strategy – Page 3

June 16, 2020June 29, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

June 7, 2020April 11, 2023

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

shift scheduling for hourly restaurant workers, shift swap

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

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

Accommodating a shift swap

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

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

Benefits for employers

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

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

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

Benefits for employees

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 28, 2020June 29, 2023

Is your business ready for the COVID-19 golden age of union organizing?

“Among the many lessons we will learn from the COVID-19 pandemic is its demonstration of the importance of union membership for essential workers.

“Of all the injustices exposed by the pandemic, the risks faced by non-union workers have become the most apparent. Non-union workers are being asked to risk their safety with little or no protections of their own.”

— Gary Perinar (executive secretary-treasurer of the Chicago Regional Council of Carpenters), The importance of unions is more obvious than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago Sun-Times, Apr. 30, 2020

One of the unexpected byproducts of the COVID-19 pandemic is a corresponding rise in union organizing.

This crisis has magnified attention on key labor union agenda items and talking points such as worker safety and higher pay. Unions have been pressing these issues not only for current members but also more importantly for potential members.

The Teamsters is backing Amazon warehouse workers.
The UFCW is helping organize Instacart shoppers.
The SEIU is funding fast-food activists and Uber/Lyft drivers.

Indeed, according to Richard Berman, the founder of the Center for Union Facts, this union activity is part of a much larger trend:

This is the first time since the early 1980s where I sense significant interest by employees in “collective action” and “3rd party representation”.
Gallup polling in 2019 shows the 18-34 demographic has a 69% approval of unions. In 2017, 76% of those joining unions were younger than 35.
Employees who feel they will be exposed to co-workers or customers who have the virus are communicating on Facebook and other platforms about their jointly held concerns. Union organizers have access to these conversations and are making themselves available to help.
Most current HR professionals have no history in dealing with a partial workforce rebellion. This will most likely happen in individual companies or it could be a wider industry movement in a city or region.

That last point might be the one most important to your business. “Most current HR professionals have no history in dealing with a partial workforce rebellion.” What should your business be doing right now to best prepare itself in the event a union starts talking to your employees? The best defense is a good offense. I recommend that employers adopt the T.E.A.M. approach to union avoidance:

Train supervisors.
Educate employees.
Affirm the open door.
Modernize policies.

1. Train supervisors. If a union is organizing, supervisors are likely to be the first people to know. They will also be the people who rank-and-file employees will come to with questions or concerns. Thus, supervisors need to know how to report, monitor and legally respond to union activity.
2. Educate employees. Employees should not be told that the company is anti-union, but why it is anti-union – competitive wages and benefits; a strong commitment to worker safety and health; positive communication between management and employees; a history of peaceful employee/management relations; management’s openness to listen to employees and handle their concerns without an intermediary; and an unwillingness to permit a third-party to tell the company and employees how to do their jobs. Of course, if this is just lip service, you might as well not say it at all.
3. Affirm the open door. Management should routinely round its employees up to learn what is happening within the rank-and-file and what they are thinking about. Management should walk the floor on a daily basis. It should also hold regular meetings with employees, whether in small sessions with HR or large town hall-style meetings. And management’s door should always be open to listen to employees’ concerns, offer feedback and adopt positive change when feasible and practical.
4. Modernize policies. In an ideal world, employee handbooks and other corporate policies should be reviewed and updated annually. I’ve yet to come across a company that does so this frequently. Issues to consider and review? Do you have a written statement on unionization? An open-door policy? An issue resolution procedure? Peer review? An employee bulletin board? An electronic communications policy? Most importantly, do you have a no-solicitation policy? It is the single most important policy to help fight labor unions.

No avoidance program is foolproof. No matter what steps are taken and no matter the quality of employee relations, every company is at some risk for a union organizing campaign. Some, however, are more at risk than others.

All businesses should strive to be an employer of choice for employees and not an employer of opportunity for labor unions. The steps you take before that representation petition ever arrives will help define whether you remain a non-union employer.

