Author: tasmin

Posted on

Should You Implement Tip Pooling? Pros, Cons, and Best Practices for Restaurants

Summary

  • 77% of diners say that quality of service influences how much they tip, which begs the question: should tips be pooled and distributed to the whole team? 
  • Tip pooling is an arrangement wherein tips earned are pooled together and redistributed among all eligible restaurant workers. 
  • Payroll software simplifies tip and wage calculations, helping employers stay organized and compliant 

Tipping in restaurants isn’t just about the food; it’s about the entire dining experience—and it relies on teamwork. Serving food is as important as cooking dishes, cleaning plates, and resetting tables. While a study shows that 77% of diners say the quality of service influences how much they tip, it’s worth considering: should tips be shared beyond servers and also among the broader team of restaurant employees that contributes behind the scenes? After all, a good experience is a collective effort involving both front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) staff. This is where tip pooling comes in.

Tip pooling in restaurants defined

Everyone is familiar with the traditional tipping model: diners pay a voluntary but socially expected tip of at least 15% for good service. This is usually a cash tip directly handed to their server and kept by that server. Tip pooling is a formal arrangement that allows the restaurant to collect all gratuities and then redistribute the total amount of tips between workers.

Tip pooling is based on the idea that a gratuity is given for the overall dining experience, not just how quickly and politely the food was served. This means kitchen staff, bartenders, bussers, and front-of-house hosts all share in the reward.

The way the mandatory tip pool is handled can vary from restaurant to restaurant. There is no legally mandated method of working out how tips are pooled. Common ways of working out the tip split include:

  • Percentage-based pooling – Tips are pooled and redistributed according to pre-established percentages.
  • Role-based allocation – Tips are split based on roles, e.g., 60% to servers, 20% to bussers, and 20% to bartenders. 
  • Hour-based distribution – This method is based on the number of hours an employee worked in a shift. The employee will get tips that are proportional to the hours they worked. 
  • Shift-based pooling – Tip pools are created on a per shift basis, and only employees who worked a particular shift are eligible to get tips from the pool. 
  • Team-based pooling – Tips are distributed among teams. For instance, FOH workers get 70% of the pool, while BOH staff receive 30%.
  • Points system – Staff earn points based on their roles, experience, or contribution. At the end of the shift, points are totaled, and each point is assigned a dollar value calculated from the total tips earned.
  • Equal distribution – The most straightforward method wherein all tips are pooled and divided equally among all eligible staff. For instance, a pool of $1,000 is equally split among 10 employees. Therefore, each one takes $100 each.  
  • Combination or hybrid method – It’s the employer’s prerogative how to structure a tip pooling system. Therefore, the option to use a method or two from usual structures may be needed to address specific concerns.

What you need to know about tip pooling laws

Given how central tipping is to the service industry economy, it’s no wonder it’s been a legislative battleground. Federal law governing tips has undergone several significant changes over the years, including who’s entitled to keep their tips, who’s eligible for tip pooling, determining tip-facing occupations, recordkeeping rules for employers, and how tip credits can come into play. 

But after all of the rigorous changes, from new rules being enacted to some being repealed, here are the fundamental principles of federal tip laws:

Tips are exclusive to employees

The US Department of Labor strictly prohibits employers, including managers and supervisors, from keeping any portion of employees’ tips, whether the tips are received directly or via a tip pool. They are explicitly not allowed to demand, request, or coerce staff members to surrender their tips outside a legally compliant tip pooling or distribution system. 

Tip pooling

Employers can establish a system to manage gratuities and require employees to pool tips. However, managers and supervisors are not eligible for tips from these pools. It could include, however, non-tipped employees such as kitchen staff as long as the employer doesn’t take a tip credit and pays employees the full minimum wage. 

Tip credit

Employers can pay employees less than the federal minimum wage through a tip credit. For instance, employers can pay as little as $2.13 per hour if tips bring the employee’s total earnings to at least the federal minimum wage. 

If an employee performs dual roles, the employer can only take a tip credit on the job that has tipped tasks such as serving customers. For instance, an employee is working as a server and a janitor. In this case, the employer can’t use a tip credit for the hours the employee performs janitorial work because that’s not a tipped job. 

Service charges

Unlike tips, service charges are mandatory fees added to a client’s bill and are considered as property of the employer. Should restaurant owners choose to allocate a portion of the service charges to employees, those amounts would be classified as wages, and not tips. However, employers can use those amounts to meet federal minimum wage requirements under the FLSA.

Some states impose additional rules around service charges. For instance, in New York, restaurant owners must explicitly disclose how service charges are allocated in contracts, invoices, or menus. If a portion of the service charge will be shared with employees, the allocation must also be disclosed.

The main thing to remember is that unless a formal tip pooling system is in place, tips belong to employees, not the restaurant. While restaurants are allowed to bring in a tip pooling system, best practice says it should be done with the employees’ agreement and clearly explained in their contracts.As always, with any labor legislation, there may be local or state laws relating to gratuities. For instance, California doesn’t allow employers to take tip credits. Be sure to check your exposure or seek legal advice in this area before proceeding with any decisions regarding the income of tipped employees.

The pros of tip pooling

The main benefit of tip pooling is that it addresses the imbalance between front-of-house servers and other staff by pooling gratuities and disbursing them to all staff. Although well established, traditional tipping is an erratic way of being paid. Tips can also be vulnerable to discrimination since they rely entirely on social expectations rather than legislation. This means that even for serving staff who benefit from tips, the amount earned can vary wildly depending on myriad factors.

Tips can also create an “us and them” situation between front-of-house (FOH) and back-of-house (BOH) staff. Most restaurants experience this friction, where cooks and bussers are out-earned by servers simply because one group earns tips and the other doesn’t. Hiring kitchen and other backroom staff is easier when they’re not at a disadvantage compared to tipped front-of-house workers.In theory, tip pooling can strengthen teamwork by encouraging a greater focus on the overall dining experience.

The cons of tip pooling

Anything that impacts how much money staff takes home each shift is bound to cause friction, and tip pooling is no exception. As you’d expect for a system that takes money from one group and hands some of it to others, it’s divisive. Implementing such a system can introduce negativity into the workplace if handled poorly.

While some locations have found a workable tip pooling model, with buy-in from all staff, there is a strong chance that it simply takes a small pool of money and spreads it more thinly. Research has shown that although diners expect and prefer their server to keep all of their tips, a tip pooling system doesn’t change the amount people tip.

Tipped employees mostly rely on their tips more than their contracted salary to make ends meet. This means anything that cuts into that income can have an immediate impact on their quality of life and, by extension, their engagement at work. Introduce a tip pooling system to an existing restaurant, and your best front-of-house staff, the ones used to earning the most in tips, may well leave for a restaurant that uses traditional tipping to maintain their income level.

Tips for implementing an effective restaurant tip pooling system

Implementing a tip pooling arrangement is a balancing act. When done right, it can foster teamwork and fairness. However, if mismanaged, it risks impacting employee retention and morale. If you believe every team member contributing to the guest experience deserves a a part of the tip, getting it right from the start is crucial. Here are some practical tips for building a tip pooling system: 

Create clear and fair policies. 

While there’s no specific FLSA-mandated structure to building a tip pooling system, creating a system that works for your team is essential. Employers must develop a policy that is fair to all employees. Start by assessing your operations and determining the best distribution method. Should tips be allocated based on roles, hours worked, or shifts? Outline clear factors for determining allocations to ensure everyone understands and agrees on the system’s fairness.

Monitor, evaluate, and adjust.

Like any company policy, your tip pooling rules should not be set in stone. Since they directly affect employees’ wages, reviewing them regularly is crucial.  Is the system meeting your team’s needs? Are there gaps in fairness or clarity? Gather feedback and make adjustments as needed to enhance employee reception or ensure compliance with legal updates.

Understand the legal framework.

While you have the flexibility to structure your tip pooling policy, it must comply with federal and state laws. It is essential to understand the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and any applicable local regulations regarding tip pooling and wage distribution. Maintaining compliance ensures that your system is both fair and lawful, helping you avoid costly penalties.

Communicate with your employees.

Transparency is vital to successful implementation. Explain the policy to your employees during onboarding and provide them with accessible resources for reference, such as an employee handbook. Managers should also be prepared to address questions or concerns along the way. 

Use technology to stay on top of tip pooling calculations

Managing a restaurant involves many complexities, and handling payroll for various staff and teams is challenging on its own. Adding tip pooling to the equation can make it even more demanding.

