HR technology Archives - Page 6 of 12

July 24, 2020May 1, 2023

COVID-19 and reassessing workforce management

COVID-19, workforce management WFM 2.0, ethics

Over the past several months workplaces across the globe were forced to embrace the future of work in ways they never considered. COVID-19 may fundamentally change the workplace and in this context, here are three key considerations as employers work through this recovery phase in reaction to the pandemic.

Rethinking workplaces: Ensuring the health and safety of workers will be crucial to reopening plants, offices and stores and determining new team models.
Rethinking workforces: An estimated 2.7 billion people, or more than four out of five global workers, have been affected by stay-at-home measures. In addition to looking at new ways to deploy existing workers across an organization, many organizations are looking to identify opportunities to connect furloughed workers to job openings in areas with growing recovery demands.
Rethinking work: As organizations look toward the realities of a post-pandemic world, it’s likely that new business priorities will need to redesign teams and workforce policies, addressing the benefits and risks of a dispersed workforce while building flexibility.

It has become even more critical to look at the COVID-19 pandemic and how it exposed two key problems in managing the workforce. When cost management is not designed into daily workforce management activities and decisions and when there is no dedicated business unit focused on owning timekeeping and scheduling outcomes, it can be difficult to manage your bottom line or your workforce effectively.

The pandemic created an extreme disruption for workforce management. Many employers are concerned about costs and how to reconstitute their workforce to be optimally productive under different conditions.

If they are operating today, things like store hours and cleaning have changed. If they are planning to reopen, the restart may change when and how much labor is needed and can be afforded. Labor cost and revenue models are under pressure to adapt to such changes.

Unfortunately, workforce management has been mainly focused on efficient, automated, transactional processes such as reporting time and automating staffing interactions such as requesting time off. These activities and decisions aren’t likely designed to act as levers to drive critical outcomes or adapt to disruption in the workplace.

Such processes typically work well for what these standards are designed to do, but not for what functions employers should be doing. Transactional, routine scheduling and timekeeping processes aren’t capable of solving for pandemic-level issues impacting the workforce.

The pandemic created an extreme scenario that laid this fact bare. Employers should be operating differently and doing more. It exposes two everyday problems that have long been overlooked.

Cost and productivity should be treated as dynamic outcomes that are actively influenced by the employer in real-time workforce management activities.
Cost or productivity should be managed and influenced well with a workforce center of excellence and people who specialize in workforce management.

Labor cost and productivity can determine if an organization is competitive, profitable and serving its customers well. However, in too many organizations, it almost feels like workforce management is on auto-pilot … until something goes wrong.

If the employer is already operating with workforce management 2.0 — which we will call WFM 2.0 for brevity’s sake — it likely has the following characteristics allowing them to (a) design and control their labor spending for different workplace conditions and (b) know how to assign the work to the modified workforce for the ideal productivity and outcomes.

Characteristics of WFM 2.0 — managing cost and productivity outcomes.

Ownership — A designated business unit known as the WFM Center of Excellence should be responsible for labor outcomes (cost, compliance, productivity, quality, scheduling experience, etc.) and the enabling tools required to manage (timekeeping, scheduling, absence management, mobile and web-enabled devices, dashboards, etc.). This team knows the current model and is able to design the future state and the strategy to get there.
Capability — Specialized workforce management professionals who plan, design and support the timekeeping, absence management and scheduling practices and platforms. Post-COVID-19 operations will rely on these experts to know what policies, system configuration and scheduling models need to change to optimize cost and utilization.
Access to leadership and support — the WFM Center of Excellence — the CoE — reports directly to executive-level stakeholders who sponsor the function, hold it accountable, prioritize its needs and fund its operations. Post-COVID-19 transformation will require support from finance, HR, IT and operations to execute on planning, retooling systems and testing and monitoring workforce performance.

Signs that WFM 2.0 is operating effectively.

The WFM CoE understands the workload and work priorities:

Secures accurate forecasts. This will be challenging and essential in the post-COVID-19 world to recast the labor supply-demand model.
Defines what good work and workforce look like at a detailed, task and practice level blending in the new protocols such as cleaning and distancing.
Creates solid data from time and schedule data to determine what labor should cost.
Decides what types of workers to engage or what work to automate for the lowest cost and optimal outcome. It may be time to pivot some work to machines, work from home or third parties.

The WFM CoE understands the optimal workforce:

What good work looks like — updating labor standards relative to COVID-19 protocols.
What workforce is available — WFM differs from workforce planning and headcount management. WFM is about knowing the workforce that is available “today, right now” from the active, skilled and healthy workforce.
Who are essential workers.
How much the workforce requires to earn (what compensation is necessary to make work attractive — in other words, hazard pay, shift premium for evening, overtime for excessive hours, on-call pay, paid sick time, etc.).
How to connect to the workforce using up to date, reliable contact mechanisms.

