Tag: employee engagement

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Are DEI programs at risk? What the new executive orders mean for businesses

Within his first few days back in office, President Trump issued executive orders halting DEI programs in federal agencies. On January 20, the first executive order directed the shutdown of federal DEI programs. Federal DEI staff were also put on leave, and federal grantees had to discontinue DEI practices deemed discriminatory or preferential.

The next day, the White House published another executive order emphasizing merit-based opportunities, individual initiative, and hard work. It also instructed the Attorney General to recommend strategies for enforcing civil rights laws and ways to “encourage businesses to end illegal discrimination and preferences, including DEI.”

While the definition of “illegal DEI” remains unclear, these executive actions and the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in college admissions have prompted some private sector companies to rethink their DEI policies.

How businesses are responding

While the executive orders primarily target federal agencies, grantees, and contractors, their impact was also felt across the private sector as companies reassess their DEI commitments.

Even before these orders, some major corporations had begun scaling back DEI initiatives. Last year, Walmart discontinued its DEI training and chose not to renew its racial equity center, instead shifting its language to emphasize “belonging“. Similarly, Target ended its three-year DEI goals and will no longer participate in diversity-focused surveys, including HRC’s Corporate Quality Index. McDonald’s announced restructuring its DEI efforts, transitioning its diversity team into a broader Global Inclusion Team, and will conclude its Supply Chain’s Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge.

However, some businesses are standing firm. Costco shareholders turned down a proposal to evaluate their current DEI practices. Cosmetics brand e.l.f. also has a similar stance and reaffirmed its commitment, maintaining its policies despite broader industry pullbacks.

What does it mean for your business?

Should you roll back your DEI programs? While recent executive orders may create pressure to scale back, it would be best to evaluate your policies before making any drastic changes. 

Workplace fairness should always be a priority whether you have formal DEI initiatives or not. If you manage an hourly team, here are some ways to practice fairness and equality across your organization. 

Hire without bias. If your hiring process includes explicit demographic quotas, it may be legally risky under the new executive orders. Instead, focus on qualifications, skills, and experience rather than factors like race, age, or gender. Use structured hiring practices that prioritize job-related qualifications. Workforce.com’s HR platform allows hiring teams to set preliminary screening questions on job listings, helping filter candidates based on essential qualifications, not personal demographics.

Distribute work hours fairly. Shift assignments should be fair and consistent to avoid unintentional favoritism. Use a scheduling system that allows you to distribute work hours and overtime evenly among team members. Workforce.com’s scheduling software enables managers to allocate work hours based on demand, availability, maximum hours allowed, and other compliance requirements.

Audit your current policies. While there’s still no definitive list of practices or policies deemed “illegal” under the executive orders, it’s wise to assess your current policies for anything that could be interpreted as preferential treatment. Review existing DEI programs to ensure they focus on merit, skills, and equal opportunity rather than demographic-based preferences. In addition, if your company receives federal grants or is a federal contractor, ensure that your policies align with the latest executive directives to avoid compliance risks.

Do businesses need to abandon DEI practices? Not necessarily, but they have to do it smarter. Focus on fairness, merit, and equal opportunity so that policies can remain compliant, maintain an inclusive work environment, and stay pace with evolving federal regulations. 

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HR Trends for Hourly Workforces in 2025

Summary

  • 2025 will be filled with new and familiar trends, and business leaders must devise strategies specific to hourly teams to maintain employee retention and remain competitive. 
  • This year, there would be increased emphasis on employee experience, continuous AI adoption, and a potentially bigger labor gap with tighter immigration rules. 
  • An all-in-one HR technology can help hourly teams stay ahead of the trends and overcome staffing challenges.

This year, hourly workforces will face a mix of old and new challenges, from labor shortages to technological advancements and a maze of shifting compliance rules. HR leaders and managers must step up in 2025 to retain top talent and stay competitive, or risk widening the labor gap and losing their team to competitors.

So, what’s coming up on the horizon? Check out these top HR trends you’ll want to watch when managing your hourly workforce this year.

1. Staffing and hiring challenges with stricter immigration laws

With stricter immigration laws and ongoing labor shortages, hourly workforces face a greater challenge in attracting and retaining talent.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, foreign-born workers account for 18.6% of the U.S. civilian labor force. With stricter immigration laws, a bigger labor shortage challenge could be looming.

While the crackdown targets undocumented migrants, even legal, documented workers may struggle to stay in the U.S. when mass deportation separates them from their families. This uncertainty can push them to leave, creating vacancies in industries that heavily depend on hourly workers.  Worse, some immigrants may not aspire to come to the U.S. for work at all. 

For instance, in Nebraska, one of the top meat producers in the U.S., businesses are already grappling with a massive labor shortage. For every 100 jobs, there are only 39 workers to fill them, and Nebraskans fear that the gap will only get bigger. 

So, what does this mean for employers? They must fight hard to not only hire and attract talent but also maintain employee satisfaction.Another key area is tightening the vetting process. While undocumented workers have rights, knowingly hiring them is illegal for employers. This creates an added challenge for HR professionals to ensure their vetting procedures are foolproof, preventing penalties or complications from accidentally hiring ineligible individuals.

How to stay ahead:

HR departments need a system that streamlines talent acquisition, quickly assesses qualifications, and ensures new hires and existing staff stick around. 

Workforce.com’s HR system can augment recruitment by allowing you to post job openings across your business locations. You can even generate QR codes for job postings, making it easy for interested applicants to scan, read job descriptions, and start their application process. 

Set custom questions to quickly qualify candidates, like their experience, available hours, and whether they have the qualifications and documentation to work in the U.S. 

Plus, Workforce.com helps your managers retain current staff by offering flexibility with shift swapping and advanced scheduling. It also tracks people analytics such as performance, highlighting areas for training, upskilling, and development.

2. AI adoption in HR processes will continue

Artificial intelligence will continue to play a role in HR this year. While we have seen its adoption in the previous years, the trend will continue in 2025. More and more organizations will adopt AI in human resources to eliminate admin tasks, repetitive processes, and paperwork. 

However, AI can be a double-edged sword in workplaces. Sure, it can make things easier and faster, but questions remain about its impact on work quality, particularly with the rise of generative AI tools. Some even call for regulatory rules, prompting organizations to develop policies governing how employees use AI at work. 

How to stay ahead:

Focusing on how AI can bring the most value is key to making the most of it. For hourly teams, labor forecasting is key. Workforce.com has long used AI to help organizations anticipate demand and avoid overstaffing or understaffing. 

Workforce.com labor forecasting system utilizes AI to analyze sales, booked appointments, historical foot traffic, seasonal trends, weather, and other business-specific indicators. For example, hospitals can factor in ICU bed availability, while hotels can account for bookings and reservations. Considering these variables, the platform accurately forecasts staffing needs for each shift, helping you curb overstaffing, reduce overtime costs, and improve decision-making around schedules.

3. Shifting labor laws pose new challenges to HR

As if labor compliance was not complicated enough, a new administration in place in 2025 could throw even more curveballs.

Case in point: President Trump’s move to end “illegal” discrimination in DEI programs. In a recent executive order, he ordered DEI programs within federal agencies. While it does not directly ban DEI programs in the private sector, the order imposes requirements on federal contractors and grant recipients, potentially increasing scrutiny of DEI policies. This could create pressure for private companies to adapt to the shifting political and regulatory landscape.  

In addition, there are changes slated to happen this year, such as increases in minimum wage laws in some states and the enactment of paid leave laws in some cities.  

How to stay ahead:

Employers should carefully balance compliance with federal directives and maintaining fair practices to support their teams and prevent long-term workforce challenges. For hourly workers, this can be as simple as being mindful of how shifts and overtime are distributed. Workforce.com makes this easier by giving managers a clear, real-time view of how many hours each team member works. This helps ensure everyone gets the right amount of hours or shifts.

Labor compliance is tricky, but automation can simplify the process. HR teams can stay on top of labor regulation developments through systems with a compliance engine, such as Workforce.com.