The good news is that technology can simplify the process, ensuring that eligible employees receive the tips they rightfully earn.

Workforce.com is a system that can do that and more. Here are some of the ways it can help you manage tip pooling and wages.

  • Classifying employees – Workforce.com automatically knows who’s entitled to what. Whether your tip pooling system is based on roles, shifts, or hours worked, it can make accurate and automated calculations based on an employee’s qualifications. This can be easily set as early as onboarding and updated anytime on the system.  
  • Centralized records – Employee profiles created during onboarding sync across scheduling, payroll, and attendance systems, reducing errors and duplication. That means there’s only one source of truth for wages and tip calculations. 
  • Automated tip pooling – Tips can be pooled and distributed automatically, in line with your chosen method, and integrated directly into payroll. Workforce.com even allows integration with your POS to calculate and share tips seamlessly.
  • Streamlined payroll – Simplify payroll calculations, even with pooled tips. Payroll computations even with pooled tips are simpler. Workforce.com’s payroll system automates calculations, from hourly wages, deductions, and tip distributions, using employee data and predefined rules. No complications every pay period, just accurate wages, all the time.
  • Recordkeeping – Employers must adhere to recordkeeping rules regarding tip pooling. Stay audit-ready with detailed records of tip pooling distributions. Workforce.com ensures compliance and provides accessible data for employee inquiries or regulatory checks.

If implementing a tip pooling system feels overwhelming, let Workforce.com simplify it. It can help you comply with wage laws while streamlining the entire process. Ready to see how Workforce.com can help you with tip pooling, payroll, and managing your restaurant team? Book a demo and see it in action.

Posted on

5 tips to reduce employee no call no shows (2023)

Summary

  • No call, no shows are damaging to businesses.

  • High no call, no show rates could suggest problems with company attendance policies.

  • Employers can use Workforce.com software to reduce employee no call, no shows.

The Society for Human Resource Management reports that unscheduled absences (also known as no call, no shows) cause a 36.6% loss in productivity. This loss in productivity can not only have a big financial impact on the business, but it can also place a strain on other employees. However, continuous employee absenteeism could reveal issues in company policies that are up to leadership to address. While fully preventing 100% of no call, no shows is virtually impossible, employers can use the following tips to reduce employee no call, no shows.

1. Make sure staff are made fully aware of their shifts

One of the reasons why staff might not show up is that they are not aware of their scheduled shifts. This can either be because of a miscommunication, or they simply forgot. It’s important to give your employees the benefit of the doubt — one-off no call, no shows are not a huge cause for concern. However, continuously missing work without a good excuse is a warning sign of job abandonment.

But it’s still important to make sure all staff are aware of their shifts. This can be done by having a clear schedule, where employees always know which shifts they are working.

Employers should also do the following:

  • Communicate shifts to employees clearly. Having an employee schedule where staff can easily see their shifts eliminates confusion.
  • Remind staff about upcoming shifts ahead of time. You can do this by emailing staff, or if you have workforce management software, by enabling push notifications on a scheduling app.

2. Require staff to accept their shifts with management

To avoid the typical “he said/she said” excuses from absent employees that might sound like “The manager said I could have today off” or “I didn’t know I was supposed to be working today,” require staff to accept their shifts with management, so there is no confusion. Both staff and management will know who is scheduled to work.

Employers should:

  • Make sure shifts are confirmed as soon as possible by employees in a timely manner while also complying with predictive scheduling laws.
  • Make sure that accepted shifts are recorded in a place that is visible to both employees and other management staff. This could be a physical printed copy of a rota in the staff break room, or for a more direct approach, it could be an employee app.
  • Make sure that any open shifts (when employees have not accepted shifts) are clearly visible on the schedule. Employees who are looking for extra shifts should be able to claim some.

3. Address any employee scheduling problems

If you have an employee who has a high track record of no call, no shows, this could expose a scheduling issue. Employers should work with employees to address any scheduling problems.

  • Does your schedule work for all employees? Consider sitting down with employees who have the highest no call, no shows and asking if there are any scheduling challenges leading to these no call, no shows.
  • Work with employees to address any scheduling problems. It’s possible that some staff live too far or have difficulties with other arrangements like childcare. If possible, make changes to this employee’s schedule that will reduce no call, no shows.
  • Consider using smart and automated scheduling systems that collect data on employee attendance. For instance, AI-assisted scheduling can recognize when employees most commonly miss shifts, and it will adjust future schedules accordingly.

Tackle employee scheduling problems with shift replacements

One way to tackle employee scheduling problems is to allow shift replacements via a mobile workforce management app. This is where employees exchange scheduled shifts with managerial approval. Instead of the responsibility of finding a replacement falling squarely on a manager, shift replacement software streamlines the whole process, automatically picking the best fit employees as replacements – all a manager needs to do is approve the swap. Managers can also post open shifts in a centralized location where qualified employees can receive notifications about available shifts.

Presenting employees with flexible shift options like this leads to fewer no call, no shows.

Create an on-call list

On-call lists should be used as a last resort for last-minute spontaneous absences when there is no time for shift swaps. Make sure that the on-call list is well planned and handled by management to eliminate further confusion.

At the beginning of each week (or whenever you are shift planning), ask employees if they are available to be on an optional on-call list for each day.

Make sure employees know what the on-call list is and how it works. Think of ways to incentivize staff to be on the on-call list. You could offer a few dollars an hour extra for workers working on-call shifts.

Outline a clear procedure for the on-call list. It could look something like this:

  • If an hour and a half have passed and an employee scheduled to work has not arrived and hasn’t reported their absence via a phone call, this is a no call, no show.
  • Management will call other team members who are on the on-call list and ask if they are available to cover the shift. It is important to give on-call members enough advance notice. For example, it’s not reasonable to call employees at 10 am to come in at 10:30 am.
  • If another member of staff is available, they will come in and cover the shift.

4. Evaluate your attendance and absence policy

Loads of no call, no shows could indicate issues with your employee attendance policy. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a service worker in the service industry has an average absence rate of 4.2%.

If your employees have an absence rate higher than this, it’s possible that your employees are not familiar with the attendance and absence policy.

There are a few things to consider:

  • Have you clearly indicated what absences (PTO or sick leave) employees are entitled to? It’s possible that employees are committing no calls, no shows when they should be using their PTO or sick leave.
  • It’s also possible that staff may have family members to look after, and this is has caused a lot of no call, no shows in the past. If this is the case, the employee may be entitled to absences under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the employee should have notified management. It’s important to note that if the employee did not apply for FLMA leave and does not show up, despite the family circumstances, it is still a no call, no show.
  • Do your employees know how to request time off? Sometimes, employees aren’t aware of their PTO and may not show up and not call.
  • Do your employees know how to report absences? Is the information about company policies in the employee handbook?

Absences could also be due to unusual circumstances (medical emergencies, car accidents, etc.), and it’s important that your attendance policy accounts for unexpected occasional absences.

5. Create a fair no-call, no-show policy

Creating a formal no-show policy that has consequences such as disciplinary actions or written warnings will reduce no call, no shows. When employees realize there are repercussions for their actions, it can make them reconsider their conduct.

However, it’s important that the no-show policy is fair; having a zero-tolerance policy (one strike and you’re out approach) for no call, no shows is ineffective. You might end up risking high-quality employees over one mistake, and it is already challenging to attract quality workers in today’s job market.

Instead, consider an approach like this:

  • An employee has missed work for three consecutive days. The first two days, the employee reported the absence as per the company policy, but the third day they did not show up. This employee should be given a verbal warning. However, if the no call, no shows persist, the employee can be given a write-up — including the dates of the absences and further consequences.
  • On a separate occasion, the same employee has had repeated no call, no shows spanning a three-month period. This employee should be given a formal disciplinary review with a chance to fix their attendance. If the employee does not fix their attendance within the agreed-upon timeframe, terminating their employment may be the next step.

Companies should make sure no-call, no-show policies and the consequences stay in line with labor and employment laws.

Use no call, no shows as an opportunity to refine your scheduling

Identifying potential problems and taking actionable, preventative steps will help reduce employee no call, no shows. Workforce.com can assist you with this by optimizing your shift scheduling and timekeeping requirements to best mitigate unforeseen employee absences. Master your attendance and contact us today to reduce the damage no call, no shows can have on your business.

Posted on

Should your business offer a paid time off policy?