The WFM CoE understands how to put the proper combination of shifts, people and pay practices together to meet the business needs to drive cost and productivity:

Use the right mix of part-time, full-time, contingent or machine workers.
Design optimal shift patterns and rotations for new health protocols and regulations.
Deliver schedule equilibrium (predictable, stable and adequate schedules).
Score schedule quality.
Prevents payroll leakage (avoiding time inflation, overstaffing, gaming the system to inflate pay and benefits).
Turn on self-scheduling, shift swapping and other self-service scheduling processes as needed.
Use float and standby staffing appropriately.
Is up to date on scheduling laws such as the fair workweek, wage and hour rules, and collective bargaining requirements.

The WMO (workforce management office[DM1] ) or WFM CoE understands what tools the business needs and how to use them, such as:

Timekeeping systems and devices will drive cost and payroll.
WFM devices that improve safety so workers can return to work.
Scheduling systems and communication tools to engage with the workforce in real time as situations change.
Ideal absence management systems to easily facilitate planned and unplanned time off.
Dashboards to monitor cost and utilization, react in real time to problems happening on the front line to ensure consistency in how managers operate.
Data-supported insights to inform internal and external stakeholders to show how cost and productivity are being delivered to support and satisfy workers, managers, investors, regulators and the community.

WFM 2.0 was bound to happen. The pandemic is a catalyst for immediate business transformation.

Labor cost and productivity are critical to the financial and competitive viability of employers. Leaving things on auto-pilot isn’t a cure for COVID-19’s impact on any organization’s health.

Businesses that will recover and thrive can start by establishing a permanent workforce management center of excellence acting as the command center for managing labor cost and utilization.

Lisa Disselkamp is the managing director at Deloitte Consulting LLP.

July 23, 2020June 29, 2023

7 steps for introducing new tech solutions to reluctant employees

Getting employees enthusiastic about new technology can be simple if everyone is eager to learn how to use new tools. However, some people may be reluctant to use new tech tools, especially if those tools would significantly change how they work. Whether you’re switching to a new platform or implementing tech that automates manual processes, there will always be someone who is hesitant and has doubts or anxieties about new tech.

You’ve spent weeks researching new tech solutions to implement in the office. You’ve done the calculations on ROI and how much it could help boost productivity. However, no matter how efficient a new technology solution is, it will not be as effective if the key users are not 100 percent on board.

Also read: How technology can help your employee engagement strategy

Here are some important steps to keep in mind when trying to win them over. And it begins long before you actually introduce new solutions.

Keep them in the conversation

As the shot caller of this particular decision, the final say on implementing this new tool is yours and yours alone. But it’s still important to broadcast the changes to all those affected by your plans. Clearly declare why you think change is necessary, why the current status quo isn’t working or how it could greatly be improved. Then gather feedback.

As you research and narrow down your choices for a solution, keep these employees part of the conversation and keep them informed about your thought process. Let them know the benefits and disadvantages you believe are most important for the company’s needs.

Not only will this help inform what kind of solution would work best for your team, but it will help you identify early on who may be hesitant about replacing old processes for new ones.

Find your advocates

Just as announcing your plans early on can help identify employees with doubts, you’ll also find those who are enthusiastic about change and will make great advocates of the tech.

Identify these individuals and recruit them as your advocates who will champion the changes and be leaders. Have them be among the first to train with the solution. These advocates will boost morale among others about the software and also help train everyone else on how to use it.

Communicate the value

Be sure you’re expressly clear with employees about the value a new tech solution will bring, not just to the company, but to them as employees. Long-time employees can feel anxious about how their roles will change when new tech solutions are introduced, so it’s important to convey how much of a positive impact this can have on their career growth.

For example, if it’s a tool that’s meant to save time on certain processes, reassure them that they can now spend their time on more productive tasks for the company.

Create a roadmap

Big changes don’t happen overnight, nor should they. When you’re ready to roll out your new solution, you need to come up with a solid plan to transition from your old process to the new one. Create a clear timetable with dates and stages of implementation. Then stick to it. If plans change, be transparent and keep your team informed.

Stages can include an exploratory period, the first round of training, a pilot period with a handful of users starting to use the solution, a second round of training with everyone involved and a hard deadline when the solution is completely implemented.

Give them time

There are growing pains that come with all changes. Give some time to employees who at first struggle with new tech. This is where your advocates come in, who can lead the charge and help out their coworkers who have a tougher time adapting to the change. As long as people are willing to learn, it’s worth it to invest in additional training and compromise with them. They may prefer to get their work done the traditional way while they’re still learning the new way.

Incentivize change

Sometimes it’s necessary to sweeten the deal. Incentivize employees to take part in the process of implementing a new solution. This can easily be done by providing lunch with training sessions or implementing a reward program for users of the solution.

Continue listening and changing

After a successful implementation, you still have a long road of adapting your office’s workflow to one that seamlessly integrates your new solution into your everyday processes. As employees get used to the new way of doing things, continue taking in their feedback. Accept new ideas about how the solution can be used in different ways that both improve efficiency and accommodate employees who are used to doing things in certain ways.

Summary

Changing, adapting, and implementing new tools to grow your company is the reality of business. There are some people that are more reluctant to change, but it’s important to provide a means to take those baby steps toward new ideas so they can continue helping the business become more successful. Throughout all the mentioned steps above, communication is key and will lead to a much smoother transition than an unexpected, abrupt shift in how people do their jobs.

