strategy Archives - Page 4 of 12

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.

April 16, 2020June 29, 2023

You can still clock in: Technology offers ways to overcome COVID-19 disruption

workforce management, time and attendance, HR technology

The coronavirus outbreak has prompted enterprising businesses to use their existing workforce management technology in new ways.

The unprecedented impact on people’s daily work and personal habits has been the catalyst for the businesses we work with to find new functions for our technology.

Innovative organizations are using the platform to help communicate with their employees about safety measures, shift changes and team morale during this difficult time.

The following are issues that businesses should be prepared for over the coming days, weeks and months and how workforce management technology can assist.

Health and safety issues are top of mind. Employers can use workforce management software to enter and monitor safety processes such as their staff’s COVID-19 test results and to monitor the staff’s self-isolation dates so they know when it is safe to allow them to return to the workplace.

This is an innovative use of a function that was originally created to ensure workforce compliance with industry regulations, certifications and visa working restrictions.

Leave management is another important issue. As a large number of people are required to self-isolate, businesses will see a dramatic increase in requests for all types of leave. They will need systems in place to handle this influx of applications.

Workforce management technology allows for easier approval of shifts and timesheets, along with the power to add and edit staff leave and add manual allowances.

Shift equity is something many employers will want to focus on. A platform can be used to equitably share shifts among staff as a fairer alternative to dropping staff members off the schedule.

Facing unprecedented economic conditions, businesses will be keeping a close eye on profitability. Workforce.com has introduced a live wage tracker that allows employers to make early cost-saving decisions based on reduced demand.

Our live wage tracker provides an update on wage costs every 15 minutes. If this data is connected to point-of-sale technology, businesses can track exactly how they are performing throughout the day and use the data to make staffing decisions. Especially when government directives are being made frequently, it’s vital that businesses are able to make rapid cost-saving decisions based on demand.

Employees working from home can still clock in via Workforce.com’s remote clock in, which allows staff to clock in via their mobile devices, to clock in and out multiple times to account for the distractions of working from home, and to list their activities performed.

This pandemic will speed up the adoption of remote work technology and employers are on notice that the workplace may be permanently impacted.

Once the virus is contained and it is business as usual, employees may be asking, “Why do I have to come into the office every day, I’m just as efficient from home?”

Can your business keep up if people want to continue to work from home? Some businesses are using this time of reduced demand to ensure they have the right processes in place for a flexible workforce.

Maintaining team unity is more important than ever. A chat function is a good way to check in on staff morale, set up reminders about sanitizing frequently touched surfaces, and even report on interactions with potentially unwell customers so that good records are kept.

Employers also can easily communicate changes to the business by messaging individuals or entire teams, sharing key updates and important documents like training files, new health and safety policies, and opening hours.

Because chat messages are easy for all team members to see in the app, employers and managers can also use this platform for important things like saying happy birthday to a team member or reminding them to clock out if they’ve forgotten to do so.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced upon employers and employees a new way of operating, at the very least in the short term. But technology that already exists can help businesses keep on top of the new normal of managing a workforce.

March 17, 2020June 29, 2023

Scheduling headaches: How to better manage your hourly workers’ schedules

time clock, workforce management, scheduling, time and attendance

When it comes to scheduling hourly workers, time really is money. Managers and executives may recognize the significance of employee scheduling. Still, it can seem like an impossible task. Maintaining a fair and functional schedule that keeps everyone happy is a full-time job all on its own. Scheduling more than 100 hourly workers may be a burden for both the managers that spend hours trying to create these schedules every week and for the employees who don’t always get the schedule they wanted.

Knowing exactly how to schedule employees isn’t easy. And there are many last-minute changes that occur, such as split shifts and requests for time off. Emergencies, such as employees calling in sick or needing their hours covered also need to be taken into consideration as extra time that managers will inevitably spend on trying to manage a cohesive schedule, said Leon Pearce, lead software engineer at Workforce.

“Schedules are never complete, they’re constantly changing. Managing the lifecycle of schedules takes some pretty good tools to do it well,” Pearce said.

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

Matt Fairhurst, chief executive officer of Skedulo, a mobile workforce management platform, said that tackling these continuous challenges is organized chaos. “The complexity of scheduling hourly workers is mind-boggling, and the chaos grows exponentially beyond 50 workers,” Fairhurst said in an email statement. “It’s a living, breathing, ever-evolving puzzle that never quite gets solved.”

Fair workweek laws are something else to be aware of when creating hourly schedules, Fairhurst said. It’s smart for managers to do some research and ensure that the company is in compliance with local fair workweek laws, which right now are in flux.

“A large part of managing the hourly workforce is not just managing and communicating schedules, but helping establish and comply with work conditions, constraints and rules that help govern fair working practices, fatigue management and more,” Fairhurst said. “It’s important for systems managing the working week of any hourly employee to have the capability to ensure these constraints are understood, respected and optimized for.”