Summary

  • There is no federal law mandating PTO in the US

  • Utilizing a PTO bank reduces deception, builds trust, and lowers absenteeism. – More 

  • PTO comes with some difficulties, such as determining accrual rates and navigating conflicts around the holidays. – More

With the lowest number of mandated paid leave days, the United States is often referred to as the “no vacation nation.” 

However, for American workers, paid time off, including personal time and vacation days, is crucial for maintaining a healthy work-life balance and job satisfaction. In fact, a recent survey found that 62% of workers consider paid time off (PTO) to be “extremely important.”  

This raises an important question for businesses – should you offer a paid time off policy even though it’s not required by federal law? 

As labor market expectations are shifting when it comes to paid time off, this might be a great time to consider revisiting your company policy to include offering your employees a number of days of PTO. There are currently nearly double the amount of job openings than there are job seekers, making it a job seekers market. People are looking for more out of their jobs, particularly younger job seekers like Gen Z, who prioritize things like flexibility and work-life balance. Offering a competitive paid time off package is a great way to do this and, as a result, attract top talent.

Here are a few things for company owners and human resources professionals to consider before making the decision. 

The basics of paid time off 

Paid time off covers a number of situations, such as:

  • Vacation leave 
  • Personal days
  • Sick leave  or medical leave (for physical and mental health)
  • Public holidays
  • Bereavement leave
  • Parental leave
  • Maternity leave
  • Jury duty

There is no federal law saying employees can have paid time off from work. In the words of the Department of Labor, “These benefits are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee’s representative).” 

However, the United States is now the only advanced economy not to mandate paid leave. And as workers return to a labor market shaken up by the pandemic, this discrepancy is becoming more of an issue. As pro-PTO advocates are fond of pointing out, “even the ancient Egyptians had paid sick days.”

PTO and the law

Despite the United States lagging behind compared to other countries when it comes to nationally mandated PTO, 14 states, plus Washington, D.C., have passed their own laws related to paid time off for illness. State laws can also dictate how PTO is accrued. For example, in Connecticut, the first state to impose PTO laws in 2011, companies with more than 50 employees must offer one hour of sick leave for every 40 hours worked, up to a maximum of 40 hours per year. This, however, is only applicable to employees in 69 job classifications. You can see an up-to-date overview of which laws apply in which states here.

Federal law does allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid and job-protected leave every year under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This time off can be taken for “certain family and medical reasons,” such as caring for a family member or a loved one or for medical leave. 

PTO banks 

An increasingly popular way of implementing paid time off is via a PTO bank. With a PTO bank, employees have a number of hours or days that they can use whenever they need to for any purpose. As the number of years of service an employee has given to a company increases, so will the time off in the bank – in 2021, that was 10 to 14 PTO days after one year.

The benefits of implementing a paid time off policy

Setting up a PTO bank has obvious appeal to employees, but it can benefit employers, too.

Saves managers’ time: As long as time is booked in advance (with the exception of sick days, where advance notice may not be possible), there is no need for the employee to explain why they are taking time off and, therefore, no need for managers to spend time deciding if requests are justified. This becomes even easier when PTO-tracking software is used. 

Builds trust: Managers don’t need to know if someone is taking a day off for a hospital appointment or just to catch a new movie on opening day. You’re treating employees like responsible adults, not schoolchildren who need to justify themselves.

Reduces unauthorized absences and lateness: Having a PTO plan means employees can plan ahead for everything from vacations to appointments without losing out, so work and life aren’t in conflict with one another.

Reduces deception: Ninety-six percent of U.S. workers have lied to get out of work. While it’s impossible to completely eliminate this kind of time theft, with PTO, employees don’t need to spin a story to take time off. They just use their time.

The difficulties of paid time off

As with any change to workplace culture, implementing PTO is not without its difficulties.

Earning more PTO is hard: There is a generational gap regarding employment tenure that can impact a worker’s ability to expand their PTO allowance. For people over 55, the average time spent at a job is almost 10 years, while for 25- to 34-year-olds, it is now just 2.8 years. This places a soft ceiling on how much PTO new employees can enjoy, which can lead to difficulties in recruiting staff and resentment, and decreased motivation for newer employees. Some companies now offer 15 days of PTO as a lump sum as soon as employees start to level this playing field.

Unused vacation and time off: In the U.S., employees are bad at using their allotted benefits – they often don’t use their time off and then experience burnout and are aggrieved if they can’t roll over those days and hours to the next year. Sixty-two percent of U.S. workers admitted to working while sick, and 92% said that they do so “because they can’t afford to take a sick day.” To combat this, educate staff that PTO policies are there to be used, and encourage your employees to use their sick days, vacation time, and other days off as needed.

Time off requests need fair treatment: Not everyone will be able to take their desired days off – there’s often a rush to take time off at the end of the year, for example, and some people will have to miss out to keep the company running. To prevent this, set up your company calendar so that PTO accrual expires in the spring rather than on New Year’s Eve.

Unlimited PTO isn’t a magic bullet: The idea of unlimited PTO is becoming increasingly popular among job seekers. The concept may seem appealing to employees, but it has its drawbacks. Most workers with unlimited PTO policies don’t take advantage of their unlimited time off and take fewer days than they would have with a set number of vacation days, and miss out on payments they would have received for unused PTO at year-end as a result.

A paid time off policy isn’t essential for your business – but it could be soon

The idea of a traditional eight-hour workday at a job you work for decades, with two weeks of vacation and national holidays every year, lingers in the popular imagination but doesn’t reflect the reality for millions of U.S. workers in 2023. Employees are more alert than ever to the benefits they want, and, for many, that is paid time off in their benefits package. 

With no legal requirement to do so, it’s understandable that not every business will want – or be able – to implement a paid time off policy right now. But between legislation and staff expectations, it may not be optional for much longer. 

Whether you think the time is right to introduce PTO to your company or prefer to adopt a wait-and-see approach, Workforce.com’s time and attendance software is already set up to help you manage time off requests effortlessly. 

Posted on

The Essential Guide to Shift Planning

A few too many under or overstaffed shifts. Angry team members who feel they’ve worked more night shifts in the past week than their colleagues. Labor costs through the roof to cover a high amount of overtime. No call, no show absences.

These issues, and more, are all byproducts of ineffective or broken shift planning procedures. To add insult to injury, your HR team probably spends way too much time every month navigating Excel spreadsheets and shift templates to get it right. 

It doesn’t have to be this way. Employee management tools like Workforce.com are specifically designed to help guide you through the employee shift planning maze with your sanity intact. 

In this guide, we’ll run you through some of the important steps to adopt that will make shedding blood, sweat, and tears on shift planning a thing of the past.  

Planning a shift schedule

The best preparation you can do for shift planning is to know your business inside and out. Filling all your shifts is meaningless if done randomly. Here are the basics you should cover before assigning employees anywhere.

  • Monitor demand: The most efficient work schedules take into account and even forecast the unique demand patterns of your company. When are you the busiest? Which nights are typically quiet? What regular events impact your foot traffic?
  • Know your staff’s skills and abilities: This is where managerial knowledge becomes priceless. For example, knowing which workers are particularly good at handling customers or which ones are great at mentoring less experienced staff means you can always put the right people in the right place at the right time.
  • Check safety regulations: Don’t overlook the practicalities. If you’re legally obligated to have a certain number of trained first-aiders on shift or need to maintain a ratio of staff to kids in a childcare setting, this needs to be baked into your schedule from the start. 

By making these a core part of your shift management system, you’ll head off lots of future problems and build your schedules on rock-solid foundations.

Creating a shift schedule

Once you’re armed with intimate knowledge of your market conditions and predicted needs, it’s just a case of filling those empty shifts. With the right preparation, this part of the job should already be less intimidating, but here are the key things to keep in mind when you create a shift schedule.

  • Know your staff availability: Assigning workers to shifts they cannot attend isn’t just inefficient for you, but it’s also frustrating for employees. Keep track of things like childcare arrangements, evening classes, and other important things in your workers’ lives. It allows you to get your schedule right the first time and shows them that you are taking notice of what matters to them.
  • Communicate schedules quickly and accurately: Don’t leave employees in the dark about their shifts. The earlier you can inform them of their hours and the clearer the information is, the sooner you’ll identify any potential problems.
  • Use the right tools: Many companies still use spreadsheets or even pen and paper for shift planning. Not only are these methods inflexible and prone to error, but they’re also hard to distribute and make it easy to lose track of details. Specialist shift planning and time tracking software can automate the hardest parts of scheduling and send up-to-date shift information to your workers’ phones in real-time.
  • Always plan ahead: If you’ve taken all the previous steps into account, you should be able to confidently plan shift schedules at least two weeks in advance. Indeed, depending on where your business operates, you may be legally obligated to.