Workforce.com ensures compliance for hourly teams at every stage of HR management—covering employee classification, wage and overtime calculations, adherence to allowable work hours, and compliance with break time rules. From hiring and onboarding to scheduling and payroll, managers can trust they’re operating within state and federal laws every step of the way. 

4. A new emphasis on employee experience

For white-collar and salaried workers, a good employee experience often means hybrid work setups, the freedom to do remote work, and opportunities for long-term career development. But hourly workers, who are typically onsite and part of operations that may run around the clock, have quite different needs. So, what does a positive employee experience mean for them? 

Hourly workers desire work-life balance, too, but in a different way. For frontline teams, it’s about knowing their schedules in advance, allowing them to plan for childcare, a second job, or personal time off. Flexibility also means having options for how they work, like swapping shifts with coworkers or picking up extra shifts without a lengthy approval process.

Employee well-being will also be a focus in HR strategies in 2025. It’s about offering programs such as counseling services, mental health programs, and wellness initiatives tailored to the needs of hourly workers. This could mean offering flexible work options, encouraging regular breaks, and ensuring that workers have a safe space to express concerns without fear of stigma.

HR teams should also consider upskilling, reskilling, and defining career paths for hourly staff. Consider offering certification programs or opportunities to learn new technical skills. It’s also time to define growth paths for these teams. Can they move into higher-paying roles? Is there a path to salaried positions? Answering these questions can make a big difference in retaining and engaging hourly employees as well as addressing any skill gap in your business.

How to stay ahead:

Much of the employee experience for hourly employees involves admin processes, which can be easily streamlined with the right technology. Workforce.com simplifies scheduling with its labor forecasting and scheduling software. Create demand-based shifts in minutes and notify staff weeks in advance. If you’re in a city or state with predictive scheduling or Fair Workweek laws, this tool also helps ensure compliance.

Shift swapping or shift replacements is another area where Workforce.com can make it easy for managers. The system eliminates long approval processes and back-and-forth communication. Managers can quickly offer vacant shifts to qualified employees, who can pick them up with a single click using the employee app.Since most of this admin work is done, HR leaders and managers now have time to optimize hiring practices, spend more time coaching their teams, devise career trajectories, determine appropriate training for their employees, which they can also track using Workforce.com’s performance management module.

5. Prioritizing constant feedback and review process

Another continuing trend into 2025 is focusing on more dynamic feedback and breaking free from rigid timelines like annual reviews. This is especially important for hourly workforces, where the fast-paced environment calls for real-time input and adjustments.

How to stay ahead: 

Operational issues can’t wait until the next performance review. Managers need a system that enables them to give and receive feedback in real-time. Workforce.com can prompt employees to rate their shifts at the end of the day. Using this feedback, managers can see what’s working and what needs improvement. This approach helps maintain a good work environment, resolve issues early and keep them from escalating over time.

6.  Access to wages and pay transparency

Businesses will maximize payroll technology to offer more flexibility and options to employees. This year, the focus will continue on giving employees the option to access their wages before payday. This can serve as a great middle ground for companies that can’t yet increase salaries or augment benefits.

Transparency around wages and payslips will remain a key priority. Employees expect an easy way to view their payslips and understand how their wages are calculated, especially for hourly staff.

How to stay ahead:

It’s all about having an efficient payroll platform, one that’s housed in the same ecosystem as HRIS and time and attendance tracking. Payroll is not just about processing paychecks. It’s about ensuring that all the data used to calculate employee pay is accurate, starting with employee qualifications and time logs. Workforce.com streamlines this process, making it easy for you and your employees to access accurate pay information, including payslips.

7. Integration between HR, workforce management, and payroll will be a top priority.

With all the changes and disruptions this year, organizations need a system that will allow them to streamline their recruitment, create worthwhile onboarding processes, track employee time accurately, schedule employees according to classifications and preferences, and pay them accurately. It is all about breaking down silos between these processes, and businesses would likely seek a system that streamlines all of these.

How to stay ahead:

Innovative businesses would stay ahead by ensuring their systems operate well together. Even better, they opt for a platform where everything is housed in a single system.

Workforce.com eliminates silos between HR, workforce management, and payroll. All processes operate within one ecosystem, ensuring a single source of truth and smooth coordination across the board. With a unified platform, managers have less digital upkeep, as they only need to log in once to manage everything—no switching between multiple applications.

Staying ahead with Workforce.com

Organizations that work hard will lead the pack, especially with everything happening in the business, technology, and labor landscape. They must focus on creating strategies to attract new workers, retain their current teams, and ensure profitability and maintain a good workplace culture simultaneously. 

Workforce.com handles the admin side, so you can focus on the big picture. It adapts to market shifts, labor law changes, and trends, streamlining every step of the employee journey.

Ready to see how Workforce.com can help your business? Book a call today.

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10 Best Practices for Employee Surveys

Painting of a hand filling out a survey on a tablet

Summary:

  • Employee surveys are useful for judging general sentiment across a workforce.

  • Positive responses should not always be taken at face value – conducting follow-up discussions can provide valuable context. 

  • Follow through with specific action plans using an employee engagement platform. 

Job satisfaction is currently at its highest. A survey from The Conference Board found that competitive pay plays a part in it, but employee retention is also attributed to experience and culture. While such results are notable and perceived to be primarily positive, it isn’t easy to generalize that the findings apply to every organization. 

For instance, survey findings show that a hybrid workforce is more satisfied than fully remote or on-site employees. But if you run an hourly workforce for a retail store, hotel chain, or healthcare facility, offering remote work is obviously out of the question. Does this mean that you’re doomed to have an unsatisfied team? Definitely not. The key here is optimizing employee experience by making their jobs easier and more fulfilling. Conducting surveys helps you get this done. 

Employee surveys shed light on employee satisfaction, pain points, and performance issues. Here are 10 best practices to get valuable insights from your employee surveys. 

1. Take time to build the groundwork.

If you want to make the most of employee surveys, you need to take time to plan them out.  

First, you need to determine why you’re doing one. Doing one annually “just because” is not a good enough reason. If you’re conducting a survey just for the sake of it, you’re wasting resources, getting unreliable or skewed answers, and potentially risking low participation rates. 

Before you roll out an employee survey program, here are things you need to plan for:

  • The reason for doing the survey. There are several reasons why organizations do employee surveys. Commonly, it’s a way to assess developments from the last poll, measure employee engagement, and investigate what’s causing productivity dips. Whatever the reason, you need to be clear about what you’re trying to measure, as it will set the direction for the entire process and the correct type of survey.
  • The timeline for the survey. When do you plan to conduct the survey, and what is the timeframe for which you will gather and validate the responses?
  • The participants of the survey. Who needs to answer the survey? Will it be conducted across the board, or will only selected staff members need to respond? Again, the reason for the survey will help determine this. If it’s an employee engagement survey, you should probably distribute it across your entire organization. But if it’s to gauge interest in something specific, let’s say a new tip pooling policy, it might make sene to only ask frontline team members to participate and not managers.
  • The set of questions to use. Questions should align with what you’re trying to measure. If you’re assessing progress from the previous survey results, using the same set of questions might make sense. However, it’s important to still look at that questionnaire and weed out any unnecessary items or add more to help with your evaluation.
  • Implementation of findings. Who will implement programs or changes as warranted by the survey results? Follow-through is crucial for every type of employee survey. Yes, human resources has a huge role to play in this, but managers are at the forefront of making sure that initiatives are implemented. It’s vital that results are turned into initiatives and programs that improves business outcomes and workplace culture. 

2. Time it well.

The best time to conduct an employee survey depends on several factors. But as a general rule of thumb, it should be avoided during public holidays or busy seasons. 

If you’re trying to benchmark or see progress, you can schedule employee surveys at regular intervals, say once per quarter. For instance, if the survey aims to improve employee engagement levels, regular check-ins following the initial study will be good for tracking progress and changing current programs to improve results. 

It may also be a good idea to conduct surveys at significant employment milestones, such as while onboarding, during performance reviews, before and after a promotion, or during offboarding. 