July 21, 2020June 29, 2023

How to effectively use data analytics for workforce success

There’s a lot of emphasis put on data-driven decision making. But how do organizations start that process? Serena Huang, global head of people analytics at the Kraft Heinz Co., shared some helpful insights into how leaders can use data to better understand the workforce and improve overall management and performance.

Workforce recently caught up with her, and she shared her thoughts on how to use data analytics and gather information and employee feedback for better workforce management.

Workforce: What do leaders need to know about the relationship between strategic business planning and data analytics?

Serena Huang: I’d encourage leaders to think of data analytics as a new mindset and a new language rather than a new tool from IT. There are several areas where analytics can improve business planning, such as more accurate demand forecasting and a better understanding of consumer behaviors.

WF: What is the importance of using analytics in managing people? How did the COVID-19 pandemic highlight this?

Huang: It’s always been important to use analytics in managing people. Many companies would say that “people are their most important asset” and even the most technologically advanced companies cannot operate without people. Instead of relying on intuition, analytics can help organizations make more informed decisions faster and at scale.

Employees’ health, safety and engagement have never been more important. The pandemic has provided an opportunity for HR to become heroes by caring for employees and ensuring business continuity. At Kraft Heinz, this is critical because our employees are crucial to making food that everyone needs. We have a responsibility around the world to feed people, and our employees make it happen.

WF: What are the common misconceptions about people analytics and its role in workforce management?

Huang: One of the biggest misconceptions is that data must be perfect before you can do analytics. I always recommend starting with the business problem rather than the data. You’d be surprised how much usable data already exists. Another misconception is that you need data scientists or know how to code to start doing people analytics. It is much more important to focus on the right questions before hiring a data scientist or learning how to model.

Also read: Labor data analytics can inform better talent decisions

WF: How can organizations effectively use and make sense of the data they have?

Huang: Visualizations and dashboards are great ways to turn data into insights. To know where to start, it’s best to align with business leaders on solving problems.

For example, in workforce management, companies often have significant data on time and attendance, so a starting point can be using analytics to optimize labor costs. If there are different systems, it’s helpful to choose a country or location that needs the most help and start with a pilot.

To create the most value, it’s important to monitor data quality on an ongoing basis.

WF: How can organizations track the right type of data for their workforce? How can they identify metrics of success?

Huang: It’s crucial to stay closely connected with the leadership team on strategy and business problems. If you can figure out the top three to five pain points, you can then frame questions to answer and think about what data you’d need.

The metrics of success will vary from one problem to another. I’d recommend thinking in different time frames and ask yourself what success looks like in six months, 12 months, and two to three years.

WF: How can managers use data to improve productivity and boost employee engagement?

Huang: Managers can certainly leverage surveys if they have a large organization. Often organizations conduct engagement surveys on a regular basis, so start with existing surveys for potential areas of improvement.

For managers with smaller teams, it is most beneficial to conduct regular check-ins and one-on-ones. Managers must create an environment where there is psychological safety, so team members feel comfortable sharing concerns openly.

WF: What are different ways companies can collect feedback or listen to their employees, especially in the era of remote work?

Huang: There are several ways companies can listen to employees, including surveys, virtual focus groups, and Q&A during employee town halls. It’s helpful to monitor the participation rates as it could signal overload if participation decreases. It’s also important to encourage managers to connect with their team members directly on a regular basis in addition to this corporate-level feedback.

WF: What are the factors to consider when choosing the right tools, methods or technology to measure and improve employee engagement?

Huang: A good starting point will include an evaluation of how many employees, how many languages, local legal requirements, reporting/analytics for users, text analytics capabilities. In my article published on LinkedIn, I explain why there isn’t the “right” number of times to pulse employees, and it depends on how quickly the business leaders can act on feedback.

WF: What do you think the future of work will look like given current times?

Huang: It’s hard to predict what will be a temporary rather than permanent shift in the future of work, but I see more focus on flexibility, diversity and inclusion, well-being and skills development.

Data from COVID HR-Pulse show that fewer than 50 percent of companies had a remote work program before the pandemic, and now office employees have been working virtually for months. Employees will demand more flexibility, and organizations can use flexibility to attract new hires.

We have seen different businesses get creative during the pandemic. At Kraft Heinz, we’re focused on being agile at scale because we believe that agile and nimble organizations will outperform those that cannot pivot quickly when needed. To be truly agile in workforce planning, an organization should know the skill sets needed to deliver business results and the skills its workforce currently has.

Also read: A midterm outlook on the future of the workplace

The recent tragedies have brought diversity and inclusion front and center for many organizations. Companies that can create an inclusive environment where everyone belongs will continue to be able to attract and retain talent.

While mental health remains a difficult topic to discuss, especially in a corporate setting, the pandemic has made it more critical to talk about this topic. We will likely see a focus on employee well-being extend beyond the pandemic.