It can be a lot to take in, and for people new to shift planning, this is where the feeling of being overwhelmed can rear up again. Trust your data, be methodical, and even the most complex shift planning job can be broken down into manageable parts. Remember, you can always use scheduling software to automatically match employees to shifts based on your criteria.

Navigating predictive scheduling laws

If you manage shift workers and aren’t yet familiar with the concept of predictive scheduling laws, then you should brush up on the details even if you don’t operate in an area where they are in effect.

  • What are predictive scheduling laws? These laws, also referred to as “Fair Workweek,” generally require shift workers to be given at least two weeks’ notice of their schedules and mandated rest periods between shifts. This means no “clopening,” where the same employee closes up at night and reopens the first shift the next day.
  • Where are predictive scheduling laws in place? So far, one state (Oregon) and eight cities (San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle) have passed predictive scheduling laws. Other states have bills coming up for debate. There are regional variations, so be sure to find out if these laws apply to any of your operations and, if so, what the specific requirements are.

The penalties for breaching these laws can be steep as they apply to each infraction. If you have multiple shift workers whose schedules do not comply, the fines will mount. 

Careful planning and good recordkeeping will help ensure you are not exposed to unnecessary legal risks. As well as compiling your shift data automatically, employee scheduling software can be easily set up to catch infractions at the scheduling stage, eliminating the danger of falling foul of predictive scheduling legislation in your region.

Even if you are not legally required to follow these laws, it’s worth implementing some of the changes regardless. Studies have shown that workers who have advance notice of shifts and healthy breaks in between are more productive and stay with companies longer. If staff churn is an issue for you, taking a long-term approach to shift planning may help retain employees.

Managing time-off requests

No schedule is written in stone, of course, and employees will want to take personal time off. This doesn’t need to throw your shift planning into disarray, provided you have established a clear framework for managing employee time-off requests.

  • Create a PTO policy: If your company doesn’t have an existing policy dictating the rules of personal time off, create one as a matter of urgency. It doesn’t have to be pages of legal language. A common-sense policy that lays out what is expected of both employees and the company is all you need.
  • Implement a PTO policy: The crucial aspect of any PTO policy is notice periods. How much notice must employees give when booking time off? How quickly will the company approve or deny requests? These are the questions your policy should answer.

As a manager, keeping track of who has time off and when is vital. You don’t want to approve requests that leave you understaffed. Using scheduling software is the quick and easy way to avoid this, as it can automatically alert you whenever a time-off request creates a problem elsewhere on the schedule.

Dealing with staff shortages

Emergencies will happen, and staff will sometimes not be able to work for unpredictable reasons. While this is never ideal, staff coverage doesn’t have to be a problem. In fact, you will already have insulated your business against this issue by preparing properly for shift planning in the first place.

  • Plan shifts using past data: You should already know when your highest sales periods are and when business is typically slow. Prioritize having backup staff for shifts that typically get slammed and cannot be understaffed.
  • Communicate schedules early: You should also be in the habit of assigning shifts a few weeks in advance. This won’t save you from staff with transport problems on the day of or trips to the ER, but it will give employees the opportunity to alert you of unexpected occurrences that aren’t same-day emergencies. Even a day’s notice is better than no notice at all.

The most robust way of minimizing the impact of staff unavailability is to allow employees to swap shifts to plug these unexpected gaps.

Webinar: How to Schedule While Understaffed

Accommodating shift swaps

The idea of shift swaps, or shift replacements, can create anxiety for some managers. Giving employees the option to request shift replacements seems to fly in the face of shift planning. A shift trade policy can actually be a benefit to both the staff and the company when properly managed. Not only does it help fill the gaps caused by unexpected staff shortages, but 87% of workers now want to have more control over their work schedules. 

  • Create a shift replacement policy: As with a time-off policy, this doesn’t need to be complicated. Simply make clear the period in which shifts can be dropped and picked up by available employees, subject to managerial approval.
  • Communicate the policy: Let your staff know that they are encouraged to request shift replacements if needed and won’t be penalized for doing so. Encourage them to use the process, and many of your last-minute staffing problems will fix themselves.
  • Automate with technology: Shift replacement processes are only as effective as the level of automation invested into them. Instead of scrambling last minute to find replacement staff over text and email, replacements should be completed on a single, online system. When an employee requests coverage for a shift, their peers should automatically get notified and a bidding process should follow. – this workflow takes the logistics of seeking replacements off a manager’s plate. 
  • Retain managerial oversight: Just like booking time off, you should still approve requests carefully to make sure that appropriately skilled staff are swapping like-for-like shifts and that any trades don’t nudge workers into overtime.

If you still handle your shift planning using spreadsheets or pen and paper, then tracking and implementing shift trade requests does become exponentially more complicated. Scheduling tools make the process painless by allowing employees to make their requests digitally while empowering managers to offer open shifts to specific workers. Any changes or requests will be instantly available to both employees and management through notifications through employee communications software.

Now you can be confident in your shift planning

Shift planning is less intimidating when you approach it fully prepared and break it down into a methodical process. Taking control of shift planning doesn’t just make the life of managers less stressful, but it also results in more efficient use of your employees and a company culture that is less likely to be derailed by staffing issues.

There’s nothing involved in this process that can’t be done using manual techniques, but if the complexity still overwhelms you, consider shift planning software to ease the strain.

Shift planning software uses automation to facilitate the building of schedules and timesheets, making the organization of shift work much easier. 

Try it out for yourself today, or, check out the free webinar below on the ROI of shift planning software, featuring exclusive research from Forrester Research:

Webinar: Building a Business Case for WFM

Posted on

10 employee timekeeping & tracking best practices

Summary

  • Using a software solution to improve your time-tracking is a great way to ensure you’re recording time and attendance data regularly and accurately. 

  • Following our time-tracking best practices helps you identify problematic patterns that lead to employee lateness.

  • Understanding the extent and causes of lateness inside your company will allow you to implement changes that will help reduce tardiness altogether.

Your employees turning up late to work from time to time is normal and to be expected, to a certain extent. The problem is when patterns of habitual tardiness start to emerge. 

The most obvious issue with employee tardiness is the added costs to your business. An employee who is 10 minutes late every workday will have taken the same amount of time as one week’s paid vacation by the end of the year. 

Besides the cost, employee lateness and absenteeism can negatively affect productivity, which trickles down to your customers and can tarnish your company’s brand image. Tardiness can also mean more pressure if work is shifted onto other team members, leading to burnout and low morale. 

Accurate employee time-tracking and consistent recordkeeping help you identify the patterns and causes of employee lateness. Business owners often turn to time-tracking software to do this and to prevent tardiness from getting out of control.  

Here are 10 employee timekeeping best practices you can use to encourage timeliness and efficiency at your business.

1. Keep precise records

Accurate time and attendance data is the foundation of any timekeeping initiative. Without knowing exactly who is on time, who’s late, how often they’re late, and by how much, fixing the problem feels like working in the dark. Having access to this data in real time makes employee time tracking easy.

Use time and attendance software to put this informational bedrock in place from the start. Once you know that you are accurately recording attendance data in a usable form, you’ve made any new timekeeping initiative much easier to manage.

2. Track data regularly

Manual entry timekeeping systems are prone to errors, yet so many small businesses still rely on spreadsheets for tracking employee hours. The longer you leave gaps in the data, the greater the chance that employees will forget what time they arrived or left.

If your company is still using manual timecards and employee timesheets, you should be collating that data daily, when possible, or weekly at the very least. Don’t get complacent if you’ve swapped manual methods for a software system. Be sure to generate attendance reports at a similar cadence, at least once a week. The sooner you spot a problem, the more quickly you can address it.

3. Spot problematic patterns

Consistent data tracking helps you spot the problematic patterns holding your business back.

Once you have your regular cycle of time and attendance data in place, take a holistic view of what it is showing you about your business over time. Look for deeper recurring patterns related to particular shifts, managers, or locations. There may be a simple fix for hotspots of poor timekeeping methods, but if you don’t know a hotspot exists, you’ll never be able to address it.

Webinar: The Best Way to Replace Call-Outs

4. Have a clear point of contact

A clear management hierarchy means there’s no confusion over attendance issue reporting.

Make someone responsible for time management and maintaining accurate timesheets. This could either be on a per-shift basis or per location or department. Make it clear their role isn’t simply to punish late arrivals but to work with employees to resolve issues that might be affecting their attendance.

