Tag: communication

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3 Mistakes with Employee Conflict Resolution – How to Avoid

Summary:

  • 85% of employees report experiencing workplace conflict.
  • Conflict at work results in personal attacks, frequent absences, and even health issues when not handled properly.
  • Conflict resolution takes up valuable time. Have processes and automation in place to handle HR admin work while dealing with workplace issues.  

Workplace conflicts are inevitable to some degree, but mishandling them can lead to more significant problems. Whether it’s personality clashes, differences in work styles, or disagreements over responsibilities, managing these conflicts effectively is crucial for maintaining a healthy company culture and productive work environment.

According to a study by CPP Inc., 85% of employees experience some kind of conflict. When managed right, conflicts can result in a better understanding and working relationship among the employees, fostering a more positive work environment. But when not handled properly, conflict can transform into bigger problems such as personal attacks, frequent absences, and, yes, even health issues. 

Unfortunately, many managers and HR professionals make common mistakes when dealing with employee disputes, often exacerbating the situation rather than resolving it. In this article, we will explore some of the most frequent pitfalls in employee conflict management and provide practical strategies for avoiding them. 

Mistake 1: Sweeping things under the rug

A study by CIPD found that approximately 31% of employees who experienced conflict felt that their concerns were not taken seriously by the person they reported to, and 48% believed that the interests of the other party were given priority over their own. 

Conflicts are typical in the workplace, but like most problems, they’re never really out of sight or out of mind. If anything, unaddressed conflicts can escalate to bigger issues, such as people leaving jobs, reduced productivity, or a full-blown outburst that can compromise safety and operations. So, the best thing is to tackle conflicts head-on. 

How to avoid: 

Unfortunately, managers and team leaders may tend to avoid conflict simply because they don’t know how to deal with it properly. The good news is conflict resolution skills can be developed. Equip your frontline managers with the right tools and training to help them navigate different communication styles and improve their problem-solving skills.

According to the same study from CPP, Inc., 60% of employees didn’t receive basic training on conflict management and resolution. The others who did, on the other hand, said that the training equipped them to manage workplace conflict and reach positive outcomes or solutions. 

Train your managers to identify different types of conflict effectively. More often than not, the root of the problem is something deeper and something that’s not always apparent on the surface. Is the issue rooted around a task, or is the problem more relational? If it’s the latter, conflict typically stems from differences in values and emotions. Emotional intelligence comes in handy in such cases. Train managers to improve or develop how they read emotions, empathize with others, and manage feelings. Active listening and knowing to use neutral language are also vital for managers and HR professionals.

Administrative tools are equally important as conflict management training, enabling managers to spend more time on the frontlines spotting issues and resolving conflict. Software like Workforce.com streamlines and automates HR processes, scheduling, timesheets, and payroll. When frontline managers finish admin tasks quickly, they get more time on the floor with staff, leading to better conflict management. 

Aside from the functionality mentioned above, Workforce.com also has a shift feedback feature that allows employees to rate their shifts. They can also say what was effective and what needs improvement. Using this information, managers and supervisors can help spot potential conflict or have a clearer perspective of what’s causing tension or challenges.

Webinar: How to Design a Retention Strategy for Hourly Staff

Mistake 2: Not communicating the outcome of the investigation

It’s great when employees are given the chance and platform to air their grievances, but that’s just the start. Employers often miss the other important part of conflict management, which is letting all parties involved know the outcome of the investigation and what next steps to take. 

Some team leaders may treat post-conflict procedures as an out-of-sight, out-of-mind matter—this definitely won’t work. Just because time has passed after the initial conflict doesn’t mean that everything should go back to normal. If anything, leaving team members hanging would further fester ill feelings, cause disengagement among staff, and even increase attrition. 

How to avoid:

Establish a process for conflict resolution and stick with it. Designating clear ground rules sets the tone and direction. The clearer the steps, the higher the chances of issues being resolved. It’s also easier to track the case’s progress and determine roadblocks to conflict resolution.

Every organization’s conflict resolution process differs, but here’s a brief framework to help you create yours. 

  • Determine the source of conflict – Gather information. You can begin by getting statements from all involved parties but don’t take anything at face value. Ask the right questions to probe further and determine the root cause of the issue. Watch out for possible indicators to better understand the reason. For instance, is the issue really about a co-worker, or could it be because of another underlying issue rooted in your operations? In addition, you can look at supporting data from your systems if needed, such as performance evaluation or time and attendance data.
  • Define possible solutions – Ask the people involved how they would want to see the issue resolved. Doing so will give you insight into their point of view and what they value most, and that’s key to coming up with the best possible solution that everyone can agree on.
  • Communicate the solution – Once you develop a solution, communicate it — whatever it is. Make sure to explain how the resolution benefits all parties involved and the organization as a whole. The key here is not always to create a perfect situation for everyone but a space where both sides can move forward, agree, and collaborate.
  • Document the process and agreement – Make sure to document the agreement and ask them for steps they would take to avoid the same issue or conflict moving forward. Note that preventive measures ideally must come from all parties involved, including the organization, if need be. If it would result in change in company policies, ensure that it is appropriately communicated to everyone else and reflected in your employee handbook. 

When conflicts arise, staff must see accountability from the parties involved. It’s not about revenge or getting back at the other but about being heard and seeing the company’s rules correctly implemented. 

Furthermore, seeing conflicts resolved and given the proper attention would encourage staff to speak up and provide feedback. Having that culture would be beneficial in terms of improving your operations and employee engagement. 

Mistake 3: Having a reactive approach to managing conflict

In an ideal world, there would be no conflict in the workplace. But we’re not in an ideal world. Conflict will always eventually arise. However, most organizations tend to fall into the trap of taking a reactive approach to conflict or not taking an approach at all. And this is where things can get messy. 

Typically, most organizations’ policies tend to be reactive, which means they only take action once conflict presents itself. While conflict cannot be completely avoided because people are…well… people, having a more active approach to dealing with issues is still key. 

How to avoid: 

Create a work environment that’s less prone to conflict. What does that look like exactly? 

First, you must equip your organization with tools that allow work to be clear. Sure, the job may have nuances, but it’s best to have a system for clearly black-and-white areas. Take, for instance, software like Workforce.com. It helps reduce or avoid disputes around time and attendance, scheduling, PTOs, and payroll because it’s automated. Should there be any concerns, they are easy to clarify or correct since there is only one source of data. 

Furthermore, you need to create a feedback system that helps spot conflicts and prevent them from blowing up. Aside from regularly scheduled check-ins and performance reviews, it also helps to incorporate a more spontaneous feedback process. Workforce.com’s shift rating and feedback can help. Asking people to rate their shifts can be crucial to identifying conflict early on. 

For instance, if consistent feedback or comments about how a certain piece of equipment delays closing time occurs, you can address it before it causes any further tension among staff. Another example would be if you’re getting reports about staff not endorsing properly for the next shift; you can also address it more ahead of time. 

Typically, conflict starts with small things or minor grievances. By creating a working environment where you can identify those triggers, you can manage conflict before it becomes big enough to disrupt your operations. 

Also read: 10 Best Practices for Employee Surveys

Tips to improve your conflict resolution strategy:

Have an open-door policy

Conflict needs to be brought to light before it can be solved. But how would that happen if employees don’t feel safe speaking up?