July 20, 2020June 29, 2023

Employee performance shines bright with valuable, continuous shift feedback

With the number of engaged employees consistently hovering at a disappointing 33 percent, it’s little wonder that retaining good workers is an elusive endeavor.

Disengaged employees can break down an organization. Minimal effort and a lack of productivity shouldn’t be the standard expectation, and building a quality workforce takes teamwork and constant inspection and fine-tuning of the processes. There are better ways than “hire and pray they work out” to develop, engage and evaluate a workforce.

Rate your employees’ performance

For managers there is no greater feeling of satisfaction than watching an employee grow into their role. Some employees thrive immediately, and others take time to bloom and flourish. Building a strong team takes a keen eye for talent, but assessing and developing effective talent also requires time and patience.

One solution is utilizing software that allows managers to evaluate employees through continuous, ongoing shift ratings and feedback. Much like tracking an actor from cameo appearance to leading role, the five-star rating system follows an employee’s pathway for success from an ordinary start to a meteoric rise in achievement.

‘A’ ratings — assessment and accountability

How do you hold your team accountable while also inspiring them to grow?

Managers can take the input and build skill profiles for their front-line employees with a shift rating and feedback solution. Qualitatively assessing an employee’s performance may at first seem arbitrary, but as the assessment continues over the course of that person’s tenure with the organization, the solution reveals ongoing performance over time.

Using a five-star rating system, managers can record employee performance immediately after their shift ends.

Assessments aid scheduling

Too often managers are forced to guess which employees mesh best. This should not turn into a game of Whack-a-Mole hoping to guess which person to pair with your cadre of five-star employees. There are likely a handful of two-star employees, while the bulk of the workforce ranks among three- and four-star staffers and it is imperative that managers consistently find the proper Triple-S balance: seniority, salary and skill.

A shift feedback and rating tool provides the perspective and guidance managers need to blend top talent with those who are competent in their work as well as those who require more training. While having a lineup of all five-star talent is a manager’s dream, conversely, scheduling an entire shift of two-star talent has the potential for disaster.

Incorporating a shift rating and feedback app into a manager’s arsenal provides that quick-glance guidepost to maximize the available talent at any given time.

Don’t hesitate — rate!

Like a forgotten item on a grocery list left on the counter, it’s easy to forget the nuances of an employee’s performance in the days following their shift. Implementing a shift rating app leaves nothing to memory.

Wait two weeks or even two days and recollection of that employee’s performance is as hazy as the IPA they were serving that day. Rate the employee’s performance from one to five stars immediately after the shift ends and there is no room for doubt.

Managers then gain the confidence that their assessment maintains pinpoint accuracy and removes the guesswork from scheduling future shifts. The ratings also can be averaged per team to determine where staff performs best.

You’ll be a star when scheduling your employees with the confidence you need through a continuous system of rating their performance based on one to five stars. Get the Workforce.com shift rating and feedback app and let your stars shine through.

July 13, 2020October 4, 2021

Human capital management: Enriching your human resources

Human resource management is an ever-evolving discipline in business management.

Dating back to the early 1900s, experts recognized that managing a workforce goes beyond carrying out transactional tasks and ensuring that there are hands on deck to get the job done. Gradually, more attention is given to understanding employee well-being and its importance in delivering quality work.

One expert who delved into the study of the workforce was James R. Angell, president of Yale University and the Carnegie Corp. He started a joint initiative between the Engineering Foundation and National Research Council to propel a research movement that looks into the science behind workforce management through unifying modern engineering, labor management, and educational bodies. It has given birth to Workforce.com today and for 98 years, this initiative has delved deep into the issues within the workforce and understand best practices in human resource management.

As market trends change and employee behavior and preferences shift, an organization’s human resources management practices should also pivot to meet these developments. Today, it is all about engaging the workforce to push the business forward and is a key component of business success.

Human Capital: Investing in your organization’s best asset

Human resource management, as its name suggests, is an area of business management that ensures a holistic experience for the organization’s most important resource — its people. It’s involved with the following:

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 gaps. 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.
Compensation and benefits: 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, company-sponsored trips and events.
Labor law compliance: Running an organization is governed by employment laws. Human resource management is involved in creating company policies that comply with labor regulations. Labor law regulations vary per region and they can change from time to time. That being said, a crucial part of human resource management is staying at pace with these changes and ensuring that company policies remain compliant.
Training and development: Training and development are focused on nurturing the potential of employees. Training refers to programs that are geared toward improving skills or learning new technical knowledge needed to perform tasks. Meanwhile, development is focused more on programs that enrich an employee’s overall growth concerning soft skills, leadership, communication, and adapting to certain situations.
Retention and engagement: Human resource management 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.

Overcoming human resource management problems

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.

Difficulty in 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 in assessing whether an applicant is qualified or not, it’s also essential to look into whether they can fit into your company culture.