May 28, 2020April 11, 2023

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

coronavirus, remote work, COVID-19, remote workforce

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

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

Debating remote work pros and cons

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

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

Influencing expectations through technology

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

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

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

No guessing where they are

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

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

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

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

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

May 26, 2020June 29, 2023

How to make your onboarding process engaging and easy

Time was in the not so distant past an employee’s first day on the job was spent filling out a raft of paperwork. If they finished the daunting deluge of forms in front of them, there might be time to find their workstation only to stare at a blank screen, since IT had no clue that a new employee was joining the organization.

It’s a scenario that unfortunately still plays out. Most organizations have some type of orientation process for new hires. Too often though, those programs are neglected, poorly run and mismanaged.

That experience transforms an eager new recruit into an employee who is disengaged and disillusioned with their new company based on their first day at work. Rather than going home and effusively boasting about a great first day, your newest staff member is more apt to mumble, “Eh, I’m just glad today is over.”

Make onboarding memorable and easy

Onboarding — the process of providing new employees with the key information and training to be immediately successful in their new roles — should be simple, engaging and perhaps most importantly, repeatable.

Thanks to a continuous surge in innovative human resources technology, a simple, paperless online onboarding solution has organizations bidding farewell to the tedious stream of paperwork and enhancing their employee’s first days on the job.

The advantage of paperless onboarding

When an organization adopts a digital onboarding solution, everything becomes paperless. The new employee’s banking details, withholdings, important addresses, emergency contacts and immigration status are immediately integrated into payroll and admin without a single sheet of paper being passed along. Online onboarding allows new hires to examine health and retirement benefits options and other company perks at their leisure.

HR also gets a valuable early-alert solution to schedule IT and other stakeholders that a new employee will be joining the organization. This portion of online onboarding should become a seamless, well-structured experience that HR can use whenever a new hire joins the organization.

Getting social

In most cases a new hire knows no one in their new workplace. Other than some cursory interactions with the immediate hiring team prior to their first day, the new person is walked awkwardly through the workplace with basic introductions and small talk.

Digital onboarding software can launch a social interaction well before the new hire ever enters the workplace. Access to the onboarding software allows the new employee to begin learning about their future teammates, supervisors, key executives and responsibilities.

They can pre-enroll in company- and job-specific training courses, survey employee resource groups and open a dialog with future colleagues. From hobbies to food restrictions, managers can get to know their new employee.

One chance at a first impression

Given that the onboarding process is a new hire’s introduction to the organization and its workplace culture, onboarding plays an underrated role in employee retention.

Research has shown that a new hire will decide within the first year if they want to stay with the company. One survey revealed that nearly a third of new hires quit their jobs within the first 90 days while a separate report showed that organizations with a strong onboarding process improved new-hire retention by 82 percent and productivity by over 70 percent.

An effective and inviting onboarding process holds the key to improving employee morale, productivity and retention. Workforce.com’s employee onboarding platform keeps it simple.

An employee’s first day shouldn’t be all about arduous paperwork and trying to absorb an overwhelming information dump of company rules and policies. Instead, go paperless and online with your onboarding so your new hires can do it all ahead of time and immediately dig into the job at hand.

May 5, 2020June 29, 2023

The new normal: Navigating workforce challenges during and after the pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has catapulted workforces around the world into remote work or a different environment than what employees are used to.

Businesses are making adjustments to their operations in adherence to social distancing and in joining the fight to curb the pandemic.

As the search for a vaccine continues, it seems like flexible work will be here to stay. But what does that mean to the workforce? And what must managers do to help navigate the new normal involving remote work?

Same principles, different times

Jacob Morgan, an author, speaker and authority on leadership, employee engagement and the future of work, said in a recent blog post that more companies will embrace flexible working arrangements.

“With the current pandemic, millions of people around the world are working from home,” he said. “This will likely continue over the coming months but even after the pandemic is over, I expect we will see a dramatic rise in flexible work arrangements. However, in order for these efforts to be successful organizations need to use a new set of digital technologies and embrace a new way of working.”

Morgan also wrote about the things top companies do to succeed at implementing flexible arrangements during COVID-19 and even after the pandemic. He mentioned implementing the right kind of technology according to an organization’s unique objectives.