Staff may refuse to talk about conflict or concerns bothering them because they fear retaliation. In some instances, they don’t know where to begin. Having an open-door policy promotes open communication and a safe space for your employees to come up and talk to you if they’re facing any issues. 

When you implement such a system, ensure staff are aware of it. Reiterate that they can access their superiors if they need to raise concerns. Ensure, as well, that whatever’s discussed will be confidential or only be disclosed to others to the extent necessary to resolve issues. 

Practice active listening

In conflict management, facilitators must know how to listen, not just to respond but to understand. 

Active listening is vital to gathering information for conflict resolution. It takes into account everything being communicated, including nonverbal cues. When you listen actively, you become more conscious not just of the facts being stated but also of the person’s tone and emotions. 

Furthermore, it also pays to ask questions to validate information and recap what was discussed. 

Understand different conflict management styles

People tend to approach conflict in different ways. Here’s a general overview of these styles and why people resort to them. 

  1. Accommodating – This approach means setting aside one’s needs to give way to the other party’s needs and concerns. People tend to lean toward this approach when they want to keep the peace or if they realize they’re at fault and just want to move forward.
  2. Avoiding – As the word suggests, it means to steer clear of conflict. Some people approach conflict this way when they think the issue is trivial or not worth fighting over. Meanwhile, others avoid facing the problem because they need more time or space to think about it.
  3. Compromising – This approach aims to reach a common ground between two conflicting parties. Note that this approach aims to reach a solution that both parties can be okay with but not necessarily fully satisfied with. While it is not the most ideal, reaching a compromise can cause things to move forward, especially when there’s a deadline.
  4. Collaborating – Unlike compromising, collaborating is about reaching a win-win situation for both parties. This approach aims to reach a resolution that both parties can be happy with.
  5. Competing – Unlike accommodating, competing means standing one’s ground and not budging until the issue is resolved how they see fit. This approach is common among people who think that a rule or law was violated or if they believe that they are in the right. 

Understanding conflict resolution approaches is not just about finding the best way to tackle issues as a manager. It’s also a way to gain deeper insight into why employees approach a situation differently. For instance, if you learned of an issue concerning an employee, yet they chose not to report to you, you would want to probe if it’s just a non-issue for them or if they fear resentment.  

Use a system that keeps employee and workforce data accurate

Conflict can stem from workplace disputes around time and attendance, schedules, payroll, PTOs, and other employee information. That’s why it’s best to use a system that records all of this information, giving you a paper trail to refer back on.  

Information and data from a single source can help thwart conflicts or clarify things more easily. 

Don’t fall behind while resolving conflict 

Conflict resolution is a stressful and time-consuming responsibility for HR practitioners, especially in smaller companies. Resolving issues eats up valuable time, which is often spent on administrative tasks. To prepare for inevitable workplace conflicts, equip yourself with software that handles the admin work for you so you don’t fall behind. 

Discover how Workforce.com can streamline PTO requests, payroll processing, timesheet approvals, applicant tracking, and more so that you can handle strategic HR better. 

Schedule a demo today. 

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A complete guide to employee engagement for shift-based work

Summary 

  • Employee engagement reflects how connected each employee is to your business and their work.

  • When employees feel connected to their company, they perform better and stay with the organization longer.

  • The three most common ways to improve employee engagement are onboarding, communications, and flexibility.  

Employee engagement refers to how connected each employee is to your business and their work. In many cases, engagement can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. A disengaged workforce can lead to reduced productivity and high turnover, resulting in increased hiring costs for the employer as well as lost opportunities and poor customer satisfaction.

On the other hand, engaged employees are generally more optimistic and dedicated to their work. They contribute to higher profitability, retention, and better customer service. 

High employee engagement won’t come naturally to every company, though. It takes commitment and work from leaders to show employees you care about their well-being and that they have a place in your company.

When employees feel connected to their company, they’re more likely to perform well and stay with the organization for longer periods of time.

Who is responsible for employee engagement?

Direct managers are usually responsible for monitoring and increasing employee engagement. They’re tasked with creating an environment that fosters engaged employees. Managers conduct regular meetings (both team-wide and with individual employees) and help establish a culture where employees can thrive. 

Employees tend to be more engaged when they: 

  • Feel valued and supported
  • Believe in and share the same values and goals as the company
  • Have an involved manager
  • Participate in ongoing conversations about their career trajectory and development
  • Are given recognition and feedback
  • Receive consistent communication

Human resource teams are involved in employee engagement initiatives, too. Often, human resources and leaders of the company will work together to evaluate where employee engagement is currently and what needs to be done to improve it. 

Three benefits of employee engagement

As your employee engagement increases, you’ll also see higher retention, improved profits, and better customer service.

1. Higher employee retention

Engaged employees who feel like they have a purpose in your company are less likely to look elsewhere for a new job, resulting in less turnover. According to a study by Gallup, a workforce that’s more engaged sees between an 18% and 43% decrease in employee turnover. 

Engaged workforces also tend to see an 81% decrease in absenteeism. The more engaged an employee is, the more excited they are about working for your company and doing their work. 

Engaged employees are also often leaders and role models within the organization. They can help get other employees engaged and excited about your company. For example, a highly engaged senior employee will often mentor junior employees and recommend their coworkers for promotions. This kind of development can contribute to higher employee satisfaction and retention because employees form connections with other engaged employees. 

2. Better customer service

An engaged employee is more optimistic about the future of the business, and they often believe in your product and its value to customers.

Being committed to your company makes employees a better fit for serving your customers. For example, a customer who talks to a pessimistic employee who doesn’t care about your product is going to have a much different experience than a customer who talks to an optimistic employee who believes in your brand.

3. Improved profitability

Engaged employees can also help you increase your profitability by improving productivity. Highly engaged teams have 23% higher profits than teams with disengaged workers, while lower engagement levels cost the global economy an astounding $7.8 trillion.

When employees are engaged, they tend to have less stress, anger, and health-related issues than employees who are disengaged. Disengaged employees also tend to put off important tasks and may engage in quiet quitting. 

How to measure employee engagement

The best way to measure employee engagement is to ask employees directly. A simple check-in will give you more accurate insights than assuming what your team thinks or feels. It also gives everyone a chance to be heard. 

Start your feedback collection with employee engagement surveys, pulse surveys, and shift feedback. With surveys, the goal is to gather as much information as you can about various components of engagement. Ask their opinion on employee satisfaction and overall happiness, career development, recognition, handling of personnel issues, and preparedness for their job. Give employees the option of anonymity, so they feel comfortable being honest and you get accurate feedback.

With shift feedback, employees can give and receive feedback about each shift they worked. A form or questionnaire can be served to them electronically (either via email or an employee app) when they clock out. If your company uses the latter, you can send automatic notifications to employees after they’ve completed their shift. 

Shift feedback allows employees and managers to evaluate how each shift went. Ask employees questions like:

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

By asking these questions you can gauge each employee’s general satisfaction and well-being after each shift and immediately bring up any issues. 

You can also get employee feedback from one-on-one manager meetings. One-on-one meetings serve as check-ins to make sure employees who feel stressed or overwhelmed or have issues with coworkers get a chance to be heard — and maybe find solutions to their concerns. 

