Tag: predictive scheduling

Posted on

How to Schedule Employees Effectively: 6 Proven Steps

live wage tracker, analytics, schedule employees

Summary

  • Employee scheduling is more than just filling shifts. It’s about balancing profitability with employee experience.  
  • Labor laws govern schedules in some cities and states, which can pose compliance issues for large hourly teams. 
  • Employee scheduling software can streamline shift assignments, but truly efficient systems can also factor in demand and compliance when managers fill shifts.

Creating and managing an employee schedule is a complex process that can take up hours out of a manager’s week.

Yet employee scheduling can have massive impacts on a business, especially for                  organizations with a large hourly workforce and significant labor costs. 

Poor scheduling can lead to overstaffing, which inflates labor expenses, or understaffing, which strains employees and impacts productivity. An unpredictable schedule can also contribute to burnout and high turnover, forcing you to constantly recruit and train new members.  

Many factors go into the scheduling process and creating the most effective schedule, including having the right expertise on your team, communicating with your frontline staff, and using the right employee scheduling software.

Here’s exactly how to schedule employees effectively.

1. Understand the laws that govern schedules in your city or state 

Scheduling employees effectively, at its most basic level, requires compliance with labor laws.

Over the past decade, different cities and states have passed their own predictable scheduling laws regulating shift work, starting with San Francisco in 2013. See if you are in a jurisdiction with predictive scheduling laws here.

Depending on the specific law, employers may have to schedule employees up to two weeks in advance. Further, these laws may levy employer penalties for unexpected employee work schedule changes, regulate “clopening” shifts, and define schedule recordkeeping requirements for business owners. 

These laws address the challenges many hourly workers face, including unpredictable, unstable, and insufficient hours. Certain staff scheduling practices, like on-call scheduling, make it difficult for employees to hold second jobs or plan for other responsibilities in advance.

However, employers may find it difficult to make last-minute scheduling decisions given the perceived lack of flexibility the laws impose on them.

Here’s where employee scheduling software like Workforce.com can help. Beyond tracking employee attendance and reliably scheduling employees in advance, it’s kept up-to-date with legal rules and regulations. Plus, managers can set their own employee scheduling rules.

The software notifies managers if they’re about to break a law or rule when placing people in open shifts, scheduling staff beyond their maximum hours, assigning minor workers for hours they are not allowed to work, or under other conditions for which they would be at risk of non-compliance with the rules.

how to schedule employees, shift work

2. Use labor forecasting to create optimal schedules 

Labor forecasting is a powerful tool in employee scheduling. 

Two main types of data go into these predictions. There’s data on external factors like the time of year, weather, or events happening nearby. Then, there’s data on your specific business’s conditions and operations, such as your historical sales data, booked appointments, busiest times, foot traffic, and employee availability. 

While no prediction is 100 percent certain, the more accurate and relevant data you connect with labor forecasting, the more confident you can be in your forecasts and identifying scheduling needs, reducing your chances of overstaffing, understaffing, and incurring unnecessary overtime. 

Workforce.com’s labor forecasting system factors in all the relevant data, both internal and external, to calculate staffing ratios that will equip managers to create the most productive schedule, ensuring that you have the optimal number of employees in every shift.

Imagine you run a retail business and intend to optimize your staff scheduling throughout the year. With labor forecasting, you can analyze past sales trends and customer traffic to predict busy and slow periods. For instance, if your data shows that holiday shopping spikes in November and December, you can plan ahead and hire seasonal and part-time employees to help with the increased demand. On the other hand, if January tends to be slow, you can scale back part-time hours to control labor costs and avoid overstaffing.

shift ratings, how to schedule employees

3. Match the right employees to the right shifts

Filling open shifts is complicated beyond just legal compliance and predicting business needs. Employees have different preferences and limitations, while managers aim to assign shifts fairly and efficiently. The challenge? Creating a schedule that works for both the business and its people.

Using a combination of scheduling algorithms and employee input for filling schedules can be a good strategy. This allows a business to benefit from advances in technology while also taking real-world human considerations into account.

So, how do you do that exactly?

First, let’s look at the facts. Before assigning shifts, ensure employees meet the necessary qualifications. Does a role require specific certifications? Is there a minimum age requirement? Workforce.com simplifies this by sending managers real-time notifications, helping them assign shifts only to qualified team members.

Next, factor in employee preferences. Employees can submit feedback through Workforce.com’s shift rating and feedback, sharing insights on staffing levels, engagement, and management after each shift. By analyzing this feedback, managers can build schedules that align with business objectives and employee preferences.

Using these insights, you can also make less desirable shifts more appealing, especially if you’re operating 24/7. Late nights, early mornings, and weekend shifts can be more challenging to fill. To encourage coverage, consider offering shift deferential pay for employees who would take on these odd hours.

4. Plan ahead for last-minute scheduling changes

Unexpected absences can happen, but they don’t have to disrupt your operations. A reliable shift swapping or replacement system ensures you can quickly fill gaps caused by no-shows or last-minute call-outs. 

Managers can use Workforce.com to reassign vacant shifts. Available and qualified employees can claim open shifts, either through a manager’s direct offer or a system-wide notification. Depending on your settings, employees can trade shifts and have those changes automatically apply to schedules or with manager approval for added control.

5. Apply automation to reduce admin work and avoid scheduling conflicts

Employee scheduling goes beyond assigning team members to shifts. It requires balancing different, and without a proper system in place, it’s easy for things to slip through the cracks.

Beyond operating hours and number of staff members, managers also need to to look at time-off requests, employee classifications, labor forecasts, and compliance requirements. Ensuring all of these factors align each work week is challenging, but Workforce.com’s scheduling app simplifies the process.

With Workforce.com’s scheduling tool, creating schedules will not be as time-consuming. It offers powerful functionality to speed up the process. For instance, recurring work schedules can be saved as schedule templates. Instead of creating schedules from scratch, you can simply copy, paste, and adjust the templates as needed, saving you time and minimizing errors.

6. Actively reassess and adapt

The common thread running through these steps is that nothing about employee scheduling is static. 

Laws change, individual employees may become more or less productive over time, and the most efficient ones may leave if they’re not getting sufficient hours or good shifts. 

Continually use the resources and data you have to understand what’s successful on your front line. The same old employee shift scheduling patterns might stop working over time. And your employees’ needs and levels of engagement will change. Effective employee scheduling requires that you’re aware of these developments and adapt to them.

Going beyond employee scheduling

Employee scheduling is significant, but true workforce success goes far beyond just filling shifts. Managing an hourly team requires integration between scheduling, time and attendance tracking, hiring and retention, and payroll.

That’s where Workforce.com comes in.

With Workforce.com, you don’t just schedule shifts. You hire the right talent, track time accurately, schedule employees strategically, and ensure accurate, on-time payroll. Everything is housed in one unified system, giving you a single source of truth for workforce management and HR.

Workforce.com has transformed employee scheduling, HR, and payroll worldwide. But don’t take our word for it—see it for yourself by booking a demo today.

Posted on

Predictive Scheduling Laws Explained: A Guide for Employers [2024]

Summary:

  • Inconsistent shifts and sudden schedule changes place undue financial and logistical stress on the lives of employees outside of work. 
  • Predictive scheduling laws address this issue by mandating advance notice for schedules and premium pay for sudden shift changes. However, navigating these laws can be challenging due to varying city and state regulations.
  • Employers navigate predictive scheduling laws with specialized software that accounts for local labor ordinances, enforces fair scheduling practices, automates predictability pay, and maintains records.