Employee scheduling software can help make sure that the schedule continues to work best for both the employees and the business by tracking time off requests, shift trades, availability changes, overtime and projected sales all in one place. This saves managers time and gives employees more control over their work lives. “It leads to having a more engaged and happier staff, because they’re more likely to be working the hours that they wanted, which is the best case for everyone,” Pearce said. “It also gives a lot of time back to the managers and allows them to focus more on the actual business as opposed to the administration type of tasks.”

Also read: The use of technology in managing burnout in your hourly workforce

Mike Zorn, VP of Work Strategy at WorkJam

It’s beneficial for employers to make scheduling more flexible and give employees a greater say in what their schedules look like, according to Mike Zorn, vice president of work strategy at WorkJam, an employee engagement app for the hourly workforce. “Giving people the ability to swap schedules is critical,” Zorn said. “If you give people the ability to pick up schedules when they want to work, you’re less likely to have turnover because they’re making a commitment to that time rather than the manager telling them [when to work].”

Managers should develop a self-service mentality to relieve themselves from the tedious scheduling tasks in order to put more valuable time into their responsibilities that will ultimately help the business succeed, according to Zorn.

“It takes the manager away from those critical things that a manager should be doing, which is inspiring people, coaching people and making sure the strategies are being produced,” he said. “Anything that takes away from the key things that a manager should be doing is detrimental to the overall business.”

March 12, 2020July 24, 2024

HR People Moves: Summer 2020

human resources, people moves, promotion

Carla Dawson

Equity derivatives clearing organization OCC named Carla Dawson as senior vice president and chief human resources officer. She reports to CEO John Davidson. Dawson previously was first vice president, talent management, and was responsible for partnering with leaders across OCC to develop and implement comprehensive talent management and development strategies to support OCC’s business strategy. This included performance management, employee engagement, training and organization development, and change management. Before joining OCC in 2017, Dawson served for nearly 20 years in a series of roles at Driehaus Capital Management LLC, including as managing director, human resources, where she was responsible for developing and executing a human resources strategy in support of the firm’s overall business plan and strategic direction. Her efforts were focused in the areas of talent management, employee relations, communications, organizational development, compensation and benefits, recruitment and regulatory compliance. Previously, Dawson worked for two executive search firms — Heidrick & Struggles and Korn Ferry — as well as the financial services firm of Abaco De Bolsa. Dawson received a bachelor’s degree in industrial relations from Universidad Anahuac in Mexico, and a master’s degree in organizational development from the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University in Chicago.

Caroline Stockdale

U.S.-headquartered First Solar Inc. named Caroline Stockdale to lead human resources and communications, overseeing a global workforce of 6,500 employees. She replaces Chris Bueter, who is retiring. Stockdale has more than 20 years of operating experience in finance, human resources, business leadership and process excellence, ranging from large global companies to entrepreneurial startups. She most recently served as the CEO for First Perform, a provider of human resources services for a wide variety of customers from the Fortune 100 to cyber startups. She served as chief human resources officer for Medtronic and Warner Music Group among others, and as the senior human resources leader in global divisions of American Express and General Electric. She is also a member of several advisory groups including the Forbes Human Resources Council.

Carla Yudhishthu

HR risk-management company ThinkHR and Mammoth named Carla Yudhishthu as vice president of people operations. Yudhishthu brings more than 20 years of experience in human resources and talent acquisition to the role, where she will drive organizational and leadership development around the companies’ people strategy. Yudhishthu previously was head of people and talent for BCG Platinion. She has also held leadership positions at Mars, W.L. Gore and Associates, Guidant Corp., and Arthur Andersen.

Traunza Adams

Health care technology company OODA Health named Traunza Adams as vice president of people. Adams previously served as chief people officer for Ginger, a provider of on-demand behavioral health coaching, therapy and psychiatry. Prior to Ginger, Adams led people operations at AppDynamics, an application performance management company. She has also held key human resources roles at UniversityNow, Salesforce.com, IBM and other companies. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French and sociology from Stanford University.

Ken Stelzer

Mobile commerce optimization platform Button named Ken Stelzer as chief financial officer. Stelzer will build a strategic finance function at Button to accelerate revenue and profit growth. He brings nearly 20 years of experience in finance and operations at both public and private companies. Most recently, he was the chief financial officer of Zocdoc. Before that he served as CFO of Bankrate and Integreon. He has significant expertise in corporate finance, executing growth initiatives and implementing operational efficiencies to drive profitability. He’s also overseen M&A transactions valued at more than $6 billion and helped raise more than $4 billion in capital through debt and equity offerings.

