Tag: human resources

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Creating a Better Onboarding Process for Hourly Staff

Painting of an Astronaut Husky sitting at a computer

Summary:

  • Employee onboarding significantly impacts productivity and retention. Given the nuances of hourly workforce operations, this process is more complex.
  • Technology can help streamline onboarding, but communication and human touch are crucial to successful onboarding. 
  • Onboarding processes and materials should be regularly assessed to ensure they remain aligned with and relevant to what happens on the frontlines.

If recruitment is about attracting employees, onboarding is about keeping them. The goal for any new hire is to make them productive members of the team as soon as possible—the onboarding process is key here. And no, we’re not just talking about giving them the company handbook and calling it a day. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to an effective onboarding process. It greatly varies by industry, role, and whether you are managing an hourly workforce. If you are, this guide is for you. 

If you are just looking for the basics, check out our free onboarding checklist template below:

Free onboarding checklist

If you want more insight into onboarding best practices, read on. But before we dive into how to optimize employee onboarding for hourly staff, let’s take a look at the reasons why you should prioritize this stage of the employee lifecycle. 

Why a well-structured employee onboarding process matters 

Onboarding sets the tone for the rest of a new hire’s employment. Getting it right can massively impact a number of things, including:

Productivity

Focus on detailed onboarding protocols if you want a new team member to hit the ground running as soon as possible. New hires get productive quickly when they have a clear roadmap to follow. When employees are provided with all the necessary information and tools, they learn the ropes faster. However, note that crucial information goes beyond the handbook and training materials. Some details are best understood when they have an assigned mentor or partner while on the job. 

Bottom line

Poor onboarding can hurt your organization financially. The average cost of hiring a new employee is $4700, according to SHRM – and this only covers posting job ads, doing background checks, and interviewing. Training cost is another story altogether. It ranges from $481 to $1240 per trainee, spending on company size and industry, one study shows. 

So, how do you prevent all that money from going down the drain? Improve the employee onboarding experience. The costs associated with onboarding and training will all be for nothing if new hires decide to leave shortly after their first day. 

Employee Retention

According to the 2023 Training Industry Report, excellent onboarding can improve retention by 82%. New hires will most likely stick around when engaged from day one. Good onboarding ensures they are not just stuck in the back room in front of the computer, glossing over training and being overloaded with information that they wouldn’t likely remember by the end of the week. It’s about having a curated program that covers all the necessary training yet still allows room for hands-on learning and peer-to-peer interactions.

How to Improve Onboarding for Hourly Employees

The nature of onboarding for hourly employees differs greatly from onboarding in a corporate environment. “It’s more challenging to nail down for hourly-based industries or those employing shift-based workers because of all the nuances around it,” says Laura Timbrook, a national board-certified health and wellness coach, international speaker, and well-being strategist for manufacturing and other shift-working industries. 

Standardizing onboarding is a good place to start, but there are many considerations for integrating new hires into an hourly workforce. Here are some ways to work around challenges and improve how you integrate new hires into your team:

1. Determine how long onboarding is going to take

Typically, an onboarding program takes at least three months. However, it might not always be the case for hourly employees. 

First, consider whether the position is a seasonal role or a more permanent one. If it’s the former, you wouldn’t have three months to onboard them because the season may be over in three months’ time. How, then, can you ensure that onboarding is still effective within this timeframe?

It’s all about clarity. Having a list of tasks can help, but there’s still a learning curve. This is where having them work alongside a more experienced employee is essential. “If we can buddy seasonal workers with somebody who can show them the ropes quickly, that would be key. Our systems can often provide a checklist, but it can be too much if they also need to learn the system,” says Laura. 

Streamlining the process is crucial, especially during a short onboarding period. It should involve having the right systems so seasonal employees can quickly understand workflows and having somebody working with them who can easily address questions they may have along the way.

Meanwhile, you’d have more room to work with if you’re onboarding a new hire for a permanent position. Even so, the whole process must be curated to cover the administrative, compliance, and practical aspects of the role. Prioritization is key here, which brings us to the next tip.

2. Set priorities and milestones. 

One thing to avoid when onboarding new hires is to overwhelm them with information and admin work. 

“A lot of times, we get these employees in and get the legal paperwork out of the way, and then we just throw them on the floor. It’s a sink-or-swim scenario. As an employee, that won’t make you feel good about your job. It’s not going to make you feel good about yourself. And it won’t make you feel good about the organization,” shares Laura. 

It’s crucial that you set priorities and determine what a new employee must accomplish and by when. Space out tasks so that onboarding is more dynamic instead of spending a lot of their early weeks on paperwork. 

In some roles, mandatory compliance training must be completed before an employee can perform the job. If an employee needs to go through lengthy training material, check in with them. Otherwise, you can streamline the process by dividing a new hire’s hours between theoretical training and practical learning on the floor. 

“We really need to look at what they need by day one. Are we going through compliance training because, say, there’s a cardboard crusher they need to know from OSHA how to operate safely, yet they’re working the cash register? So do they really need that training on day one?” says Laura. 

The goal of onboarding is to complete the most important tasks that are prerequisites for new hires to get up and running. So, look into the training needed, see if you can space it out, and optimize the onboarding process around it. 

A good place to start is to outline what you expect to happen before an employee’s first day, first week, first 30 days, and so on. Having a schedule keeps things organized and expectations clear. 

Here’s an example of an onboarding timeline that lasts for 3 months and what typically happens in each period: 

Before the first day or preboarding

  • Documentation and paperwork – Send job offer letters and lodge paperwork contracts, tax forms, and IDs into your HR system.
  • System profiles—Once their information is entered for payroll, copy all of it into any operations systems new hires might need to use daily. This could mean setting them up in your scheduling and time clock system, project management tool, POS platform, and much more. 
  • Workspace and materials – Set up workstations or prepare work materials such as uniforms, IDs, lockers, and access to company systems.
  • Answering FAQs – It’s normal for new employees to feel anxious during preboarding because stepping into a new role involves many firsts. Sending them a message that covers vital information can help them with the first-day jitters. Doing a quick call to address any initial questions they may have can also help.
  • Prepare a welcome email or note for the new hire. It’s advisable that this note not be system-generated but personalized by the team they will be joining. 