“Before rushing to pick that shiny new collaboration and communication platform, focus on developing a strategy which will help you understand the ‘why’ before the ‘how.’ This is crucial for the success of any collaboration initiative,” he wrote. “You don’t want to be in a position where you have deployed a technology without understanding why. Especially during this pandemic, make it clear what the desired goals are so everyone is on board.”

Aside from implementing suitable solutions, Morgan also highlighted the importance of collaboration, measuring the right metrics, leading by example and listening to the voice of the organization, among others. Morgan explained the challenges in applying them and practical ways to overcome them.

“Collaboration should never be seen as an additional task or requirement for employees,” Morgan wrote. “Instead collaboration should fit naturally into their flow of work. For example, with my virtual team of ten employees turning on Skype every morning and looking at what’s going in Asana is how we all start our day, it’s not an afterthought or something additional we do … it’s how we get things done.”

He reiterated that collaboration is an ongoing initiative and goes beyond simply rolling out initial guidelines, thinking that it will stand the test of time. It’s all about adjusting and being agile to changes.

“It’s important to remember that collaboration is perpetual,” Morgan wrote. “It’s a never ending evolution as new tools and strategies for the workplace continue to emerge. This means that it’s important for your organization to be able to adapt and evolve as things change. Keep a pulse on what’s going on in the industry and inside of your organization. This will allow you to innovate and anticipate. So many organizations were caught off guard by this pandemic because they had neither the tools, the training, the leadership, or the guidelines to help make flexible work successful.”

Clear course of action is vital

The pandemic has disrupted global workforces. Management consultancy Gallup has seen massive changes in different aspects of work and employee life, and they are seeing record levels of stress and worry among the U.S. workforce. So how are employers faring in terms of their response?

Leaders need to have a clear course of action and communicate it clearly to their employees. A survey from Gallup shows that 52 percent of employees strongly agree that their employer fared well in terms of sharing information to them about the next steps.

Technology is key to implementing action plans

Having a strategy is just half of the battle. The other half is implementing it. Technology plays a crucial role in that.

A workforce management platform is helpful in this regard as it can help you operate efficiently beyond borders, staying on top of your operations, and improving overall communication with staff. It can help you automate and customize certain processes and adjust quickly to market changes.

There’s a lot of factors at play when managing a workforce, especially so at a time like this. It’s vital to have the right solutions in place that will help you focus on enriching your people and equipping them to do their best even in this era of remote work and beyond.

May 4, 2020June 29, 2023

Labor compliance software sorts through complex legal issues

Labor compliance software is an innovative way to manage the overwhelming alphabet soup of laws, regulations and agencies that govern the workplace.

HR practitioners must recognize the regulatory distinctions of the FMLA and FLSA and navigate the nuances between the ADA and ADAAA. What are the latest regulations surrounding the ACA? Can a misstep with COBRA come back to bite them? And SOX … is that a professional baseball team or a law protecting corporate whistleblowers?

If assessing guidance from agencies including OSHA, DOL and EEOC wasn’t enough to cope with, labor compliance software is a must-have now as the coronavirus invades organizational policies. HR leaders and corporate counsel must quickly familiarize themselves and understand the implications of implementing workplace laws surrounding a new bowl of alphabet soup — PPP, FFCRA and the CARES Act.

The value of labor compliance software

Maintaining corporate compliance with government regulations isn’t easy. Besides knowing what agencies actually do and how regulations affect employers, labor laws are dense, complex and confusing. A single unintentional compliance misstep by an organization can lead to a costly and time-consuming lawsuit with the potential to disrupt or even bankrupt a small, growing organization.

Compliance solutions allow organizations to avoid a trip to court and more easily comprehend constantly changing federal, state and local legislation. Employers can disseminate policies to employees, provide guidelines for regulatory enforcement and manage confidential documents all while saving money by easing time-consuming, onerous reporting rules.

Workforce management systems typically assist with traditional compliance issues while a specialized compliance solution takes employers beyond the basics and provides expert guidance on critical regulations. It can be like having a team of legal experts at your fingertips with minimal expense.

Labor compliance software also allows businesses to communicate company and legislative policies to their employees.