Unpredictable shifts and last-minute changes have long been sources of financial instability and stress among hourly workers. In response, some cities nationwide have implemented predictive scheduling laws, also known as Fair Workweek laws, to create more predictable and transparent schedules for employees. 

While predictive scheduling laws are intended to improve worker well-being and foster a healthier workplace, it is not always easy for employers to implement these new standards. Understanding the ins and outs of these ordinances is essential to avoid penalties and maintain workforce satisfaction and productivity. 

Whether managing a retail chain, restaurant, hotel, or any business with hourly staff, this article will help you balance operational flexibility with legal compliance. 

What are predictive scheduling or Fair Workweek laws?

Predictive scheduling laws are ordinances that promote fair schedule processes, including giving sufficient notice to employees about their work schedules. 

While Fair Workweek ordinances may vary city by city, they typically include the following:

  • Advance notice of work schedules, typically 14 days in advance
  • Predictability pay or premiums when schedules change after the notice period
  • Right to rest between shifts or clopening bans
  • Right to decline shifts made past the advance notice or opportunities for extra hours
  • Good faith estimates of work schedules upon hiring

The impact of unpredictable schedules on workers

Unpredictable schedules are a significant source of disruption in workers’ personal lives. Employees cannot properly budget for the month, make plans with acquaintances, or reliably fulfill other obligations without an appropriate degree of certainty in their work schedule.

For shift-based workers, flexibility means knowing their work schedules well in advance, not the day before a shift so that they can plan for childcare, doctor’s appointments, second jobs, studies, and other obligations.

Financial pain points are another issue workers must contend with when their schedules are unpredictable. It’s hard for them to anticipate their earnings and manage their budgets when their income is erratic.

In response, some cities have passed rules around predictive scheduling to help alleviate such challenges for employees. So, which places implement Fair Workweek ordinances?

Where are predictive scheduling laws being implemented?

Oregon

Oregon is the only place where predictive scheduling laws are being implemented state-wide so far. 

Covered employers

Businesses in the retail, hospitality, and food services industries that have at least 500 employees

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days in advance, including on-call work
  • Good faith estimates upon hiring
  • Employees can decline shifts that are not included in the written work schedule.

Predictability pay

Employees are entitled 1 hour at regular rate of pay plus wages if the following changes are made without advance notice:

  • Additional 30 minutes or more to a shift
  • Date or time change of a shift with no loss of hours
  • Additional work or on-call shift

Employees are entitled to half of their regular rate of pay if:

  • Hours are subtracted from the shift before or after they report for duty
  • Changes result in loss of shift hours
  • A shift is canceled
  • When they are scheduled for on-call work but are not called in

Rest hours and clopening

There must be a rest period of 10 hours in betweeen shifts. Employees can decline the rest period and be paid time and a half pay. 

Exceptions

Additional pay is not required for schedule changes due to natural disasters or events outside an employer’s control, such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, extreme temperatures, war, or explosions. 

California

Berkeley

Covered Employers

  • Employers in the City of Berkeley with 10 or more employees in the:
    • Building services, healthcare, hotel, manufacturing, retail, or warehouse services with 56 or more employees globally
    • Restaurant industry and has more than 100 employees globally
  • Franchisees primarily engaged in the retail or restaurant industries associated with a network of franchises that employ 100 or more globally
  • Non-profit organizations in the building services, healthcare, hotel, manufacturing, retail, warehouse services, or restaurant industries and employ 100 or more globally

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days or two weeks’ notice
  • Good faith estimate for new employees
  • Employees have the right to decline hours that are added after the notice period.

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of predictability pay for any schedule change made between 1 and 14 days before a shift.
  • Up to 4 hours of predictability pay (or the number of hours reduced, whichever is less) for cancellations or reduced hours with less than 24 hours’ notice.
  • 1 hour of predictability pay for adding, changing, or moving a shift with less than 24 hours’ notice.

Rest hours and clopening

Employers must allow employees to decline shifts that occur less than 11 hours apart.

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not applicable to employee-initiated shift swaps or changes. It is also not owed for grace periods of 10 minutes before and after a shift.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer any additional hours to existing part-time employees before hiring new staff or temporary workers. 

Emeryville

Covered employers

Employers with nonexempt full-time, part-time, on-call, contract, and seasonal employees that are in:

  • Retail with 56 or more employees globally
  • Fast food with 56 or more employees globally or 20 or more employees in Emeryville

This includes franchisees associated with a franchisor or a network of franchisees with more than 12 locations globally. 

Employers located outside the city but employ workers performing work in Emeryville are also covered.

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days in advance
  • Good faith estimate to new employees
  • Employees can decline unscheduled hours given less than the notice.

Predictability pay

  • If a schedule change is made between 1 and 14 days before the shift, employees receive 1 hour of pay for any affected shift.
  • For cancellations or reduced hours with less than 24 hours notice, employees get the lesser of 4 hours of pay or the originally scheduled hours.
  • Any other changes made within 24 hours will give employees 1 hour of pay.

Rest hours and Rest hours and clopening

Employers must pay time and half pay for any hours worked for shifts that are less than 11 hours apart.

Exceptions

Predictability pay does not apply to employee-initiated shift swaps or for grace periods of 10 minutes or less before and after a shift. The same goes for an employee who works past the schedule to finish a transaction.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer additional hours to existing qualified part-time employees until they reach 35 hours of work in a calendar week. 

San Francisco

Covered employers

Formula Retail establishments with at least 40 stores worldwide and 30 or more employees in San Francisco, including janitorial and security contractors.

Advance notice requirements

  • 2 weeks in advance
  • Good faith estimate to new hires

Predictability pay

  • 1 to 4 hours of pay for schedule changes made with less than 7 days’ notice
  • 2 to 4 hours of pay if an employee is on-call but not called in to work

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not applicable when:

  • There is a threat to the safety of employees’ and employers’ property, public utility failure, Acts of God, or causes outside the employer’s control.
  • An employee scheduled to work cannot come in and did not provide at least 7 days’ notice.
  • An employee failed to report to work or was sent home.
  • An employer requires the employee to work overtime.
  • An employee swaps shifts with a co-worker or asks for a shift change.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must first offer additional work to existing part-time employees as determined by the employer or if the part-timer has done similar work. 

Los Angeles

Covered employers

Retail businesses with 300+ employees globally

Advance schedule notice period

  • 14 days notice
  • Good faith estimate for new employees
  • Employees reserve the right to decline hours, shifts, and work locations made after the advance notice period.

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour at the regular rate for any increase in hours over 15 minutes
  • 1 hour at the regular rate for changes in the date, time, or location without changing the hours
  • Half the regular rate for a reduction in hours by 15 minutes or more
  • Half the regular rate for on-call hours when the employee isn’t called to work

Rest hours and Rest hours and clopening

Employees must not work a shift that starts less than 10 hours from the previous shift. Otherwise, employees must provide written consent, and time and a half pay applies for shifts following an insufficient rest period.

Exceptions

Predictability pay does not apply if:

  • An employee initiated the schedule change.
  • An employee agrees to cover an absent employee’s shift, provided the employer informs them that it’s voluntary and they can decline.
  • The employee’s hours are reduced due to a violation of law or company policy.
  • The employee accepts additional hours offered under section 185.05.
  • The employer’s operations are affected by legal issues or force majeure.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer work to current employees at least 72 hours before hiring a new employee or using a contractor, temporary service, or staffing agency to perform work. 