Stephanie Mardell

Button also named Stephanie Mardell as chief people officer. Mardell will continue evolving Button into a place of admirable talent. She was previously vice president of people at Button. As the company’s 14th employee, she built its people team from scratch through her meticulous, data-driven approach to people operations, garnering Button recognition as one of the best places to work year over year by Fortune, Entrepreneur and Crain’s. Before joining Button, Mardell spent more than a decade scaling teams during periods of significant growth while establishing operational best practices such as compensation and recognition programs, management training and development, and diversity and inclusion initiatives at Square, Airtime and Isaacson Miller.

Tracy Flynn

HR technology company Eightfold.ai named Tracy Flynn as head of human resources. Flynn joins Eightfold.ai as an experienced global human resources veteran, having spent nine years at Visa as a member of the HR leadership team in roles including global head of talent acquisition, vice president of diversity recruiting, and vice president of executive recruiting. Flynn will now oversee all aspects of global people operations at Eightfold.ai. Flynn is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Celia Poon

Eightfold.ai also named Celia Poon as chief financial officer. A seasoned finance executive with experience in both public and private fast-growing companies in Silicon Valley, Poon joins Eightfold.ai following a year in which the company opened two new international offices and reached over $55 million in total funding. Poon will lead all financial operations with a focus on building out financial functions. Poon brings broad finance leadership experience to Eightfold.ai, having served as chief financial officer at both Wag Labs Inc. and Highfive. Prior to her roles as CFO, Poon served as VP of finance at Twitter for four years as well as VP of corporate finance at Zynga, and VP of corporate finance and treasury at Yahoo. Poon graduated with an economics degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds MBA degree from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gunnar Kiene

Recruitment marketing company Symphony Talent named Gunnar Kiene as chief creative officer for its U.S. operations. Kiene will be responsible for helping to set the creative vision for the organization and will oversee innovation, engagement and the creative direction for its clients. He will also lead Symphony Talent’s overall product experience. Kiene joins Symphony Talent with more than 20 years of experience in design and advertising. Kiene was executive creative director at Havas where he reinforced design thinking while leading a multidisciplinary team across design, UX and copy. Kiene also led the New York creative department at SapientRazorfish where he worked on accounts such as MasterCard, Lufthansa, Target and Verizon. Kiene began his career with agencies R/GA and AtmosphereBBDO.

Also Read: Symphony Talent Debuts New Composition With Acquisition of SmashFly

March 11, 2020June 29, 2023

Q&A with Nate Thompson: Reinventing the HR game

Nate Thompson, vice president of strategy and innovation at OppenheimerFunds, said that in order to be successful in the HR industry, letting go of traditional approaches and learning how to adapt to change is a must. In this Q&A, Thompson reflects back on his journey through HR while highlighting his accomplishments and the most important lessons that he’s learned along the way.

Workforce: How have you grown professionally over the course of your career?

Nate Thompson: The biggest theme in my career has been reinvention. I pay close attention to disruptive trends, external and internal, and try to stay ahead of the game. This approach naturally helps me expand beyond a single function or discipline, such as HR. By bridging multiple disciplines — in my case tech, HR and transformation work — I dramatically increase my value as the organization inevitably changes. In my view, ultralearning and versatility are essential in a world that is changing faster than ever before. Whatever you are working on now is going to change dramatically very soon, so we all have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

WF: How has your career changed?

Thompson: Over 20 years ago, I started my career in technology and loved it, but quickly figured out that tech is highly perishable and technologists routinely hit a glass ceiling if they don’t build strong soft skills. That realization led me to leave one of the top tech companies in the country, Qualcomm, to voraciously pursue a suite of skills that are essential to being a strong leader today. After spending a decade in HR and learning and development work, I was uniquely prepared to take that work back into technology, most recently strategy and innovation. It really doesn’t matter how good you are at your specialty if you don’t understand the disruptive forces changing your industry and can’t see or influence the bigger picture. This is why I created and speak on a model called the well-rounded professional to help people evolve beyond being a one-trick pony. Again, when the world and industry are in a state of non-linear change, you can’t take a traditional approach and hope to survive as a professional or as an organization.

WF: What are some of the changes you’ve seen in HR over the past few years?

Thompson: To put it bluntly, traditional HR and traditional learning and development are dead. Today, we need a dynamic, digital and data-driven HR that is deeply aware of the disruptive trends, rapidly experimenting, learning and stepping up to be a strategic thought leader in organizations. This is scary, hard and requires a lot of courage. This is about helping to co-create a new shared strategic narrative, driving the future of work, culture transformation, experimentation, innovation, enabling alignment, engagement and empowerment, reinventing talent programs to enable autonomy, mastery and purpose, moving to real-time immersive cohort-based learning and ultralearning in future skills. That’s why some business leaders don’t want to work with HR and create backdoors. Future leaders in HR are humble enough to release the old idea of control and establish a growth mindset of dynamic strategic partnership with their various business partners. Future leaders in HR are humble enough to release the old idea of control and establish a growth mindset of dynamic strategic partnerships with their various business partners.