How to solve:

It’s all about clarity and a good candidate experience. Create your job ad in such a way that it highlights what 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 in your company. This will attract people who both have the required skills and similar values as you. At the same time, this can also filter out candidates who have a different working style and culture preference. Another common challenge is convincing candidates who are highly skilled and qualified yet passive. These candidates are most likely in touch with a lot of recruiters and are considering more than one job offer. How do you stand out? Look into what motivates this type of worker. Investigate what that person is looking for in an employer and see if that aligns with your goals, culture and compensation package. Customize your messaging accordingly.

Boosting your brand as an employer can also help increase your chances of attracting the right talent. According to research from Glassdoor, organizations that invest in employer branding are three times more likely to make a quality hire.

Poor candidate experience can also be the thing between you and a quality hire. Communication is at the core of solving this. Make sure that all details and instructions are clear at every stage of the process. Timely feedback and response are also crucial. Take a look at your current process and see how it’s affecting candidate experience and employer brand. Glassdoor found that organizations that create a strong experience for candidates improve their quality of hires by 70 percent.

Dealing with too much paperwork.

Human resource management deals with a lot of information — from employee details, 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. They enable new staff to log in their information and upload important documents online. This ensures better accuracy of information, improves the employee onboarding experience, and allows for a better way for a new hire to spend his first day at work.

Understanding and applying labor laws.

Staying compliant with labor laws is a must. However, understanding regulations, applying them in policies, and staying at 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 towards 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 at pace with changes. For instance, some solutions automate labor law updates and ensure that these are reflected in the payroll computation.

Retaining employees.

Attracting the right talent is just half of the battle. The other half is retaining them and keeping them satisfied with their role, especially those that are performing above and beyond.

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 to retaining employees. But creating these programs is not a one-time thing. That’s why it’s important to have regular alignments with your staff. Regular check-ins can help you get a pulse on their current sentiment about working in the organization, 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.

It also pays to have a competitive compensation and benefits package. One of the things to keep employees happy and make them know that they are valued is by providing not just what they need to get their job done, but also offering other incentives that will motivate them to perform better and stay aligned with the values of the organization.

Engaging talent at every stage of the employee lifecycle.

Human resource management plays an important part in engaging employees, 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.

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 on administrative tasks and focus more of their energy on engaging employees.

June 16, 2020June 29, 2023

How to recalibrate work dynamics and embrace digital transformation in a post-pandemic workplace

Tsedal Neeley, Harvard Business School professor, award-winning author, and global management and leadership expert, recently caught up with us to share her insights and advice as the workforce continues to go through rapid transformation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. From digital transformation, team relaunch, to leading in times of radical change, she gives a picture of the future of work and essential advice for employees and leaders alike.

Workforce: What do you think are the most significant changes that were brought about by the pandemic to the workforce?

Neeley: The most significant changes that were brought about by COVID is the fact that between 88 percent to 90 percent of the workforces particularly knowledge workers, meaning people who work in offices, have migrated into remote work. A lot of people for the very first time in their professional lives have attempted to get work done virtually, collaborate virtually, be productive virtually, work with partners, customers, consumers, distributors, suppliers virtually in a context of a global pandemic.

The other thing that we’re seeing is the digital transformation for many organizations. When you go to remote work or what I call the virtualization of work, you have to have more robust enabling technologies to support it – communication tools, the tools for cybersecurity, repositories, content management systems. So we’re seeing some virtual and digital advancements that just really have accelerated because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Even now, if you think about the rush to get a vaccine for COVID-19. Some of the companies are using AI and machine learning. We’re seeing all of these things in action and I think that we are going to be forced to be much more intelligent. I also think that the companies that have had some form of digital capacity are going to do better during this economic times because they will have the predictive analysis to be able to understand how to use the right data, to have the right approaches, to make the right decisions, to come up with countering measures to support their strategic response.

WF: A lot of the working dynamics have changed. What are the ways that leaders can support their team during this time?

Neeley: It’s very important for leaders to ensure that they do what’s called a team launch. If you haven’t done a team launch by now, you should do a re-launch. Which means that you set your team off on a course.

A team launch is one of the success factors for any team. It breathes life to a team. It helps increase the performance of virtual teams by 30 percent. A team launch or relaunch is where you collectively determine the following:

Shared purpose – Be clear about what your shared goals, mission and vision are as a group.
Resources – Determine what your needs are, anywhere from budgets, information, and networks.
Members’ lived experience – Discuss individual strengths, constraints, and gaps. You need to understand task allocation and balance accordingly.

Today, many parents are homeschooling, and many are working in shifts. Days can be longer for them and their hours are not necessarily coinciding with the rest of the group.

Leaders need to understand who is in that situation and the constraints that go along with them. They must accommodate people who have those scenarios because the apparatus that people had built to support their children, to support them as families – the entire support structure has gone away in this global pandemic. You need to understand those constraints.

New norms: Establish or re-establish norms. How do you communicate and how often? What tools are you going to use to communicate?

People have been raising concerns about video conferencing fatigue, and it’s important for you to pick the right media for the right needs. As a group, you need to agree on what’s going to work for you in order to remain connected. Think about informal contact too like virtual lunches and virtual coffee breaks.

WF: What do you think the future of work will look like as businesses start operations again, especially those that have actual establishments?