5. Use a point system

More companies are switching to point-based systems to track and penalize employee tardiness. These attendance point systems work by automatically assigning staff points for various infractions such as clocking in late, leaving early, or never showing up. HR can use these point records to build a case and take appropriate action against repeat offenders. 

This kind of system is perhaps the most practical way of dealing with lateness. Since points are automatically accumulated for showing up late, employees are much more likely to be incentivized to be on time to avoid verbal and written warnings. 

Webinar: Points-Based Attendance

6. Normalize healthy working hours

If staff are constantly expected to work late, they’ll be tempted to claw the number of hours or minutes back from somewhere else.

This is the flip side of making sure everyone arrives promptly. Show staff they’re expected to leave on time as well as arrive on schedule while still encouraging those who actually want overtime hours.

The WHO recently released estimates of a 29% increase in deaths from heart disease and stroke brought on by long working hours. Even if those figures are off, the days when people would tolerate overwork are on the way out. Be ahead of the curve in this area, and staff will notice.

7. Introduce and automate break times

Offering breaks means staff have fewer reasons to be late in the first place.

Breaks and paid meal periods are not required by labor laws in the US, but they benefit employees and employers alike. Staff who take lunch breaks are more productive, loyal, and engaged.

Research shows that one in 10 employees never break for lunch, and nearly half just eat at their desks three or more times a week. If managers are seen taking their lunch break away from their desks or workstations, that gives employees permission to do the same. An effective employee scheduling system should allow you to automate these breaks into the daily workflow, sending staff reminders when it’s their break time. These reminders encourage staff to actually take their breaks, unlike in non-automated systems where properly timed breaks can often go overlooked.

If staff feel the company values their time, they’ll value the time they give to the company. When they know they’ll have an opportunity during the day to make that important personal phone call or just grab a sandwich, there’s less reason for them to cram those things in before work, which makes them late.

8. Use predictive scheduling

Often lateness occurs because people are trying to accommodate their lives around erratic working hours.

Predictive scheduling is already legally required in some states, but it’s worth considering, even if it’s not mandatory. Setting schedules two weeks in advance gives employees time to plan. By reducing the number of frantic child-minding emergencies and other last-minute problems, you reduce the reasons for people to arrive late to work.

Webinar: How to Optimize Your Staff Schedules

9. Lead by example

Creating a company culture in which timekeeping is valued starts from the top.

Hold yourself, managers, and even executives to the same standards as other staff. Make it clear that being diligent with work time is expected of everybody. If management rolls in at 9:30 am several times a week, don’t be surprised if staff start to view prompt attendance as a moving target and follow suit.

10. Set and reward goals

Rewarding staff for being at work can be seen as a false economy, essentially paying them twice for doing what they are already contracted to do. That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to incentivize good attendance.

Applying bonuses to teams rather than individuals helps boost morale while maximizing engagement and attendance. Rewards don’t need to be financial in nature. If employees maintain punctual time reports by the end of the week, give them an early finish on Friday. You could even show appreciation through something simple like praise in the company newsletter or being given control of the workplace Spotify for an afternoon.

Identify and address lateness before you have an absenteeism problem

Proper attendance tracking is about more than just reprimanding people for being late. Patterns of poor punctuality are a warning. Addressing them is a health check of your company’s staff engagement and an opportunity to create a happier, more productive working environment.

Use attendance tools like Workforce.com to fully integrate these ideas into your business.

If you find your employee tardiness problem is morphing into a more severe absenteeism problem, it may be time to take additional measures. Watch our webinar on absenteeism below featuring Anne Laguzza, CEO of The Works Consulting. 

Webinar: How to Reduce Absenteeism

Posted on

4 proven steps for tackling employee absenteeism

Summary

  • Identifying the cause of employee absenteeism not only helps uncover deeper-rooted issues — More

  • Establishing an employee attendance policy promotes transparency across your company — More

  • Keeping your employees engaged makes them more likely to be productive and present at work — More

  • Implementing a scheduling process that is reliable and flexible will tackle a number of issues that would otherwise increase the likelihood of employee absenteeism. — More

A common yet highly disruptive issue any business owner or human resources professional has to deal with is employee absenteeism. This sort of employee absence refers to unscheduled absences beyond what is acceptable and planned within a company’s policy. Acceptable absences include things like paid time off (PTO), sick leave, or unpaid time off someone might take as part of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Having regularly absent employees results in lost productivity, as unplanned absences create extra pressure and more work for other team members. This extra work could lead to burnout. The causes of excessive absenteeism can also be indicative of deep-rooted issues, such as low employee morale or a toxic work environment. 

Employee absenteeism is a perennial problem, but it is particularly damaging in the shift-based service industries. According to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, service industries have the highest absenteeism rate in the US economy. Workforce.com’s own research backs this up. In our 2021 survey, 31% of businesses listed disruption to shifts caused by employee absenteeism as one of their biggest problems.

With the right tools and data in hand, managers can reduce employee absenteeism as well as identify and tackle its underlying causes.  

1. Identify why employees are frequently absent

Your business is a complicated machine. Just as you wouldn’t try to fix a problem with your car or computer by randomly replacing parts, you can’t successfully address persistent absenteeism in your company without knowing where the problem is.

Using employee scheduling software can tie together all of your shift schedules and time clock information. This joined-up approach allows you to query that data in order to spot the patterns of absenteeism and identify the who, where, and when of the problem.

Identifying the frequent trouble spots is important as the root causes of absenteeism can occur at different organizational levels.

  • Specific staff members: If a particular employee is persistently missing workdays, it’s worth checking if there is a valid reason. There may be problems that can be addressed without escalating to disciplinary action.
  • Specific shifts: If you find that absenteeism is a recurring issue only on certain shifts, it could be a problem with a particular shift leader or similar personnel issues that are making employees avoid that shift.
  • Specific locations: If you see red flags for absenteeism at a particular outlet or office, this may be a sign of managerial problems at that location. It could be an indication of something more sinister such as workplace bullying or workplace harassment. There could also be a local or geographical context — is that location particularly hard to reach on public transport?

Now that you know more about the source of your employee absenteeism, you can start addressing it.

2. Establish a clear employee attendance policy

Absences have immediate financial costs for a business. Absences related to mental health issues alone results in a $47.6 billion annual loss to the US economy through lost productivity. There should, therefore, be no ambiguity over attendance.

Employees will always require sick days or will be unable to work due to personal issues. Regardless, they should know what is required of them in such cases through a clearly defined absenteeism policy. This way, they are also aware of the disciplinary procedure that will kick in should they not meet their end of the agreement.

Your company needs a clear and accessible employee attendance policy. A good attendance policy should include:

  • How much notice employees must give if they can’t come in
  • What absence rate or number of absences is considered unacceptable
  • How many days of “no-call” or unexcused absences will be considered grounds for immediate dismissal

When considering attendance data with regard to employee absenteeism, it is especially important to take absence frequency into account rather than just how many days were missed. Ten days of absence in a row caused by a serious illness tells a very different story than 10 days of last-minute absences spread across the year that always fall on Mondays, for instance.

3. Implement incentives like employee wellness programs

Increased workloads and burnout are major contributors to low morale and absenteeism. Therefore, looking out for your employees’ physical and mental well-being has long-term benefits for them as well as your bottom line. 

Implementing employee wellness programs is a great way to achieve this. Such programs promote and encourage your employees to maintain good physical and mental health. 

A wellness program can take on many different forms. Some common examples include:

  • Installing fitness centers at your offices — this might be trickier for small businesses. If you have the space and resources, it’s a great way to help your team stay in shape.
  • Commuting incentives — encouraging your staff members to get to work on foot or by bicycle instead of using their cars keeps them and the environment healthy.
  • Covering expenses for things like gym membership, yoga classes, or even sports equipment.   

4. Create a reliable and collaborative scheduling procedure

Unhappy employees become disengaged and prone to excessive absences, and erratic work schedules are frequent causes of this disconnect. Creating reliable and predictable shifts gives workers more control over their work-life balance and allows them to plan their time with less stress. Research makes the connection clear: lower employee engagement results in increased employee absenteeism.

Implement predictive scheduling

Investing in predictive scheduling will not be optional for companies operating in certain US states and cities. Predictive scheduling laws are already on the books in Vermont, Oregon, San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, San Jose, Seattle, New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Eight states have pending legislation on the subject.