Nate Thompson, vice president of strategy and innovation at OppenheimerFunds

WF: What do you foresee in the future of HR?

Thompson: HR is fighting irrelevance and the path forward has to be a fundamental transformation. This will be deeply inclusive of the future of work and the new technologies reshaping all industries. Technology is amazing and powerful, the most powerful organizations in the world are technology companies. In fact, almost every company is becoming a tech company because tech is the backbone and universal language of business. The most valuable resource in the world is data. But let me be clear, this is not about the shiny penny of technology. People are still the heart and soul of our world, communities and organizations. Culture is still the operating system of our companies and culture is the output of leadership behaviors. This is still deeply about people, leadership and culture transformation. HR has a remarkable opportunity to step out of the shadows, lead this transformation, help their organizations surf the waves of disruption and thrive in the future.

WF: What are some things that you value most about your career?

Thompson: Making a powerful difference in people’s lives. That’s what matters most. Inspiring people and helping them to achieve their potential while co-creating transformation — especially now. Leaders and employees are scared. The future is uncertain. What is next for me? What is next for us? What does it mean to be human now in an increasingly digital and automated world? We are wrestling with huge challenges and the future is undefined. While it is scary, this new era is such a gift. I openly admit that I don’t have all the answers, but I know that if I deeply care about people and create a space where we can authentically and transparently talk about what’s happening, we can come to a shared understanding and vision of the future, lock arms and navigate this new frontier together.

WF: What advice would you tell yourself five years ago?

Thompson: Nate, people are going to say you are crazy, just know you are years ahead of where everything is heading. Go fast and be courageous because when the third decade in the 21st century hits, it will be glaringly obvious how far behind most are and how vital these years will have been in defining your approach to fundamental transformation.

WF: What have you learned over the course of your career in HR?

Thompson: HR leaders and professionals are good people trying to do good things, but the traditional approach has fallen too far behind. It’s time for a reckoning and revolution. There is no time to waste, this conversation of reinventing the function should dominate the HR conversation for the next five years. Let go of old HR dogmas, cut the old waste and irrelevant programs now, look outside for new ideas and spend your time reinventing in alignment with the disruption reshaping your industry and business. If your current HR leaders can’t lead that, you need to hire some inspiring leaders who can — and they might not come from HR.

March 9, 2020June 29, 2023

Recapping Ultimate Software’s 2020 conference: ‘An awkward date’

Move forward. Faith. Trust.

That was the overarching message that I took away March 3 as I watched the opening keynote on day one of Ultimate Software’s Breakthrough Connections 2020 user conference in the cavernous Wynn Las Vegas and Encore Resort.

Less than two weeks into Ultimate’s merger with workforce management software provider Kronos Inc., the message of positivity was to be expected. And given Ultimate’s deeply ingrained people-first culture, maybe it wasn’t such a big ask of employees to believe in the process.

Moving forward seems the simplest to accomplish. As I tried to put myself in the shoes of an Ultimate employee, I couldn’t help but think, there isn’t much choice but to push ahead. Because try as they might, things will never be the same as they were pre-merger.

I give credit to Ultimate’s Chief Relationship Officer Bill Hicks for addressing the merger head-on during the opening session because frankly, that’s what most attendees wanted to hear about. Hicks, who has been an “Ultipeep” for 16 years, likened the post-merger atmosphere to that “awkward dating stage” when you are trying to figure out where the relationship is going.

I think that crystallized as Hicks, who in years past would have handed the microphone to former Ultimate CEO Scott Scherr or outgoing CEO Adam Rogers, instead introduced Ultimate’s new boss, longtime Kronos CEO Aron Ain, to the Sister Sledge tune “We Are Family.” It probably was asking too much to play George Michael’s “Faith” or Devo’s “Whip It” (with the lyrics “go forward, move ahead”).

Ain’s initial message to the assembled 4,500 combined Ultimate customers and employees preached the move ahead-faith-trust mantra. Ain, who became Kronos’ CEO in 2005, talked about his background, his philosophies and his legacy. “How I want to be remembered is as a great father, husband and friend, not a CEO,” Ain told the crowd. Touching.

Still, there were a couple of moments during Ain’s 20-minute talk to ease his new customers’ angst that gave me cause to pause.

“Your investment is safe. You made the right choice when you chose Ultimate as your partner,” Ain reassured the assembled Ultimate customers. OK, got it.

Then he asked for one favor. “Don’t listen to people calling you up now,” a clear reference to the inevitable phone calls that come in after a merger or acquisition. Of course there will be concerns on the part of customers after their HR software provider merges. If Ultimate did their jobs properly — and it appears that they have — a request to ignore competitors is unnecessary. It seemed a bit perplexing to me, as if he didn’t have the faith and trust in Ultimate’s sales and service teams.