Neeley: Opening up does not mean that we go back to our old system immediately, especially when we don’t have vaccines yet. So there are many questions around the use of space and technology.

For example, I recently spoke to a company that specializes in beverages and their business has never been better. They’ve started e-commerce first. Businesses need to think about whether it would make sense for them to begin a robust online delivery system in order to supplement their revenue, serve their customers, and remain very present.

Nonetheless, it’s important to keep in mind that when businesses are reopening and they are not using the full capacity of their staff – meaning some are at home still and some have gone into work. There actually creating two groups – those who are out risking exposure to COVID to start the business and those who remain safe at home. What can that create? That can create an us-versus-them culture. Leaders need to be very careful about those dynamics and make sure that no group feels privileged or excluded.

WF: We are talking about leaders being at the forefront of this. So for leaders, where do they get support because they are in a unique position of experiencing the effects of the pandemic and taking care of a team?

Neeley: That is an excellent question. People need to ask that question more.

Every organization needs to have a very visible CEO who is communicating regularly so that leaders can lead. The leaders of leaders have to set the tone. They have to help them figure out how to lead through a crisis.

There are two things that are important for them to identify. They need to recognize that they are leading during times of crisis, which requires a certain type of leadership. They are also leading radical change, but many of them don’t think they are. When your entire workforce has shifted to work from home; when your client base is in this extraordinarily dynamic period; when your entire patterns of work have changed, you are going through a radical change during a time of uncertainty. You don’t know what the future will look like. People are anxious. People need new skills. People need new equipment. Entire organizations have turned upside down. It’s a radical change. And you’re leading it.

Organizations need to set the tone and they need to equip their leaders to be able to lead accordingly. That’s the first step.

Second, leaders should form groups or task forces to help align their messaging, to help align their movements and actions and to bring together the best ideas and best practices. This way, no leader is trying to figure it out all on their own especially since no one has gone through a global pandemic of this scale in our modern times, right? To create the best practices collectively within the organization, that’s a way to get your support system.

Finally, leaders always need to have a set of mentors or kind of their own board of advisors, not formally necessarily. But leaders should have three or four people who they can turn to to think through things. These are not ordinary times and during times of crisis, you need your mentors. They are people you trust or people you build trust with if you don’t have them yet. These people have some serious expertise in a certain area that you really want to thrive in and be unafraid to hear truth from. You need to reach out to make sure that you have those.

This is not a time to be a solo leader. Leaders need to understand how to lead change, lead during times of crisis, and innovate. There are so many things that they need to figure out very quickly and they can’t do that alone.

June 15, 2020June 29, 2023

Ease compliance concerns with workforce management software

compliance; workforce management software

Ask an HR pro how to reduce compliance risk and you’re likely to get one of two responses: a long, silent stare from beneath a furrowed brow or a finger pointing directly to a floor-to-ceiling shelf of thick binders and the two-word utterance of, “Start there.”

In other words, addressing how to reduce compliance risk is complicated. It can’t be digested over a bagel and coffee or assimilated during a five-minute confab in the conference room.

Many workplace laws, regulations and guidance governing compliance risk date back to the early 20th century. Sorting through federal, state and local workplace regulations is a skill that develops over a career through a variety of sources. A key tool among those sources is workforce management solutions designed to navigate and track the daunting web of regulatory compliance issues that employers face on a daily basis.

Configured for national, state and county labor laws, Workforce.com’s workforce management software integrates with existing human capital management and payroll systems to help reduce compliance risk through seamless workforce automation. To remain compliant and stay protected from unnecessary and costly litigation, there are several issues that employers should be aware of.

Employee classifications

Accurately classifying workers continually draws the attention of state and federal agencies that are laser-focused on enforcement. The risks of worker misclassification can be costly and subject companies to fines and back taxes that can total as much as 100 percent of the employment tax due.

When some employees work more than 40 hours per week, labor laws state that based on that worker’s classification employers are responsible for paying overtime.

Workforce management software helps employers determine who is eligible for overtime and track employees’ hours, as the federal Fair Labor Standards Act divides workers into exempt and non-exempt status.

Exempt workers: Typically receive a salary and employers are not obligated to pay exempt workers overtime.
Non-exempt workers: Typically receive hourly pay and are eligible for overtime if they work past 40 hours in a week.

Employee leave

Sorting through the specific types of paid leave that are required by law and those provided voluntarily by employers can be confusing. The Family and Medical Leave Act regulates reasonable amounts of unpaid, job-protected leave such as the birth of a child or to care for a sick family member.

The FMLA and the Fair Labor Standards Act, however, does not regulate sick pay, vacations and paid time off. That time away is voluntarily provided by the employer yet still must be tracked.

Employee safety

You know those safety kits scattered through the office? Virtually all employers must follow the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s regulations preventing and responding to emergencies in the workplace. Employers must have a first-aid kit on site, and they also must let employees know about hazardous materials in the workplace, although Phil from accounting’s syrup-thick coffee is exempt. Though it probably shouldn’t be.

Employee pay

Payroll is one of the most regulated functions in an organization that must meet federal, state and local requirements, according to the American Payroll Association.