Three ways to improve employee engagement 

The three most common ways to get employees engaged with your company are onboarding, communication, and flexibility.

1. Effective employee onboarding 

An effective onboarding program can engage employees right away and in the long term. Use onboarding to help your employees get integrated, connected, and committed to your company right off the bat.

During onboarding, new hires want clear guidelines about expectations and responsibilities, so they can feel confident moving forward in their roles. 

Here are a few things that can engage employees during their onboarding period (and keep them engaged):

  • Keep paperwork simple and spread it out throughout their first week. No one wants to spend their entire first day filling out forms. 
  • Get them excited about the work they’ll be doing. Give them small tasks or have them shadow another team member. 
  • Introduce them to the company culture by talking about common values and policies, like an open-door policy.

Giving employees guidance and mentoring them during the onboarding process can help them feel more connected to their coworkers and your company. 

2. Centralized communication

New employees want to know where to find information and how to reach out to someone if they have questions. In the shift trade, employees don’t always have ample opportunities to talk to managers or other employees about issues like scheduling, maintaining a work-life balance, or personnel issues. Centralized employee communication can keep them engaged in a fast-changing environment. 

Use one main form of communication, like an employee app or a company wiki site. These kinds of platforms keep communication accessible to all employees and create a place where they can share knowledge with each other. Employees should be able to access the app or wiki to submit PTO requests, ask questions, find policies or other information, switch shifts, and more.

Encourage all employees to use the designated communication channels right away. During onboarding, help them sign into their account and become familiar with the platform, so they feel comfortable using it regularly.

3. Flexible scheduling

Flexible scheduling can reduce overtime and burnout for your employees and increase job satisfaction. It shows your employees that you’re taking their needs and preferences into consideration. Many shift workers are constantly on call and have little control over their schedules, which can lead to stress and anxiety about work. But with flexible scheduling, they feel more in control of their shifts. 

Most companies don’t have the resources or technology to offer shift-based employees the schedules they need to stay engaged. Shift scheduling software can help with that. 

These scheduling tools send you notifications when someone is approaching overtime, give you visibility into each team member’s availability, and show recommended shift plans and schedules. 

Scheduling software helps companies with time management, too. You can use it to avoid the overallocation of meetings, responsibilities, or tasks, which can also cause employee burnout. 

4. Consistently acting on feedback

We mentioned the importance of using surveys and shift feedback to measure employee engagement. Now you have to use that data to act on the feedback, which will in turn improve engagement. 

Based on the feedback you receive from employees, work with management to look for quick wins or changes that you can implement immediately. For example, dress code changes to make employees feel more comfortable at work or adding an additional break for employees who work a certain number of hours. 

Bigger changes take time to implement. For example, if you need to update a policy or workflow process, that could take weeks or months. In this case, let employees know that you’ve addressed their feedback and changes are in progress. 

Set regular meetings where you all go over new or recurring feedback and discuss whether you’re going to implement it and how. For example, if you notice a lot of employees concerned with short staffing during evening shifts, take steps to immediately remedy this scheduling issue as it directly impacts employee productivity and customer satisfaction.  

These are just three of the most common ways to improve employee engagement. To learn more, read our guide “7 employee engagement ideas that create engaged teams.”

Focus on engagement to attract and retain high-quality candidates 

Engaged employees contribute to a positive, thriving work environment — one that others will want to be a part of. Start by focusing on one thing you can revamp that will improve the work environment for current and potential employees. For example, you could implement flexible schedules or a better communication and scheduling system. 

Ultimately, the right employee engagement strategy is unique to each business, but by working to address employees’ concerns and prioritizing their well-being, you’ll be on the right track.

For more on employee engagement, check out our free webinar below featuring Laur Timbrook, an NBC-HWC certified workforce wellness coach:

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

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How to calculate PTO hours + accruals

Summary

  • Paid time off comes in many different types, including vacation, sick leave, personal leave, and bereavement time. – More

  • Your company can also choose to have workers accrue their time off, offer PTO up front, or even offer unlimited time off. – More

  • No matter your company’s specific time off policy, automatic PTO tracking software calculates leave for you and ensures proper coverage. – More

Workers are finally starting to take more time off for vacation and rest, a pretty significant shift in America’s always-hustling working culture. According to a Korn Ferry survey in 2021, 79% of workers said they planned to use more vacation days that year than in years past, and 82% said they would appreciate more vacation time in our post-pandemic world.

Paid time off (PTO) has always been valued by employees. 76% of American workers feel that it’s very important their company provides PTO. Paid sick time (74%) and paid holidays (74%) are also very important among workers. 

Also read: Paid Sick Leave Laws by State

Employers can retain more workers, lower stress levels, and improve productivity among their workforce by developing a clear and fair PTO policy. But there’s no “one size fits all” approach to adopting the perfect plan for your company — you’ll have to sort out the right policy based on your workforce needs, then make sure you’re calculating time off banks correctly to help each worker get the time they’re entitled to.

Breaking down the types of PTO

There are a few different reasons why an employee might use their PTO. Depending on your company policy, they might use any available PTO day for any of these reasons, or they might have an allotment of days for each category.

  • Vacation: This is your run-of-the-mill bank of time for employees to use for day trips, staycations, travel, weddings, or the like. If it’s something they’re planning for, they’ll likely use vacation days.
  • Sick time: If an employee isn’t feeling well enough to work, they can take a sick day to rest up. Well-being also includes mental health; according to a survey by Breeze, 63% of respondents said they had taken a mental health day in the last year.
  • Personal days: Personal time is for when things happen outside the worker’s control. Maybe they’re stuck in a blizzard coming home from their in-laws, or they have to say goodbye to the family pet. Personal leave is there for life’s curveballs.
  • Parental leave: Companies aren’t legally required to offer paid parental leave, but some still offer it as a benefit to their workers. More businesses than ever were paying maternity and paternity leave benefits after the pandemic, but that trend is curtailing again. According to SHRM, 35% of companies offered paid maternity leave in 2022, and 27% offered paid paternity leave.
  • Jury duty: If an employee gets called in for their civic duty, their employer may choose to offer them PTO for at least part of their service.
  • Bereavement: Bereavement time is meant for employees who lose a loved one. Some companies only allow bereavement leave for close relatives. Workers can use this time to attend the funeral or other memorial services, or just take time for themselves to grieve without thinking about work.

How does PTO work?

You can allocate time off to your employees using a few different systems. In a traditional PTO format, workers accrue time off based on their hours or days worked. But more employers these days are leaning towards more flexible time off policies.

Accruing Time Off

With this type of policy, your workers will accrue time off based on every hour or day they work. The accrued time off will be added to their PTO bank, and they can take time off when they have enough hours banked. You can choose to lump all types of PTO together or distinguish between vacation and other types of PTO.

Usually, employees accrue different types of PTO at different rates. For example, for the year, your policy might grant ten days of vacation, five sick days, five bereavement days, and three personal days. Then, for each 40-hour workweek, employees will accrue their vacation time faster than their sick time, bereavement leave, or personal time. Employees with more years of service might also accrue more paid days of leave per year.

With an accrued time off policy, employees have to wait until enough time is banked to use their PTO. That means that you can’t just look at scheduling needs when weighing PTO requests — you’ll also have to track each worker’s banked PTO to ensure they have enough balance.