The first day

  • New hire welcome – Greet the first hire upon their arrival. Introduce them to other team members and give them a quick workplace tour. This is also the time to hand them a welcome token or a note from their manager or teammates.
  • Employee orientation—Limit the first-day orientation to the essentials. A brief discussion about the organization and its policies should suffice. This information is also in the employee handbook, which your staff should have access to anytime.
  • Getting settled: Show the new hire their work area or station. On the first day, provide access to learning resources and e-learning platforms. You can also set some time for the new team member to get acquainted with other staff. An all-hands meeting or going on a team lunch are great ideas.

The first week

  • Training
    • Job-specific training: During the first week, it’s time to start discussing what happens day-to-day on the job. Start with the basics and gradually ease into the more complicated parts of the role.
    • Mentorship: Assigning a mentor to a new hire helps with coaching and makes feedback more fluid. Mentors aren’t necessarily managers or team leaders; they could simply be more experienced coworkers. 

“A buddy system can take the load off managers who are already dealing with a lot. Having an onboarding buddy could answer nuanced questions that seem minute to everybody else but big for the new employee,” says Laura. For instance, this could be questions around seemingly simple things like filing leaves, how to operate the time clocks, or when the next pay run will be.  

Sometimes, the buddy doesn’t even have to be tenured. They can be someone who was onboarded maybe two or three months prior, depending on their performance. It helps because they just went through the same process and probably had the same questions any new hire would have.  

  • Goal-setting: Lay the groundwork during the first week. Discuss how the rest of the onboarding process will go and what is expected of them. The last thing any new hire wants to feel is lost, so set the tone, provide direction, and discuss metrics at this stage. New hires will likely perform better if it’s clear what they need to accomplish. In addition, include regular check-ins in your onboarding schedule.

The first month

  • More Training: This is fairly obvious, but the training doesn’t just cease after the first week. After new hires learn the basics of their job function, it is important to evaluate their improvement over several weeks and make adjustments accordingly. 
  • Performance check-in: Discuss with the new hire how they are faring with goals and expectations. This is also a good time to ask their feedback about the onboarding process and the job so far. If they cite anything that needs improvement, look into it and make changes as necessary. 

The first 90 days

Within the first three months, there should be 30, 60, and 90-day check-ins or performance reviews where you discuss progress, achievements, and areas for improvement. 

At this point, you can also start probing into long-term career goals since the new hire will most likely have a grasp of the work and culture, and you, as their manager, will have figured out the type of development you see for them. Discuss their aspirations and see how their performance and current role will tie into that.  

A feedback loop should also be established at this point. It’s important to note that feedback should not be limited to formal check-ins or sit-down meetings. Try to implement feedback into daily routines, such as right after a shift. 

3. Streamline onboarding with technology.

While everyone loves to theorize about strategy and engagement, realistically, the biggest lift of employee onboarding is on the administrative side of things. However, this shouldn’t be the case. The right technology should reduce the time you spend on admin work, giving you more time to focus on engagement and training.  

Effective employee onboarding software should let you do the following:

  • Capture new hire details and send them straight to HRIS, scheduling, and payroll. Ideally, onboarding should be the same system you use for applicant tracking and hiring; this way, you won’t need to waste time manually re-entering applicant information once you hire them. 
  • Complete new hire paperwork forms such as I-9 and W4, collect e-signatures, and get acknowledgment of company policies. A good onboarding platform allows you to go paperless. 
  • Track onboarding progress and send follow-up reminders to new employees to accomplish specific tasks.  
  • Let staff update their details. Adding a new bank account or changing an address should not require lengthy paperwork or email exchanges. An efficient onboarding tech allows employees to update their personal information through a self-service portal. It’s best if they can do so via a mobile app.  
  • Allow staff easy online access to resources like employee handbooks, HR policies, and training guides. Sometimes, new hires grapple for information not because it’s unavailable but simply because they can’t find it. 

“HR spends a ton of time and money writing these safety protocols and putting this all together. They need to know where that is because half of the questions a new employee might have asked or need to ask are in the employee handbook. They just don’t know where it is,” shares Laura.  

Aside from the employee handbook, staff must have a single place to find training materials and other details crucial to their day-to-day work, such as their shifts, leave balances, payslips, and timesheets.  

Keep in mind that onboarding is not a siloed process and should integrate well with other areas of workforce management. Ensure your onboarding syncs with time and attendance, scheduling, payroll, and HRIS.

“Technology is about 60% of onboarding. It has an amazing power to streamline things,” says Laura. However, as much as technology plays an important role, the human touch is still crucial. Your onboarding platform may have all the bells and whistles, but that will be for nothing if the employers fail to engage and communicate well with new staff. The key is to automate and simplify what you can with technology so that you can focus on the overall employee experience.  

Also read: A guide to writing employee performance reviews

4. Review and update your onboarding process.

Onboarding templates, materials, and processes should keep pace with operational changes. Every company policy change should also be reflected in onboarding. However, this is easier said than done. 

Managers and HR must be transparent about these things. A common pain point is that onboarding processes sometimes don’t align with what’s happening on the floor. 

“Often, the people that design the onboarding are in the corporate office. Hourly wage employees, whether they’re in plant production, retail, or transportation, have a much different experience on the ground. We’re often not making those connections,” shares Laura.

So, the key to bridging that gap is ensuring that frontline managers and HR collaborate to design onboarding plans. Managers can provide more context about what actually happens during operations, and HR can help adapt the program according to that insight. That way, the process is much easier to implement and makes the most sense for new hires. 

Another key area is revisiting the review and feedback process during onboarding. Take, for instance, the 30-—to 60-—to 90-day reviews. Typically, these sync-ups are conducted by the direct manager. However, some organizations mix it up and allow the new hire to talk to different people within the company during these check-ins. 

