predictive scheduling Archives - Page 2 of 2

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

The 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.

Most hourly employees have dealt with shift scheduling problems at one time or another.

I’ve witnessed it first-hand with my kids. After a 10-hour Saturday night shift at a restaurant slinging beer and burgers until 2 a.m., I would hear one of them quietly creep into the house. OK, they were actually pretty noisy coming in and banging around in the kitchen. As I dozed back off I just prayed that they wouldn’t fall asleep after popping a frozen pizza in the oven.

The good thing was they got home safe and sound. And the kitchen was not charred to an ember when I woke up the next morning. After that kind of a late-night shift I expected them to sleep in late.

Nope. No sleep for the weary in the restaurant biz.

Somebody had to pull themselves out of bed and work brunch at 10 a.m., and guess who was on call? Yep, my sleep-deprived, bleary-eyed child. Not just once. Or twice. This insidious sleep deprivation technique was a regular occurrence.

I mean, who is doing this on-shift scheduling? What sadistic clown is shift scheduling an employee who closed at 2 a.m. the night before to be back on the clock to pour mimosas and serve bacon and two eggs over easy at 10 a.m. that same morning? Oh, right. A restaurant owner. Or the manager, who likely is on the same scheduled shift because, well, restaurant managers are just a different breed.

I know, restaurants and hospitality exist in the fast lane — fast cash, fast life for many employees. Seriously, how many industries lavish itself with weekly industry nights?

The cruel and unusual shift scheduling was a regular occurrence back in the day when I punched a time clock as a bellman at a resort hotel in San Diego. Work the late shift until the final check-in at midnight then back in at 6 a.m. for the early checkouts.

I’ve even heard the mad scramble to find replacement workers when I’m getting a roll of quarters at the service counter of my grocery store. The manager, who is a really kind, caring woman, is frantically on the phone to staff her Saturday evening shift because so-and-so just called off sick and two others are already on vacation. (Why am I getting quarters on a Saturday evening? Don’t ask.)

Unfortunately, it seems that pretty much every hourly employee short of a union pipefitter is subject to such short-sighted shift scheduling. Want to burn out your hourly employees and watch them leave for greener pastures? Give them a day’s notice, schedule them that evening and then tell them they need to be back in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed early the next morning.

We are finally seeing a groundswell of support from many states and municipalities for predictable shift, or fair workweek legislation but any sort of federal fair workweek law is unlikely for years to come.

Come on, people! This is not complicated! Your employees have lives. You have a life. Well, unless you’re a restaurant manager. Make the shift scheduling process as painless and humane as possible. For starters:

No on-call shift scheduling. Ever. Telling employees to call in before a shift to see if they are needed and then sending them home if the shift turns out to be slow is incredibly hard-hearted. Don’t be hard-hearted.

Provide your employees with work schedules well before they are supposed to show up. Like two weeks before. Minimum 10 days. That gives them time to switch shifts should an emergency or a really good party pop up.

And you know what? Go digital. Paper-based timekeeping? Really? I know, it’s hard to break a routine that’s been in place since, oh, the Bicentennial. But seriously, check your timekeeping software options.

One thing that I constantly harp on is engagement and communication. Engage your employees through sensible, predictable shift scheduling. Your workers are happier because they’ll have a predictable life. As predictable as life can be, I guess.

And it’s not a stretch to say that a happier workforce means a more engaged workforce, which cuts down on burnout and puts the clamps on the bane of all hourly employers – turnover.

It may not prevent your kid from torching the kitchen with that forgotten frozen pizza in the oven, but they won’t be nearly as bleary-eyed the next morning, either.

Tag: predictive scheduling

Employers grapple with laws about work schedules

On-shift scheduling doesn’t have to be a headache for managers or employees