Unlimited Time Off

In an unlimited time off system, there’s much more flexibility for employees to take days off as they wish. There is no set number of days in an unlimited PTO system. Instead, employees can take off as many days as they’d like, for any reason, as long as the time off is approved by the company and they’re still fulfilling their individual responsibilities.

This flexibility can be a benefit to employees. There’s usually a level of trust that workers will take the time they need to stay rested and attend to personal matters while remaining productive at work.

However, an unlimited PTO policy also comes with some severe drawbacks. Studies show that employees, on average, take less time off under an unlimited policy than those who operate under a traditional policy. This is most likely due to a sense of guilt and other unspoken, toxic workplace stigmas around taking leave. 

Just like in a traditional accrued time off structure, managers and company leadership still have to approve time off in an unlimited policy. If you opt for this type of format, the difference is you won’t be looking at the hours available in an employee’s time off bank. Before you approve any leave, you’ll still typically review factors like workforce coverage, scheduling needs, and productivity.

Under an unlimited PTO policy, you also don’t have to pay employees for the time off they’ve accrued when they exit your company. In a traditional PTO system, you do owe workers for any unused PTO time that they’ve banked during their tenure. When an employee leaves, they’re usually entitled to a payout of the days of PTO they accumulated.

How to calculate PTO

Small-business and startup consultancy Bizfluent notes that calculating PTO by pay period allows organizations to evenly distribute an employee’s time off accumulation throughout the year.  Organizations with hourly or part-time employees should consider providing PTO based on the number of hours worked. When an organization calculates PTO hourly, it allows employers to award less PTO for hourly employees who do not report to work (for whatever reason) or for part-time employees who do not always work the same number of hours in a pay period.

One metric employers can follow to calculate PTO is dividing the annual PTO hours by annual work hours. For example, if an hourly employee earns 80 hours of PTO each year and works 40 hours a week, or 2,080 hours per year, divide 80 by 2,080. That works out to an employee earning 0.038 hours of PTO for each hour worked.

The PTO formula is:

Hours of PTO / hours worked each year = hours of PTO earned per hour worked

So in our above example, the organization’s PTO formula for this employee would be:

80 hours / 2,080 hours = 0.038 hours of PTO earned per hour worked

How to navigate common PTO challenges

Even if you set a clear PTO policy, there are bound to be situations or employee requests that fall outside of the policy that you’ll still have to balance. The key is to treat all employees fairly and accurately track PTO balances so you know exactly where you stand.

A sick employee has already used all their days.

Combining sick leave and vacation into one PTO category can lead to unplanned consequences for employees. If a sick employee has used all their PTO days, they might feel compelled to show up ill and risk infecting co-workers.

Help employees plan for this by offering guidance during onboarding or in posts throughout the year via internal communications about the importance of banking some PTO for sick days. For example, advise employees to consider paid time off as five days of vacation, four sick days or an unplanned emergency, and one day for a special occasion.

A new employee needs to use PTO days before accruing them.

Companies often hire employees with previous personal commitments for which they need time off after being hired. Prospective candidates often are honest and upfront about this as the hiring process progresses. 

Since most policies establishing how to calculate PTO makes it hard for employees to take time off in the early months of their employment, many employers will allow employees to “borrow” their PTO. Allowing 40 hours of borrowed time gives an employee a full week off. To avoid lump accumulations and to calculate PTO more accurately, companies can implement earning PTO incrementally with each pay period.

If you allow your employees to borrow ahead on their PTO plan, you’ll need to track the borrowed hours accurately. You’ll also need visibility into the rest of your attendance and scheduling to quickly identify and resolve any coverage issues, especially for unplanned absences like a death in the family.

Tracking PTO doesn’t need to be difficult

Effective leave management is crucial for shift-based workforces. For one, it promotes employee well-being and reduces burnout. It also keeps you compliant with various wage and hour laws in your state. But most importantly, handling PTO properly keeps shifts organized and lowers the chance of scheduling mistakes. 

You could manually approve, calculate, and track PTO across your workforce – this is fine enough for a small business. But one slight misstep can wreak havoc on timesheets and schedules. To save yourself the headache, utilizing an automated PTO tracker is a good idea. For shift workers, it is important that something like this be mobile-first and optimized for self-service; this way, the admin work is as non-intrusive as possible.

Mobile app that employees can use to request PTO

An app like this can do things like:

  • Automatically track leave balances
  • Calculate and apply PTO to timesheets
  • Prevent employees on leave from accidentally being scheduled
  • Allow employees to request leave and check their balances
  • Let managers review past and upcoming time off on a calendar
  • Allow managers to create custom accrual rates

Pretty sweet, right? If you want to learn more about how this all works, contact us today. 

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Vaccination status harassment

COVID-19, vaccine, flu

“I can’t believe you got vaccinated. It’s an experimental drug that I’m not injecting into my body. Besides, I heard that Bill Gates and the global elites implanted 5G trackers in the vaccine. All the government wants to do is control us, and you’re letting them by submitting to these shots. Sheeple!”

OR

“I can’t believe you’re not getting vaccinated. Don’t you care about protecting yourself and others? This vaccine has been tested, vetted, and is safe and effective. We need to reach herd immunity if we want this pandemic to end, and you’re not doing your part. Selfish!”

Some version of this drama is likely playing out in your workplace. And it has to stop, ASAP.

For starters, one’s choice not to get vaccinated might be because of an underlying physical or mental impairment, a pregnancy (or hope to become pregnant), or a sincerely held religious belief, practice or observance. In any of those cases, harassing a co-worker because of his or her unvaccinated status might cross the line into unlawful protected-class harassment.

Additionally, whether another is or is not vaccinated is really none of anyone’s business. As noted in this post, it’s confidential medical information under the ADA (not HIPAA). It’s an employer’s business whether unvaccinated employees are following the CDC’s guidelines and keeping their masks on while at work.

But whether they’ve gotten the Pfizer, Moderna, or J&J jab? Not a co-worker’s business. And certainly not something anyone should be harassing or bullying anyone else over. Civil discourse is one thing. Harassment, bullying and disrespect is another altogether.

It’s simply not realistic to eliminate all vaccine-related discourse from the workplace. We’ve lived with COVID for over a year. With a few exceptions it’s all we’ve talked about. How can we expect employees simply to ignore conversing about issues such as vaccines for the eight-plus hours a day they are at work?

Instead of banning these discussions, remind employees of your expectations regarding all workplace conversations — that they are civil, professional, respectful and do not intrude on protected classes. And, if an employee violates these precepts, an employer should (or, in the category of protected-class harassment, must), address the issue.

Discussions over divisive issues need not be nasty, uncivil or contemptuous as long as we respect the rights of others to think differently and hold them accountable when they fall short of this standard.

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Communicating the needs of the frontline workforce

frontline workforce, Boost your managers’ effectiveness with an essential mobile clock-in tool

Cristian Grossman may be a newly minted author with the recent release of his first book, “The Rise of the Frontline Worker: How to Turn Your Frontline Workforce Into Your Biggest Competitive Advantage.”