Whether you are legally obliged to implement such a system or not, it’s worth adopting the most common aspects of predictive scheduling:

  • Changes to schedules should be communicated well in advance.
  • Employees should have sufficient rest between shifts — between nine and 11 hours.
  • Avoid the practice of “clopening,” where the same employee closes up at night and reopens the next morning.
  • Offer available shifts to current employees before taking on temporary staff.

Following these basic rules will encourage a more engaged, happy, and loyal workforce and reduce employee absenteeism.

Offer collaborative scheduling

Absenteeism can also be a sign that employees are unable to work the shifts they’ve been assigned. One way around this is to give employees the ability to have more say in which shifts they work or even swap shifts with colleagues. Allowing this involvement in the scheduling process helps employees fit work around their other commitments.

Not only does this collaboration remove one of the common excuses for missing work or tardiness, but research also supports the idea that offering employees more control over when they work directly addresses the causes of employee absenteeism. A study by Future Forum shows how workplace flexibility means employees are more productive and more connected to their workplace culture. 

There are two methods of introducing more collaborative scheduling to your company — shift bids and shift swaps. With shift bids, the manager puts out a list of the shifts that need to be filled, employees bid to be assigned the ones most convenient to them, and then the manager makes the final choice from those who put themselves forward. With shift swaps, workers are able to trade shifts on an ad-hoc basis while the manager signs off on the swaps to ensure full staff coverage is maintained. In both cases, employees get more control over when they work without undermining the manager’s authority.

The prospect of changing the way your shifts are assigned can seem daunting, but employee scheduling software such as Workforce.com has features to streamline the process for easy implementation.

Employee absenteeism is your alarm call

A high level of employee absenteeism is a sign that something isn’t working in your business. Consider it a warning that staff morale is low, and there are scheduling and managerial issues that need to be addressed to stem the tide. Data from your employee scheduling software will identify these pain points, and the responses listed above will tackle not just the symptoms of absenteeism but the cause as well. Seize the opportunity to make your business work better, and you’ll not only solve your immediate absence problems but also create a happier, more engaged workforce for long-term benefits.

Posted on

Is your employee attendance policy and procedure fit for purpose?

Summary:

  • Lateness and absenteeism are early warning signs of a deteriorating attendance policy. — More

  • No-call, no-shows are becoming increasingly prevalent. Every organization needs a clear-cut procedure to mitigate the repercussions of them. — More

  • Automating the way you collect attendance data helps solidify your attendance policy. — More

Dealing with employee attendance can be tricky. You need your team to respect your company’s start time and adhere to predefined work hours. And you need to implement corrective action in the case of tardiness and no-shows. Any disciplinary action needs to be taken at the time and level that best suits your work environment and culture. 

Employee absenteeism and tardiness are bad news for any business and can reduce overall productivity and work quality. 

This is where having a comprehensive employee attendance policy is essential. It informs your employees of what is expected from them, and it helps your human resources team adhere to predefined discipline processes. 

The rise of remote and hybrid work due to the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more complex to define and monitor work schedules. Businesses that already have company attendance policies will likely need to revise them to take these changes into consideration.     

Lateness is your early warning system

A one-off instance of lateness may be understandable, but if it becomes a recurring problem, it can be an early warning of potentially serious issues with a worker, team, or department.

Tardiness is the most common time and attendance issue facing businesses. Studies have shown that, on average, a quarter of US employees report being late for work at least once a month. Younger employees are more likely to struggle with punctuality — 38% of those aged 34 or younger are late once a month or more. On the other hand, only 14% of workers aged 44 or older turn up late to work at least once a month. Almost half of US employers — 43% — fire employees for lateness each year.

The key is not to focus on individual instances of lateness but instead identify problematic patterns and prevent them from becoming systemic. For example, there may be a specific employee who is persistently late. You may notice a particular department or location with repeated poor timekeeping. Using time and attendance software makes these patterns easy to spot and gives you data-backed insight into the problem.

Your employee time and attendance policy and procedures should insist that employees who are running late inform their manager within a clear time frame. Your policy should also clarify what frequency of lateness will incur penalties and what the disciplinary response will be. Given that lateness is so endemic, some companies build some leeway into their tardiness policy, allowing a 10-minute grace period before an employee is officially marked as late.

As long as managerial leniency doesn’t undermine your attendance policy, there are benefits to reaching out to persistently late employees to see if the company can help resolve the issues causing their problems. Implementing flexible work, such as shift swaps, can help with employee retention and reduce lateness.

 

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

 

Absences require a nuanced approach

The cost of staff absence is much more visible than the cost of lateness. In January 2022 alone, 7.8 million US workers were absent from work due to health-related issues, such as injury, illness, or medical appointments. This is significantly higher than the 3.7 million workers who took sick leave a year earlier.   

At a strategic level, dealing with individual absences requires a nuanced approach. While granular attendance data is great for identifying problems, it should always be backed up with direct staff communication.

The latest US government statistics on employee absence show that the average absence rate nationwide was 3.2%. Excessive absenteeism above the national average suggests a problem with company culture. Either employees are unhappy in their work, or they are getting too comfortable with exploiting ineffective managerial attendance policies. 

The more detailed your data, the more precisely you’ll be able to identify the problem areas. If your company’s absence rate is noticeably lower than the average, say around 1.5%, that may not be cause for celebration. People will get sick, and the hidden risk of low absence rates suggests these sick people feel unable or afraid to request excused absences for sick days and are bringing their illness to work.

Know your absence rate

If you’re not using time and attendance software to keep track of your absence rate, it can easily be worked out by dividing the number of days or hours lost to absence by the number that should have been attended, then multiplying the result by 100. 

For example, an employee who is expected to complete 260 workdays per year but is absent for five of those days would have an absence rate of 1.9%. The same formula applies to individual workers, departments, or the whole business. You can now compare your absence rate to the national average to see how your business is faring.

Absence rates should always be considered in the context of absence frequency. For example, one worker may be off for 10 consecutive days. Another worker may call in sick on 10 Fridays during the year. Both would have the same absence rate, but the frequencies tell different stories — the first worker may have been seriously ill, while the second likes to have a long weekend. Your procedure should empower managers to take that into account when deciding what action to take.

That’s why it’s important to clarify which types of leave and absence you consider legitimate in your employee attendance policy. The policy should also specifically state how much warning employees are expected to give if they can’t come to work. For example, they should get in touch before 9:30 a.m. or at least an hour before they’re meant to clock in. You may require a doctor’s note after a certain amount of sick days, or you may have a different policy for emergencies or jury duty, for example. 

Of course, the day-to-day implementation of your absence policy will always be down to the manager’s discretion, but setting clear guidelines will prevent confusion on both sides. You will also need to familiarize yourself with and adhere to local, state, and federal laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). This allows eligible employees to take unpaid and job-protected leave for certain medical situations. 

“No call, no shows” are the worst-case scenarios

A “no call, no show,” also known as an unexcused absence or unscheduled absence, is when an employee simply doesn’t turn up for their scheduled shift and gives their manager no warning. These are the most serious of all attendance infractions. The lack of notice exacerbates all the costs and inconveniences of a normal absence, which means it needs to be treated especially carefully and thoroughly.

In an economy struggling to deal with phenomena such as the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, maintaining regular attendance is more crucial than ever. There are 10.3 million job openings in the US right now, with hospitality and other shift-based roles especially affected. 

Team members with low employee morale have never been more empowered to simply walk away — sometimes without even going through a formal resignation procedure.

If an employee fails to show up for work on consecutive days with no contact, that is considered job abandonment and is widely seen as reason enough to fire them. Be sure to make it clear in your policy exactly how many days absent will count as abandonment. Three is generally considered standard, but check state case law for any local precedents that have been set.

Therefore, your employee attendance policy needs to be explicit about repercussions for a no-call, no-show absence. Some companies make it cause for immediate termination. Others use progressive, points-based discipline measures that usually go from a verbal warning to a written warning and eventual termination. Be careful assuming the worst, however. For a first-time offense, communicate with the employee. It may just be a hangover, or it could be an issue with a family member. Be firm, but check the facts before dropping the hammer.

Employee attendance policies and procedures protect your business

Once you have closed the gaps in your employee attendance policies and procedures, apply them consistently. Penalizing workers for lateness while always letting a manager leave early sets a bad precedent that can backfire. The more airtight your policies and procedures and the more accurate your attendance data, the less risk of legal exposure for your business.