“I saw an organization where for the first 30 days, new hires deal with the direct managers. And then at 90 days, a general manager or a director comes in,” shares Laura. Such practice provides an opportunity for more open communication across different levels. Also, it can be especially helpful if the new hire staff has concerns with their direct manager. 

Webinar: Best Practices for Onboarding Hourly Staff

5. Understand the role of everyone involved in onboarding.

New hires will have different touch points within the organization, which can influence their decision to stay or leave.

At first glance, it seems like HR is the only team that interacts with new hires during recruitment and onboarding. But they’re not the only key players here. Managers also have a significant role in training, so it is crucial to ensure communication is aligned across the board between HR and management.

Part of designing an onboarding process is understanding the role of everyone involved. Aside from HR and hiring managers, identify if you need to involve other staff in the process, such as onboarding buddies or mentors. Set expectations and provide coaching on how they can balance their tasks while guiding new staff. 

Simplify employee onboarding with Workforce.com

While all of the tips we’ve given are a good start, the secret to better onboarding really comes down to connecting it with your Applicant Tracking System. 

Too many HR departments struggle with needless manual reentry. Ideally, all of an applicant’s information should transfer seamlessly to the rest of your software systems. 

Luckily, you can do this with Workforce.com. 

As an all-in-one platform for hourly teams, Workforce.com automates admin work throughout the employee lifecycle. Staff have one profile with one login starting from when they apply for the first time. All of their data flows from onboarding to scheduling, HRIS, and payroll without data re-entry. 

Learn more about better applicant tracking and onboarding by booking a call today. 

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The PWFA: What Employers Must Know

oil painting of pregnant lady

Summary:

  • The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) mandates employers to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant and qualified employees. At the very least, reasonable accommodations could mean time off, including scheduling changes and temporary reassignments.
  • The EEOC’s final regulation for the law will go into effect on June 18, 2024.
  • An efficient workforce management solution can help with compliance and managing accommodations. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued the final regulation to carry out the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PFWA) that will go into effect on June 18, 2024. Designed to protect the rights of pregnant employees, the PWFA mandates that businesses provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers, similar to those provided under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Understanding and implementing the PWFA not only helps you stay compliant with federal law but also promotes a supportive and inclusive work environment. 

Here’s a quick rundown of the PWFA and how you can best comply.  

What is the PWFA?

The PFWA law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified employees. It took effect in June 2023, but the EEOC recently issued the final regulation to implement it. 

It protects employees who have known limitations. Under the law, these refer to physical and mental conditions related to, affected by, or arising from pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. 

The law applies to public and private sector employers with more than 15 employees. 

What does reasonable accommodation exactly mean?

Basically, these are adjustments or changes in the work environment that would help qualified employees. The most obvious accommodation would be providing time off for treatments, doctor’s appointments, and childbirth, but it could be other things. Some examples include: 

  • Flexible break times for drinking water or using the restroom
  • Changes in work schedule
  • Temporary reassignment
  • Providing equipment or modifying a workstation
  • Assigning light duty
  • Offloading some essential functions of the job

Employers are required to provide such accommodations as long as it would not cause any undue hardship to the organization. Under the law, undue hardship means “a significant difficulty or expense.”

The law also has provisions that provide safeguards that ensure qualified employees will get the adjustments that are right for their condition. For instance, employers can’t force employees to take reasonable accommodations aside from what both parties previously agreed on.  

While providing time off for qualified reasons is acceptable, employers can’t force employees to take leave when they can implement adjustments to keep them working their shifts. For instance, if a pregnant employee works a cash register and can’t stand for long hours, it would be non-compliance for employers if they forced the employee to take time off when they could provide a stool to keep the employee comfortable while working.

Under the PWFA, employers are also not allowed to deny an opportunity and punish employees for requesting reasonable accommodations. Coercing employees who are exercising their rights and people who help them do so is also prohibited under the law. 

Who are qualified employees under PWFA?

Qualified employees under the PWFA are those employees who can perform their duties and fundamental tasks with or without reasonable accommodation. Most employees would meet this requirement because they would most likely be able to perform their essential functions when they’re provided adjustments at work. 

But what if core work functions or duties need to be adjusted, such as when an employee can’t perform a task? Employees can still be qualified, provided that their inability is temporary and that they can return to their essential functions in the near future. For instance, if the job requires an employee to operate heavy equipment, employers may modify their task to only involve light work. 

Tips for complying with the PWFA

Complying with the PWFA is not just a legal obligation. It’s also about promoting a more inclusive work environment and improving retention. Here are some practical tips for implementing it in your organization.

Establish a process for PWFA

It’s all about communication and transparency. Employees must be aware of the law and how they can qualify and practice their rights under it. A process with a clear set of guidelines is essential. 

Obviously, it all starts with employees letting management know of their condition. Employees should know who to inform to get the ball rolling. Aside from their immediate supervisors, who else do they need to notify? 

The guidelines should also include the type of information qualified employees need to provide. However, it’s important to note that it’s not mandatory under the law to present medical records to request for reasonable accommodation, especially when the condition is very apparent. For instance, there is a need for schedule modifications because of morning sickness or the need for bigger uniforms down the line. 

However, employers may request medical documentation to confirm that the level of reasonable accommodation requested is appropriate. This pertains to work changes that warrant a suspension of one or more essential functions, such as if the employee must avoid exposure to certain chemicals or has a temporary inability to operate heavy equipment. In addition, employers should keep medical records confidential.

Train your managers

Much of the work around complying with PWFA is between the managers and frontline staff. Ensure your managers and supervisors are equipped to implement the law and identify qualified employees. Access to materials about the law and their role in implementing it can help them navigate it better. It also helps to familiarize them with other related laws, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA). 

Stay on top of compliance with a workforce management platform

Navigating the PWFA will be less challenging when you have a system that helps you stay on top of it. 