But the co-founder and CEO of Beekeeper, a mobile collaboration platform, also has toiled as a frontline worker. A former waiter, factory worker and chemical engineer, Grossmann meshes his time in the trenches with his entrepreneurial savvy to argue that technology is imperative to making frontline workers more effective employees.

From health care to manufacturing to retail employees, Grossmann deftly addresses the importance of frontline workers. Since the pandemic began, millions of North America’s frontline workers found themselves in the spotlight for the first time, with appreciation initiatives in almost every city. Despite the recognition, Grossmann argues that the reality is many frontline workers don’t have the support and tools they need to do their jobs.

Workforce caught up with Grossmann for an in-depth Q&A in the days leading up to his company’s “Frontline Future” virtual conference on May 6.

Workforce: Define a frontline worker.

Cristian Grossmann: Frontline workers are employees who do not sit at desks or work at computers. Their jobs are most often mobile, like sales associates, first responders, construction workers and restaurant servers. As their name implies, they are on the frontlines of their company, either in a customer-facing role or a hands-on role, like a production worker in a manufacturing facility.

What many people don’t realize is that frontline workers actually make up the vast majority of the world’s workforce. In the United States alone there are approximately 50 million frontline workers. Worldwide there are about 2.7 billion frontline workers, which is 80 percent of the world’s workforce.

Workforce: So, the book title — “The Rise of the Frontline Worker” — are you saying these employees have been overlooked and now employers are coming to understand how valuable they are?

frontline workforce
Cristian Grossmann, author of “The Rise of the Frontline Worker”

Grossmann: Early into the pandemic, frontline workers were thrust into the public spotlight. Beneath their masks, they put on a brave face and continued providing the services that society needs to sustain itself and its people. Now, frontline workers are appropriately recognized as essential workers, because they are vital to our economy. In fact, according to the Department of Homeland Security, essential workers are now officially recognized as part of our critical infrastructure operations.

When office employees transitioned to remote work, many frontline teams continued to work onsite throughout the duration of the pandemic. Without these essential workers, many companies and industries would not have been able to operate. Hospitals are filled with frontline workers, as are grocery stores, manufacturing facilities and delivery services. These are the workers that society relies on most and the pandemic highlighted just how important they are.

When it comes to workplace technology, frontline workers have been underserved for a long time. Companies typically spend most of their IT budget on desk workers while frontline employees often rely on outdated, inefficient communication channels. Paycheck stuffers, break room bulletin boards and word of mouth are just a few examples of outdated communication channels many companies still use to reach their frontline employees.

Now, with the rise of the frontline worker in the public spotlight and advances in mobile collaboration technology, business leaders are stepping up and investing more into productivity and collaboration technology that will reach and connect their frontline teams.

Workforce: It seems like an overarching theme is, by enhancing frontline workers’ access to technology, employers can gain a competitive advantage. Is that accurate?

Grossmann: I believe that digitally empowering frontline employees will be one of the single most important competitive advantages for businesses in the new post-pandemic normal. A high-performing workforce can only be cultivated when every worker is included and digitally enabled. If a company is only connecting with a small portion of their workforce and not including their frontline teams, they’re missing out on a huge opportunity to improve the safety, agility and overall productivity of their business.

Access to cutting-edge workplace technology creates a frontline workforce that is more productive, collaborative and ultimately happier. A connected workforce experiences fewer on-the-job accidents, sees higher retention rates, and is more innovative. All of these factors ultimately improve the customer experience and the bottom line of the business.

Let’s consider the hotel industry. Almost every guest interaction customers have occurs with frontline workers — they are the de facto brand ambassadors of the business. The happier these employees are and the more empowered they are to do their jobs with the right collaboration tools and access to information, the better guest experience they will create.

When companies digitize their frontline workers they are boosting productivity, safety and agility of their workforce, which fuels their competitive advantage.

Workforce: How can digitalization bring out the best in frontline workers?

Grossmann: When companies invest in their employees, it helps build a more engaged, committed workforce and lays the groundwork for a more collaborative, productive company culture.

This cultural transformation brought about through digitalization happens for a few reasons. First, simply connecting with workers and getting their input and feedback not only dramatically improves morale, but it also makes their jobs easier. The average frontline worker spends three hours each week just searching for information they need to do their jobs.

With a mobile collaboration and productivity tool, they have all the information they need at their fingertips. It streamlines operations by making their day-to-day tasks and work lives easier. They become more productive and more engaged. According to Gallup, a connected workforce leads to a 17 percent boost in productivity, 21 percent profitability increase and a 40 percent decrease in turnover.

And on a human level, just connecting workers to the company and to each other, creating space for team members to build social connections at work goes a long way in driving engagement and boosting morale.frontline worker

Workforce: Talk about the technology divide that you’ve seen between desk-based workers and frontline workers.

Grossmann: Historically, companies have invested most of their technology budget in desk-based workers while not really knowing how to connect with the frontline. It’s created a digital divide within the workplace. While desk workers have access to IT systems, email, telephones and much more, frontline workers lack the digital identity that desk-based workers are used to. It favors one group by giving them a voice while frontline workers are left without a way to contribute and connect.

Companies often resort to adapting an existing platform in their tech stack designed for desk-based workers for their frontline teams. But frontline workers have their own set of unique needs that often require different technology solutions.

Workforce: Many organizations with hourly employees still use manual, paper-based processes like scheduling and onboarding. Why should they digitize?

Grossmann: COVID-19 has accelerated the need for unified productivity and collaboration tools and the process of digitization that comes with them. If there was ever a moment to invest in frontline worker enablement, this is it. Companies are realizing just how much more efficient they are when they digitalize workflows and empower their teams with mobile technology.

First, paper-based processes are inefficient and are more likely to lead to miscommunication, which costs small companies about $460,000 a year. What’s more, completing this paperwork is repetitive and time consuming for staff. Automating routine tasks can free up employees’ time to spend on value-add tasks.

For example, if HR used a digital platform to automate the onboarding process and digitize employee paperwork, they could then spend more time on high level initiatives like recruitment and retention. This is also true of shift management. With a digital tool, creating schedules and communicating changes with employees is streamlined through one hub.

Also read: The future of automated employee scheduling

Workforce: Is HR resistant to digitization?

Grossmann: At Beekeeper, we have actually seen HR departments initiate the digital transformation journey in their own organizations. However, no matter who gets the ball rolling, it’s critical that top leadership supports and invests in digital transformation to set the tone for the project. If the CEO is passionate about progress, then frontline workers will follow their lead and support it, too.

From automating the onboarding process to digitizing payroll, HR teams can dramatically benefit from productivity tools, too. We have one customer, a casino with over 600 workers, that saved nearly $100,000 by digitizing paper-based processes, including HR forms that once had to be filled out manually.

Workforce: So, I am a manager. We’ve just digitized our employee communications through a smartphone app. And I see my employee on the floor checking their phone instead of restocking the yogurt and sour cream. How should I react?

Grossmann: I realize that letting employees use their phones at work can be a sensitive subject. Objections such as: they’re too distracting; they negatively affect productivity; they just simply “don’t belong” at work. I get it. It can be tempting to throw your hands up and banish the use of cell phones at work once and for all.