Government agencies require:

Tax withholding and reporting.
Timely pay of employees to meet wage and hour law requirements.
Withholding child support and garnishments from wages.
Ensuring new employees are eligible to work in the U.S.

Wage and hour settlements continue to be a costly compliance issue for businesses. Investing now in workforce management solutions beats spending more money later should a lawsuit arise. Technology can help HR professionals and executives solve the vexing problem of how to reduce compliance risk.

With increased government scrutiny and potential for fines and penalties, it is more important than ever to ensure workforce compliance. Workforce.com tracks compliance and regulatory obligations, ensures accurate pay and maintains a detailed audit trail.

June 7, 2020April 11, 2023

Shift swap software empowers managers and employees to take charge of scheduling

shift scheduling for hourly restaurant workers, shift swap

Employers must have been taking notes from athletic coaches when they started naming shift schedules. The 2-3-2, the DuPont, four on four off, and going EOWEO all sound like a defensive strategy or a trick play. (For the record, EOWEO stands for Every Other Weekend Off, not a signal to Tom Brady to throw the football to Rob Gronkowski.)

Whatever the terminology, shift schedules remain the lifeblood of an hourly workforce. Whether it’s 12-hour shift schedule types or a traditional 24 hours on and 48 hours off scheduling system for firefighters, shift swapping also is a key tool for employees and managers to maintain both consistency in staffing levels and a vibrant, engaged talent pool.

Accommodating a shift swap

Shift swapping lets an employee request to work one of their shifts and in exchange, work one of that colleague’s scheduled shifts.

Establish a written policy that provides clear guidance to staff while simultaneously ensuring the organization’s needs are met. Make sure the policy is clear and easy to understand. Don’t overcomplicate it; the simpler the better. Implementing an easy-to-use shift swapping software simplifies the process, which can otherwise bog down into an arduous, overly complicated back-and-forth among employees that wastes everyone’s time.

Benefits for employers

A manual, paper-based shift swapping policy that relies on employees scrambling to cover for each other is a risk at best and a chronic, chaotic scheduling disaster waiting to happen. Managers play an integral role in closely monitoring shift swapping. Their oversight assures that every shift will be fully covered.

Through innovative workforce management technology, managers can approve shift swaps with complete oversight of costs and compliance. The technology empowers managers to:

Control staffing levels — eliminating understaffing and overstaffing.
Monitor so staff members swap shifts with colleagues who have similar skills and experience.
Lower the potential for no-show employees.
Reduce overtime.
Create a deadline for shift swaps.
Distribute unwanted shifts fairly and evenly among all employees.
Customize to control cost, employee availability, qualifications and fatigue management.

Benefits for employees

Employees have lives away from work, and there are times when they need to get a shift covered. Family issues, a sudden illness or a day away for mental health, if the shift is claimed, the employee will be free to take the day off. If not, the employee remains responsible for the shift. Shift swapping software allows employees to:

Post the shift for all fellow employees to see.
Control their own schedules.
Get a shift covered quickly and easily.
Create a more complete work/life balance.
Build camaraderie and teamwork through communication.
Earn additional money by picking up extra shifts.

With the freedom that employees will enjoy through shift swapping technology, managers still control the approval process and hold the power to override a shift swap in case a specific exchange is seen as unworkable or create unnecessary costs.

Shift swap software allows managers to prevent employees from constantly posting their shifts and become a stand-in for requesting time off.

Additionally, no one benefits from the employee who continually volunteers to work day after day after day, double shifts and late night-early morning shifts. Managers can track that employee and curb shifts and hours, since there is the potential for burnout as well as safety concerns for fellow employees.

Finally, misunderstandings over a missed shift are a thing of the past. Shift swapping technology puts the responsibility to fill the shift squarely on employees. Managers OK the swap, leaving them with more spare time to do things other than babysit the schedule.

Organizations need a reliable employee scheduling plan while employees want job flexibility that adapts to life outside of work. With Workforce.com’s shift-swapping software, a carefully planned shift swapping policy manages employee costs, accommodates employer and employee needs and ensures that both get the schedule they want.

June 5, 2020October 7, 2021

A technology integration is an intervention to dissolve common payroll errors

pay for performance, payroll, compensation

Paying employees accurately and on time should be a forgone conclusion for employers. But that’s not always the case.

Incidents of unfair pay practices have surfaced since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Lawsuits involving wage discrimination and unfair compensation practices also can cost an employer tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

According to law firm Seyfarth Shaw, wage-and-hour settlements are a leading cause of litigation exposure for corporations and that HR leaders must focus on prevention. While the majority of companies are fair and honest regarding their compensation practices, errors can occur. Prevent those mistakes from creeping into your compensation function by integrating workforce management software with your payroll software.

Eliminate the mistakes

Wage-and-hour lawsuits are unnecessary and largely avoidable. Payroll integrations in your tech stack can help ease a complex, arduous process fraught with opportunities for mistakes. By integrating a payroll system with Workforce.com’s platform for automated timesheet exports and calculations, a company can negate costly wage-and-hour lawsuits.