On paper, it sounds simple to provide accommodations to pregnant and qualified employees under the law. However, it’s a more complex situation on the ground. Workforce.com can help run your team efficiently in compliance with PWFA, or any labor law for that matter. Here’s how: 

  • Accurate scheduling – When an employee is qualified under PWFA and needs scheduling changes, you can set qualifications so that you will be notified if you accidentally schedule them for shifts or stations that are inappropriate for their current condition.
  • Accessible handbook and training guides – Workforce.com’s HRIS makes it easy for your frontline teams to access the employee handbook and other materials they need, such as your policy on PWFA. This can come in handy should your employees need to clarify any points in your policies or rules.
  • Easy way to stay on top of last-minute shift changes – In case qualified employees face an emergency that compels them to miss a shift, managers can quickly offer the vacant shift to available staff through Workforce.com’s shift bidding functionality.
  • A feedback platform for improving operations – Workforce.com has a shift feedback that prompts employees to rate their shifts. Use this to see if reasonable accommodations are still appropriate and to gauge how the rest of the team feels about the current setup.


The PWFA is a significant step to ensuring that pregnant workers can get the support they need in the workplace. Compliance can be challenging, but the right platform can simplify the process for you. With Workforce.com, you can reduce administrative burden, track accommodations, manage documentation, and ensure that all employees are treated fairly. Discover how Workforce.com can help you stay on top of every stage of the employee life cycle, from hiring to payroll. Book a call today. 

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SHRM 2024: What You Can Miss in Chicago

Oil Painting of The Bean

With the SHRM Annual Conference almost upon us, HR professionals everywhere are filling up their itineraries for their visit to the Windy City. But if you aren’t a local, how are you supposed to know what is worth your time and what is truly a waste?

Tourist traps are expected in every large city. As locals, we here at Workforce.com feel like it is our duty to ensure you DON’T spend your time and money at some of these admittedly alluring locations.

Check out this list of tourist traps to skip while in town:

1. The WNDR Museum

The WNDR Museum in Chicago is often considered a tourist trap, as it focuses more on providing Instagrammable moments than meaningful art experiences for middle and high schoolers. Given the limited depth and originality of the installations, the hefty admission fee is hard to justify, making it a disappointing visit for those expecting a genuine museum experience.

2. 360 Chicago Tilt

The 360 Tilt in Chicago is frequented by out-of-towners but offers a brief, overpriced experience with minimal payoff. Located at the top of the John Hancock Center, the attraction tilts visitors outward for a few seconds to provide a unique but fleeting view of the city. Many find the $20+ ticket price does not match the short duration and long lines, especially when compared to the free or more reasonably priced observation points in the city that offer equally stunning views without the gimmick. 

3. Museum of Ice Cream

Another Instagram trap with a ticket price of $50+ per person. The steep ticket prices gain visitors access to a series of brightly colored, themed rooms that are more about photo opportunities than immersive or informative experiences. The limited sampling of actual ice cream is underwhelming compared to the cost. Go to Jeni’s Ice Cream for ice cream that’s actually worthwhile.

4. Giordano’s Pizza

Giordano’s Pizza in Chicago is often seen as a tourist trap because it capitalizes on its reputation without delivering the authentic deep-dish experience that we locals prefer. While heavily marketed to those coming from out of town, its pizza tends to be overly doughy and lacking in a flavorful sauce and the ideal crust that defines authentic Chicago-style pizza. You can get Giordano’s in the frozen foods section of almost any grocery store in the nation. Instead, I would strongly recommend Pequod’s or Lou Malnatis.

4. The Starbucks Reserve on Michigan Ave

As they have a great espresso martini, the Starbucks Reserve’s crowds aren’t worth their prices. While the building is an elaborate, multi-story setup with unique menu items and brewing methods, the experience is usually accompanied by long lines and a busy atmosphere. Many find the prices hard to justify, especially when the quality of the coffee isn’t significantly better than what is available at standard Starbucks locations. I’d check out a local coffee roaster rather than your run-of-the-mill Venti coffee from Starbucks.

5. Navy Pier Ferris Wheel

Navy Pier should be walked through for its historical significance to the city, but no need to partake in any of its tourist attractions, such as the Ferris Wheel. Despite its iconic status, the ride provides a short and relatively unremarkable view of the city, which many visitors find disappointing given the high ticket cost. The surrounding area is typically crowded and heavily commercialized, detracting from the overall enjoyment.

6. The Bean

I hate to break it to you, but our beloved bean is under construction until mid-August. Regardless, the site is typically swamped with tourists, making it difficult to appreciate or capture it without crowds fully. Compared to the many culturally and historically rich attractions in Chicago, the Bean tends to be a superficial stop that doesn’t offer much beyond a photo opportunity, making it feel a bit overrated. I still highly recommend strolling through Millenium Park but be warned that you might not get the view of the Bean that you’re hoping for.

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Employee onboarding checklist: the basics [Free Template]

Astronaut Dog holding a clipboard and pen

Summary

You’ve been recruiting for a vacant position, and a candidate finally accepted a job offer. That’s great! But now comes the more crucial part — onboarding. Believe it or not, onboarding new hires involves more than a welcome email and signing an employment contract. 

Webinar: Best Practices for Onboarding Hourly Staff

Employee onboarding sets the tone for new hires; employers must show competency, inspire trust, and reduce friction. It is also where new hires get their first impression of company culture and see if the work aligns with what was discussed during the recruitment stage. 

*Psst! Click here for a free onboarding checklist. It’s comprehensive and all you should need to get started. 

The make-or-break stage

Half of hourly workers leave a job within the first four months or 120 days, according to SHRM. Turnover like this can be mitigated with proper onboarding techniques. 

While primarily an administrative process, onboarding is also an experiential process – this cannot be overlooked.

The most surface-level way to fulfill the experiential part of onboarding is to make it feel good. You also need to make it easy. Consider whatever system you use for onboarding; does the user interface (UI) delight the user? Is the user experience (UX) easy to navigate?

The experiential aspect of onboarding does not end after a pleasant-looking checklist is completed. You also need to integrate new hires successfully into the team and provide them with a sense of belonging. Typically, this takes at least 90 days.

Attracting candidates is only half the battle. The other half is retaining them, and that starts with onboarding.