But the truth is that a “no tolerance” take on cell phone policies may not be the best solution, except for highly sterile procedures or risky production processes. In the modern day workplace, cell phones are a needed resource to facilitate internal collaboration, especially for employees who don’t have computer access or a company email account and allow them to better serve customers

I believe that the benefits of allowing employees to use phones at work greatly outweigh the risks if implemented properly. The key to successfully allowing cell phones in the workplace lies in creating a clear BYOD policy and making sure everyone understands what’s expected of them. Proactively addressing the key concerns is the first step to creating a solution that fits your company’s needs. Don’t let fear of change cause your organization to miss out on all the advantages of mobile communication in the workplace.

Workforce: You make a really interesting point about employees taking communications into their own hands by using commercial products like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger for workplace communications. Why is that wrong?

Grossmann: Aside from security concerns, another problem with using WhatsApp for workplace communication is that it can sometimes create more confusion and chaos for workers. Juggling multiple group chats, no user management, and unprofessional user names make managing business communication through WhatsApp very difficult.

All this confusion ultimately leads to unclear, disjointed and disconnected workplace communication. In the end, WhatsApp can hurt productivity more than it helps. If managers are spending 15 minutes of each shift trying to figure out which group chat the closing checklist was sent to, then it pretty much defeats the purpose.

Don’t get me wrong. WhatsApp is fine for social communication. But when it comes to business, workers need a robust, collaborative platform with features and capabilities (like integrations) that streamline workflows and communication and enable them to be more productive.

I like to compare social media apps to the Wild West: they’re unregulated, out of control, and carry potential security consequences for a business. Companies have no control over consumer-grade communication apps.

Workforce: Communicating with your employees through an app is all well and good. But with an hourly workforce, aren’t you treading on potential wage and hour or overtime violations if they are “on” 24/7?

Having access to employees around the clock does not mean they should be accessible and available to the company 24/7. With Beekeeper, employees can set the app to the “Do Not Disturb” mode that can also be linked to their shifts automatically and mute push notifications outside of work hours. This respects the free time of off-duty frontline workers and also reduces a company’s legal risks around wage and hour labor laws that can arise when contacting employees when they’re not working.

Fair play rules are also essential when it comes to integrating workplace technology. Employees must understand that they may only use employer-provided communication technology, such as an app, during work hours.

Workforce: While we’re on that subject, talk about avoiding potential compliance violations when you digitalize employee communications.

Grossmann: On top of labor laws and data security, each industry has regulatory agencies who have specific standards and rules for companies. For example, manufacturing and construction must comply with OSHA. Health departments and the FDA have rigorous laws that govern the restaurant industry. It’s a lot for companies to keep track of and a workplace platform can help make sure they stay compliant on all levels.

Also read: Wage and hour violations cost restaurant $697,000

Another topic that must be considered when discussing employee communications compliance is privacy and how data is treated. GDPR, CCPA, and other regulations have clear guidelines on how personal data of employees must be handled. It’s crucial to have the proper certified systems in place to address this.

Workforce: You are the CEO of Beekeeper, but you’ve also spent considerable time as a frontline worker. Talk about your experiences, and how that helps you shape your company’s mission and goals.

Grossmann: Before I got into technology, I was actually a frontline worker myself. I was a factory worker, a waiter, and a chemical engineer. I started very early on learning how frontline industries work as one of my grandfathers worked in a copper factory and the other one in a paint production factory. Also, my father worked with a team of electricians and blacksmiths to produce and automate garage doors in Mexico City. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with them learning how those businesses worked, and especially how crucial it was to have clear and simple systems in place — at that time many of their processes were all paper based! I draw on that perspective and experience to inform the ways we have been and continue to evolve and improve Beekeeper to support more frontline workers.

We serve some of the largest frontline-powered companies in the world and I also rely on what our customers want and need in a mobile productivity platform. We’re honored that companies rely on Beekeeper to support and connect their frontline workers.

From “happy birthday” to “have you clocked out?” share key updates, celebrate milestones and make everyone feel part of the team through Workforce Chat. Sign up for your demo today.

 

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The link between employee engagement and good brand image

employee engagement

Companies can spend millions of dollars on campaigns promoting their brand each year. But aside from building connections with potential customers and nurturing relationships with existing ones, there’s another side of branding that businesses need to pay attention to — employee engagement and perception. 

Kay Phelps, director of British workplace communications company PR in HR, discussed the impact of employee engagement on a company’s brand and why authenticity is especially essential these days for elevating brand perceptions.

Good branding comes from within

When employees find purpose in their roles and feel valued, they can be a company’s greatest brand promoter. But if they are not heard or treated well, what they have to say can be detrimental to your brand image. 

“Employees who are engaged are likely to spread positive thoughts around your brand — be it through word of mouth or social media,” Phelps said. Engaged employees are also likely to interact with their company’s social media pages, therefore boosting the reach and engagement of the brand via digital channels.

Kay Phelps, director, HR in PR
Kay Phelps, director, PR in HR.

Leaders also need to recognize that there are online platforms where employees can air out their experiences with the company, whether positive or negative. “Combine this with the potential for posts on social media, not only should employers be motivated to treat staff well for their wellbeing, but to protect their image too,” Phelps added. 

According to a Glassdoor survey, 86 percent of employees and job seekers research company reviews and ratings to decide on where to apply for a job. Further, a negative reputation can cost a company as much as 10 percent more per hire. 

Bad employee reviews not only hurt the perception of potential hires but can also discourage customers from doing business with a company. 

“If staff feel that their employers genuinely support them and take their views into account, they’ll be more likely to go to them first with any problems instead of heading online to air their opinions,” said Phelps.

Also read: How technology can help your employee engagement strategy

Authenticity is essential

Customers are paying more attention to how brands are living up to their core values and treating their people. A Stackla report said that 86 percent of consumers say that authenticity is important when deciding what brands they like and support. 

“After last year, people want to see that brands care about their people and their customers — not least in terms of diversity, equity and inclusion, wellbeing and health and safety,” Phelps said. 

Phelps sees this as a huge opportunity for companies to be talking about their successful programs that promote employee welfare. However, she cautions about the dangers of claiming to have such initiatives without clear actions, “Companies should take action before talking about it in their comms. Your messaging can’t be ingenuine. It must reflect real action and support in these areas. Fail to do this and you’re likely to be called out by onlookers or your employees,” Phelps explained. 

Also read: Human capital management: Considerations to better engage employees and promote diversity

Empowering your biggest promoters

“Part of understanding why people want to associate with your brand is being able to recognize their struggles and when you do this, you can create targeted messaging that addresses pain points and provides solutions,” Phelps said of boosting brand awareness, and the same principle can also be applied to creating a better working environment for your employees. 

According to Glassdoor, employee voice is three times more credible than the CEO when it comes to talking about working conditions in the company. 

Phelps says that a reason for poor brand awareness is unclear messaging. Just like customers, employees tend to be disengaged when expectations for their role are unclear. When not addressed this leads to confusion and conflict, resulting in poor performance and worse, a bad company review. 

The second reason is assuming knowledge on the part of the target audience. “Companies need to be able to get their messages across to the ordinary person in a clear and simple way. If a person is confused, they’ll simply turn off,” Phelps explained. 

Just with managing the workforce, managers should not assume that their employees know it all. They need to lay out all essential information for their people to do their jobs well. Open lines of communication are a must for fostering a culture of trust in the workforce. Employees need to feel a certain sense of safety that allows them to raise questions and concerns without fear of being shut down. 