Illinois

Chicago

Covered employers

  • Employers that have at least 100 employees globally in the building services, healthcare, hotels, manufacturing, and warehouse services industries
  • Restaurant businesses with 250 employees and 30 locations
  • Employers with employees earning less or equal to $31.85 per hour or less than or equal to $61,149.35 in a year

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days’ notice
  • Written estimate of work hours for new employees

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of pay for every affected shift if the employer subtracts, adds, and changes shifts with no loss of hours after the 14-day notice period
  • 1 hour of additional pay for every affected shift when an employer adds hours or changes shifts with no loss of hours less than 24 hours before a shift
  • 50% of pay for lost hours when the employer subtracts hours less than 24 hours before a shift starts

Rest hours and clopening

Employees can decline shifts that start less than 10 hours after their last shift. If they work a shift within that time, they must be paid 1.25 times their regular rate.

Exceptions

Predictability is not applicable in cases of:

  • Threats to employers, employees, property, or when authorities advise against work.
  • Utility failures (electricity, water, gas, or sewer issues) at the workplace.
  • Natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, or blizzards.
  • War, civil unrest, strikes, safety threats, or pandemics.
  • Shift trades or coverage agreed upon by employees.
  • Schedule changes mutually agreed upon by employee and employer, confirmed in writing.
  • Schedule changes requested by the employee, confirmed in writing.
  • Reduction in hours for documented disciplinary reasons.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must first offer extra shifts to qualified employees. If no employees accept, the shifts can be offered to temporary or seasonal workers who have been with the employer for at least two weeks.

Evanston

Covered employers

Employers with:

  • 100 or more employees globally, franchises included, in the hospitality, retail, warehouse services, manufacturing, and building services industries
  • At least 30 locations globally and 300 employees in the food service and restaurant industry

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days notice
  • Good faith estimate for new employees

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of predictability pay if employers add hours or change the date/time of a shift after the 14-day notice period, with no loss of hours.
  • 1 hour of predictability pay if employers reduce hours from a regular or on-call shift with more than 24 hours notice.
  • If less than 24 hours notice is given, employees may receive up to 4 hours of predictability pay, depending on the number of hours affected.
  • For on-call employees not called in, the employer must pay half of the missed hours or 4 hours, whichever is less, if the employee isn’t being paid their regular rate.

Rest hours and clopening

Employees must be paid 1.5 times their regular rate for any hours worked less than 11 hours after their last shift. They must provide written consent to work within this 11-hour window.

Access to hours for existing employees

Employers must offer extra shifts to qualified employees first. If no employees take the shifts, they can be offered to temporary or seasonal workers who have been with the employer for at least two weeks.

New York

New York City

Fair Workweek rules in New York City apply to two work sectors — fast food and retail industries.

Covered employers

  • Fast food establishments that are part of a chain and are one of 30 or more establishments nationally.
  • Retail employers that operate one or more retail establishments in New York City

Advance notice requirements

  • Fast food businesses must give regular schedules that stay the same week-to-week and must give schedules 14 days in advance. 
  • Retail employers must give 72 hours’ advance notice of work schedules. Shift additions and cancellations are prohibited with less than 71 hours’ notice, and there must be no on-call shifts. 
  • Workers can accept or decline additional work time.

Predictability pay

  • Fast food employers must pay $10 to $75 for every change made to a shift after the notice period for 
  • Retail employers must pay $300, as well as damages, to the affected workers. A fine of $500 can also be imposed. It could be more if the employer violated the law before.

Rest hours and clopening

Fast food employers are not required to pay premiums for schedule changes due to:

  • Threats to employees’ or employers’ property
  • Public utility failure or public transport shutdown
  • Natural disasters such as fire or flood
  • Federal, state, or local state of emergency
  • Severe weather conditions that can compromise employee safety
  • Employee-initiated changes such as time off requests, using sick leaves, arriving late, or needing to leave early (must be adequately documented)

More about New York City’s Fair Workweek Laws for Fast Food and Retail Businesses

Pennsylvania

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Covered employers

Employers with more than 250 employees worldwide and 30 or more locations worldwide, including chains and franchises in the service, retail, and hospitality industries.

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days’ notice
  • Good faith estimate upon hiring an employee
  • Employees may decline additional work hours not posted in the schedule after the notice period.

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of regular rate of pay when the employer adds time to a scheduled shift. The same applies when changes are made to the date, time, or location with no loss of hours. 
  • Half of the regular rate of pay for any scheduled hours the employee does not work due to reduced hours from a regular or on-call shift. The same applies when an on-call shift is canceled.

Rest hours and clopening

There should be a rest period of at least 9 hours between shifts. Otherwise, an employee must consent in writing. Employers must also pay $40 for each clopening shift.

Access to hours for existing employees

Before hiring new employees or using subcontractors or staffing agencies, the employer must first offer available shifts to existing employees.

Washington

Seattle

Covered Employers

  • Retail and food service establishments with at least 500 employees worldwide
  • Full-service restaurants that have at least 40 full-service locations worldwide

Advance notice requirements

  • 14 days advance notice
  • Good faith estimate for new employees
  • Employees can decline hours not in the originally posted schedules

Predictability pay

  • 1 hour of pay for hours added to a shift or when the date or time is changed
  • Half of the hours not worked when an employee is sent home early
  • Half of the hours not worked when an employee is scheduled for on-call work but is not called in

Rest hours and clopening

There must be 10 hours of rest in between shifts. Employees are entitled to time and a half pay for clopening hours that are less than 10 hours apart. 

Exceptions

Predictability pay is not applicable when:

  • The employee asked for the changes in schedule or traded shifts with a co-worker. 
  • The employee responded to a message about available hours because another employee couldn’t work.
  • The employee replied to a message about hours available due to unexpected customer needs.
  • The reduction in hours was due to discipline.
  • The change was due to threats, public official recommendations, utility failures, natural disasters, or legal issues.

Access to hours for existing employees

The employer must offer extra hours to current employees before hiring external candidates, subcontractors, or temporary workers. Employers must post a notice of available hours for three days. Employees have two days to decide if they want the extra hours before the employer hires outside help.

Compliance Tips for Fair Workweek Ordinances

Implementing predictive scheduling laws into your operations can be complicated – it’s easy to overlook crucial details if your policies aren’t thorough. Here are some practical tips to help your business remain on the right side of the law.

Stay abreast of ordinances in your place of business

Only a handful of cities have an ordinance for predictive scheduling, but this could change in the future. It’s best to stay informed about any updates or new regulations in your area.

Keeping up with changes is crucial if you’re in a city or state that has existing Fair Workweek laws. For example, New York City previously required fast food employers to provide a good faith estimate of work hours to new hires, but this was replaced with a mandate for regular week-to-week schedules.

Check with local and state governments regularly for updates on employment laws and scheduling practices to ensure your business remains compliant.

Invest in predictive scheduling software

Predictive scheduling laws are just one of the many employment regulations that businesses must comply with. Many businesses invest in scheduling and payroll solutions that help mitigate predictive scheduling headaches. Software like this automates key areas like shift notifications and predictability pay, ensuring that you meet Fair Workweek standards.