If a company is about to undergo a significant change, consider conducting surveys before and after this restructuring as well; this will help you gauge how perceptions and sentiments change during a major shift.  

3. Formulate the right questions.

If you want your employee surveys to uncover the true state of what you’re trying to measure, you must ask the right questions. While it seems obvious, many organizations tend to stumble at this part because wording survey questions can be trickier than it looks.  

Remember that each person or respondent has some form of bias. Survey questions must be carefully worded to get as specific and objective answers as possible.  

Here are some tips: 

  • Use neutral wording. Experts at HBR advise using neutral terms instead of words that can have strong associations. So, for instance, terms like strong or taking long strides may have associations with male leaders, which can result in higher rankings of male leaders compared to female leaders.

Suppose you want to measure how your managers tackle complicated issues at work. In that case, it may be best to phrase the question “Does your manager discuss complex issues with precision and clarity?” instead of “Does your manager have a strong grasp of complex problems?”. Both may have the same meaning, but the former sounds more specific and neutral.

  • Keep questions focused on a single item. While it’s easy to clump related items together, it’s best to keep things separate so that it’s easier for respondents. For instance, you wanted to measure how employees perceive their salary and benefits. While both are part of your compensation package, it’s best to create two separate questions for them because employees may have different perspectives on the two. Employees may be satisfied with their pay but may not be too happy with their leave benefits.
  • Use rating scales and multiple-choice questions. These types of questions are good at getting specific answers and engaging respondents. Ensure that each question flows from one to the next and doesn’t jump from one topic to another. For instance, you want to ensure that questions about work responsibilities and tasks are grouped together while questions about leadership are also categorized differently.
  • Use some open-ended questions. Context is important when processing survey results, and open-ended questions can help. Such questions allow respondents to provide answers in their own words, enabling them to explain their thoughts and responses better. Two open-ended questions per 15 ranking or scale-type survey questions is a common practice for employee surveys.  
  • Keep it short. If you want a high response rate, keep your surveys concise. Respondents are likelier to engage with the questions if they are direct and varied.

Also read: A complete guide to employee engagement for shift-based work

4. Develop a communication plan

Proper communication is critical if you intend to achieve high response rates for your employee surveys. Think of it like a marketing plan, but this time, your employees are your target audience. You need to get their buy-in and make them see what’s in it for them. Communicate the goal of the survey in a way that highlights how the end result will benefit them.  

Aside from discussing goals and objectives, you also need to inform them of the survey process—when the survey will take place and how it will be conducted. 

Realize that communication is not just a one-off email announcement. A best practice is to communicate the survey through different channels, such as a series of well-scheduled email messages, face-to-face announcements by team leads, and push notifications via an employee app if you have it. Equip managers to also answer questions regarding the survey, if needed.  

5. Use data to identify critical issues

Maximize your data and use it to identify gaps and spot low-lying opportunities. 

For instance, does your time and attendance data indicate an increase in no-shows or tardiness? Using this indicator, you can frame your surveys to identify what’s causing the issue. Is this a logistical hitch, or is an underlying management problem causing it? You can find possible answers from your data, such as employee schedules being sent out frequently late. You can use your survey to confirm if that’s the case or uncover any other reason. 

Webinar: Tackling Critical Workplace Issues with SHRM

Numbers don’t lie. Your data can give you insights into current issues, and you can tailor your surveys to get to the bottom of these hiccups. On the other hand, data can also tell you what your organization is doing right, and the survey can help you identify different ways to reinforce that.  

6. Involve employees in survey design

Invite a small group of employees to do a test run of the survey. They can provide feedback on the questions and how it was conducted. This way, you can spot vague questions, improve unclear areas or statements, and remove or add more questions necessary. This extra step ensures that your survey will yield valuable results. 

7. Address confidentiality concerns

People tend to give honest feedback when they know that responses are confidential, especially on questions about critical matters. Disclose how the answers are collected and clarify if the survey is fully confidential or if they have the option to disclose their identity or not. 

8. Validate your findings.

Employee survey results should not be taken at face value. After collecting feedback, it’s best to validate your findings. Correlate answers with other relevant information you have, such as sales metrics and attrition rates. 

Sometimes survey data might seem optimistic, but there are cases where it’s indicative of another issue. For instance, while a team may rate their manager highly, this could be because the manager does not hold staff accountable for productivity or workplace professionalism. 

If anything is unclear, don’t stop until you get to the bottom of it. If answers are inconclusive, you can conduct a follow-up study. A focused discussion among a small group of employees can provide a clearer picture of what’s happening.  

9. Follow-through.

The point of conducting surveys is to improve your operations by understanding employee sentiment. What sets successful organizations apart is how they utilize survey results to optimize their workforce management and improve their work environment. 

Make sure to communicate survey results to the respondents. You can share high-level findings with everyone and be open to clarifications should some employees want to learn more. If necessary, develop action plans for specific employees, or outline a company-wide strategic initiative for all your managers. Doing either or both of these things promotes transparency, makes employees feel heard, and ensures appropriate action is taken. 

10. Use the right survey tools

An employee engagement platform is sometimes necessary to distribute surveys and organize responses across your workforce. 

The right platform helps in two ways. For one, you need to have an efficient way to distribute surveys and record responses in a single system that houses all of these so you can analyze them later on. 

The other important aspect is accessibility. Make it convenient for employees to access surveys and respond. It’s advisable to allow employees to answer surveys via their mobile devices as this gives them flexibility on when to answer the survey. 

It’s good to consider what avenues are actually accessible for your staff. Do they really have the time or desire to download a new app to complete surveys? This might be more work for them. Think about how to incorporate surveys into their day-to-day tools – perhaps via a time clock app or a self-service app that houses things they routinely access, such as their schedule, time off balances, and paystubs. 

Distributing surveys through regularly accessed channels is critical for a good survey response rate. This also keeps things as unintrusive as possible. Employees are busy getting things done; they don’t have time to answer survey questions on a clunky, one-use platform.

If a company is about to undergo a significant change, consider conducting surveys before and after this restructuring as well; this will help you gauge how perceptions and sentiments change during a major shift. 

Make your surveys a part of a comprehensive feedback system.

Feedback should go beyond annual employee surveys. There are issues you can address more spontaneously if you gather feedback more quickly and frequently. 

An excellent example of this is allowing your employees to rate their shifts in real-time, right after their shift, directly from a time clock. This method helps you quickly identify top-of-mind problems for your staff. 

The key here is a sound feedback system that integrates short- and long-term feedback processes. Workforce.com, for instance, has an employee engagement system that allows you to collect regular data from shift feedback and irregular data from one-off pulse surveys. A system like this helps you navigate through responses and turn them into action plans for maintaining employee happiness, improving company culture, and increasing profitability. 

See it in action and book a call today. 

Interested in more ways to engage your employees but tired of reading? Check out our webinar below featuring Laura Timbrook, an NBC-HWC, CHC, and AADP certified coach and podcaster, where she covers actionable solutions for managing things like absenteeism and turnover.

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Workers

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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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7 employee engagement ideas for a more productive workplace

Summary

  • Only 21% of the global workforce is engaged at work, costing the global economy $7.8 trillion.

  • Engaged workers are motivated and productive, have better mental health, and are more aligned with their organization’s core values. 

  • There are a number of actionable employee engagement activities that HR professionals can do to help improve engagement within their organization. 

Arguably, one of the most challenging endeavors of any human resources professional is improving employee engagement. Engaged employees are those who are enthusiastic and dedicated to their job and the organization they work for. 

An engaged employee is motivated, productive, and aligned with the company’s values, mission, and goals. They work well with their fellow team members and mentors, have high levels of job satisfaction, and are less likely to leave the company in search of a new job. 

In 2009, only 12% of employees surveyed were considered to be engaged at work, according to research by Gallup. Over the next decade, that percentage grew to 22%, dipped slightly during the height of the pandemic, and is now at 21%

The high level of disengaged employees is even more worrying, considering that disengagement at work also costs the global economy $7.8 trillion, accounting for 11% of the GDP. 