Companies should prioritize enabling their employees to perform at their best. This means providing them with the right tools and platforms that will allow them to be more efficient. Tools that enable them to collaborate, make data-driven decisions, and just generally make admin work easier are essential to keeping them engaged. 

What employees have to say about a company is just as crucial to what customers think about the brand — sometimes, even more. Employee engagement can resonate outside the organization and can either make or break your business. Given today’s business landscape, taking care of your employees is essentially protecting your brand image and bottom line.

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Allied Universal boosts its hiring as demand for security services surges

security services, Allied Universal

Security services will play an important role as businesses reopen their doors and rebuild their staff in 2021.

Anticipating this growing need, security staffing services provider Allied Universal recently announced plans to hire hundreds of new employees across the country. Two recent hiring events in the Phoenix area alone were held to add 500 new security professionals there.

Building the hourly workforce

The greatest number of Allied’s open positions are hourly, said Morgan Price, senior vice president-recruiting and talent acquisition, though there are open positions across the organization.

“From security professionals to various leadership positions in operations, human resources, and other functions, we have tremendous opportunity,” Price said.

Allied included a virtual solution to interviewing and hiring to engage a large number of potential employees who may otherwise not apply or interview for a position, Price said. Adding that virtual component also makes the entire application process easier and more efficient.

“With altered school schedules for children or just the inconvenience of arranging transportation, being able to take the first step of employment through our virtual open houses helps Allied Universal find the best talent available,” Price said.

security staffing services , Allied Universal

Safety through security staffing services

Price said that Allied executives are seeing an increased need for security staffing services and facilities management. They plan to hold a number of virtual hiring events over the remainder of the year nationwide and beyond 2021.

“Our clients and the public at large rely on us to keep our communities and businesses safe and secure, especially during these challenging times,” said Steve Jones, chairman and CEO of Allied Universal, in a press statement. “Our security staffing professionals play a pivotal part ensuring facilities can continue business as usual. Other businesses that had to close can rest assured that their assets will remain protected.”

For full-time positions, company benefits include medical and dental coverage, life insurance, 401(k), holidays and more.

Hiring and scheduling security personnel

Hiring unqualified security guards can be a detriment to a company’s reputation and its financial livelihood, according to the “Officer Reports” blog. To find quality security guards, they say, be the kind of company that your current guards want to tell their friends to apply at. 

Once hired, experts recommend that employers maintain consistent scheduling practices for an hourly workforce of security personnel. It creates optimal productivity, reduces fatigue and helps employees retain focus toward the end of a shift. Teamwork also is important among security professionals, so also consider scheduling the same people on at the same time if they work well together.

To get around unreliable manual communications such as call trees and text messaging, security company managers are realizing the advantages of employee scheduling software. Besides managing staffing levels, automated scheduling solutions offer effective communication tools, particularly in the event of unforeseen emergencies or last-minute schedule changes.

Complying with fair workweek and predictive scheduling laws also is important. A regular schedule cuts down on overtime, leads to happier employers and better workers, experts point out.

 Focus on employee safety

Price said that throughout the pandemic Allied Universal’s top priority has been employee safety. The company is doing everything possible to deal with the personal impact this is having on all of its employees and their families. 

Morgan Price, SVP-recruiting and talent acquisition

“Since the start of the pandemic, Allied Universal has delivered more than 3 million masks and hundreds of gallons of hand sanitizer to our frontline employees and staff,” Price said. They also have a dedicated safety team constantly monitoring all COVID-19 developments ensuring that Allied continuously educates its employees to understand and follow CDC guidelines.

Allied, which is based in Santa Ana, California, has 265,000 employees and revenues of more than $9.5 billion. The company will grow by thousands of new employees as the long-anticipated $5.28 billion acquisition of rival security company G4S came to fruition March 16. Allied will add G4S’s workforce of 558,000 employees and operations in about 85 countries stretching across six continents, according to published reports. 

Allied also announced in January the acquisition of Atlanta-based SecurAmerica, which has 13,500 employees and $467 million in annual sales, and Waco, Texas-based Eagle Systems Inc., which has 210 security officers and revenue topping $10 million, according to the Orange County Business Journal.

Looking to grow like Allied Universal? Workforce management solutions are important for scaling and day-to-day frontline operations. Book a Workforce.com demo today.

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5 Options to Track Employee Hours

track employee hours

Summary

  • Some businesses get away with tracking time manually with pen and paper.

  • Time clock machines with biometrics, card swipes, or punch-in codes are worth considering in most cases.

  • Automated time and attendance software is the easiest and most comprehensive way to track employee hours.

Without a time tracking program in place, it’s easy to lose track of which hourly employees did what and for how long, leading to mistakes in payroll. 

Inaccurately tracking hours also creates compliance issue landmines. There are stiff penalties and fines for organizations that ignore local, state and federal wage-and-hour and overtime laws. 

It’s a mistake to maintain relaxed standards or have no policy at all to track employee hours. 

Time tracking allows you to accurately see how long any given task takes to complete, and who on your team works most efficiently whether they are hourly or salaried employees. Knowing how much time is spent on certain tasks helps employers to efficiently select how their workers should be using their time.

Still, there are some employers who don’t track employee time because they don’t want to offend employees. Introducing time tracking can be seen as micromanaging or an intrusion on employees’ privacy and shows “a lack of faith” in your own employees.

Instead, they rely on an employee monitoring their own time. Showing trust can build commitment to the company but it can open the door to fraud. 

Before implementing an employee hour tracking solution, answer all questions your employees may have about the process. If employees don’t see the value of time tracking or it is not accurately communicated, your team may not buy in. A key component of streamlining the process of tracking employee hours begins with your honest, transparent communication.

Not tracking employee hours can result in thousands of dollars in lost revenue and invite expensive wage-and-hour violations. Following are five ways that you can track employee hours.

Whether you need to clean up your compensation and compliance practices, track employee activity on a job site, or gauge exempt employees’ time on a project, there are several ways to track employee hours.

  • Manual timekeeping — pen and paper.
  • Time clocks or punch-in tools.
  • Automated time-and-attendance solutions.
  • Mobile apps.
  • GPS clock-ins.

1. Manual timekeeping

If your company is small, using a pen and paper to track employee hours may be a workable option. A manual pen-and-paper system or an Excel spreadsheet at least offers a minimal way to track employees’ time at work. But its limitations quickly become evident as a company grows. 

Manual timekeeping can lead to many difficulties for employers who want to accurately track employees’ time.timesheet, paper time sheet

Managers face reams of paperwork on a regular basis, and it’s easy to misplace or lose timesheets. Employee paperwork also is cumbersome to store, and accessing the documents for recordkeeping or auditing is a challenge.

Manual timekeeping can also make calculating payroll seems like an endless task. If a manager’s time is spent sorting through messy, handwritten employee timesheets and contacting them with questions, they have less time to build the organization through more strategic tasks. 

Correcting mistakes also could hold up the payroll process, which affects all employees.

Accurately tracking employee time becomes an issue. Employees and employers can only add or delete time manually, so they depend on memory to recall who came in when and at what time they took a break or went home.