Workforce.com, a scheduling and payroll platform designed for hourly workforces, specializes in predictive scheduling and Fair Workweek compliance. Here’s how it can help:

  • Shift scheduling and labor forecasting – Avoid over or understaffing with demand-based schedules. Workforce.com can use data that indicates possible demand, such as historical sales, foot traffic, booked appointments, and even weather information, so you can schedule the correct number of staff for each shift well in advance.
  • Alerts and announcements—A critical part of Fair Workweek ordinances is ensuring employees are notified of posted schedules in time. Workforce.com makes this easy—once a schedule is published, employees are notified through the app, and you can also print the schedule. A robust communications feature lets you send announcements about schedule updates and live chat with staff and managers to maximize transparency and efficiency.
  • Pay rules – Assign pay rules to each employee, including those predictability pay they may be entitled to when certain conditions get triggered. Once set up, these rules are automatically applied during payroll, eliminating the need for manual entries and calculations.
  • Employee tags and classification – Assign tags to covered employees of predictive scheduling rules to ensure they receive the correct pay when predictability pay conditions are met. You’ll also receive automatic alerts when scheduling an employee at risk of working a clopening shift.
  • Shift swapping – Workforce.com has shift-swapping functionality that allows qualified staff to take up vacant shifts. This helps automate the process and provides a simple way to track and record shift changes. 
  • Payroll – Another crucial part of complying with predictive scheduling laws is ensuring covered employees are paid what they’re owed, including applicable predictability pay. Workforce.com automatically computes wages, overtime, deductions, and predictability pay premiums based on timesheets and hours worked by your employees. 
  • Recordkeeping – Employers are required to maintain records of schedules and documentation related to Fair Workweek compliance. Workforce.com centralizes this information, making it easily accessible. In the event of an audit or when you need to retrieve these records, everything is organized and readily available. 

Train managers and HR teams

Managers and human resources are at the frontline of implementing predictive scheduling laws. Train them to understand the specifics of these ordinances and how to communicate them to staff. As a crucial part of compliance, they must have the training and resources to ensure company policies align with and adhere to applicable labor laws.

Why fair scheduling practices matter

Fair scheduling practices are essential to any hourly workforce, regardless of whether predictive scheduling laws exist in your area. Equitable workplace policies should not just stem from the need to comply – they should begin with the desire to equip and support your employees.

A consistent and transparent scheduling system minimizes scheduling conflicts, reduces absenteeism, improves retention, and provides flexibility for hourly staff. This should be standard practice, whether mandated by law or not. Discover how Workforce.com helps you implement best practices with employee scheduling, payroll, and HR for hourly workforces. Book a demo today. 

Posted on

4 proven steps for tackling employee absenteeism

Summary

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1. Identify why employees are frequently absent

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

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

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

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

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

2. Establish a clear employee attendance policy

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

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

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

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

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

3. Implement incentives like employee wellness programs

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

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

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

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

4. Create a reliable and collaborative scheduling procedure

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

Implement predictive scheduling

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

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

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

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

Offer collaborative scheduling

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

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

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

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

Employee absenteeism is your alarm call

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

Posted on

Predictive scheduling laws: What they cover and how to comply

Over the past five years, the United States has seen a wave of new predictive scheduling laws aimed at providing employees with more predictable work schedules.

These predictive scheduling laws are designed to provide stability to individuals so that they can attend to their child care, health, education and, in many cases, second jobs. Early predictive scheduling laws only applied to retail establishments and restaurants, with limited penalties and no private right of action (i.e. employees could not sue for violations of the law).

However, more recent predictive scheduling laws cover a much broader array of industries, with far more draconian penalties, and allow for employee-initiated class action litigation. While these laws are well intentioned, they do present significant challenges for employers in terms of staffing, costs, document retention and general compliance.

This is because the legislation is relatively new and varies by city. Moreover, these laws often require dramatic departures from historical hiring and scheduling practices. The result is a patchwork of new laws, with limited guiding precedent and substantial penalties for noncompliance. As an employer, you would do well to heed these laws and take appropriate steps to ensure you are compliant.

Where have predictive scheduling laws been passed?

Many jurisdictions have considered, or are considering, passing predictive scheduling laws. So far, two states — Vermont and Oregon — and eight municipalities — San Francisco, Berkeley, Emeryville, San Jose, Seattle, New York, Chicago and Philadelphia — have passed laws. The laws in these jurisdictions are similar but different enough to discourage larger employers from creating company-wide policies and procedures for national compliance. Looking at 2021 and beyond, that list is likely to grow. Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina and Rhode Island all have predictive scheduling laws or equivalents under consideration.

Though most laws require employers to pay their employees predictability pay when their schedules are changed without advance notice, many laws contain different requirements regarding the amount of predictability pay owed, as well as exceptions to predictability pay entitlement. Accordingly, the differences in predictive scheduling laws not only require different scheduling policies, they require tailored and distinct payroll practices as well. Failure to properly pay employees under predictability pay rules can create federal and state wage and hour exposure as well.

It is also worth noting that some states have gone in the opposite direction, prohibiting the use of predictive scheduling legislation. Since 2017 Tennessee, Georgia, Iowa and Arkansas have all made it illegal for local government to require employers to adopt scheduling or hiring practices other than those already required by federal law.

What do predictive scheduling laws require?

While predictive scheduling laws from many of the jurisdictions contain several nuanced differences, there are general requirements that are common to many of them.

  • Advance notice of work schedule, generally at least 14 days.
  • A written estimate of each employee’s anticipated work schedule (at the time of hire).
  • Predictability pay in the absence of sufficient advance notice of work schedule.
  • Exceptions to eligibility for predictability pay.
  • A right to rest requirement to prevent “clopening” (i.e. no employee should be required to close up at night and open up the next day), as well as amplified pay for close-in-time work shifts.
  • Offers of additional hours to current part-time employees before hiring a new employee.
  • Posting requirements.
  • Stringent documentation and document retention requirements. This generally includes work schedules, written scheduling estimates, documents evidencing predictability pay, and documents related to offers of additional hours.

Though not common, some jurisdictions, such as Seattle and Philadelphia, encouraged employers to engage in an “interactive process” with employees who request a modification to their work schedules. Notably, this idea of an “interactive scheduling process” is one that has endured and presents additional managerial burdens for employers.

How to comply with predictive scheduling law

  1. Determine applicability. Employers operating in a jurisdiction with a predictive scheduling law in place should first determine whether they qualify as a “covered employer” under the applicable law. While many laws only apply to certain employers in the restaurant and retail industries, other laws have a more expansive definition of “covered employer.”
  2. Create policies and forms. Once an employer determines that it is covered, it should develop policies and forms tailored to each applicable law. Sample forms that would be helpful to have on hand include, but are not limited to: a notice of change in work schedule, a notice of offer of additional hours, an estimate of work schedule and hours, and a template work schedule. Additionally, employers should consider maintaining working checklists that managers can use to ensure compliance.
  3. Train managers. Once the policies and forms are prepared, employers should train their managers on the applicable laws, as they will largely be responsible for facilitating and documenting compliance.
  4. Ensure proper data maintenance. Because compliance with predictive scheduling laws requires retention of a high volume of documents, employers should ensure they have proper mechanisms in place for storing documents and data.
  5. Audit for compliance. In order to ensure compliance with any applicable predictive scheduling laws, employers should periodically conduct internal audits to ensure policies are being followed and documents retained.
  6. Use technology to predict staffing needs. In order to avoid predictability pay, employers may want to use technology and data analytics provided by software such as Workforce.com to anticipate future staffing needs. Setting schedules based on reliable data may decrease the need for unanticipated scheduling changes and thus reduce the likelihood of predictability pay.
Predict staffing requirements
Workforce can track your wage costs against your income over time and automatically recommend
the best staff schedules based on predicted demand.

Predictive scheduling compliance doesn’t need to be a problem

If you run a business that is affected by predictive scheduling laws, or think that it may become a reality in your state soon, then it’s easy to look at these new requirements and only see the additional administrative burden. There are benefits to businesses, however.

Academic research has shown that employees with stable, predictable schedules are happier, healthier and more likely to stay with their employer for the long term. You can also mitigate many of the requirements of predictive scheduling by using labor compliance software from Workforce.com to manage your employees. Not only does it handle the collection and auditing of shift data, it can keep track of relevant labor legislation and automatically warn you if any of your workers’ shifts are in breach of the law wherever you operate. So don’t be afraid of predictive scheduling. It’s easier to comply with than you think, and can make your business run more smoothly.