If you’re looking for ways to boost your employee engagement strategy and obtain a more engaged workforce, here are seven practical ideas that you should definitely consider. 

1. Design a stickier onboarding process

Set the tone of the employee experience from day one. The first touchpoints and experiences new employees have at your company and how you operate will influence how engaged they’ll be going forward. 

A good onboarding process will:

  • Make new recruits feel welcome.
  • Obtain information and grant access to resources in the most straightforward way possible.
  • Communicate the organization’s vision, mission, and values clearly and explain how the new employee fits into them. 
  • Outlines expectations and company rules. 
  • Introduces new hires to their team members and kickstarts team building. 

With hybrid and remote work becoming increasingly popular, employee onboarding has also had to adapt. Onboarding activities for remote employees have to take place over platforms like Slack. 

Workforce management tools offer paperless employee onboarding solutions that simplify and optimize the process for both employer and employee.   

2. Conduct frequent employee surveys

Surveys are a great way to collect employee feedback and insights from your employees in an empirical manner. They give you firsthand information on how your workforce is experiencing their work environment, from the tasks they do to the overall company culture.    

You can utilize these insights to improve engagement, employee retention, and productivity and to reduce burnout. There are three main types of surveys that are commonly used by HR professionals:

  • Employee engagement surveys. These gather metrics on an employee’s commitment, motivation, and passion for their work and the company they work for. Such metrics include Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) and retention rate. 
  • Employee opinion and satisfaction surveys. These gather information on your team’s attitudes and perceptions of the organization. They could be done using both quantitative and qualitative methods. 
  • Employee culture survey. These give you insights into an employee’s point of view and how that compares to the day-to-day realities of your organization. 

There are many types of questions you can ask and metrics you can gather, so it is important to first decide what information matters the most to you. If you’re looking to understand employee engagement, focus on asking questions that will gather information on things like team dynamics, your company culture, and professional development.

3. Gather shift feedback

A lot can happen in one shift. Making a habit of gathering information after each workday is a great way to quickly identify and fix issues and reinforce things that worked. 

Shift feedback is a two-way process where managers give feedback on employee performance, and employees give feedback on management and on their experience with that particular shift.

Shift feedback tools that are embedded in your company’s tech stack facilitate the feedback process, particularly for remote workers. They allow for a standardized and efficient way to provide and receive feedback at all levels. 

This two-way feedback process is important for employee engagement as it shows employees that their feedback and their experience matter. Receiving feedback on a shift-by-shift basis will also help employees learn more about how they can perform better. It is also a great opportunity to show employee recognition in cases of a job well done. 

4. Use a performance-values matrix

The performance-values matrix is a great way to evaluate employee performance and how their behavior aligns with the overall company values. 

The matrix x-axis shows the company values, while the y-axis represents employee performance.

A Quadrant Graphic Showing the Performance-Values MatrixPerformance is measured as the work an employee carries out for the company. Values are then measured as an aggregate of how well employee is aligned with organizational standards. 

To measure individual value alignment, most companies use a matrix specifically designed just for value assessment. A system like this allows you to score employees in things like honesty and accountability so you can identify where people meet company standards and where they fall short. 

You can then apply these ratings to the performance-values matrix.

Each employee is placed along the matrix, helping you understand which ones are producing good work and which are contributing to company culture. Employees who exemplify both are found in the top right-hand quadrant – this is ideally where you want all your employees to fit. 

Employees in the lower-left quadrant are low performers and have low-scoring behavioral attributes. These employees are probably not a great fit for your company. 

The other two quadrants consist of employees who are high performers but have low values match (top, left) and those who have great behavior but aren’t performing very well (bottom, right). These are the employees who you might want to invest some time in to help them move into that high-performance, high-values match position. 

5. Offer more flexibility with shifts

More workers are seeking greater flexibility at work. Research shows that flexible work arrangements lead to higher productivity and more connectedness to workplace culture and reduce employee absenteeism. It helps workers balance their work responsibilities with their personal lives. 

For frontline and shift-based employees, flexibility can be achieved through shift bids or shift swap systems. In shift bid situations, managers publish available shifts, allowing employees to bid for the ones they want. Shift swapping is when employees can request to exchange shifts with their co-workers, subject to managerial approval. 

Employee scheduling software streamlines shift flexibility in what would otherwise be a chaotic undertaking for HR professionals and managers.  

6. Maximize employee self-service

Giving employees the autonomy to carry out HR-related tasks without needing intervention from HR cuts out admin time and improves efficiency at all levels. Mobile tools for employees do things like request time off, swap shifts, clock in, review timesheets, and update their personal information all in one place.

Using employee self-service tools also takes significant pressure off of your HR team, allowing them to focus more on developing strategies to reduce turnover and increase engagement rather than having to fix errors and update information constantly. 

7. Prioritize and facilitate employee professional development

Employees who feel stagnant in their career paths are more likely to feel disengaged at work. Having milestones to reach and goals to attain, on the other hand, gives employees a sense of purpose and accomplishment, leading to higher engagement. 

There are a number of employee engagement activities related to professional development that an employer can consider. At a basic level, management should work with employees to develop career goals and milestones to be included in their regular performance evaluations. 

There are also a number of initiatives and perks that employers can offer their employees:

  • Training and development activities
  • Mentorship programs
  • Attendance to conferences
  • Paid course tuition

If your organization is a place where your employees feel they can grow, they are more likely to be engaged at work and stick around longer.

Check out our webinar on How to Drive Engagement for Hourly Employees

If you’d like to find out more about how to increase engagement among your workforce, check out our webinar below:

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

Laura Timbrook, NBC-HWC, CHC, AADP certified coach and podcaster, takes us through some quick, actionable solutions to combat issues surrounding high absenteeism and high turnover rates.

Interested in more than a webinar? I wouldn’t blame you. Hop on a call with us today to find out what tools you should be using to boost your employee 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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Employee or contractor? 6 worker misclassification FAQs

Astronaut Dog Thinking

Summary

  • Misclassifying full-time employees as independent contractors can lead to legal and compliance issues down the line. 

  • There are a number of ways to determine whether or not a worker should be classified as an employee or contractor. 

  • Aside from seeking legal counsel, employers can use workforce management solutions to stay compliant with labor laws and properly classify workers. 

The number of freelancers and independent contractors is growing steadily in the United States. McKinsey found that approximately 58 million American workers, or 36% of the American working population, consider themselves to be independent workers. This figure is expected to reach 90.1 million by 2028. 

With this rise in contractors in recent years, worker protection laws are shifting to reduce incorrect worker classification.

Worker misclassification is when a company hires individuals as self-employed or independent contractors to carry out the tasks of a full-time worker. 

To learn more about the misclassification of employees and its implications, we spoke with Hinshaw & Culbertson law partner Aimee Delaney.

What exactly is worker misclassification?

“Misclassification is a term that is used when an employer incorrectly identifies an individual or position as an independent contractor when the individual is really an employee,” said Delaney. 

According to Delaney, there are a number of circumstances that can motivate employers to classify individuals as contractors: 

  • Independent contractors are not subject to state and federal wage laws, which means they are not entitled to overtime if they work over 40 hours a week. 
  • An employer does not have to pay the employer portion of payroll taxes and does not make withholdings for an independent contractor. 
  • An independent contractor is also not entitled to benefits such as workers’ compensation or unemployment benefits from the organization that the individual contracts with. 

“Misclassification does not require bad intent to be a violation,” said Delaney, “so even if it was an honest mistake, it can still present a violation of law.”

Delaney added that the definition of an employee, as opposed to an independent contractor, lies with the employer. It should evaluate whether it has employees on the payroll who are performing the same work and function as the independent contractor. A good follow-up to that question is will the independent contractor be performing the main work of the business.

“Answering these questions in the affirmative is usually a sign of trouble,” Delaney said. “So if I run a home health business and have a staff of 25 home health workers but want to bring on three more as independent contractors, you are probably well on your way to misclassification.”