Wage-and-hour fraud becomes a real possibility. Time theft practices like buddy punching are difficult to detect. Even if several employees falsely change their clock-in time by just five minutes every day, employers can unwittingly pay dozens of unworked hours over the course of a month. 

Of course, the pendulum can swing the other way. Manual timekeeping opens the door to employer fraud. Unsuspecting employees can be cheated out of thousands of dollars in working hours. If and when the fraud is uncovered, wage-and-hour or overtime violations will lead to substantial penalties and potentially steep fines. 

When payrolls are prepared manually, the process is not only time-consuming, mistakes are inevitable and payroll errors are costly. With the trend toward automation, more and more companies are incorporating advanced technology into the workplace to accurately track employee hours, among other functions. 

Pen-and-paper timekeeping simply doesn’t offer the accuracy, versatility and security a digital time and attendance solution will provide. By leaving so much room for error, you risk losing big money for your company. 

2. Time clocks

Time clocks were introduced to track employee time in the late 1800s. While typically more accurate than pen-and-paper timekeeping, time clocks have flaws.

Time clocks vary widely in levels of sophistication. And as with manual timekeeping, time clocks leave plenty of opportunity for time theft and abuse. There is no guarantee that your employees are on the job when they say they are. 

Time clocks also are expensive. They require specialized equipment that is subject to malfunctions and require ongoing maintenance. 

Though card swipes or fingerprint biometrics will provide more accuracy, they are particularly costly, especially when a business owner has multiple locations. Wortime clocks, employee scheduling

However advanced the time clock may be, they’re an impractical choice for a mobile workforce that will routinely work hours at different job sites.

Cleanliness should always be a concern in any workplace. You wouldn’t set out boxes of dirty tissues. Why should a time clock that’s not sanitized after constantly being touched be the lone option for employees starting and ending their working hours? 

The functionality of a time clock is limited and typically cannot integrate with your other workforce management solutions. 

3. Automated employee time tracking solutions

Automated workforce management systems aren’t just for the Fortune 1000 anymore. Solutions exist that are built to support behemoth enterprise organizations yet are flexible and customizable enough to solve a small business’s need to track employee hours.

Companies quickly realize the ways they save time and money once they start using an automated time tracking solution to track employee hours. Timekeeping software becomes your online paper trail that produces accurate, objective accounts of employees’ time and prevents dishonest employees from inflating their hours.

Besides being a strong deterrent to costly time theft, quickly and easily accessing timesheets through an automated solution dramatically improves the accurate calculation of payroll. Time theft is easy to trace and can be quickly solved after you’ve begun to track employees’ hours. You will notice patterns of behavior and can act accordingly.

Before implementing an employee hour tracking solution, answer all questions your employees may have about the process. If employees don’t see the value of time tracking or it is not accurately communicated, your team may not buy in. A key component of streamlining the process of tracking employee hours begins with your honest, transparent communication.

Implementing Workforce.com’s time tracking solution provides your managers with an effortless time-and-attendance system that stays on top of employee productivity, eases administrative tasks and requires minimal training. Managers don’t have to send countless emails or wait for employees to turn in their timecards. The approval workflow handles it, with timesheets attached for easy review and simple approval.

Managers receive notifications when employees clock in and out, when they are running late or must call off at the last minute and when they’re about to incur overtime costs. 

Tracking time with Workforce.com’s automated solution also boosts compliance with regulatory laws. Wage-and-hour and overtime laws vary by state and locality, which makes payroll a calculation and compliance headache. 

Workforce.com’s proactive compliance tools, which were pioneered in Australia to manage the world’s most complicated wage laws, ensure simplified and automated adherence with U.S. federal FLSA, state and local labor regulations. It also includes built-in overtime pay calculations for all 50 states and territories to keep your numbers in compliance.compliance, wage and hour , overtime

Integration with all workforce management systems becomes simple and easy. You control wage costs even further by integrating Workforce.com’s software with your current payroll, POS and HR tools via the cloud for faster, more efficient workforce management operations. 

Verifying and exporting timesheets to your payroll system software is straightforward and fast thanks to the available integrations. Timesheets that have been verified and match scheduling are auto-approved, saving your managers time.

Ultimately, if your employees don’t feel comfortable using your time tracking solution, it will affect their productivity. Since they will use it every day, get them to experience a trial run with you. Building trust early on will amplify buy-in and confidence in your hourly time tracking strategy, making implementation and use simple and error-free.

4. Tracking employee hours with a mobile app

A huge advantage of an automated, cloud-based time-and-attendance system is the capability a mobile employee time tracking app or timesheet app provides to track employee hours. Mobile time tracking makes clocking in and out and sharing schedules easier for all employees, no matter their location.employee mobile app, time clock app

With a time tracker app you can watch who is coming in that day, what time they’re scheduled to start, which location they’ll be working at and their hours on the clock straight from your phone.

There’s no need to camp behind a desktop computer in an office anymore. Your managers get a powerful mobile tool that boosts their ability to track employee hours any time, anywhere. 

A mobile tracker app also empowers managers to follow employees in real time from anywhere and assure that all shifts are covered, update scheduling for any shift and continue tracking when an employee clocks in. Workforce.com’s mobile time clock app helps manage employees’ time and administer digital timesheets, payroll, budgeting and labor compliance reporting. 

Communications become immediately simpler and faster, allowing them to call in someone for an unexpected absence, approve leave requests, and receive automatic notifications on the go. 

5. GPS clock-in

While a time tracking app could be enough for your employees or those who travel between different job sites, you may need pinpoint accuracy to track employee locations. Some time tracker apps include location tracking, providing you with the ability to track enabled devices. 

GPS tracking capabilities help everyone stay in the loop regarding an employee’s clock in and clock out when they arrive at their remote work location. 

Workforce.com’s GPS clock-in takes your time tracking capabilities global. Timesheets automatically sync GPS locations of all clock-ins and outs. Some industries have varying pay rates depending on the job, location and employee’s position. Clock-in data intuitively assigns pay rates depending on the location, saving time and administrative work computing pay.

The time clock app with GPS also includes geofences. Geofencing creates a radius for a location and then it starts flagging shifts in the timesheet approval system, making it easy to track employee hours and identify shifts where someone has clocked in offsite. 

The GPS clock-in app lets everyone clock in from their mobile device and gives managers an edge to track employee hours with the platform’s photo-verified clock-in system.GPS clock in

Tracking employee hours is crucial to your organization’s operations and profitability. It provides key labor cost data, accurate payroll information and a boost in productivity. Regardless of what process you select to track employee hours, use the function that fits your company. But an automated system is scalable to your company’s size and shifting needs and offers the flexibility to stay local or go global. 

Payroll is tired of translating messy, handwritten timecards submitted by employees and managers, and a time clock is an impractical choice for your highly mobile workforce. An automated solution to track employee hours keeps you in compliance and builds your business success. 

Workforce.com’s time clock app automates how your staff clocks in and out. Ask for a free demo today.

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4 ways that health care organizations can build resilience

build resilience

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

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

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

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

Keeping communication lines open

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

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

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

Ensuring safety on shift

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

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

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

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

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

Promoting financial security

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

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

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

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

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

Demonstrating HR compliance

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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My one work rule to rule them all

Unify those far away workplaces with global mobility tools

George Carlin was a genius.

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.