Key areas for compliance software

Regulatory software helps an HR department remain in compliance across all organizational departments. According to peer-to-peer software review site G2, there are business functions and the germane laws that can be undertaken by labor compliance software:

Benefits — Affordable Care Act (ACA); Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA); Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA); Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

COVID-19-related policies — Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act); Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and Payment Protection Program (PPP).

Labor and employment relations — Labor union updates (AFL-CIO, AFGE, SEIU, etc.); Department of Labor (DOL); Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); National Labor Relations Board (NLRB); Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).

Payroll — Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA); Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA); Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA); Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).

Risk — Employee safety is a top priority for all organizations. Compliance software can manage and track guidance and enforcement by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Companies needing compliance software

No organization is immune from U.S., state and local labor laws. True, regulations often vary depending on factors including employee count. A four-person mom-and-pop shop does not face the same labor compliance regulations as a multinational company.

Yet it is crucial that company policies remain up to date and comply with changes in legislation. Despite the expense a lawsuit can present, many smaller organizations are hesitant to call on legal resources simply based on costs. Those concerns can be streamlined by compliance software.

Small companies have difficulty keeping up with changes in compliance because they lack the manpower, and HR departments are already stretched thin or responsibilities are divided among employees as collateral duty. There is no point person to track and update compliance regulations.

Compliance is particularly crucial to navigating the maze of workplace issues. Municipalities and some states have instituted fair workweek policies in the past two years with more on the horizon.

In the wake of the #MeToo movement, mandatory sexual harassment prevention training is compulsory in six states. Compliance training, employee handbooks and more can be structured and simplified with a compliance solution.

Small and midsize organizations in particular have difficulty keeping up with HR compliance regulations as new legislation is continually introduced. When the HR team is small (or even just one person), their bandwidth quickly becomes strained.

Sorting through the alphabet soup of labor regulations can be an eye-glazing exercise for employers. Labor compliance software helps them to spell out attractive cost-savings, easy-to-use solutions and avoid unintentional noncompliance.

May 1, 2020April 11, 2023

Employee feedback apps boost employee engagement

When letting employees know their value to the organization, it’s important to show appreciation for their daily tasks through effective co-worker comments.

Technology provides exceptional opportunities to motivate your staff and engage their participation by providing ongoing feedback and building a two-way relationship. Selecting the right workplace app develops a continuous dialogue that improves your internal communications and builds a consistent, trusted relationship with employees.

Choosing the internal communications app that best suits your organization has far-ranging implications. Among the most effective forms of communication that your workplace app can provide is employee feedback.

The value of ongoing feedback

People thrive on feedback. Consider how often people are asked to “rate” an experience — the latest vacation spot, the quality of your pet’s food or a call center employee’s friendliness.

Naturally, employees are encouraged to rate their job experience, as well as their workload and the quality of management. In fact, feedback is not only appreciated, it is expected. Employees want to know where they stand with their employers.

An effective workplace app can make that communication faster and more focused. It could literally take seconds to offer a personal congratulations or post a companywide notice of the employee’s accomplishment.

Feedback can come in the form of an employee performance review, a note of encouragement or a thank-you for a job well done. Many people would be surprised at how well a supportive, positive message is received.

Peer-to-peer feedback

Constant colleague feedback also encourages your staff to communicate with one another and enables growth in the company. Employees can use communication-based apps, for example, to swap shifts. This process encourages staff to remain open with one another and enhances growth in the company as well.

Employees can use this online feedback to build an authentic, trusting relationship with each other, as well as with supervisors. Peer-to-peer communication coupled with supervisor appraisals goes a long way in helping them become better in areas they need to improve and showing genuine appreciation in the areas that they have excelled in.

Organizing feedback

Your app simplifies feedback by providing a centralized clearinghouse for all employees on a single platform. Employees can communicate one-on-one or in team settings. They also can organize schedules and are crucial to building a feedback-seeking culture.

Feedback is clearly a valuable business proposition. According to a Gallup study, managers who received feedback on their strengths had turnover rates that were 14.9 percent lower than for those who received no feedback. Still, some employees are hesitant to provide feedback in person. And that applies to managers and supervisors as well.