Delaney said the home care and home health industry can suffer from labor shortages. While trying to use independent contractors to address a shortage of workers may be tempting, it can also be risky, she said.

“Staffing agencies would be a better resource in that scenario, as it avoids the misclassification issue,” Delaney said. “You may not be able to avoid a joint employer issue, but at least you should avoid the misclassification issue.”

Why does employee misclassification matter?

Employee misclassification is bad for business, bad for workers, and bad for the public sector. According to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), misclassified employees lead to lost government contributions that should be going towards things like state unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation insurance.  

While employers might attempt to incorrectly classify their employees to avoid having to deal with tax withholding, the financial and reputational consequences of doing so greatly outweigh the savings.

Workers who carry out the role of employees but are contracted as freelancers are not entitled to the same rights and benefits. They are not eligible for things like paid vacation and sick leave and can be laid off much more easily.  

Independent contractors are also responsible for paying their own Social Security and Medicare through the Self Employment Tax (SET).

How do employers typically classify a permanent employee versus an independent contractor? 

When an employer hires a permanent employee, that person is expected to devote their full workday to the tasks they are given by the employer. Permanent employees cannot work for other organizations at the same time. 

The employment relationship between a company and an independent contractor, on the other hand, is of a different nature. According to Delaney: 

An employer will typically only have an independent contractor for some type of special project that falls outside of the normal business conducted by the operation. For example, a law firm may need to upgrade its document management system and retain a third-party vendor as an independent contractor to complete the project. The contractor is not performing the work of the law firm, the law firm does not exercise control or supervision over the vendor and only controls the ultimate product. This concept is also separate from the concept of temporary staffing, which relies on the use of temporary workers that are employed by a third party.

The  California law Assembly Bill 5 (AB-5) clarifies the difference between employee and contractor in the state. The California Supreme Court requires the use of the ABC test, outlined on the ca.gov website, which assigns three conditions that must be met to consider an employee as an independent contractor:

  • The worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact;
  • The worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
  • The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.
(Source: https://www.labor.ca.gov/employmentstatus/abctest/)

Also read: Ease compliance concerns with workforce management software

What is the advantage for employers to classify their workforce as independent contractors? 

Some employers think worker misclassification is worth it because contractors are more affordable. But Delaney says the risks involved outweigh the perceived benefits:

“There is no advantage to employers if the classification is not correct, because the risk and liability will generally outweigh any benefit. If the classification is appropriate, the advantage is often a lower cost with a known end date. As noted above, independent contractors are not subject to state and federal wage laws, so they are not subject to the minimum wage and overtime requirements.”

What should employers know about defining their workforce to avoid misclassification? 

“Employers must be aware of the key concepts and tests that are applied to determine whether independent contractor status is appropriate,” says Delaney. “These are the tests that will get used by the Labor Department, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the IRS, etc. In some form or fashion, these tests all look to the level of control exercised by the organization over the individual and the economic realities of the relationship.”

If you are using the services of independent contractors, Delaney recommends that you carry out regular audits to make sure that you are doing so in a compliant way. If you do find cases of misclassified employees, you will also need to assess whether any overtime wages are owed to them.  

Also read: What employers and HR should expect from new Labor Secretary Marty Walsh

Is employee misclassification a growing trend in wage and hour/overtime violations? If so, why is that?

The wage and hour laws stipulated in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) do not apply to independent contractors. Because of this, companies with misclassified workers are often found guilty of breaking wage and overtime violations.

If a worker is found to be misclassified, their employers might end up owing them significant amounts of money in back wages. 

Stay compliant with a workforce management tool

Navigating federal and state laws around labor codes and employee classification can be tricky. The language is complicated and misinterpreting it can lead to mistakes that break the bank and your reputation. So when in doubt, seek legal advice. 

Workforce.com can help with our powerful wage and hour compliance platform. It accounts for federal, state, and regional wage laws when paying salaries, even in situations where your staff might be distributed around the country. And most importantly, an automated workforce management system helps you maintain an accurate paper trail for whenever external audits come knocking. With detailed labor records, you can rest assured that misclassification accusations will never catch your organization off guard. 

Book a demo today to keep your time tracking and scheduling air-tight. 

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Work-life balance statistics you need to know to build a happier workforce

Husky Astronaut balancing on a narrow beam

Summary

  • US workers are working longer hours and spending less time on themselves than their OECD counterparts. – More

  • Health and well-being have become more of a priority for workers since the COVID-19 pandemic. – More

  • Employee burnout has increased since the pandemic and is wreaking havoc on work-life balance. – More

  • Low engagement and work-life imbalance mean that over 50% of US workers are quiet quitting. – More

  • Workers in labor-intensive industries (particularly restaurants) are unhappy at work. – More

  • Trials across the world have shown that a four-day workweek might work wonders in improving work-life balance. – More

Having a better work-life balance is about much more than just having more time away from the office. A good work-life balance means satisfaction and fulfillment during the workday as well as in other areas of your life. It includes engagement at work and enough time and energy for personal and family life. 

The World Health Organization argues that work can either be protective or disruptive to a person’s mental health. A healthy and well-compensated work environment makes people feel accomplished and confident and is a great way for people with psychosocial disabilities to integrate into society. An environment that creates a poor work-life balance can negatively affect someone’s mental health and well-being. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, people’s attitudes and approaches to work have been shifting. Employees are demanding more flexibility, prioritizing their well-being and personal time while also wanting more from their professional lives. Human resources executives must create the conditions to help their colleagues achieve the best work-life balance possible if they want a happier, more engaged workforce.      

American workers work more and play less than their OECD counterparts

According to work-life balance statistics presented by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States ranks 29th for work-life balance out of the 41 member countries. Italy, Denmark, and Norway top the list.

Ten percent of American employees are working long hours compared to the OECD average. The Netherlands is the country with the lowest number of employees taking on long working hours at just 0.3%. 

US workers typically dedicate 61% of their day to personal care and leisure activities, which amounts to 14.6 hours per day. This is lower than the OECD average of 15 hours per day. Italy is the OECD member country with the most time devoted to personal care and leisure, with 69% of their day or 16.5 hours. 

For the United States to increase its work-life balance ranking, the OECD suggests improving the lives of working families through policy. The US is the only OECD country that does not have a national paid parental leave program. They suggest that paid leave programs will result in a number of benefits, including better child well-being and more new mothers returning to work. 

More employees are prioritizing their health and well-being 

According to Microsoft, the COVID-19 pandemic caused people to re-prioritize how they approach work. More workers now consider how their jobs affect their health and well-being as a major part of the “worth it equation” — in other words, what people want from work and what they’re willing to give in return.

The research shows that 53% of respondents are more likely to prioritize health and well-being – especially parents (55%) and women (56%). Forty-seven percent of workers are now more likely to prioritize their family and personal life ahead of work.

Employees are now valuing the importance of work-life balance, and their employers need to understand and embrace this shift. This could include extending healthcare benefits to include family members as well as making work schedules and time off more flexible. 

Workforce.com offers a flexible scheduling solution that makes it easier for employees to take time off and swap shifts. Flexible scheduling is particularly useful for caregivers or those with chronic health conditions who might need to take unexpected personal days or want to utilize vacation time to spend time with loved ones. 

Increased burnout is a “career killer”

The level of burnout experienced amongst US workers has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. In a nationwide survey by Indeed, 67% of US workers claimed that burnout worsened during the pandemic.  

In a pre-COVID survey, 43% of respondents were experiencing burnout. In 2021, that percentage increased to 52%. Millennials continue to experience the most burnout, with 59% of respondents feeling burnt out – a 6% increase since COVID. More baby boomers are experiencing burnout — a 7% increase from 24% to 31%. Gen Z and Gen X respondents showed the highest increase in burnout, with 11% and 14%, respectively.  

Gallup has conducted extensive research on employee burnout and the effect it has on employees as well as their companies. Burnt-out employees are significantly more likely to take sick days, require medical care, and search for new jobs. 