Having an explicit procedure to follow is particularly important when job terminations are involved, as this is an area where unfair dismissal suits can become public and messy. For example, in 2020, there was a high-profile case of a Boeing employee who was given a “last chance agreement” following repeated attendance infractions. The employee then took time off and didn’t return to work afterward. He was fired, but he sued, saying he had been fired for taking the leave, not his attendance record.

Evidence of repeated clear infractions of an established policy, backed up by incontrovertible evidence of repeated lateness or non-attendance, was what convinced the 3rd Circuit Court to dismiss the case against Boeing—and the same combination of policy, procedure, and data is your best defense against this kind of suit as well.

Collecting good attendance data helps keep your policy airtight

Workforce.com can not only gather that attendance data automatically, but it can also alert managers to staff that repeatedly fail to show up on time. This automation gives managers actionable data they can use to stay ahead of frontline issues. 

Webinar: How to Reduce Absenteeism

If you are ready to see what Workforce.com can do to help your time and attendance policy, book a call with us today or try the platform for free. 

Posted on

How to do a time audit [3 step guide]

Astronaut Dog Sitting and Working at a Laptop

Summary

  • Check the reliability of your data source: are you using outdated, manual strategies? — More

  • Look out for patterns across your system. Where are things going wrong? Too much overtime? Not enough breaks? Find out. — More

  • Translate your findings into long-term benefits for your business. — More

During the 2021 financial year, the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division awarded more than $230 million in unpaid back wages to US workers and brought almost 25,000 compliance actions against employers. Clearly, it’s never been more important to be on top of your time and attendance data.

The nature of shift-based work makes keeping track of how much time employees are at work a bit more complicated and, therefore, more likely to land employers in hot water with the authorities. The healthcare industry is one such example and has had a number of high-profile cases of recovered back wages.

It can be tempting to view a time and attendance audit simply as a way to check in on employee work hours and ensure that they’re being paid the right amount. That’s certainly one function and a vital one, but a time audit process can do much more. With the right approach, a time and attendance audit offers a regular opportunity to fine-tune your business to boost productivity and time management while making sure the fundamentals are aligned and compliant.

Prioritizing your time audit process and integrating it into your management workflow is crucial since, as we’ve seen, not doing so can come at a high cost. Using time tracking software and following our step-by-step guide, your audit doesn’t have to be difficult or take up a lot of time. 

1. Check your data at the source for basic errors

There’s a useful phrase in the field of computer science that is worth making your audit mantra: GIGO or garbage in, garbage out. It means that the quality of your data outcomes is always dependent on the quality of the data you put in. In time and attendance terms, it means that you can head off a lot of problems by making sure your data is accurate before you do anything else with it.

Some common sources of garbage data include:

  • Outdated time tracking tools that don’t accurately record or verify the amount of time spent at work
  • Ad hoc overtime arrangements that make additional hours beyond the workday hard to verify
  • Paper records or spreadsheets that need to be filled out manually
  • Unapproved timesheets that go straight to payroll without managerial oversight

Taking a fresh look at how you gather, record, and sort your time and attendance data will highlight any weaknesses. Eradicating these bad habits and making sure you’re working from complete and accurate data is essential. Without that reassurance, all the auditing in the world won’t help you.

2. Flag areas that cause consistent problems

Time and attendance data can look overwhelming, even for relatively small companies. Knowing the areas that need the most managerial attention will streamline the audit process without you losing too much time and energy.

Checking your team members’ scheduled hours against actual time worked is a fundamental part of the time and attendance audit process. It is important to treat it as a high-priority task and not take it for granted or give it less attention than it requires. 

Deviations between hours scheduled and worked will identify areas where workers are underpaid, allowing you to redress the discrepancies before they become a legal matter. Attention to this area can also help you keep a close eye on your labor costs by taking control of your time and reducing any time-wasting activities from your daily schedules.

Overtime hours and break premiums are also important to keep track of, as this is where significant variations can occur. Unlike scheduled hours, which tend to come in specific time blocks, overtime and missed breaks are where you’ll find those awkward variations in pay. These variations can trip you up if not properly accounted for.

It’s good practice to design your timesheet templates to highlight key information, such as scheduled vs. worked hours, as well as breaks and overtime, as clearly as possible. Using tools like Workforce.com’s time and attendance solution makes this process much easier through real-time automation. It calculates the period of time worked, overtime rates, and break penalties, amongst other things.   

The easier you make it to maintain oversight of this information, the less chance it will catch you out.

3. Continuously improve with your refreshed data

The final step in the time and attendance audit to-do list is to make sure you squeeze every last drop of useful information out of your data. You’ve done the essentials; now’s the time to dig deeper and do the math to extract the long-term benefits for your business.

A great starting point is to calculate the percentages and statistics for relevant criteria for each pay period. How many shifts were employees on time for? How much overtime was used? Break down the figures further by team, location, or individual employee to spot the specific areas of your business that are falling short of time and attendance expectations — or exceeding them. This is all useful information that goes beyond the immediate need to check payroll accuracy. With this information in hand, you are in a better position to set up an action plan that will help you enhance your team’s time management skills.

You should also make sure that your newly improved timesheet data is accessible to anyone else who needs to use it. Human error is always a possibility, so not only will this make sure all angles are covered, but it will also ensure that the same audited data can be exported directly to payroll or made available to external auditors for tax and accounting purposes.

A time audit is a tune-up for your business

The most immediate benefit of a time and attendance audit is peace of mind knowing you’re not exposing your business to wage and hour lawsuits and that you’re getting the labor you pay for. But the long-term benefit of performing this task regularly is that you develop a rich library of data that helps you identify cost-saving measures and areas for improvement.

If conducting regular time audits is of interest to your business, you should go ahead and read our guide below on establishing a time and attendance system – this is the first step on a path to better time audits.

Whitepaper: Practical Guide to Time & Attendance Management

With features that deliver everything you need for regular, thorough time and attendance monitoring and integrations with your payroll system, Workforce.com can help your business thrive now and into the future. Sign up for a free trial or give us a call to get started. 

Posted on

Preventing employee time theft in restaurants

Summary

  • Employee time theft is when employees are paid for work they did not do

  • Employee time theft can come in various forms

  • Restaurant managers can prevent time theft with workforce management software

As a manager of a restaurant, when you think of employee theft in the workplace your mind may automatically go to blatant examples, such as staff stealing equipment, cash from the register, or even snacking on supplies. However, there’s a less blatant form of workplace theft: employee time theft.

While employee time theft is not always easy to spot, the impact is. Employee time theft directly impacts labor costs, and sadly, it’s not uncommon. Time theft can be prevented by investing in innovative time tracking software that ensures maximum employee productivity at all times.

What is time theft?

Time theft is when an employee is paid for time they didn’t work. It typically applies to hourly employees rather than exempt employees. Therefore, as a restaurant manager, you are at a high risk of being a victim of employee time theft.

What does the law say about time theft?

Unfortunately for employers, there are no explicit federal time theft laws, which puts businesses in a vulnerable position. While there are ways some businesses may be able to recoup losses through a civil suit, there is no guarantee this will be successful. So, employers need to make sure they’re doing everything they can to prevent time theft in the work environment.

Recognizing time theft in restaurants

There are different forms of time theft. Here are the major ones to look out for:

  • Falsifying timesheets: This is when employees misrepresent work hours. For example, an employee only worked 30 hours in a week, but they doctor their timesheet and say they worked 45 hours. If your restaurant uses temporary staff from staffing agencies, this is something to watch out for. A restaurant in Florida found it had $10,000 added to its payroll costs when a temp agency worker fraudulently misrepresented his work hours.
  • Buddy punching: This is when an employee clocks in and out for a coworker. If an employee is running a few minutes late and doesn’t want this to be recorded, they may ask a coworker (who’s already in the restaurant) to clock in. The reverse can also be true, employees can leave their shift earlier than scheduled, but have their buddy clock out for them.
  • Extended breaks: Employees may take too long on lunch breaks or go for unauthorized breaks like smoke breaks. This is likely to happen where there’s easy access to a back door.
  • Doing personal tasks during the workday: Instead of clearing tables, wait staff are surfing social media on company time or sneaking off to the restroom to take personal calls. A 2020 Digital Distraction & Workplace Safety survey revealed that the average employee spends 2.5 hours each workday looking at digital content that is unrelated to their job.

Uncovering time theft in your restaurant

While time theft can be difficult to prove, here are a few pointers that you may realize at your workplace:

 How to prevent time theft

Prevent time theft by using innovative scheduling and timekeeping software that ensures there’s no lost productivity from employees.