An internal app makes feedback easier and eliminates barriers with simple, easy-to-use communications. An app also provides the ability to give feedback for those who prefer to avoid face to face meetings.

Using a communications app is redefining the way we think of employee engagement. Unleashing such tools in your workplace are changing the way businesses operate and make feedback immediate and continuous.

Give employees the power to communicate! Workforce.com’s employee engagement module empowers employees to respond immediately and effectively to topics relevant to your business any time of the day or night.

April 27, 2020June 29, 2023

Bringing your employees back to work when unemployment pays them more than you do

At 2 p.m. on Monday, April 27, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine will announce his plan for restarting Ohio’s economy (currently expected to begin May 2).

One huge issue is how businesses can motivate their employees to return to work if unemployment is paying them more than you will.

Including the CARES Act’s $600 unemployment bonus that expires July 31, an employee earning maximum unemployment benefits from the state of Ohio earns $1,247 per week, the equivalent of an hourly rate of $31.17 or a yearly salary of nearly $65,000. My guess is that most of your employees do not earn this much. It’s one of the worst unintended consequences of the CARES Act — employees are making more money unemployed than they did employed.

Thus, how do you incent your employees to come off unemployment and return to work, either because you are reopening or you need to end their furlough? You can either use the stick or the carrot.

The stick? Employees who refuse return-to-work offers might be disqualified from collecting further unemployment benefits (unless their refusal is because of coronavirus), and you can advise employees that if they refuse a recall that you will be asking the state to terminate their benefits. You can also advise that with unemployment at record-high numbers, there are plenty of people waiting to fill their jobs, and there is no guarantee a job will be waiting for them when the CARES Act’s $600 expires at the end of July.

The carrot? Employees might need a financial incentive to come off unemployment and return to work. Temporary hazard pay? A return-to-work incentive bonus? A longer-term retention and/or attendance bonus for employees who report by a certain date and remain employed through Dec. 31 (or some other target date)? The possibilities are endless, but the reality is that certain employees will need some amount of financial incentive to come back to work.

Which tool you use will depend on which you think will best motivate your employees and your financial ability to pay for the carrot. You may have to do something, however, as this reality is that some (many?) of your employees might be too short-sighted to realize that a job in the long-term is better than few extra dollars in the short-term.

I’ll be discussing this and other issues related to restarting your business in the world of coronavirus, Tuesday, April 28, at 11 a.m. on Zoom. Pre-registration is required, and space is limited: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJYvdumpqjgiGdCQ3TtYZpmSsIpugmdQhTCs

April 27, 2020June 29, 2023

Workforce.com becomes a timely American success story

Leon Pearce, Workforce.com, time and attendance — Leon Pearce is a senior software engineer for Workforce.com. Photo by Lenny Gilmore

Creating innovative HR technology that empowers employees while also saving organizations time and money is an accomplishment to be applauded.

So when the founders of Workforce.com initially developed a highly advanced time-and-attendance platform in their native Brisbane, Australia, in 2014, it was only natural that the four friends were ready to take it to a global stage. After international wins in tech hot spots such as the United Kingdom, Israel and Asia, unleashing their product on the hyper-competitive shores of North America is now a success story that’s ready to be told.

From those early days with just the first four employees, Workforce.com now boasts dozens of employees who diligently serve businesses nationwide and across the globe. With a commitment to success and a reputation for achievement, Workforce.com’s talented and diverse team is building a strong tradition of delivering excellence by customizing its offerings to their client’s evolving business needs, be it large or small, simple or complex.

Such keen devotion to its clients doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Workforce.com’s team provides on-demand insights and market-ready expertise to boost employee engagement while helping organizations trim labor costs and meet complex compliance requirements.

Among those dedicated to superior customer service is Chicago-based Workforce.com software engineer Leon Pearce, who has maintained a commitment to promoting the product’s ease of use.

“People are the most significant competitive advantage any business can get, so they need to be truly engaged for long-term success,” Pearce said. “We want to help tackle these complex problems and streamline those processes so they can focus on the essentials of managing their workforce: worker happiness, welfare and efficiency.”