And if we are being honest here, isn’t that what any competitor worth its salt is going to do? I mean, this is business.

Why not put forth your faith in your new team and trust that the relationships built over Ultimate’s 30-year history will endure?

Then Ain took aim at pundits. First, who is a pundit in HR technology? Was he lumping analysts, the HR influencer community, bloggers and business writers into one big melting pot of pundits?

I personally did not see blowback written after the merger’s announcement. Most of the experts and analysts I followed were taking the “wait and see” approach in their comments.

Yet Ain opted to tell us, “Pundits, give me my strategy. … They are not telling you the truth. They have another agenda, and look out for their best interests,” and added, “We will communicate honestly, we will tell you what’s going on. Trust is everything and makes everything else easier.”

He then curiously added, “Don’t read all the propaganda about Kronos.” In the story I wrote about the merger on the day it was announced, I stated, “Considering this is a merger of like organizations, the dreaded ‘duplication of efforts’ specter hangs heavy. Are layoffs, buyouts, rightsizing or downsizing in the future of this new marriage?”

I also pointed out, “With the meshing of cultures, perhaps no department or staff member will be downsized. Maybe they’ll reskill portions of their workforce. … For those of us who have been through a merger or acquisition, the reality is people leave. Some leave voluntarily because it’s not a good fit anymore, or they’re simply laid off. … I hope and pray that the people will retain their jobs and blend into one big, happy, 12,000-employee company with room to grow.”

I still stand by those statements.

The point was a bewildering dig at the media — sorry, the pundits — that we see all too often coming from this country’s overly emboldened leadership.

Merging Kronites and Ultipeeps: A few uncomfortable chuckles broke out when Ain referenced what post-merger employees might be called. Ultimate’s employees are known as Ultipeeps, while Kronos workers are Kronites. He said he received a suggestion: “Kronites and Ultipeeps … Kreeps. I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”

Coronavirus concerns: Before introducing Ain, Hicks immediately addressed another pressing concern of attendees — the growing threat of coronavirus. He noted that hand sanitizers would be placed throughout the conference — which they indeed were. Hicks also said that even a traditional handshake is under the microscope now, so to speak. How did he plan to greet people? “Some people are huggers, some are fist bumpers. I’ll do whatever you want.”

Clearly the coronavirus is having a huge effect on travel and is taking a toll what is typically a busy time during conference season. SXSW shut down. Oracle took its conference online.

My Monday afternoon flight to Las Vegas was barely half full. I don’t ever recall a flight where my row on both sides of the aisle was empty, as was the row in front of me.

And, word came during the conference that SAP Fieldglass canceled its mid-March user conference. This announcement came March 3 via Twitter:

“The health of our employees, customers, partners and communities is our top priority. Due to concerns surrounding COVID-19, we are cancelling #SAPAribaLive Las Vegas 2020 and look forward to seeing you at our upcoming Ariba Live virtual experience.”

What’s in a name: A bit of a surprise that the merged organizations have yet to settle on a new name for the company. Attendees were informed that the new name will be revealed in the next three to six months.

One observer pointed out to me that it could come sooner, possibly during the annual Unleash conference in early May. It is beneficial to have an assembled audience that will include a bevy of analysts and influencers for such an announcement.

Just a guess here that the new name won’t be Kreeps.

Bakersfield Beat: In a week of ups and downs, country singer-songwriter Dwight Yoakam’s performance March 4 was a high point. Yoakam performed for over three hours straight without so much as a sip of water. His show at the Wynn Theater in the Wynn Hotel-Encore complex was not affiliated with the Ultimate conference and came as a welcome diversion as Yoakam took the full house on a 70-plus-year musical journey laced with plenty of anecdotes across Southern California’s rich musical landscape.

Yoakam focused primarily on the legendary Bakersfield Sound that influenced so much of his own music. But his finale was a nod to Las Vegas (no, not a Brandon Flowers tune, although that would have been pretty sweet). “You can’t play Las Vegas and not play this one,” he said as he launched into Elvis Presley’s “Suspicious Minds.”

Thanks, Josh Cameron. I really, really enjoyed the show.

February 20, 2020June 29, 2023

Ultimate Software merges with fellow HCM platform Kronos Inc.

Call the merger of Ultimate Software and Kronos Inc. one of those surprising, not surprising deals.

The Feb. 20 announcement came as a surprise. But then, they’re both owned by the same private equity company. Their HCM software — Ultimate Software’s human capital management and Kronos’ workforce management — play together nicely, although it would be an interesting comparison to put them both side by side and analyze their similarities and differences.