Poor record keeping and data entry. Mismatching names and Social Security numbers is so common that, according to AllBusiness.com, the Social Security Administration has established a special verification phone number. Errors in data entry and poor recordkeeping of employee hours can result in costly government penalties.
Misclassifying employees. The number of temporary employees and independent contractors continues to grow among the labor force, and organizations constantly confront problems in properly classifying those workers. Are they exempt or nonexempt employees? Are they an independent contractor or an exempt employee? While the Fair Labor Standards Act provides protections for most employees, it’s still easy to slip up on employee classifications without an integration of workforce management software into the payroll function. If neglected, it can turn into a costly payroll error.
Miscalculating pay and overtime. Poor time-tracking capabilities can lead to miscalculated pay. There are guidelines that must be followed when determining overtime, and miscalculations can be costly. Besides overtime, there are commissions and paid time off, among other things to track. State policies vary and it’s a best practice to default to the law that is more generous for the employee. Workforce.com’s payroll integration technology can help retool poor time tracking capabilities.
Adherence to pay deadlines. Payroll is the basic bond between employer and employee. While payroll should function like a well-oiled machine, missing deadlines can happen. Payroll technology can help with establishing a payroll calendar that encompasses deposits as well as timely payroll tax filings with federal and state agencies. Remember, late deposits can result in penalties and interest charges. Oil up the payroll machine and set up timelines both internally for paydays and externally for taxes for a smooth payroll process.
Mishandling garnishments and child support. An employee may owe money through a court order to other parties. Payroll is responsible for sending the money to the appropriate person or agency.

Avoid payroll errors

To avoid costly wage-and-hour lawsuits, HR and business leaders should keep these tips in mind:

A reliable payroll software program maintains accurate time-keeping and record-keeping practices through up-to-date systems.
Supervisors must recognize the differences between exempt and nonexempt employees.
Rather than hide it until it’s too late, encourage managers to proactively report wage issues.
Conduct wage-and-hour audits to ensure correct classification of employees.
Assess your independent contractors.

Keep payroll mistakes from disrupting your organization by investing in payroll software. Workforce.com’s payroll system integration technology works seamlessly with more than 50 different payroll systems. Process your payroll minus the long hours, avoid the errors and easily run reports, file taxes and distribute pay stubs.

May 28, 2020April 11, 2023

Permanent working from home works well if you have the right technology

coronavirus, remote work, COVID-19, remote workforce

Remote work is not a new concept. Telecommuting grew as an acceptable business practice as technology rapidly advanced through the late 20th century and into the early 2000s.

Perhaps more importantly, working outside an office gained credibility as employers realized remote work increases productivity, improves employee morale and saves money.

Debating remote work pros and cons

The debate over the value of remote work has remained largely the same even as a wider swath of employees spend time outside a traditional office environment. One lingering argument against it is that there are too many distractions and the lack of a quiet place to focus on the task at hand. Yet a 2017 FlexJobs study found that just 7 percent of workers say they are more productive in an office setting.

As employers deliberate a remote workforce, the rapid evolution of workforce management technology has enabled more people to work outside the office. Professions once considered as chained to punching in and out immediately become more productive by starting and ending their day on the job.

Influencing expectations through technology

Innovative GPS-enabled technology now empowers remote employees to clock in and out simply by using their mobile device. Workforce.com’s GPS Clock-in features the longitude and latitude and provides employers with a real-time glance at each remote employee’s precise location.

With such dynamic, easy-to-use technology available, the challenge then becomes shifting organizational and managerial expectations surrounding remote work. Security is understandably a concern that can be allayed by a trustworthy, safe platform. Here is some insight to appease curmudgeonly employers that a remote workforce is indeed a boon to business.

Choose and vet the right employees for remote assignments. You don’t want your fledgling remote work program to be DOA.
Consider the effect on customers, co-workers and management.
Productivity expands since time is spent on the job, not traveling back and forth to punch a clock.
Set regular goals and objectives to be evaluated monthly, weekly or even daily.
Encourage ongoing feedback between management and the remote employee.
Online video programs allow for remote workers to visually participate in staff meetings and events.

No guessing where they are

Managers will quickly and easily know where remote staff is with the GPS Clock-in platform’s photo-verified system. While this provides peace of mind for employers knowing their workers are on the job, there also is a safety component involved.

In the event of an unpredictable natural incident, be it a sudden tornado warning, freak ice storm or an earthquake, employers can find peace of mind in knowing that resources are instantly available to check the location and safety of their remote employees.

The federal Office of Personnel Management cited improved emergency preparedness planning as a benefit of expanding its remote workforce. The agency also stated that remote work reduced employee commutes and provided cuts in real estate costs and energy use. Other positive outcomes included:

Improved employee attitudes.
Better recruitment and retention.
Improved employee performance.

As the number of employees working remotely increases every year, change long-overdue attitudes and adopt the right technology to build a vibrant, dynamic remote workforce. Enhance your business and put your remote workers in a position to excel in their jobs and boost productivity with Workforce.com’s GPS Clock-in platform.