Considering that human resources practitioners must be all things to all people, the sheer volume of work they perform to keep a business functioning smoothly can be overlooked and underappreciated by organizational leaders and employees. Workforce.com technology supports their efforts and provides them with the opportunity to become strategic business partners, Pearce said.

“In essence, we build the software with the purpose of improving workforce compliance, automation, engagement and productivity,” he said. “This helps HR stay compliant with ever-changing labor regulations, automate administrative processes, build trust with front-line staff and improve business productivity.”

That said, software and technology isn’t very effective if not used properly. As an example, Pearce evoked the tool wielded by the Marvel Comics’ God of Thunder.

“You could own Thor’s hammer but that’s not very useful if nobody can lift it,” he said.

Software fundamentally changes business operations, which means it’s also important to make sure the partner you choose aligns with the vision you have for your teams.

“With the emergence of Software as a Service as the future of technology adoption, you are not necessarily buying into what it is today, but its ability to improve and help your company reach its potential in the future,” Pearce said.

Ask multiple questions of the software provider, Pearce added, such as:

How many features did they release in the last 12 months?
Who is your chief technology officer?
Do you understand the future of work and what’s your product road map for the future?
What improvements to the user experience have been made recently?
What percentage of revenue do you commit to new research and development compared to supporting old infrastructure?
Are you going to grow and improve your product as we grow and improve our business?

When it comes to implementation, a common complaint about HR software is when it purely serves management and not the rank-and-file employee.

Ask to see it live in a demo and test the software by placing it in the hands of the end user and get their honest feedback, Pearce said. And there are numerous techniques to understand if users like a product.

Yet, he pointed out, many of these techniques are flawed.

“You can compare companies based on revenue, but then are you evaluating how good the product is or how slick the salespeople are?” he said.

App store ratings give a voice to the people who actually use the software. Since users didn’t choose it, they will be honest with their opinion.

“The biggest mistake we see is when software is chosen because it ticks the boxes of a proposal and not how it works and is used by the front-line employees,” Pearce said. “Is it intuitive and easy to learn? I’d always make sure to evaluate whether it enhances or detracts from the employee experience.”

Pearce said that Workforce.com’s technology fits seamlessly into the big picture of people management, helping guide where the world of work is heading and providing a path for HR to be there alongside it.

“Technology is changing how people approach their work and their relationship with work, so we’re engineering to build a future where teams can perform better through improved workflow and feel empowered with the right technology,” Pearce explained.

For employees that means intuitive mobile apps to see future work hours, swap shifts, provide company feedback and apply for time off and schedule unavailability. For managers, it’s being able to easily build, send and optimize schedules against forecasted demand while tracking actual hours worked.

“And for HR and workforce professionals it means being able to manage and oversee this in one place that they can customize perfectly to their way of doing things and integrate with their existing payroll and technology stack,” Pearce said. “On the whole it means building a platform that leverages the very best technology to help the workforce win and reach its potential.”

Competitive advantage is key to any software platform. Finding what separates one product from another doesn’t necessarily take a publicity-hungry influencer. The benchmark for software in this space would be a solution that can follow best practices for each particular industry and help teams get to where they want to be, while being easy to use.

“Create a solution that supports an organization while they find their way forward and enables them to operate in ways that create new competitive advantages,” Pearce said. “Our strategy is to build our software like a platform that provides adopters with a starting point of industry best practices, but is also flexible enough to evolve with them. Stagnation always ends in failure, which is why enabling our users to keep tweaking their functions and improving the way they operate is so important to us.”

While many see software — any type of software — as a tool, a thing to use merely to accomplish a task, Pearce fancies a more cultured approach.

“It’s like art. Seeing people use the software I helped build definitely gives me pride, but I think more to the point is the knowledge that I was involved in hopefully making people’s lives just a little better,” he said. “I thank our customers every day for giving me that opportunity.”

Don’t take our word for it. There’s a lot that goes into making time and attendance software simple to use and hassle free. Try Workforce.com’s multifaceted time and attendance software and you’ll be lifting Thor’s hammer in no time.