Employers can help their teams reduce stress levels and burnout by:

  • Collecting regular feedback about concerns and addressing them through feedback tools and communication apps.
  • Actively caring for employee well-being by organizing health and wellness activities or providing employees with stipends to cover expenses like therapy, health, wellness, and sports activities.
  • Encouraging employees to take regular breaks by incorporating break time into scheduling.
  • Offering hybrid and remote work when possible to employees who want it. 
  • Avoiding stressful understaffing situations by using labor forecasting. 

 

Webinar: How to Forecast Based on Demand

Many unhappy employees are “quiet quitting”

Your employees who are experiencing a work-life imbalance might be quiet quitting. Quiet quitting refers to how people are doing just enough to meet their job responsibilities and not get fired. This is not just bad for employee well-being but also for your organization’s productivity. 

In one study, Gallup estimates that over half of US workers are quiet quitters. By the beginning of the summer of 2022, “the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees was 1.8 to 1”. This is the lowest engagement reported in nearly a decade.  

Companies looking to increase employee engagement to eliminate quiet quitting need to tackle poor management practices. 

Focus on training your managers and helping them adapt to new, hybrid ways of working. If their work-life balance is off, the rest of the team will feel the impact. But if they can model what engagement and satisfaction at both home and work look like in this new work format, employees will likely follow. 

Together, managers and employees should find ways to minimize burnout and prioritize mental health. They should have at least one meaningful one-to-one conversation per week. These conversations could uncover the initiatives and changes management needs to make to create more satisfying work environments. It is also an opportunity for employees to talk about any struggles they may be experiencing outside of work that can be impacting performance. 

 

Webinar: How to Identify Employee Flight Risk

 

Workers in labor-intensive industries are less satisfied at work

Employees in some industries are more prone to worse work-life balance than others, particularly labor-intensive industries with low Net Promoter Scores and high turnover rates.

Statista found that restaurants have the lowest Net Promoter Score among employees, at 14%. The commerce industry (20%) and the public service sector (22%) followed the service industry at the bottom of the table. In August 2021, 971,000 employees quit their jobs in leisure and hospitality – the highest number of resignations recorded.

A report by One Fair Wage shed some light on why restaurant work, in particular, exhibited low job satisfaction statistics and high employee turnover rates. Low wages and tips cause 76% of restaurant workers to quit their jobs.

Many others were leaving due to hostility and harassment at work. Thirty-nine percent of restaurant workers had concerns about hostility and harassment from customers and 26% from their co-workers and/or management.

Restaurant owners and HR staff need to have frequent conversations with employees about working conditions and employee well-being in order to harness better conditions for work-life balance. Regular team and one-to-one meetings need to be scheduled. Anonymous feedback forms should also be available in order to find out more about employees’ concerns.

The four-day workweek could be key to addressing employee work-life imbalance

Many companies around the world have been experimenting with four-day workweeks to address work-life balance issues and to increase employee engagement and retention. 

Between 2015 and 2017, the Reykjavík City Council and the Icelandic National Government carried out two trials of four-day workweeks. The experiment, which involved over 1% of Iceland’s working population, increased employee work-life balance as well as productivity. Microsoft Japan also trialed a four-day workweek and enjoyed a 40% increase in productivity. 

US companies looking to introduce a four-day workweek should start by enhancing their workforce management processes. To do this, they should:

  1. Keep labor costs under control. Scheduling and time-tracking processes need to be fine-tuned to keep overtime under control and mitigate time theft.
  2. Reduce administrative work through automation. Workforce management solutions can automate tedious, time-consuming administrative tasks and save employee time and labor costs. Such solutions include automatic scheduling and payroll integrations. 
  3. Use labor forecasting to schedule shifts in a way that avoids under or overstaffing and increases productivity. 

 

Webinar: How to Rollout a 4-Day Workweek

A well-managed workforce is a happy workforce

There are a number of ways you can help your employees achieve a more harmonious work-life balance, from ensuring they have enough time and energy outside of work to enjoy their personal lives to investing in their physical and mental health. 

An important element of a healthy work-life balance is an environment that reduces workplace stress and brings out the best in people. With Workforce.com, you can create better scheduling and communication processes that foster such an environment. 

Get in touch with us and see how Workforce.com can help you build a happier workforce.

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

Summary

  • Great employees are your most vital resource — human capital management helps you attract, support, promote, and retain them.

  • Your strategy should include everything from a strong recruitment and onboarding experience to an enticing benefits package that’s compliant with regulations. 

  • HCM systems help you optimize your strategy by automating tasks, tracking employee performance, and reporting on key insights for visibility. – More

Think about all the resources it takes to successfully manage your organization. Which of these resources is in the shortest supply? Time is certainly one of them — once you’ve lost a day, you can’t get it back. Financial capital is another tempting answer — but is it really that hard to apply for a loan or build a strategy toward growth when all is said and done?

No, the Harvard Business Review writes. Financial capital is not your most limited resource. “Today’s scarcest resource is your human capital, as measured by the time, talent and energy of your workforce,” it says. 

It’s significantly more difficult to continuously find high-performing employees who can deliver quality work for your organization. While an asset like time or money is generally fixed, the same isn’t true of human capital. One dollar or one hour is functionally the same from one to the next, but employees are unique. Once you lose a good employee, you can’t automatically swap in an employee who will continue performing at the same level.

According to Gallup, it typically takes new employees an entire year to reach their full potential after training and onboarding. And it’s costlier to replace workers than it is to retain them. On average, companies spend about half to two times an employee’s annual salary to completely replace them.

But your employees aren’t just your scarcest resource. They’re also your organization’s most valuable and influential resource. And the best way to retain that resource is through a human capital management plan that helps your employees feel supported and fulfilled when they come to work.

The essential components of a human capital management plan

Human capital management (HCM), as its name suggests, is an area of business management that ensures a holistic experience for an organization’s most important resource — its people. There are five main areas for HR professionals to focus on: 

1. Recruitment

Recruitment is the core foundation of building an organization’s human capital. It is involved in identifying the needs of the company and the particular roles that can fill those needs through talent acquisition. Attracting, screening, and onboarding candidates are all part of the recruitment process. The goal of the recruitment process is to successfully find candidates whose skills, values, and motivations are aligned with the organization’s goals and culture.

2. Compensation and benefits administration

Compensation and benefits refer to what the company gives its employees in exchange for their work or service, and they include monetary and non-monetary components. A company’s compensation and benefits package includes an employee’s salary and government-mandated benefits. Other perks and incentives can be part of the deal, such as insurance coverage, gym membership, housing allowance, and company-sponsored trips and events. 

3. Labor law compliance

Running an organization is governed by employment laws. HR teams create company policies and administrative functions that comply with labor regulations, such as accurate time tracking and paid sick leave. Labor law regulations vary by region, and they can change from time to time. That being said, a crucial part of human resource management is staying on pace with these changes and ensuring that company policies remain compliant. 

4. Training and development

Training and career development focus on nurturing your workforce’s potential, especially new employees who are still onboarding. Training refers to programs that are geared toward improving skills or learning new technical knowledge that’s needed to perform certain tasks. Meanwhile, development is focused more on programs that enrich an employee’s overall growth in soft skills like leadership, communication, and adapting to certain situations. 

5. Retention and engagement

Human resource management (HRM) is also involved in creating strategies to keep employee turnover to a minimum. Retention and engagement programs are proactive steps to ensure that employees are motivated to perform their best, not just for a paycheck but because they have a clear alignment of values with the organization. All of these parts should move cohesively to ensure the best experience possible for staff at every stage of the employee lifecycle. 

5 human resource management challenges impacting your HCM strategy

Human resource management involves a lot of moving parts, and these can come with their own sets of challenges. Here are common challenges in human resource management and ways to solve them. 

1. Difficulty attracting the right talent.

Delays in hiring can be costly, but an unfit hire can also be detrimental to an organization. So how do you know a candidate is fit for the role? While skills and experience are important for assessing whether an applicant is qualified or not, it’s also essential to find out if they’ll fit into your company culture, so you can be sure your workplace is the right fit. Otherwise, you won’t be able to retain them for very long.