Posted on

5 retail scheduling best practices – higher sales per labor hour

retail scheduling

Effective retail scheduling isn’t easy. 

Do it well and you’ll engage your associates, reduce turnover, cut costs and build customer loyalty. But poor execution leads to lost revenue, disgruntled employees and inadequate customer service in many ways. 

With the right processes, workplace culture, and retail shift scheduling software, you’ll avoid employee scheduling conflicts and build the most accurate schedule possible. Customer loyalty rises as employee morale and productivity improves. 

If you are a manager or business owner in the retail industry, here are the five retail scheduling best practices.

1. Build predictable schedules

Inconsistent schedules are a major complaint among retail workers. More stability helps employees balance the rest of their lives and responsibilities while still getting enough hours.

Plus, a Harvard Business Review study revealed that stable employee scheduling in retail actually builds productivity and profits. Researchers discovered that sales in stores with more stable scheduling increased by 7 percent and labor productivity increased by 5 percent.

Managers should consider the needs of their staff when building a schedule. It seems obvious but can be easier said than done, especially when managers get a handful of time-off requests. 

While the retail industry can be unpredictable, store managers should avoid scheduling retail workers on short notice. Employees need time to plan for everyday needs like transportation and child care.

Also avoid scheduling employees for “clopenings” — where an employee closes the night shift and opens the following morning. Too often employees are forced to get by on just a few hours of sleep between shifts. 

The Economic Policy Institute notes that irregular work hours, such as clopenings, lead to longer work hours. Policies that reduce or eliminate clopenings and other unstable work schedules will lead to a more productive workforce while helping to avoid unnecessary overtime. 

Perennial work-life imbalance is a proven detriment to stress and health. And in the retail industry, constant juggling of employee scheduling to maintain profits and keep labor costs to a minimum isn’t really necessary.

When employers establish predictability in work schedules, it helps develop clear career paths for employees and provide more opportunities for training. Effective scheduling also is critical so that employees feel like they are supported and part of the organization instead of just punching a time clock.

While having a predictable schedule is better than scheduling on the fly, avoid manual timekeeping methods. They can be manipulated by employees to steal time and also are subject to wage-theft abuse by employers. 

Using automated scheduling software is a great way to make it easier, more cost-efficient and less prone to fraud for a manager to handle this process. Managers can create and share work schedules for all employees to see on their phones, as well as send automated reminders to them before each shift.

schedule template, retail, restaurant employees

Once a workable shift calendar is established, stick to it. And give employees plenty of notice if you plan to change what the average shift looks like.

2. Adhere to predictive scheduling laws

Is your business in a jurisdiction that already has or will have predictive scheduling or fair workweek laws?

Employee scheduling laws vary by city or state, but they generally include four common provisions, according to the National Retail Federation. They are: 

  • Advanced posting of schedules.
  • Employer penalties for unexpected schedule changes.
  • Record-keeping requirements for employers. 
  • Prohibitions on requiring employees to find replacements for scheduled shifts if they are unable to work.

Predictive scheduling dictates advanced scheduling notice. In general, most require two weeks notice, but it can be more. 

Violation costs can add up quickly. New York City, for example, requires retail employers to pay $500 or damages (whichever is greater) for on-call shifts or shift changes with less than 72 hours’ notice, according to the National Law Review.

If you’re running a retail outlet in a city that isn’t yet affected, don’t wait for it to become law. Fair workweek laws will continue to spread across the United States to protect shift workers, so stay ahead of the game by starting to make changes in your organization now. 

Simplified and automated solutions such as Workforce.com’s scheduling software assures that you’ll avoid costly infractions and comply with federal, state, and local labor regulations. You’ll know exactly where you stand with predictive scheduling and fair workweek laws. 

3. Allow employees to swap shifts

Most retailers have a large number of part-time staff. A Korn Ferry survey found that of all retail positions, part-time hourly store employees have the highest turnover rate, with 76 percent average turnover in 2019. 

While a part-time workforce is a necessity, it also presents volatility in your retail scheduling. Store managers spend a lot of time sorting and tracking employee time-off or shift cancellation requests. Last-minute scheduling changes also means managers spend valuable time off the floor to find a replacement.

A well-designed shift swapping policy can work for both sides and ensure that both the retailer and employees eliminate guesswork and get the staff scheduling they need.

Rather than bog down managers with scheduling headaches and leave employees to guess whether their shift is covered, allow your staff to swap shifts through an automated scheduling solution. 

Any employee can request a shift swap in the Workforce.com mobile app. Assuming their manager approves the request, employees available and qualified for that shift will get notifications on their phones. Any of them can indicate in the app that they’d like to swap. When a manager approves the swap, the system automatically updates schedules, which everyone can see in the app.

retail employees scheduling

4. Improve clarity around retail employees’ schedules

Retail employee schedules have been written out on paper or logged in an Excel spreadsheet for decades. It may be a tried-and-true method for some business owners but the only absolute tradition is that manual scheduling leads to confusion.

With pen-and-paper employee schedules, employees often are unaware of last-minute changes. There is no visibility since managers only post the schedules in a break room or near a time clock.

As you can imagine, there are unintended time and attendance violations that managers, HR and payroll must investigate and address. The lack of transparency in scheduling can also lead to disengaged employees who may think managers have a hidden agenda and that favoritism plays into their shift scheduling process.

Knowing whether you’re overstaffed or understaffed and how resources are being managed is at best an educated guess and at worst a crapshoot.

An automated scheduling solution for retailers puts schedules online and visible for all to see. 

workforce software, restaurant, retail employees scheduling

There’s no need for last-minute phone calls or texts to see who is scheduled for that day’s shift. Managers can easily see who’s coming in, what time they’re scheduled to start and which location they’ll be at all from their phone.

With Workforce.com’s workforce app, retail managers keep lines of communication open with all of their full-time and part-time employees. Seeking employee input when possible can help them feel like they have a little more control over their schedules. 

“We are seeing much more communication coming from employers, and what [employers] are sharing with us is employees like it,” said David Kopsch, principal consultant at Mercer in a June 2020 story posted to Workforce.com. “They like this high level of communication. They like the engagement and the concern and empathy that employers are demonstrating.”

5. Assess staffing needs to avoid overtime

Labor forecasting is a must when scheduling your retail workforce. 

Predicting customer demand peaks and valleys to plan ideal staffing levels shouldn’t be left to chance or a manager’s gut instinct.

You may read suggestions that you determine the lowest number of staff required to run your store. “Begin with a bare-bones number and build from there,” some expert may tell you. That is a fool’s errand and completely unnecessary when you use effective labor forecasting software and implement an automated scheduling solution.

According to the Harvard Business Review study, “Practices such as having barebones staff in stores and unstable scheduling (schedules that vary on a day-to-day basis) have flourished in the guise of enabling greater profits for retailers. 

“In study after study for over a decade, operations researchers have found that retailers understaff during peak hours. Increasing staffing, they found, could increase sales and profits. And yet this message on the costs of lean scheduling fell on deaf ears.”

Overstaffing and understaffing can be dangerous for any retailer, which typically runs on small profit margins and must monitor the company’s labor budget. A staffing decision that smartly cuts labor costs while maintaining superior customer service benefits your bottom line.

Varying the types of employees that you schedule helps keep your full-time employees from accumulating overtime hours that can drive labor costs up. And allowing part-time employees to work alongside experienced full-timers provides valuable on-the-job training that they can’t get anywhere else. 