How to improve your employee onboarding process

Employee onboarding can be daunting, especially considering its administrative and experiential aspects. A new hire checklist goes beyond gathering direct deposit information and signing tax forms. Here are some best practices to help you navigate this stage and ensure better employee retention.

Use employee onboarding software

If you find paperwork tedious, so does your new hire.

An effective onboarding platform significantly reduces the admin burden for the human resources team, hiring managers, and incoming employees. It streamlines the necessary paperwork and ensures data integrity by taking out manual processes.

Ideally, most onboarding-related admin tasks should be accomplished before the first day. For instance, with the Workforce.com onboarding system, new hires can upload the necessary pre-employment documents before they begin work. That means that contracts, W-4s, bank details, and employee personal information are all lodged into the system well before their start date. When these are done, you can focus on making a new hire’s first day more meaningful and productive. 

Prepare equipment and tools ahead of time

Aside from lengthy paperwork, you also need to ensure that tools and equipment related to the job are ready before a new employee’s start date. This includes uniforms, access to company systems and software, office equipment, or even vehicles if they are working on-site. 

The last thing a new hire should face on the first day is incomplete equipment or confusing guidelines. Welcome merch is all fun and good, but having the necessary work items and equipment ready can help your new hire settle in faster.  

Answer potential workplace questions before day one

Taking on a new role is exciting, but it’s normal for new hires to feel anxious about a new job. Much of this anxiety comes from the anticipation of meeting new teammates, acclimating to a different work environment, and easing into the organization’s culture.

Aside from discussing new hire paperwork and eligibility for benefits, it also helps to review smaller things like dress code, shift swap policies, unavailability, and day-to-day tasks.

Give managers support

Employee onboarding is a tall order, and the onus is on the team leaders and managers to ensure its success. 

Ensure managers have the support and tools to help them successfully onboard new team members. One way to do this is to let new hires fill out their own onboarding information rather than HR. When this kind of admin burden is taken from managers and placed on the employee, managers can focus on creating a better and more personalized onboarding experience for their new hires. 

Integrate onboarding with recruitment

Recruitment is how you attract top talent. Onboarding is how you keep it.

Recruitment is not just about selling the role to potential candidates and finding the best fit. It’s about setting expectations and painting a picture of what the position entails and what working for the organization is like. While the goal is to attract top talent, it’s detrimental to over-promise in terms of benefits, work environment, and growth opportunities.

Onboarding is the stage where the organization must meet the expectations set during the hiring process. This is the stage to follow through a good first impression. If employees find that the work is far from what was described during recruitment, they tend to quit even before they are fully onboarded. 

Recruitment and onboarding must go hand in hand. You must integrate them to avoid unnecessary recruitment costs, staffing issues, and high turnover rates.  

Set onboarding milestones

Tracking new hire onboarding success is best done with a roadmap that includes a set of milestones. 

What do you want new hires to learn or achieve within specific timeframes? Typically, onboarding programs last at least 90 days. If that’s the case, you can set milestones for 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days. Goal setting is crucial for successful onboarding. A roadmap provides new hires structure and specific objectives to focus on and helps managers track and measure a new employee’s progress. 

Give and gather feedback

Giving and gathering employee feedback is a massive part of onboarding. While feedback is typically given during milestones or scheduled check-ins, it should be more fluid and quick and can be part of daily job training and interactions. Feedback doesn’t always need to be a sit-down meeting. It’s also helpful when it’s quick and more spontaneous. 

Constant feedback is essential for developing new hires, but managers also need it to improve the onboarding process or operations. When new hires feel that their feedback matters to the team, employee satisfaction matters. When they feel heard and valued, they are more likely to see themselves in the organization for a long time.

Also read: How to improve internal communications with your hourly workers

Consider using templates

You would likely onboard new employees for certain positions more than once, especially when you run an hourly workforce. You’d probably do a lot of onboarding during peak seasons, especially when hiring seasonal or contractual staff. Using templates means that you don’t need to spend as much time curating an onboarding plan each time. 

Templates in the form of checklists, training materials, and video guides are helpful. However, remember to update them to reflect any procedural or policy changes. 

Make sure that such materials are accessible to new hires, mainly since they would most likely refer to them in the course of the onboarding period. A sound self-service system is vital to this, as it enables new hires to find answers to FAQs, and managers can focus more on clarifying more complex questions or matters. 

Incorporate fun elements

The onboarding process is crucial but doesn’t have to be boring. 

You can insert some fun elements to help new hires feel at ease as they integrate into the team. For instance, teammates can record a short video message that describes what the team or department does in a fun and informal way or tidbits of non-work related information such as the best place to go for meal breaks or coffee. Short and informal all-hands sessions also help familiarize a new hire with other team members. If your company provides a standard welcome kit or swag bag to new hires, consider adding a short welcome letter from the team for a personalized touch. 

Fun elements for onboarding don’t have to be full of fanfare, but incorporating those helps enrich the early stages of onboarding. 

New employee onboarding checklist template

The onboarding process takes place before the new employee’s first day. Here’s a checklist of key things you must remember during onboarding. Feel free to copy and paste for your own use or download a document here.

New hire documentation

  • Accepted and signed job offer/job description
  • Tax forms 
  • Insurance paperwork
  • Employment contract
  • Compensation and benefits package

Guides and policies

  • Employee handbook
  • Job description
  • Safety procedures/manuals
  • Security rules and policies

Accounts, devices, and equipment

  • Setup company email
  • Provide time clock access
  • Secure work uniforms
  • Setup credentials or access to necessary software tools such as HCM systems and project management software
  • Add new hires to relevant work chats or email distribution lists
  • Issue work phone, tablet, or computer
  • Assign workstation/workspace

First day

  • Team introduction
  • Workplace tour
  • Give welcome kit/company swag bag
  • Finalize other administrative paperwork, if any.

Orientation

  • Run through paperwork and make sure they’re complete
  • Briefly go through job roles, benefits, and insurance plans
  • Go over essential points in the handbook. Inform them where they can find a copy.
  • Discuss important company policies briefly.
  • Assign a mentor or onboarding buddy.