Another common challenge is convincing candidates who are highly skilled and qualified yet more deliberative in their job search. These candidates are most likely in touch with a lot of recruiters and are considering more than one job offer. You’ll have to build a truly impressive candidate experience — and a great employer brand — in order to stand out and attract top talent.

How to solve:

  • Create a job posting that highlights what you’re looking for. Include the skills and competencies you’re looking for and what’s in it for a qualified candidate when they get in. Provide information about the working style and culture that you have at your company. This will attract people who have both the required skills and similar values as you. At the same time, this can also filter out candidates who have different working styles and cultural preferences.
  • Invest in employer branding: Boosting your brand as an employer can also help increase your chances of attracting the right talent. According to research from Glassdoor, 75% of active job seekers are likely to apply for a job posting if the company actively maintains its employer brand.
  • Prioritize strong communication throughout the hiring process: Make sure that all details and instructions are clear at every stage of the process. Timely feedback and responses are also crucial. Take a look at your current process and see how it’s affecting the candidate experience and employer brand. CareerPlug found that 84% of job seekers rate “hiring process transparency” as an important or very important factor in their decision to join a company.

2. Dealing with too much paperwork.

Human resource management deals with a lot of information — from employee details to company policies and other essential business documents. And too much paperwork can be a burden, especially when done manually. It can take time away from more valuable tasks, like strategizing and optimizing programs and processes. 

How to solve:

There are digital solutions that can remove the tedious task of processing paperwork. For instance, digital employee onboarding solutions help eliminate the long forms that new hires need to fill out. They enable new staff to log in with their information and upload important documents online. This ensures better accuracy of information, improves the employee experience during onboarding, and allows for a better way for new hires to spend their first day at work. 

3. Understanding and applying labor laws.

Staying compliant with labor laws is a must. However, understanding regulations, applying them in policies, and staying on pace with labor law changes can be very challenging. 

How to solve:

Implement a compliance strategy to avoid any potential financial and reputational repercussions of failing to comply. A compliance strategy is a set of programs and processes that’s geared toward ensuring regular updates and audits of policies and communicating any changes with staff promptly. Given the ever-evolving nature of regulations, it’s best to build a strategy and assign a working group to focus on compliance. 

Technology is also helpful in staying on pace with changes. For instance, some solutions automate labor law updates and ensure that these are reflected in the payroll computation. 

4. Retaining employees.

Talent management goes beyond just attracting the right people for the right roles. The other part of the battle is retaining them and keeping them satisfied with their role, especially those who are performing above and beyond. 

Webinar: How to Stop Employee Turnover

How to solve:

It’s all about consistent growth and learning. Employees are more likely to stay the course when they are given opportunities to grow and are recognized as a vital part of the organization’s success. 

Training and development programs are essential for retaining employees. But creating these programs is not a one-time thing. That’s why it’s important to have regular alignment meetings with your staff. Regular check-ins can help you get a pulse on their current sentiment about working at the organization, their satisfaction with their roles, and the challenges or gaps they’re facing. From there, you can customize programs or identify next steps that can help them stay engaged. 

One of the things to keep employees happy and help them feel valued is to provide not just what they need to get their job done but also offer other incentives that will motivate them to perform better and stay aligned with the values of the organization. Your benefits administration can show employees you care about more than just their performance, for instance. Succession planning is a great way to engage employees who are growing in their current roles while preparing for employees who may eventually move on.

5. Keeping talent engaged at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Human resource management plays an important part in employee engagement, and it is a continuous process throughout every stage of the employee lifecycle, from onboarding up until the time an employee leaves an organization. All of these stages affect culture, staff morale, and the success of the company.

Webinar: How to Drive Employee Engagement

An organization is only as good as its employees. It’s imperative to nurture and cultivate staff no matter where they are in their tenure with the organization. Doing this takes time. That’s why it’s important for human resources to have the right technology in place so that they can reduce time spent on administrative tasks and focus more of their energy on engaging employees.

How to solve:

An effective onboarding process can help you engage employees who are new to the organization and need to get up to speed — without overwhelming them. Ongoing training sessions, team events, perks, and upskilling opportunities are all great ways to help your workforce stay connected at work while growing in their careers. 

Ultimately, you should look at your employee data, like plan enrollment and activity engagement, to see what HR processes and initiatives are having the biggest impact on employee retention and where engagement can still be improved. Then you’ll know which programs to add and continue to invest in.

Use a human capital management system to serve employees with ease

Manually keeping track of the key HR processes to support your human capital management strategy is bound to cause headaches — for your team and your workforce. Many companies implement HCM software in order to manage employee engagement programs, track performance and productivity, and provide things like onboarding and benefits to employees.

Workforce.com is a workforce management software that provides visibility into your scheduling and shift data, so you can better manage your hourly workers. You can accurately forecast demand, optimize labor costs, and build the best schedule for your team based on real metrics. And our solution integrates directly with other human resource information systems (HRIS) to streamline human capital management.

Read more about how Workforce.com optimizes how you manage your human capital by checking out our HCM software buyer’s guide below:

Best HCM Software

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Employee Retention Strategies in a Tight Labor Market

Summary:

  • Effective employee retention strategies are crucial in today’s labor market, where there are more available jobs than job seekers.
  • Flexibility is a primary factor in retaining current employees, but it can mean different things for employees, depending on the industry and roles
  • Technology plays a vital role in gathering data and feedback that can help measure employee satisfaction and spot potential issues that trigger employees to quit.

The COVID-19 pandemic. The Great Resignation. Quiet Quitting.  

All of this has created a much tighter job market with low labor participation. Currently, there are around 10 million vacancies for just 5.7 million unemployed workers. The labor participation rate is at 62.6%, down from 63.3% in February 2020. This is the equivalent of 1.8 million fewer workers.     

All of this has made it trickier as well as vital for HR professionals to keep positive employee retention rates and hold on to their top talent, particularly since remote work has become more commonplace and sought after. Employees now have a much larger job market to find new opportunities, which, in turn, means tighter competition for talent. 

Webinar: How to Retain Hourly Employees

With more jobs and a smaller talent pool, how do you retain top talent and increase your chances of attracting new employees? There are several ways to boost employee retention, but what’s challenging is implementing a strategy that makes the most sense for your organization and people. We spoke with Jack Light, a labor economics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago, to provide us with more insight.

Understand why good employees quit and why they stay

It’s impossible to identify the best employee retention strategies for your specific circumstance without finding out what causes attrition. According to the Work Institute’s 2022 Retention Report, over 47 million employees voluntarily quit their job in 2021. This is the highest turnover rate since 2001 — when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began measuring this metric

According to the report, some of the most common reasons why people quit their jobs include:

  • A lack of career development opportunities
  • Stress due to a lack of resources or training
  • Prioritizing health and/or family – caring for dependents, personal health reasons, or health-related issues due to work
  • Searching for different opportunities that will give them a better work-life balance
  • Issues with their current work environment

These areas are well within leadership’s control, and they can quickly improve these conditions by implementing changes and using the right tools.  

It’s always easy to assume that compensation is the main motivation for employees to stay at a company. However, that’s not always the case. What’s valuable to your team is not always as apparent as you think. Beyond a competitive salary and benefits package, there are other areas that can be equally valuable to employees.

  • Fulfillment or finding purpose in a role
  • Job satisfaction
  • Workplace culture
  • Relationships with bosses and colleagues and teamwork
  • Company values
  • Processes such as onboarding
  • Flexibility

Once you understand what your employees value most, you’ll be more equipped to make changes and create programs that compel them to stay. 

Watch: How to Predict an Employee Flight Risk

Establish a feedback system

There are two sides to feedback that are crucial to employee retention. The first is feedback from employers about job performance. The second is feedback from employees regarding operations, policies, and colleagues. Both are key to creating a culture of employee appreciation.

And both are important and should be gathered and addressed promptly.