Also, both Ultimate Software and Kronos tout their employee culture as huge selling points. Earlier this week Ultimate was ranked No. 2 on Fortune’s Best Companies to Work For list, while Kronos clocked in at No. 52. Ultimate Software also took the Gold in the 2019 Workforce Optimas Awards’ Corporate Citizenship category.

Kronos Inc. CEO Aron Ain will head up the merger between his company and Ultimate Software.

In the press release issued just after 10 a.m. Central time, one of the first points made was their vaunted corporate cultures. “Combining two exceptional, highly compatible cultures will create a company that is People Inspired” (their italics, not mine).

Considering this is a merger of like organizations, the dreaded “duplication of efforts” specter hangs heavy. Are layoffs, buyouts, rightsizing or downsizing in the future of this new marriage? During this honeymoon period they are saying all the right things, noting that the combined organization will have 12,000 total employees “with further plans for growth including the addition of 3,000 employees over the next three years.”

Aron Ain, longtime Kronos chief executive officer, will be the CEO and chairman of the combined company – “guiding an experienced executive team comprised of leaders from both Ultimate and Kronos.”

There was no mention in the release regarding the future of Ultimate Software CEO Adam Rogers, who took the full CEO title in January 2020. Rogers does offer up this quote in the release: “The combination of Ultimate and Kronos paves the way to deliver the next generation of employee-facing solutions that will set the standard for the workforce of the future. This merger will enable our more than 12,000 inspired people around the world to deliver innovation in human capital management faster than ever before. Both companies remain fully committed to their core strengths as well as to the combined benefits that the new company will bring to employees and customers.”

That could very well be the case. With the meshing of cultures, perhaps no department or staff member will be downsized. Maybe they’ll reskill portions of their workforce.

Still, for those of us who have been through a merger or acquisition, the reality is people leave. Some leave voluntarily because it’s not a good fit anymore, or they’re simply laid off.

I hope and pray that the people at Ultimate and Kronos — which according to the release will remain headquartered in Weston, Florida, and Lowell, Massachusetts, respectively — will retain their jobs and blend into one big, happy, 12,000-employee company with room to grow.

Now that I think about it, when I requested media credentials to cover Ultimate Software’s user conference in early March, PR maven Kelsey Donohue mentioned that I shouldn’t miss the Tuesday general session.

I checked the agenda. Michelle Obama is speaking on Wednesday. That’s pretty awesome. But I could not find the keynoter for Tuesday. I didn’t really give it much thought, but now … the conference and especially Tuesday’s opening session takes on a whole new level of verrrry interesting.

February 18, 2020June 29, 2023

Workforce time clocks keep punching away. Thanks, Coldplay

My stove and kitchen radio decided to simultaneously conduct a household appliance assault, which triggered a mini-obsession with clocks.

When I set the timer on my stove, the time of day on the clock disappeared, which for some reason bothered me to no end. Already irritated, the annoying Coldplay song “Clocks” blared from the radio.

Nice. Now I don’t know what time it is, and I have earworm like “It’s a Small World” or “Viva la Vida” (ugh; Coldplay again), bobbling around my noggin. But then, would “Rock Around the Clock” have changed anything? Jim Croce crooning “Time in a Bottle”? Maybe it was just my time. Or that time of day. Whenever, wherever, I guess.

Unfortunately my fixation carried over to the next morning.

As I walked past a city water department crew hovering over a trench laying a water main, my time-sensitive brain set me pondering: Do these guys queue up at the crack of dawn, pull their paper time card off of a wall-bound time card rack, punch in on an old-fashioned workforce time clock and then pop it back in the rack before trudging out to a company rig and rambling off to the job site?

As I scurried to catch the train I drifted back to a time when I punched in and out on a workforce time clock for my dad as a plumber’s apprentice and again two summers later on his buddy’s road construction crew.

I got to wondering … what companies still use time clocks? After all, we are in an age where technology makes clocking in and out just an app away on our phones. So naturally, to satisfy my clock-obsessed curiosity, I googled time clocks.

Also read: Solving the concern over clean time clocks with a mobile solution

Do workforce time clocks still exist? Boy howdy, do they!

I was pleased to discover that there are several companies that still manufacture and sell the old-style workforce time clocks. I was particularly taken by the story behind Lathem Time Corp. The Atlanta-based manufacturer recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, and their company history page reads like the opening line straight out of a college class in Southern literature.

“In 1919, when George Lathem and his son, Louie P. Lathem began selling time clocks, the father and son sales team traveled by train throughout the Southeast, getting off at the whistle-stops of small towns and looking for the telltale smokestacks of local factories … .”

Which makes me want to add, “The sulphur burned their eyes as they strode toward the block-long red-brick building … ” OK, OK, snap back to 2020. Well, sort of.