The Workforce.com Live Wage Tracker allows managers to adjust staffing levels to optimize profits. 

live wage tracker, workforce.com software, restaurant , retail employees

Building retail schedules every week that can change at a moment’s notice is a constant challenge. But with retail scheduling best practices and implementing automated retail scheduling software, you can save time, reduce turnover, build employee morale and cut costs. Book your demo today.

Posted on

Work schedule laws and enforcement to expect in 2021

timeclock, wage and hour, schedule, timesheet rounding

Predictive schedule laws began in San Francisco in 2013, and from there different cities and states have enacted legal protections as well. These work schedule laws have been gaining momentum ever since.

However, come COVID-19 and challenges it’s brought to organizations nationwide, the momentum has shifted. Both employers and employees are struggling in their own ways, and employers must manage this new normal while maintaining compliance with workplace laws. 

Even in this state of uncertainty for employers, the reality is that fair workweek laws help bring stability to employees’ lives. Advocacy organizations stress the importance of this legislation that makes planning child care easier, makes it possible to take on a second or third job and often bans shifts so close to each other that employees lack a proper rest period, said Marta Moakley, legal editor at XpertHR. The idea here is that employers should learn boundaries and respect employees’ time outside work. 

Also read: Shift scheduling strategies can be improved through technology

Moakley does not expect a huge push for new fair workweek laws in 2021, given how stressed so many industries and organizations are. That being said, there are still laws already in effect and opportunities to include flexible workweek provisions in other regulations. 

Predictable schedule laws and COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, certain work schedule laws have been especially difficult for employers to meet, Moakley said. For example, some predictable scheduling laws require a pay premium called predictability pay in which if an employee does not get advanced notice on their schedule, they get additional money. Depending on the location, employers may need to provide a schedule for employees up to 14 days in advance. 

“There’s that additional payment and additional penalty on an employer. As you can imagine in the current pandemic condition, these kinds of onerous requirements for employers may be extremely difficult to meet, so a number of jurisdictions and local governments have been looking to provide employers some relief,” she said. 

For example, Philadelphia passed a predictable scheduling ordinance that was originally supposed to go into effect Jan. 1, 2020 on an “extremely aggressive timeline,” Moakley said. The city ended up delaying the requirements until April 1, 2020 due to the pandemic, and while companies may need to comply with other portions of the law, certain provisions like the predictability pay premiums are still not being enforced because of pandemic conditions. 

Which employers get relief may depend on what industry they’re in, she added. COVID-19 has affected the hospitality, retail and restaurant industries in different ways. A retail employer may have had to shut down operations for weeks or even months while restaurants, on the other hand, may have remained open in limited capacity as an essential provider of food.

“Looking forward to 2021, we really have to think about, what will be the market tolerance for enforcing these kinds of provisions, and [are they fair?] with respect to certain industries that may be greatly affected by the pandemic?” Moakley said. “If we’re still in a recession then, I think employers will have a really good argument that their focus should remain on safety and security at this time.”  

On the other side, the pandemic has also illuminated the plight of the employee and some of the inequities between workers at the top and bottom of the ladder, she added. 

There are advocacy organizations advocating for hourly employees and communicating to employers that “we know you’re having a tough time. We understand your argument, however, employees also have to deal with the effects of COVID-19, including unpredictability with respect to school and with respect to health,” she said.

timeclock, schedule

She added that while there have been pending fair workweek bills in Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts in 2020, there has been no traction with new predictable schedule bills this year. “I think most of it has to do with the pandemic,” she said. 

Still, employee-friendly scheduling provisions wouldn’t necessarily need to be packaged in a fair workweek law and could be included in other types of regulations, she said. For example, Tennessee has a pregnancy accommodations law that went into effect Oct. 1, 2020, and it includes modified work schedules and flexible scheduling for prenatal visits as an employee-friendly scheduling provision. 

Rethinking common workplace assumptions 

The genesis of these work schedule laws is lawmakers trying to correct the power imbalance between employers and employees when it comes to scheduling. Moakley said she is seeing more dialogue between employers and employees now with the consequences of the pandemic. The more forward-thinking employers are doing what they can to expand leave and allow more intermittent or flexible leave for employees. 

The pandemic has led to greater acceptance of the reality of racial and economic inequalities, and these external drivers are leading to better workplace cooperation and communication, she added. Employers are appreciating employees more for being dependable and dedicated and coming to work even under hazardous pandemic conditions, and employees are appreciating that they have a job, can continue working and don’t need to rely on unemployment benefits. 

Also read: Employee scheduling after COVID-19

“There is this greater acceptance of the reality of inequities within the workplace and a renewed sense of working toward a better tomorrow,” she said. “Intelligent minds will differ on their choice of policy — whether more broad regulation would solve it or whether more targeted regulation would get better results —  but I think the fact that we haven’t really seen anything being adopted this year means that there is more cooperation along these lines.” 

Rely on communication and best practices

Not just regarding predictable scheduling practices but with employment law overall, employers need to be looking at best practices now and really trying to retain their best employees, Moakley said. If they have a scheduling request — especially under the circumstances 2020 has introduced —consider what can be done for them. There may be an issue with child care or a health concern that isn’t covered by the company’s leave policy. This type of uncertainty is not uncommon now. 

“Having an open avenue of communication with employees, relating to them and trying to work together works wonders for everybody’s benefit,” Moakley said. 

Also read: Leave management should be as simple as submit, approve and hit the beach

She also suggested that organizations document what they are doing to support employees and offer flexibility to them, even if it is not required by law. Some employers may be genuinely trying to give employees flexible schedules whenever possible or to offer them shifts they wouldn’t otherwise have access to if they need extra hours, rather than seeking out outside workers. In any case, it’s still possible that an employee may file a lawsuit against this employer. 

“Do yourself a favor and document, even if you’re not required to. Show that you are following the rules, that you’re a good employer, [and] that you’re doing right by your employees. And then in the event that somebody comes to check on you, you have the records to back you up,” Moakley said.

Posted on

Labor tracking in an increasingly complex legal environment

labor analytics, people analytics

Labor tracking is necessary for employers to ensure they’re paying their workforce correctly, but the unique labor laws of certain cities and states throw a wrench in an organization’s practices. 

The word “complex” does not even scratch the surface of how complicated labor tracking is given the various state and local labor laws that govern sick leave, overtime, minimum wage and more, according to Traci Fiatte, chief executive officer, professional & commercial staffing at Randstad US. “If you’re not using an automated [employee] scheduling software and you have employees in multiple states, I’m not sure how you keep track of it all,” she added.

According to Workforce.com’s 2020 “HR State of the Industry” report, only 40.5 percent of respondents said they used HR software for workforce management, including time and attendance, and only 29.5 percent said they used it for compensation management. There’s still room for improvement for organizations who’ve yet to use automated software to help with labor tracking and management. 

Rely on specialized employees and software

Fiatte suggested that organizations have personnel dedicated to understanding varying laws and a payroll system that can be programmed to understand the different laws. 

For example, overtime is an area of labor law where different regulations can confuse an already complex process, and software may have the capabilities to allow managers to take overtime laws into account when they plan schedules. In most states, “overtime” is defined as anything more than 40 hours a week, but in California it’s defined as more than 8 hours worked in a day. 

“Unless you have a system to track that, you almost need a staff dedicated to manually tracking it, which I can’t imagine any large employer being able to do,” Fiatte said. “The name of the game is automation and making sure you have the right systems to help manage it.”

The biggest gap here is that while big national brands have this figured out, others may not. 

“The companies I worry for are the companies that are small enough that they may be family-owned, regionally-based or [spread across] four or five states, but they don’t have the level of sophistication to have legal teams or HR teams to be managing the variances between state laws,” Fiatte said. “It’s those companies that could be taken by surprise two years from now when they get audited, and they’ve broken a bunch of laws they didn’t know they were breaking.” 