Employees value feedback that’s immediate and clear. It helps them improve their work, makes them feel appreciated, and shows how valuable their contribution is to the organization. 

Meanwhile, encouraging employees to provide feedback about the company and their tasks helps with retention, too. When employees are comfortable enough to share their thoughts on what works and what needs improvement, you’ll have a goldmine of insights on how to keep your best talent.

“The goal of gathering employee feedback is to try and surface low-hanging fruits that you can be actioning on that you may not otherwise be aware of,” says Light. “So it might actually turn out that a lot of your employees are struggling to get to work, for example, because there’s a bus route that’s been canceled. Or maybe you have a particular manager who many people are struggling to work with. Those are the sorts of things that are valuable from the perspective of an employee but can be quite difficult to find out.” 

That’s why having a healthy company culture that embraces feedback is crucial. And it shouldn’t stop at gathering employee sentiments. Another equally important part of the equation is the mechanism to act on them.

“If you don’t do anything with that data and that feedback, you’re probably going to get less and less of it as time goes on,” says Beau Grzanich, head of solutions at Workforce.com. Transparency is key here. You need to inform your employees about the actions you’ve taken based on feedback they’ve provided. Doing so will incentivize people to provide more information that can drive more results and benefits in terms of employee retention. 

The frequency of feedback is also important. Typically, companies do it regularly — quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. While this provides some structure, feedback tends to be more effective when it’s fluid and immediate. Moreover, it doesn’t always have to be in a formal setting. It can be casual, during quick catch-ups, or through automated tools like Workforce.com’s Shift Feedback and Rating feature. 

Engage your managers, and they’ll engage their teams

People leave managers, not companies. This popular phrase regarding employee engagement and retention is supported by data from Gallup that shows that “it takes more than a 20% pay raise to lure most employees away from a manager who engages them”. And it takes almost nothing to poach disengaged employees.

Empower your managers to engage their teams effectively. One way to do this is to take administrative and repetitive tasks off their plate. This makes it easier for them to focus on the people-centric aspects of their work.

Implementing the right technology can help managers work smarter and spend less time on tasks like scheduling, time tracking, labor forecasting, and payroll. As a result, they focus more on coaching their employees and understanding and addressing potential issues.

Offer flexibility

Employees tend to stay with a company that offers flexibility. Research has shown that flexibility at work is becoming increasingly important for job seekers, particularly among younger employees. But before you think about implementing policies around it, you first need to understand what flexibility actually means for your employees. 

Typically, people view flexibility as being able to control their work arrangements. This means having the option to work outside of the typical office setting and set hours, enjoying a flexible schedule, or being able to attend to important matters that typically warrant PTO or waiting until the weekend.

“An important thing to remember is that flexibility is often quite loosely defined. It’s much harder if you’ve got regular opening hours or you’re a retail store, and there are fixed tasks that need to be done and planned in advance,” explains Light. If that’s the case, how do you create a certain level of flexibility for hourly workers? 

Light says that offering a certain level of predictability is important for hourly workers. This means providing their schedules ahead of time, so they can plan their activities outside of work accordingly. In fact, data shows that employees who get their schedules a couple of days before their shift are more likely to quit compared to staff who receive their schedule at least 10 days in advance.

Create programs and perks that are valuable to your employees

Competitive benefits, incentives, and perks can compel employees to stay with you. But again, the key here is to know what types of benefits they find valuable. Game rooms, free meals, and company-sponsored gym memberships are all nice to have, but those perks are not always good enough reasons to keep employees from looking elsewhere. 

Get to know your employees to understand what matters to them. Consider that you have employees who are probably in different life stages. Looking at your workforce’s demographics is a good first step in determining what programs you can devise that will make the most impact. 

Your employees’ age group, seniority level, gender, as well as their personal circumstances will all dictate what they deem important. Some perks and incentives to consider:

  • Professional development. Opportunities for employees to learn new skills, such as training programs or attendance at industry-specific conferences
  • Health and wellness stipends or reimbursement. To cover costs of things like sports activities, healthcare, and mental health programs
  • Company culture. Activities, such as team-building games, that help establish a stronger company culture

Whether it’s additional time-off benefits, family activities, upskilling, professional development opportunities, or employee recognition programs, make sure that your benefits package includes items that make the most sense for your operations and where your employees are — both in tenure and life in general.  

While it’s not easy to figure this out, you can always drill down on data and employee feedback to determine the specific types of programs you should implement within the organization.

Enrich your onboarding process

Convincing and attracting new hires is just half the battle. The other half is making sure they stay. Employee onboarding sets the tone for a new hire, and you need to make it count to retain them. According to Gallup, 70% of employees who had a positive onboarding experience say that they have “the best possible job.” 

Employee onboarding is a crucial process where companies must deliver on what’s promised during the hiring process and integrate new hires into their role and the organization. Successful onboarding is not attained overnight. It is a process that can last through a new hire’s first year with the company. 

Here are some of the ways human resources teams can make employee onboarding successful:

  • Create a clear and intuitive onboarding roadmap. Define where you want your new hires to be at specific time frames, whether monthly or quarterly or what makes sense for your organization. Gather feedback about the process and iterate your roadmap and programs as you go along.
  • Incorporate onboarding programs that will help employees build initial rapport and cultivate healthy working relationships with other team members. It’s vital for new hires to feel included and part of a group.
  • Equip new hires with mentorship and training. New employees become more productive faster when they have the tools to learn and carry out their responsibilities.
  • Provide clarity when it comes to expectations and goals. Employees, especially new hires, become more efficient when they clearly understand their roles, career paths, and how they directly contribute to the organization’s overall success.
  • Use technology to organize onboarding files, keep track of employee details, and streamline new hire paperwork. This frees up time for more critical parts of onboarding. Besides, no new hire would want to deal with a pile of documents to sign and information overload on their first day of work. 

A well-structured onboarding process not only gives new employees a good first impression of the company but also plays a big part in reducing employee turnover. 

Maximize the offboarding process to benchmark market trends

On the other end of the employee life cycle, you must also pay attention to your offboarding process. While it is the stage where an employee transitions out of the company, it can still help with your employee retention strategy. 

You should ensure that any employee leaving the company has a smooth exit. So maximize exit interviews and use them to gather feedback on what you can improve and what departing employees think will make current staff stay. Use this opportunity to understand their motivation for leaving. Is it career advancement, a more competitive salary, or burnout?

You can also use the exit interview to gain insight into their new job and what other companies are doing to attract and retain employees. Inquire about what compelled them to move. Is it a generous sign-on bonus, more comprehensive learning and development, or the promise of a healthy work-life balance? 

“Exit interviews, in particular, are beneficial for benchmarking where people are going and what the wages and working conditions are gonna be like in the firms that they’re moving to,” says Light. 

With this information, you can create benchmarks on how the market is, compare it to where you stand, and strengthen your programs and processes accordingly.

Harness technology to boost employee retention

Data and feedback are crucial in strengthening your programs for retaining your employees.

“Something that’s particularly interesting at the moment is that the data is getting increasingly available in real time” remarks Light.

For instance, when an employee is coming in late more often, the right tool can help you identify this and address it before it becomes a real issue.

“Moving from the sort of survey done at fixed points in time to more proactively identifying when you need to be stepping in and checking in if everything is okay is super exciting,” says Light.

Furthermore, technology significantly contributes to the employee experience. It helps organizations streamline administrative processes so that managers can focus more on being on the ground with their teams and coaching their staff. It also helps employees perform their tasks better and more efficiently, allowing more opportunities for innovation or additional time for training and development.

Streamline workflows and improve the employee experience with Workforce.com

Workforce.com provides efficiencies around demand-based employee scheduling, time and attendance, and labor forecasting. It helps improve the employee experience by providing staff with a straightforward way of clocking in, accessing their schedules, and filing leave requests. It has real-time insights, shift rating and feedback, and an in-depth reporting functionality that can provide managers with actionable insights on key metrics. 

Book a call today if you want to know how Workforce.com can improve your workforce management and employee retention.