Use accurate scheduling software

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers must pay staff according to what’s recorded on the timesheet. Therefore, it’s important that your scheduling software creates the right shifts in the first place. Moreover, all schedules should properly align with hours reflected on timesheets, as this will prevent paying employees for hours they didn’t work.

Use an automated time clock solution

Eliminate the risk of falsifying time cards with a time clock app. Here’s how it works:

    • Staff clock in and out in an app with their personal IOS and Android devices.
    • Managers can guarantee the right worker is in the right shift, at the right place, at the right time with unique clock in/out passcodes, electronic photo verification, and GPS location data. This will directly eliminate buddy punching.
    • All clock-in data is automatically recorded, and the app generates electronic timesheets — the perfect solution for business owners who are tired of using stacks of binders full of paper timesheets.

Give your managers the ability to manage operations during the day

Provide your managers with a time and attendance system that stays on top of employee productivity. Managers should be able to monitor employees remotely — all from a computer or mobile device. This kind of monitoring should take the form of a live timeclock feed and tardiness notifications.

Managers should also receive notifications when employees clock in and clock out for breaks. With these instant notifications, it’s possible to cross-reference clocking in and out with the shift schedule to make sure there are no discrepancies in break times. Giving managers the ability to manage operations during the day ensures they can easily spot time theft.

Create and enforce firm time and attendance policies

Create attendance policies and communicate them clearly to your staff. Your staff might be unaware of their actions and how they can be perceived as time theft, so it’s important they know what time theft is and how they may be breaking company policy.

Make sure time and attendance policies include clocking in and out procedures, break periods, and cell phone and social media usage when on the clock. It’s crucial that employees know what time theft is and understand that it will not be tolerated. If necessary, make sure policies are enforced with disciplinary actions, as they may act as a deterrent.

Provide an enjoyable work environment

Burnout, low pay, and minimal benefits may make employees more likely to commit time theft. Employers should provide staff with enjoyable working environments where they feel valued, taken care of, and respected – this always helps reduce time theft. Consider implementing something like an employee reward system to create a culture of positivity and motivation. You could also regularly grant time off — or add in an extra shift — for workers who excel in their roles.

Prevention is better than a cure

While you can’t go back in time to stop prior time theft, you can certainly take steps to prevent it from continuing. Use automated workforce management software to empower employees to make the most of the hours they’re scheduled for. Contact us today to learn how you can get started.

Posted on

Tips for restaurant owners on getting more employee feedback

Summary

  • Collecting employee feedback gives staff a voice and catalyzes new solutions.

  • There are five main ways to increase the amount of employee feedback you recieve.

  • Keeping the communication channels open with employees will encourage them to provide feedback frequently, at any time.

Usually, feedback is perceived as something being given by the employer to their employees. However, receiving feedback from your employees could be a real game-changer for your restaurant.

Why is employee feedback important?

Feedback makes employees feel empowered. It provides them a voice and makes them feel like their opinions matter. Employee feedback catalyzes new solutions. It might spark new ideas that you can use for improving customer service, streamlining your kitchen processes, creating new dishes to serve, modifying your recipes, and more. Restaurant owners get invaluable insights from employees who have on-the-ground, customer-facing experience.

So, the big question is, how do you gather more employee feedback? Here are some tips:

1. Create a culture of feedback

You create a culture of feedback by making it easy for employees to give feedback at any time. Giving and receiving feedback needs to become a part of your organizational values for you to create this culture.

Give your employees a voice. You’ll only hear what they have to say if they speak up! Actively encourage them to provide feedback by telling them they have the power to communicate.

Nurture honest communication in the workplace, but also understand that this honest and open dialogue can lead to conflict. Learn to be comfortable with feedback that may be difficult to hear and create an environment that allows both managers and employees to communicate without hesitation.

View employee feedback with the perspective that running your restaurant is a team sport. View your employees as your allies and build rapport with them. The stronger your rapport is, the more comfortable they’ll feel contributing their ideas to your business.

Creating a culture of feedback is a team effort. While collecting employee feedback is critical, don’t forget to give them your feedback using the right tools and applications. The right tool should let you provide employees with regular shift feedback regarding performance levels, areas of opportunity, and workplace success.

By giving your employees feedback, you’ll inadvertently encourage them to provide their own feedback, since they will feel they need to reciprocate and fit in with the feedback culture.

2. Allow employees to give feedback anonymously

Giving feedback anonymously is sometimes a safe way for both employees and restaurant owners to bring the truth out into the open.

Some employees may not be comfortable sharing honest feedback in person. This could be for several reasons. Maybe they have a strong complaint against another employee and don’t want to talk about it openly. Perhaps they disagree with you on something but don’t want to risk their job, or it could be something else.

One way to do this is to create Google forms/surveys that ask confidential questions, allowing employees to leave their feedback anonymously. Such feedback surveys with the right questions can give you invaluable written feedback to improve how you run your restaurant.

Your feedback surveys can ask questions that are usually unspoken, like: What were some of your pain points while working this week? How challenged do you feel at work on a daily basis? What are some things you’d like to change about running this restaurant and why? Is there any training you’d like to receive from us?

Another tactic you can use to collect feedback anonymously is to create a suggestion box. Using apps like Culture Amp, it’s possible to create an online suggestion box where employees can leave their feedback anonymously. Alternatively, you could create a physical box where people can drop an anonymous note with their feedback.

3. Set up regular feedback sessions

Set up regular feedback sessions and meet your employees in person. These interactions can teach you more about each employee’s sentiments because they give you body language cues that you can’t get from strictly written or vocal feedback. Make sure you set up both group and individual feedback sessions that are face to face to collectively gather a variety of perspectives.

Make your feedback sessions specific by creating focus groups. For instance, you could have one focus group just for collecting feedback about your customer service and one just for your restaurant’s interior decoration.

A popular Mexican restaurant chain, Chipotle, started hosting ‘listening sessions’ for employees. This was during the time when racial tensions were intense due to George Floyd’s death. Leadership at the business set up virtual chat sessions to listen to employees voice real-life concerns.

Organized by store leadership, these sessions asked employees questions like “What are the three words that describe how you’re feeling?” or “What is the one thing you want executive leadership to know?” and “What should we be doing to create and cultivate a better world?”

The notes from these sessions resulted in all of the change initiatives, both internal and external, that Chipotle decided to implement. One of the goals of these initiatives was to hire 10,000 employees to support growth through and after COVID. Chipotle launched a ‘We are hiring’ campaign and hired 8,000 new employees through it.

4. Incentivize employees to provide feedback

Elon Musk says, “A well thought out critique of whatever you’re doing is as valuable as gold.” If feedback is as valuable as gold, giving incentives to employees to provide feedback seems like a good bargain. Provide both monetary and non-monetary incentives to your employees for providing their feedback.

A few examples of non-monetary incentives could be to offer them a work shift of their choice for many weeks in a row, a mentoring or training program to help them with professional development, or quite simply, free meals at your restaurant at the end of their shift.

Make the process of seeking feedback more fun by ‘gamifying’ it. Giving and receiving feedback should be seen as a fun exercise that your employees look forward to. You can do this by giving employee bonuses proportional to the quality and quantity of feedback provided by employees. Another option is hosting ‘employee of the month’ competitions, with feedback being a solid determinant of who the employee of the month should be. Doing gift giveaways (like giving t-shirts or other goodies) for employees that take feedback-giving seriously could also be a good idea.

5. Have a simple shift feedback tool

Employees should be encouraged to leave feedback on every shift when they go to clock out. However, staff won’t feel the need to do this if giving feedback is a difficult and tedious process. Usually, mobile time clock apps are the best way to open up an efficient avenue for employees to provide regular feedback.


A shift feedback tool should allow you to gather actionable data on what went well during shifts and what did not go well. It should also give staff the option to leave additional notes for shift managers. For instance, wait staff may leave some negative feedback on a certain day because poor scheduling resulted in a short-staffing issue. Or kitchen staff may leave positive feedback if they had good communication with the wait staff on a day with unusually high sales. Employees can also use this opportunity to justify their actions in case any customers have complained about them.

All of this information your employees provide can be used by managers to pinpoint frontline issues in scheduling, burnout, and engagement.

Keep communication open between employees and owners

Open the lines of communication with your employees so they’re able to provide feedback at any time. Feedback shouldn’t just be viewed as a distracting exercise that needs to be completed on brief occasions; it should be encouraged and built into your workforce management system.

To discuss how you can encourage your employees to give more feedback, get in touch with us.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________