Organizations in a situation like this can find a specialist to help them manage the dynamic and complex labor law environment, she added.

Encourage managers to stay up to date on the latest labor laws

Chuck Buiocchi, senior director of BPS operations at staffing company Kelly Services, said that at his organization they use the latest technology to ensure managers aren’t expected to know everything. They also have a group whose sole purpose is to keep the rest of the organization abreast of changing labor laws. 

Buiocchi said he would encourage managers to stay as up to date as possible on changing labor laws. While they may not become experts, keeping themselves educated is a smart thing to do. employment law, labor law

Keep documentation 

Labor tracking helps organizations control wage costs, but that’s not the only benefit. It’ll also help any organization audited by the Department of Labor. 

“I can’t stress enough the importance of labor tracking, not only from a financial standpoint in terms of making sure people are paid properly but even in terms of the legal standpoint,” said Albert Rizzo, adjunct assistant professor at the NYU School of Professional Studies within its human capital management program.

“If the company ever gets audited by the Department of Labor, it only takes one employee to make a complaint about failure to get paid minimum wage or overtime for that to trigger an audit by the Department of Labor,” he added. “And once that audit is triggered, they could very well go after the employer and every employee to see if the employer has paid any one of those employees improperly, even if they’ve never lodged a complaint.”

Encourage straightforward conversations 

Companies must be very deliberate about payroll policies, procedures and expectations and how that information is communicated among leadership, management and employees, Buiocchi said.

“We will not allow people to work off the clock,” he said about his own organization. “We don’t trade for comp time or anything like that. We live to not only the letter but the spirit of the laws in which we operate, and we expect our leaders and our employees to do the same. And we set those expectations and we manage the performance for those who don’t meet those expectations.”

Also read: Give managers the time they need to sharpen up their all-around skills

If someone works off the clock, in this case, supervisors can have a conversation with that employee, make sure they get paid, make sure they don’t do it again and discipline them if necessary. Maybe the supervisor finds out that the direct manager of the employee is mismanaging something or overworking employees, and then it’s up to the supervisor to find a resolution for that.

Posted on

Employee scheduling after the COVID-19 pandemic

remote work, mask

Employee scheduling was getting a facelift even before COVID-19, and in the aftermath of the pandemic, employers have even more to think about when it comes to scheduling employees.  

The 2010s brought a number of state or local predictive scheduling laws into effect, giving employees much needed stability but complicating the scheduling process for managers. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the lack of sick or paid leave for many hourly workers and the struggles employers go through when employees can’t come to work fo COVID-19-related reasons.

David Kopsch, principal consultant at Mercer, explained the major employee scheduling issues employers are encountering and ways to address those challenges.

Also read: Leave management should be as simple as submit, approve and hit the beach

software, compliancePredictive scheduling laws across the United States

In a nutshell, these predictive scheduling laws require employers to notify employees in advance of what their schedules will be. Some cities require as low as 72 hours notice while others require as high as two weeks. 

The goal is to reduce uncertainty in employees’ schedules so that they can plan for responsibilities like child care, school or other jobs.   

Also read: How far in advance must a work schedule be posted?

The most frequently discussed part of these laws is the advance notice on schedule, Kopsch said, but they also contain many other provisions, like recordkeeping requirements and providing compensation for schedule changes.

Something else significant in these laws are rules that let employees have a certain amount of time off between the end of the last shift and the beginning of the next one, Kopsch said. For example, if an employee closes shop around 10 p.m., the same employee is not opening the site at 6 a.m. There are safety reasons for this, but these rules also exist to ensure that employees get enough sleep or rest between shifts. 

While making the lives of employees easier, these laws have also added another layer of complexity for managers who must create schedules. 

COVID-19 complications to employee scheduling

With the pandemic, hourly employees are facing a variety of situations in which they may not be able to come into work. They may be sick or suspect that they may have the coronavirus. They may face child care lapses due to school closures or other circumstances. 

This can hurt employees’ wages and has the potential to impact their eligibility for bonuses, overtime or benefits, Kopsch said. Employers also face extra pressure when employees don’t come into work. 

Some employers may need to adjust their staffing models due to COVID-19, Kopsch said. As businesses start reopening, one reality is that they may have to spend more time in the mornings cleaning and sanitizing the location. Perhaps the business will have to be open less hours during the day and run on a reduced schedule, which also has the impact of a reduced workforce or giving employees less hours.    

Also read: Shift scheduling strategies can be improved through technology

Communication with payroll providers 

Managers must ensure they are communicating with their payroll provider through this all. 

“In these times of reduced schedules, there’s more interaction with payroll providers and technology to update the systems and adjust for the changes in how the workforce is working and coming to work,” Kopsch said. 

For example, he noted a tactic some retailers are using in which they’re paying hourly workers slightly higher wages or offering some type of bonus to motivate and retain employees. 

“If you introduce a new pay element, that’s one more item that you have to ensure [that you’re being] compliant. And that goes back to working with a payroll provider,” he said.

Also read: Shift schedule templates are a basic food group to workforce management

Communication with employees

Managers can also take on certain best practices to keep employees engaged and in the loop. Clearly communicating open and closing times is important. Also, make sure to be clear when employees should arrive for their shift. There may be extra precautions to take before their shift starts, like sanitizing or training. 

Reopening a business after the pandemic is complicated, and clear communication can help simplify it.

Technology can also simplify the communication between employers and employees. 

“We’re seeing technology as something being reviewed more and more by employers as a way to support employees as well as a way to communicate with them and help them understand what is available in terms of what schedules are available and getting and receiving communication.,” Kopsch said.

Posted on

How far in advance must a work schedule be posted?

time off, PTO, scheduling

Predictive scheduling laws have changed the way many businesses make their schedules. While there are many details in these rules — like record keeping requirements and providing compensation for schedule changes — what people most talk about is employers’ responsibility to provide employee schedules in advance.

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

The purpose of these laws is to give employees more predictability and stability, providing them a chance to plan ahead. If they know their work hours in advance, they will more likely be able to plan for a second job, child care or other responsibilities that must be planned in advance.

Still, these laws mean that businesses must stay compliant with new regulations, and for employers with multiple locations across the country, they may have different rules to comply with. Following is some of the basic information about each of these laws. 

Also read: Employers grapple with laws about work schedules

How far in advance must a work schedule be posted?

The timing varies. Currently, there are several laws in cities across the United States. Four cities in California have predictive scheduling laws: San Francisco, Emeryville, San Jose and Berkeley. Other cities and municipalities include New York, Seattle, SeaTac and Philadelphia. Chicago joins these July 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, Oregon is the only state with such a law in effect, while New Hampshire and Vermont have more limited scheduling-related laws.

These laws have specific stipulations for which businesses must comply to the rules, and they also have many other details employers must be familiar with. However, looking at this from a more basic point of view, here is how much notice employers whom the laws apply to must give employees in each location:

  • San Francisco: 14 days notice; went into effect March 1, 2016. 
  • Emeryville: 14 days notice; went into effect July 1, 2017.
  • San Jose: No advance notice component, but employers must offer additional hours to existing, qualified part-time employees before hiring more employees; went into effect March 13, 2017.
  • Berkeley: No advance notice component, but employees may request flexible or predictable working arrangements twice per year and after a major life event.
  • New York: 14 days notice; went into effect Nov. 26, 2017.
  • Seattle: 14 days notice; went into effect July 1, 2017.
  • SeaTac: No advance notice required, but employers must offer additional hours to existing, qualified part-time employees before hiring more employees   covers only large hospitality employers and transportation employers.
  • Philadelphia: 10 days notice; went into effect April 1, 2020. 
  • Chicago: 10 days notice; goes into effect July 1, 2020.
  • Oregon: 14 days notice; went into effect August 8, 2017.