Development plans

  • Create 30-day development plan
  • Create 60-day development plan
  • Create 90-day development plan

Milestones and follow-through

  • Check-in after the first week
  • Check-in after 30 days
  • Check-in after 60 days
  • Check-in after 90 days

As you follow through and provide feedback, optimize if your development plan needs tweaking.

Simplify your employee onboarding

The template provided above is just to get you started. For more on how to optimize your onboarding process, check out our free webinar below featuring NBC-HWC certified coach Laura Timbrook:

Webinar: Best Practices for Onboarding Hourly Staff

Are you eager to streamline your onboarding right now? Discover how to reduce onboarding tasks to just 3 minutes with  Workforce.com’s self-service employee onboarding by booking a call today. 

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3 non-obvious ways to advance your HR career

Astronaut winning a gold medal

Summary

  • Work in human resources on a small team at a small company. – More

  • Focus on strategy by automating administrative work. – More

  • Understand how HR impacts your company’s bottom line. – More

When it comes to most HR career advice, the conversation is often dominated by talks of SHRM vs. HRCI accreditation, postgraduate study opportunities, or job hopping to get ahead.

While these are all legitimate pathways to career growth, you’re probably already aware of them. They also lean further towards how to get a pay raise rather than how to become better at HR. So here are three ways you may not have thought about that can boost your HR expertise and advance your career.

1. Do HR at a smaller company

Running HR at a small company gives you the ability to take more ownership, see how every part of HR operates, and take part in more strategic initiatives.

This is often discouraged because many processes aren’t built out at smaller companies, but this is precisely why it’s a great opportunity. You get to be the one that builds out HR from the ground up.

What constitutes a small company is hard to define, but an excellent place to start is somewhere smaller than where you currently are. Other good rules of thumb are fewer than five people in the HR department or less than 1,000 total employees.

 

2. Give yourself time to work on strategic HR

Probably the biggest complaint about career advancement is that there isn’t time to work on strategic HR initiatives because HR is bogged down in busy work. This is a fair assessment. Some of the biggest culprits are collecting onboarding documentation, updating employee details, and fielding payroll queries.

Don’t accept this reactive approach to HR. 

Get rid of the paper onboarding, let staff add their own availability and PTO, and allow them to access payroll details like their direct deposit information and electronic pay stubs.

By automating these processes, HR is no longer the middleman between front-line staff and an outdated HRIS. Instead, HR actually has time to pursue valuable strategic initiatives like employee retention and talent development.

3. Understand the commercials of your company

For most people, advancing their careers often involves promotions to more senior positions. While your technical HR skills help you on this journey, a firm understanding of how your company operates financially becomes probably the most essential tool in your toolbox as you develop seniority. 

The most crucial part for HR is understanding budgets. Both overall and team budgets, as well as HR budget metrics, like labor spend, cost of employee turnover, etc. This will help you justify the value of HR initiatives and show their impact on the bottom line.

Secondly, you need to understand the business you’re in. Learn who your customers are, how your service or product solves their problems, and what role each team plays in that process. Doing so will help you make better decisions in HR, but it will also help to make other teams respect you. 

Both of these are essential if you ever want to become a CHRO.

Next steps

You’re probably not going to be able to do everything listed. Moving to a smaller company is a big step, but eliminating busy work to free up time for strategic HR and understanding your company’s commercials are two steps you can begin immediately. 

Posted on

11 HR policies every company should have

Summary

  • HR policies can cover a range of topics, from recruitment and conditions of employment to disciplinary action.

  • Any HR policy should explain its overall purpose, how it ties in with the company’s values, instructions on how to follow it, and procedures for reviewing it. 

  • There are 11 important HR policies you should consider for your company. 

Imagine you run a human resources department at a tiny startup. The company doesn’t have any human resources policies because leadership can handle every employee matter on a case-by-case basis. 

But as the business grows, this approach becomes untenable. Teams are using different processes and job boards for hiring, and employees have quit because they don’t know how to resolve conflicts with colleagues. 

Don’t let your work environment get to this point. Set up HR policies that help keep your organization running smoothly. 

There are workplace policies for just about every HR matter — like hiring new employees, complying with local and federal laws, and addressing employee conduct issues. In this post, we’ll guide you through 11 essential HR policies that every workplace should have and what the policies should include. 

Key elements of any HR policy

Some of the key elements to include in your HR policies are:

  • The overall purpose of introducing the policy
  • How the policy ties in with the company’s values and mission
  • Instructions on how to follow the policy and who is responsible for doing so
  • Procedures for regularly reviewing the policy 

All HR policies are part of your company-wide human resource strategy and should be readily available to all employees through a handbook or document library. 

And now, let’s get into the top HR policies you should consider implementing for the good of your organization:

1. Recruitment policy

A recruitment policy outlines the procedures for attracting, screening, and selecting job applicants. It ensures that the hiring process is fair, consistent, and based on merit and without discriminating based on race, gender, age, religion, or other protected characteristics. 

Your recruitment policy should also contain new hire documentation, such as new position requisition forms and information on the onboarding process. 

A well-crafted recruitment policy streamlines and standardizes the hiring and onboarding processes, so they’re fair and manageable.  

2. At-will employment policy

An at-will employment policy allows employers to terminate an employee’s contract at any time for any reason except for reasons prohibited by law. This type of employment is common in the United States. 

  • An explanation of the nature of at-will employment 
  • The job duties and responsibilities
  • Compensation, benefits, and working conditions information
  • An acknowledgment that the employee has read and understands the policy

At-will employment policies must be clearly stated in the employee handbook and understood by all employees to avoid any misunderstandings or legal disputes.

3. Employment classification policy

There are various forms of employment classification — from full-time and part-time to exempt and non-exempt workers. An employment classification policy helps employers determine which category their workforce falls under. It is also known as the FLSA policy since it follows the Fair Labor Standards Act guidelines.

