom fields eliminate one-size-fits-all rigidity and give managers the flexibility to add, update and store any data on employee files. Itâs configurable by groupings of fields and can easily display individuals or customized teams of employees.
Workforce.com recognized the value that custom fields provide to meet employersâ operational needs. Every business has unique circumstances and demands, saidLeon Pearce, Workforce.comâs lead software engineer. Integrating additional flexibility into Workforce.comâs software caters to their unique needs.
âThere are core common problems that every business faces,â Pearce said. âThey need to do scheduling. They need torecord employeesâ time and make sure theyâre compliant. But maybe their industry also has unique requirements. Even down to a single business, there may be unique obligations. Custom fields improve how theyâre working. We add an extra layer of flexibility, which helps them achieve their goals.â
Easily track and identify employee needs
With core operations, Workforce.com can take thefull schedule experience and customize that for a mobile workforce. Because employees frequently move from site to site, custom fields provide immense value to monitor who is where and when.
Custom fields also can be used to track everything from each employeesâ T-shirt size to a specific shift schedule or location assignment, said Michael Valentine, vice president of accounts. âSome organizations provide specialized equipment or clothing for their employees,â Valentine said. âUsing custom fields keeps track of boot sizes for employees on a construction site.â
Valentine added that in one case an airline needed to store data on pilotsâ flight hours annually. They created a custom field and continuously reported on it while scheduling pilots. Customizing the schedules of multiple employees also eliminated the need to memorize their location.
âIt can be hard to remember, so having the ability to include an address and some notes that are unique to that location is really useful,â said Pearce, who was instrumental in developing the Workforce.com custom fields feature. âBeing able to add fields to schedules that are completely unique makes operations a lot easier. We designed a simplified approach to set up custom fields. We made this seamless so business admins can get in, make changes and updates and get the value out of it themselves directly rather than relying on an IT department to do it.â
Improving the user experience
Custom fields can be used with most core workforce management functions and across multiple departments.
It’s a straightforward process to add a field, Pearce said. Once the object to customize is selected â a timesheet, employee profile or a schedule, for example â the field gets a name and the information is included.
âThe most common one is text, but you can make a special field, like a day, or you can make it a file and that customizes the user experience. It’ll add a button to the schedule that allows you to upload the file. And that’s basically it.â
Adding a custom field to âemployeeâ populates the employee profile. Adding a field to an employeeâs schedule shows up on the schedule-building tool, which also can appear on their mobile app.
The same is true with timesheets, Pearce said, noting that it will be added to the timesheet review process. âYou can export to other systems,â he said. âSo you can leverage that information going out of the system.â
Custom fields also can be set up in the mobile Workforce.com app, Pearce said. Users can automatically link information, say from a particular location, in the employeeâs app so they can get background, such as the address and some specific circumstances about that site.
Workforce.comâs custom fields feature
Simplification is the key feature when comparing Workforce.com to other systems that allow for added fields. Workforce.com’s custom fields capabilities are much more simple to use compared to other systems that allow for added objects.Customization also evolves along with an organizationâs changing needs, shifting with whatâs important to a business.Â
Interestingly, custom fields have yielded at least one unintended consequence since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Pearce said.
âPeople have come up with some great ideas to use custom fields for storing information around COVID-19,â he said. âPeople are being empowered to solve these problems themselves. As someone whoâs building the software, itâs been the coolest thing to see.â
While custom fields are not new to workforce management software, Workforce.comâs integration into the operational process is innovative and provides exciting new results. Integrating custom data points to employeesâ schedules or exporting it into a payroll and invoicing system improves workflow. Tracking shift data and embedding into the time and attendance process saves money.
âThat is a big breakthrough that weâve had,â Pearce said. âWeâre definitely leading and paving the way in that direction. Custom fields are taking our software to the next level in terms of helping businesses solve these problems.â
Organize your employee data with custom fields and get Workforce.comâsscheduling platform working for your business. Request a demo today!
Valentine added that in one case an airline needed to store data on pilotsâ flight hours annually. They created a custom field and continuously reported on it while scheduling pilots.