Workforce time clocks — Plenty of workforce time clocks, like this one manufactured by Lathem Time Corp. in Atlanta, are still in use.

As many organizations move toward cloud-based, mobile time-and-attendance software, I asked Lance Whipple, Lathem’s vice president of sales and marketing, about the viability of using workforce time clocks of a bygone era.

Whipple assured me that plenty of punch clocks are still in use.

“There are likely a couple hundred thousand Lathem punch clocks still in use daily, and many more when you add in competitive products,” Whipple said. “We’ve sold millions of time clocks to small businesses in our history.”

Punch clocks remain popular with small businesses, he added, and when you consider business needs, workforce time clocks make sense. Sure, we can romanticize their use in the farms and smoke-belching factories of yesteryear, but time clocks are simple to use and as reliable as sweet tea on a steamy Southern summer day.

“As much as we love time clocks, it’s not a sexy or exciting purchase for most small businesses,” Whipple said. “It serves a utilitarian purpose. The low cost of ownership is key in the decision making process. A small business can purchase a punch clock for a few hundred dollars, have it up and running in less than 10 minutes and it will provide many years of reliable service,” he said.

So reliable, in fact, that Lathem has heard from customers with workforce time clocks they made more than 50 years ago.

And time clocks require virtually no training, Whipple said.

“Some small businesses are reluctant to move to more complex technology until they grow to a point where manual time tracking is too much to handle easily.”

Although workforce time clocks are used in primarily blue-collar work environments, Whipple said the size of an organization typically will dictate what type of time and attendance function is in place.

“The smaller the business, the more likely they are to select a punch clock solution over a software-based system,” he said. “There will always be a need for a traditional punch clock for small business. Some aren’t ready to give up pen and paper or commit to the ongoing subscription cost of cloud solutions.”

All that being said, Whipple added that cloud-based applications provide incredible value in managing employee time and attendance.

“We are in a unique position to upgrade a traditional punch clock or older desktop software customers to these new cloud solutions as they outgrow their current product,” he said. “Our cloud-based customers that have made the transition love the access to their employee’s time and attendance data.”

Armed with my new-found knowledge of time clocks, my obsession has been quelled. Wait, time clocks. Clocks. Clocks!! Arrrrgghh, now Coldplay is stuck in my head again!

Can someone sing “It’s a Small World,” please?

February 12, 2020June 29, 2023

Ready staffing: The growing influence of RPOs

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Since its founding in the early 2000s, recruitment process outsourcing companies have expanded their services and are now used as less of a tactical approach for ready staffing and more strategically for company growth.

With that in mind, organizations with ready staffing needs have a choice as RPOs have evolved to become much more agile.

The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association defines RPO as “a form of business process outsourcing where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external provider.” RPOs essentially serve as an extension of the human resources department with solutions that organizations can customize based on their ready staffing needs and resources.

However, RPOs should not be confused with staffing agencies. Unlike staffing agencies, RPOs take ownership of the management and design of recruiting processes, are responsible for the results and they promote the client’s brand instead of their own.

Jesse Silkoff, co-founder and president of MyRoofingPal, an online marketplace for residential and commercial roofers across the United States, said that his company switched from a staffing agency to an RPO because of the lack of results.

“They filled positions, but in a way I couldn’t engage with. And once the position was filled, they collected their payment and disappeared into the ether until we needed them again,” Silkoff said in an email statement. “They offered no help beyond the things we could have honestly done ourselves.”

After switching to an RPO, Silkoff said that he felt like the company had hired their best talent. “It took about twice as long to fill positions before, and now they’re filled at a lightning fast pace by quality professionals who are interested in the future of the company,” Silkoff said. “While there might come a point where I no longer need that partnership, right now it’s been invaluable.”

The RPO industry looked much different 10 years ago as using virtual assistance to fill positions was only an emerging market. Daniel Ramsey, founder and chief executive officer of real estate virtual assistant company MyOutDesk, LLC, highlighted the evolution of RPOs as he said that today, the applicant pool is almost limitless.

“This has allowed for true global businesses and an ever increasing workforce,” Ramsey said in an email statement.

Ready staffing not only has been serving an increasing amount of small and large businesses, but has also proven to be beneficial to small businesses in particular, according to Ramsey.

“A good RPO can find the right person for every business, regardless of the position or the size of the business,” Ramsey said. “This ability has opened up so many possibilities for small businesses to afford growth they might otherwise not be able to afford due to lack of time and money to interview and research potential new hires.”

Companies should also consider the size of the RPO firm, their service structure, cultural fit and cost before deciding which RPO to partner with. Courtney Cook, vice president of RPO strategic development at management consulting company Korn Ferry, said that establishing cultural alignment and trust is critical for mutual success for both the RPO and the buyer.