In your employment classification policy, indicate the different types of employees your company has and define the criteria for each type. Most policies will explain the difference between full-time, part-time, and temporary statuses, as well as exempt versus non-exempt employment.

This policy is critical for avoiding worker misclassification — hiring individuals as contractors when they’re doing the work of full-time employees — and costly legal disputes. It also helps protect employees by clarifying their wage statuses and if they should work overtime.

4. Compensation policy

A compensation policy outlines all employee benefits and payroll procedures, including: 

  • Payment frequency
  • Payment method (e.g., direct deposit or bank transfer)
  • Eligibility criteria for benefits, reimbursements, and overtime pay 
  • Guidelines on how employees can earn bonuses, promotions, and other incentives to promote career growth 

With a transparent compensation policy, organizations can build a culture of trust. 

5. Time and attendance policy

Employee absenteeism and tardiness can impact performance and productivity, so companies need to have measures in place to tackle them. An attendance policy can help by clarifying:

  • How many hours employees must work on a daily basis
  • How employees should handle scheduled and unscheduled absences and tardiness
  • If employees need to record working hours (and if so, instructions on how to do so) 

This policy is especially important when attendance write-ups lead to termination. You need to have clear rules about attendance expectations and consequences. More importantly, you should regularly schedule and document all performance reviews so to justify any dismissals. 

READ – The Practical Guide to Time and Attendance Management

6. Time-off request policy

Your time-off request policy (or leave policy) outlines the procedures for managing leave requests. It simplifies the process for your HR team and also takes your team’s personal needs into account. 

Your time-off request policy should include: 

  • How much time off employees receive and the different types of leave available (e.g., sick leave, family leave, and paid time off)
  • How an employee can request a leave of absence
  • How far in advance requests need to be made
  • How often employees can request time off and if there are any time-off blackout periods (e.g., over certain holidays)

Your policy should also take employment laws and acts, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), into account. The FMLA states that some employees can be eligible to take unpaid and job-protected leave for “specified family and medical reasons.” They can do this “with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave.” 

7. Break policy

Your company’s break policy should communicate how many breaks employees can take in a day — including lunch breaks and short rests — and the length of the breaks. This policy helps to promote employee wellbeing while also reducing time theft. 

While federal law does not require employers to offer breaks, the U.S. Department of Labor states that companies that do offer short breaks of 5 to 20 minutes must pay workers for this time. States can also create their own lunch and rest break laws or default to the federal policy. 

For example, according to New York State law, the amount of time employees get for a break depends on how long their shifts are. Employees who work six-plus hours, for example, get 30 minutes. If a shift starts between 1 pm and 6 am, the break is 45 minutes. 

8. Remote work policy

Develop specific policies that cover your company’s procedures surrounding hybrid and remote work arrangements. Your policy should include:

  • Eligibility criteria: Who is eligible for remote work
  • Work hours and schedule: Work hours and expectations for work schedules
  • Communication: Guidelines for communication tools, availability, and response times for remote workers
  • Cybersecurity: Guidelines for accessing secure networks, using company devices, and protecting data
  • Performance evaluation: Processes for evaluating remote worker performance
  • Expenses and reimbursement: Guidelines about which expenses related to remote work are reimbursed by the company, such as internet and equipment costs
  • Termination of remote work: Circumstances under which remote work may be terminated

With a flexible remote work policy, HR leaders today can promote employee engagement and retention. 

9. Anti-harassment and non-discrimination policy

Provide a safe and non-stressful working environment for your employees by creating an anti-harassment and non-discrimination policy. It shows employees that your company values diversity and is committed to preventing discrimination or harassment. 

There are a number of employment laws and acts that protect employees against harassment and discrimination. Laws like these need to be integrated into your company’s policies along with your own stances and procedures:

By setting clear expectations for behavior and the consequences for violating the policy, companies can foster a respectful workplace culture and reduce the risk of legal issues. 

10. Health and safety policy

A health and safety policy outlines your organization’s commitment to protecting the health and safety of its employees, customers, and visitors, and it should include:

  • The roles and responsibilities of employees, supervisors, and management in maintaining a safe work environment
  • Procedures for identifying and controlling workplace hazards
  • Protocols for reporting accidents, injuries, and near misses
  • Procedures for investigating and resolving health and safety issues
  • The organization’s plan for complying with applicable health and safety laws and regulations, such as the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which lead to the formation of the  Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Check to see which health and safety laws are applicable to your industry. 

11. Disciplinary action policy

A disciplinary action policy outlines the consequences of employee misconduct or rule violations. The specific course of action taken may depend on the severity and nature of the infraction. It will include:

  • The different forms of discipline and the steps in which they will be taken. For example, they could start with a verbal warning and end with termination. 
  • The infractions that might not follow the same order mentioned above. If your company has a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment or workplace violence, you must state that this will lead to immediate termination.
  • Outline how an employee can appeal a decision. 
  • Legal protection for your company. You need to include the conditions that show when you have a right to terminate employees at will.  

Your disciplinary action policy is crucial for maintaining a productive and respectful work environment.

Create and enforce HR policies with Workforce.com

Workforce.com is an all-in-one solution for HR policy creation and compliance. It allows you to schedule shifts according to employee certifications, file incident reports, build attendance rules, and stay compliant with wage and hour laws. 

Learn more about how Workforce.com can help increase employee engagement, reduce turnover, and prevent absenteeism in your hourly workforce by contacting us today. 

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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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Is your employee attendance policy and procedure fit for purpose?

Summary:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lateness is your early warning system

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

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

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

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

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

 

Webinar: How to Drive Engagement

 

Absences require a nuanced approach

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

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

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

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

Know your absence rate

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Employee attendance policies and procedures protect your business

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

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

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

Collecting good attendance data helps keep your policy airtight

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

Webinar: How to Reduce Absenteeism

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

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Clawback provisions: A safety net against employee fraud losses

Close up painting of a dog's claw

Summary

  • Clawback provisions are usually included as clauses in employee contracts and are used to recoup funds and incentive-based benefits in predetermined situations. 