Complying with predictive scheduling laws

How far in advance must a work schedule be posted? These regulations provide clear numbers on the minimum employers must do, but that doesn’t mean they can’t go above and beyond that.

Employees are beginning to return to work after months of quarantine. The conversation around predictive scheduling will have to evolve because of the coronavirus, said Ari Hersher, partner at Seyfarth law firm. Employers can begin improving on the communication they have with employees.

“Employers should do what they can to communicate as far in advance about their anticipated schedule as possible,” he said, adding that the clients he works with that are subject to predictive scheduling laws give up to 21 days notice on schedules. 

Managers can communicate scheduling in advance and explain the flexibility needs of the business at the same time, creating an open line of communication between employer and employee.

“Employers can say, ‘We’ll give you 30 days notice, but please understand that our scheduling needs are volatile,’ ” he said. “People should [try to] understand each others’ needs and be mindful of them.”

David Kopsch, principal consultant at Mercer, agreed that giving more notice will benefit employers right now. The return-to-work environment is stressful. Employers must create employee work schedules without knowing what sort of customer demand to expect, and some employees may be fearful to return to work in a customer-facing job.

Organizations can provide schedules to employees up to four weeks in advance, Kopsch said. From there, they can call and confirm with employees three weeks in advance, make whatever changes are necessary and officially post the schedule two weeks ahead of time, which would allow employers to comply with any of the predictable schedule laws. 

“We are seeing much more communication coming from employers, and what [employers] are sharing with us is employees like it,” Kopsch said. “They like this high level of communication. They like the engagement and the concern and empathy that employers are demonstrating,”

 

Posted on

Employers grapple with laws about work schedules

payroll, software

Chicago’s fair workweek law goes into effect on July 1, 2020. 

Chicago joins the ranks of other cities like San Francisco, Emeryville, San Jose, Berkeley, New York City, Seattle, SeaTac and Philadelphia that have predictive scheduling laws. Oregon, meanwhile, is the only state with one of these laws in effect, while New Hampshire and Vermont have more limited scheduling-related laws. 

The past few years has seen a wave of predictive scheduling laws, making it a hot topic in industries like retail and hospitality, said Ari Hersher, partner at Seyfarth law firm. Hersher described predictive scheduling as “the next big thing” — much like a wave of paid sick leave laws that began surging in the late 2010s and created a patchwork of local and state laws across the United States. COVID-19 has only increased this trend of paid sick leave laws.

Also read: Shift scheduling strategies can be improved through technology

shift scheduling, technologyThe COVID-19 pandemic has had a few notable impacts on fair workweek laws in 2020, he added. Industries like retail, food service and hospitality that have been greatly impacted by the pandemic are also the industries primarily impacted by predictive scheduling laws. While COVID-19 has not stopped cities and states from enacting the laws currently in place, it’s uncertain if new laws will continue with the same momentum as they did pre-pandemic.

“It remains to be seen what will happen post-COVID. I think there will be an interesting push and pull,” Hersher said. “There will be a strong desire to not overly restrict these businesses like retail that have been so devastated by the coronavirus, but also [give] all these employees — who may have kids out of school or need to work multiple jobs in order to manage — the scheduling stability and notice that they can manage their lives.”

COVID-19 aside, these laws already exist in several municipalities. Hersher went over these laws about work schedules and how employers can work with them. 

Also read: How to reduce compliance risk

The meat of these laws 

Laws vary by city or state, but they generally include four common provisions, according to the National Retail Federation. These provisions are: 

  • Advanced posting of schedules.
  • Employer penalties for unexpected schedule changes.
  • Record-keeping requirements for employers. 
  • Prohibitions on requiring employees to find replacements for scheduled shifts if they are unable to work.

Predictive scheduling laws are meant to address common concerns hourly employees have, including unpredictable, unstable and often insufficient work hours. As a 2018 Economic Policy Institute article explained, “Employers in some industries have increasingly adopted scheduling practices that leave workers in desperate need of additional work yet hampered in their ability to actually seek supplemental work elsewhere or find a new job altogether.”

Certain scheduling practices that some employers adopt “shift more of the risk and costs of doing business from firms onto their employees,” the article continued. For example, they may require employees to maintain “open availability” for all hours the store is open, giving them basically no input in the days or times they work. 

Also read: Leave management should be as simple as submit, approve and hit the beach

Impact on employers

These laws put a strain on employers, for whom most scheduling changes aren’t intended, Hersher said. Employees may call in a few days or hours before their shift starts, leaving employers little time to find a replacement. They need flexibility to create good schedules.

Also read: Predictive Scheduling Laws — What Are They, Where Do They Exist and Employers’ Reaction

The financial penalties for breaking predictive scheduling laws are substantial for employers, he added. 

In addition, some employers may have to comply with multiple predictive scheduling laws, depending on what states or cities they operate in. Complying with this patchwork of laws is complicated and requires different workplace policies for different locations. 

The Society for Human Resource Management suggests that employers should audit their locations. “A centralized staffing model can quickly become outdated, or even worse, a liability. Location-specific policy changes may need to be made, and managers may require retraining on how to handle staffing shortages.” 

Also read: 3 Steps to Navigating Effective Wage and Hour Compliance

Potential solutions

Using predictive analytics to create schedules weeks in advance is one solution to avoid overstaffing and  understaffing, Hersher said. Certain technology solutions may help, too, if they can help employers take different regions’ predictive scheduling laws into account as they create schedules.

Communication is also key. Some newer predictive scheduling laws include the “suggested interactive process,” he said. This is optional but encourages employers to have a dialogue with new employees. Usually, when someone begins an hourly job, their manager tells them what their days and hours will be. With the interactive process, the new employee can have their say in the conversation. “I have another job or other responsibilities these days and times, but what about this schedule instead?”

The employer has the ultimate decision over the employee’s schedule, Hersher said, but having that conversation can help employees feel respected and heard. 

Laws about work schedules during the COVID-19 pandemic 

Fair workweek laws are still in place and being enforced in the midst of COVID-19, Hersher said. For example, in San Francisco the Office of Labor Standards Enforcement is continuing to pursue complaints, file investigations and move forward with these laws like before. On a city-to-city basis, there are realistically different enforcement levels, he said,  but it’s important to remember that municipalities or agencies don’t need to pause their enforcement work in light of store closures. 

“Retail is already facing a lot of challenges. And whether the government wants to put a lot more financial burden on their existence is something they’ll really have to consider,” Hersher said. “It’s a delicate balance to come up with a law that doesn’t force shops to close but is also protective to employees.” 

Hersher believes the conversation around predictive scheduling will have to evolve because of coronavirus. 

While predictive analytics generally can help businesses with employee scheduling, it will be much more difficult to predict scheduling needs for the next year and half or so because of the pandemic, he said. Historical data from previous years may not be applicable in post-pandemic times, and businesses don’t know to what degree people will return to restaurants and stores.

He suggested that employers do what they can to create schedules far in advance and focus on honest conversations with employees. 

“Employers can say, ‘We’ll give you 30 days notice, but please understand that our scheduling needs are volatile,’ ” he said. “People should [try to] understand each others’ needs and be mindful of them.”

Employers can also communicate to all their employees and explicitly ask who would want additional hours if they become available and what other days and times they could work. Taking a proactive measure like this can help both sides in helping employees get more hours and helping employers get the people they need.