“Your RPO program and the overall talent acquisition process, from high-volume recruiting to professional hires and executive search, should fit together seamlessly,” Cook said in an email statement. “Instill a rigorous and regular meeting rhythm to measure performance, bottlenecks, best practices and market insights to drive continuous improvement.”

According to Joseph Quan, co-founder and CEO of HR software company Twine Labs, RPOs are not a one-size-fits-all solution. While RPOs can bring expertise around how to set up a recruitment process, help define a plan for how to analyze recruitment efficiency, and implement technology solutions that increase efficiency, Quan also said that they cannot change the culture of the organization.

“Lack of institutional support around the importance of recruiting, lack of executive buy-in or unclear internal expectations around hiring aren’t things an RPO can solve,” Quan said in an email statement. “We often see RPOs fail due to this mismatch in expectations.”

The companies that Quan sees getting recruitment right are the ones that have “true alignment from the CEO on down that hiring is a core competitive advantage,” he said. “Hiring managers are bought in to the importance of hiring and spend a substantial amount of time on it. HR teams are forced to be data-driven, not only looking at metrics like cost per hire but analyzing every element of their recruiting funnel, optimizing for efficiency and assessing true impact metrics.”

However, for those companies that find outsourcing their ready staffing to be the most beneficial option, there must be an understanding of each others’ core values, mission and vision, said Cook. “It really depends on the unique needs of a specific company, their culture, openness to partnership and their level of talent maturity,” Cook said.

“RPOs can be a viable long-term solution for organizations if you partner with the right one,” Ramsey said. “After all, if an RPO is sending you quality employees, saving you money and understands the needs of your business, why do it yourself anymore?”

February 9, 2020June 29, 2023

Sail the C’s to engage a freelance workforce: Caring and communication

Employee engagement can be a big enough challenge on its own, let alone when an organization is trying to increase engagement and retention rates among workers they have never even met in person.

The emergence of the freelance nation challenges organizations to refine their leadership style. Leaders in the workplace must be prepared to collaborate instead of control.

“You don’t really need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to managing your freelance employees,” said Dania Shaheen, vice president of people at Kazoo, a human resources platform.

According to Shaheen, the basic best practices that organizations use with their full-time, in-house employees are fundamentally the same approaches that organizations should take with their freelancers when it comes to increasing engagement.

This includes regular check-ins, meetings and video calls whenever possible to get that important face-to-face time. This gives both the organization and the freelancer an opportunity to share expectations, questions and feedback, and helps to build a stronger relationship.

“As an organization, you have to make sure that employees are engaged and that they feel valued, whether that’s freelancers or remote employees,” Shaheen said.

Contingent workers: Why companies must make them feel valued and engaged

Time and again, communication proves to be the biggest struggle when it comes to employee engagement among remote, global and freelance workforces. Carlos Castelán, managing director of The Navio Group, a business management consulting firm, said that one of the hardest parts of staying motivated as a freelancer is fully grasping how their contributions fit into the overall mission of the company. This obstacle, on top of minimal communication from managers, can result in feelings of isolation.

“In many ways, poor communication signals to someone that they’re not valued enough to be included,” Castelán said in an email statement. “Poor communication can lead to role ambiguity as well as heightened stress or anxiety because of a lack of feedback, which ultimately leads to [a fear of missing out], stress, burnout, talent drain or other symptoms of low employee engagement.”

Jamie Ceglarz, founder and managing director of recruiting firm Guild Talent, stressed the importance of starting with hiring the right people. Addressing their expectations, drive and needs through the onboarding process allows for a great foundation in building that relationship with a freelancer right from the start. Organizations need to ensure that they care about what helps their employees succeed while also being clear and transparent about the company’s expectations and goals.

“With remote employees in particular, it’s important to set people up for success and allow them to work in an environment that best suits them in an effort to get the most out of them,” Ceglarz said in an email statement.

Because freelance workers don’t physically show up to work every day and take part in the team culture within the workplace, it can be easy for some to forget that they even exist. Liz Brown, founder of Sleeping Lucid, an online resource for sleep problem awareness, finds that treating freelancers with respect and genuinely caring about their contributions and well-being within the company is a best practice when it comes to keeping them motivated and maintaining a healthy relationship.

“Businesses should treat freelancers with kindness and not see them as disposable objects that one can simply throw away,” Brown said via email. “Complimenting their achievements and treating them with respect improves their work environment, which in turn keeps them motivated.”

The freelance workforce is not one to neglect. Joe Flanagan, fitness app developer at GetSongbpm, an open source database of beats per minute, said that freelancers provide companies with an array of benefits. Organizations should want them to feel satisfied and engaged to help motivate them to continue producing their best work.

If they are treated as though they are full-time employees, both parties will reap the rewards. In an email statement, Flanagan said, “The benefits of being able to look for someone with the right skill set and who fits work culture on an international level are invaluable.”