  • Clawback clauses can be used in various situations and across different industries, from clawing back bonuses unrightfully awarded to company executives to funds given on unprofitable home loans.

  • Setting up a clawback policy for your company ensures that, should you ever need to recoup funds from your employees, the procedures to do so are in place and transparent.

Imagine you’re a restaurant owner with a team of people you pay by the hour. You find out that one or more of your employees have been falsifying their time cards and that you have lost a significant amount of money to time theft.

Or maybe you run a retail store and offer your sales team a commission over and above their monthly salary. You then find out that one of your employees has been over-reporting on their performance and has received bonuses that they weren’t rightfully entitled to. 

In either of these situations, you could be legally entitled to a refund of the money you’ve spent through clawback provisions. 

Clawback provisions are clauses that are sometimes found in employment contracts that allow a business to reclaim money that has already been paid out to the employees in the case of misconduct, unethical behavior, or poor performance. 

Clawback provisions can be used in a number of scenarios to help employers recoup losses — from senior executives breaching contracts to government contractors delivering substandard work. As an employer, setting up a clawback policy will standardize the process while ensuring that you stay compliant with local, state, or federal law. 

Situations in which clawback provisions can apply  

From high-level executive compensation to clawback policies used in retail stores, there are a number of different situations where companies may utilize such clauses. 

  • Time theft — when employees who are paid by the hour falsify the number of hours they have worked. This also includes buddy punching, where colleagues clock in on each other’s behalf. 
  • False performance report — some employees receive commissions and bonuses based on performance. Clawbacks can be used if it transpires that an employee has over-reported their performance to receive these benefits. 
  • Government contracts — in situations where contractors do not carry out the work as outlined in their contracts or if the work isn’t done to a specified quality. The funds received for this contract can be clawed back.  
  • Executive compensation — used when company executives breach a contractual agreement. One such agreement could be that they are not allowed to work for a competitor until a certain period of time elapses. 
  • Life insurance — insurance companies can claw back any payments the customer has received if they cancel their policy.  
  • Pensions — if there is any evidence of fraud or misuse of information by the pensioner, companies can claw back amounts given for pensions. 
  • Mortgage lending — banks and mortgage companies can recoup money given out for home loans if they turn out to be unprofitable. 
  • Medicaid reimbursement — if a Medicaid recipient dies, states grant Medicaid offices the possibility to recoup money paid toward healthcare. For example, if the Medicaid office has preemptively spent funds on nursing home costs, and this is no longer needed since the patient has passed away. 

Setting up a clawback policy

Setting up a clawback provisions policy and writing it into employee contracts usually falls to a company’s HR team. There are seven steps to keep in mind when introducing clawback clauses into your organization’s policies.

  1. Identify the types of funds or compensation that are applicable to your company’s clawback clause. Will your clauses cover things like bonuses, stock options, carried interest, and overtime?
  2. What penalties will you add on over and above the reinstatement of funds? This includes further fees and/or disciplinary action.
  3. To which employees does your policy apply? It might not be relevant for employees who do not receive incentive-based compensation. You may also decide that such measures are only applicable to senior executives.
  4. In what situations will you utilize a clawback? What are the events that will trigger it? These could be based on things like underperformance, overreporting, time theft, or even through actions that could have reputational and financial consequences on the company. 
  5. What is the period of time in which a clawback is applicable? What is the cut-off point from when a bonus is received that allows a company to claw it back?
  6. Who is in charge of enforcing, and what type of discretion do they have? If executives are subject to clawbacks, you will need to go as high up as your board of directors.
  7. What are the laws or regulations in your state that regulate clawback provisions? You need to ensure that your policy does not contradict any applicable laws. 

How federal law regulates clawback provisions

Over the past couple of decades, situations have arisen that led to clawbacks forming parts of federal statutes. 

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (a.k.a. SOX Act of 2002) was passed as a result of a number of scandals involving the misuse of funds in some high-profile public companies such as Enron and Worldcom. The US congress passed the law, which created stronger guidelines for the recordkeeping and reporting of accounting information. It allowed for clawbacks of bonuses and incentive-based compensation from executive officers in the case of abuse. 

The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) was passed in response to the financial crisis of that same year that came about primarily from the prevalence of subprime mortgages. The EESA allows for clawbacks in cases where there is inaccurate financial reporting and also requires more accountability amongst executives. 

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rule in 2015, associated with the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010, allows for clawbacks of funds paid to executives in the case of an accounting restatement.

Airtight time and attendance can reduce clawbacks four hourly businesses

Clawback provisions are a great way to ensure that your company is protected from misconduct and abuse. However, it is never ideal to be in a situation where clawbacks are necessary in the first place. Luckily, there are several things hourly businesses can do to prevent time theft and avoid clawbacks. 

An automated time and attendance solution makes it much more difficult for employees to carry out time theft. Paper timesheets are easily manipulated, and legacy time clocks allow for excuses surrounding lost or misplaced time cards. A cloud-based time-keeping solution like Workforce.com records employee hours in real-time, calculating pay instantly and compiling digital timesheets on a daily basis. You can then edit and export these timesheets directly to your payroll system come pay run.

Unlike outdated time clock hardware, Workforce.com lets employees clock-in via mobile device or tablet. All time punches are geo-located, meaning you’ll instantly know if an employee clocks-in early or late while not on-site. Managers can set up geofences as well to ensure staff can only clock in once they arrive at work. 

Alongside accurate data, you’ll need to create an extensive time and attendance policy. You should consider local, state, and federal time-theft regulations and build your policy from there. It should include information about clocking-in and clocking-out procedures, break time, and the use of phones and social media while on the job. You must communicate your policy well to your employees and ensure they take it on board. 

Finally, your policy must outline any disciplinary actions that will be taken in the case that it is broken. These preventative measures can start with a verbal warning and escalate higher if needed. This way, you can avoid having to claw back funds you’ve given to your employees unless absolutely necessary. 

Interested in perfecting your time and attendance management with mobile time clocks and digital timesheets? Contact us today to learn more.

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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