workforce management – Page 2

December 21, 2020November 15, 2022

How leaders can boost employee retention by respecting work-life balance of hourly workers

Employee retention is a continually evolving metric for businesses and HR departments worldwide, set as a central guiding principle for maximizing profitability while simultaneously decreasing the expensive means of employee turnover and new hire training.

You could even argue that employee retention statistics are among the top markers any business could use to project its growth and overall health. So why is employee turnover such a big problem for companies?

Employers don’t always set proper expectations

One of the most common problems employers run into with high employee turnover is the simple fact that they don’t set appropriate expectations for their hourly employees. While many have focused conversations about the expected number of hours worked, uniform policies and job duties, unanswered questions left on the table can be the dividing factor between employees going or staying for the long haul.

Setting the precedent of days worked is a significant factor for many individuals, as most have outside priorities that can tie them down and change their availability. Effective communication is the lifeblood of any organization.

Having conversations about upcoming work events, potential scheduling conflicts, and holiday expectations is a simple way to ensure streamlined problem solving and proactive decision making. While unexpected situations are inevitable, stressors will always exist where systems do not.

Placing greater emphasis on employee expectations and companywide strategies can facilitate greater teamwork and minimize stress for all parties involved.

Build trust to improve productivity

Assumptions can crush employee morale, workplace productivity, and trust. When employers can set clear expectations, they can eliminate many of the common false beliefs created due to starting a new position at a new company. Leaders must be on high alert to ensure this has no place in their new hire’s thought process.

Prioritizing continuous and straightforward conversations with employees will cost you nothing on the front end and save you much more on the back end. Employee feedback is crucial for success, but if leaders and managers aren’t asking for that feedback, they may never get it.

The first step of giving feedback is asking for feedback, as this opens up the door for effective communication and will build trust with your employees. Plus, employees who can provide their input will feel a part of the company’s decision-making process and perceive it as an individual investment in the company’s future.

When leaders don’t ask the questions to get the answers they’re looking for, trouble starts to brew and may not show its ugly head for days, weeks, or even months down the road when an employee begins to act out of the norm.

Flexible leadership

The last piece of the puzzle involves company leadership, as this is a continually evolving role with its fair share of highs and lows. Being a flexible leader is crucial for maintaining integrity and high employee retention outcomes, as it facilitates high-level thinking and empathy towards your employees.

No one could have foreseen the unpredictability and chaos that 2020 has placed us in, so having a flexible approach to scheduling hours may be the deciding factor for workers who have children at home to take care of or another job to get to. Simple things like allowing someone to be flexible with their structured hours to enable them to pick their children up from the babysitter may be the reason why they decide to stay around for the long term.

Hours can always get made up, but personal responsibilities will always weigh heavier than a previously desired set number of hours to work.

Retaining employees versus hiring new ones

As with nearly everything in life, it will always be your responsibility as a leader to implement these strategies. Knowledge is useless without application. Keeping your existing employees happy through consistent communication is the fastest way to company growth and prosperity.

Technology can also be a great way to streamline scheduling changes and unexpected work events, as workforce management applications can make a big difference in eliminating unnecessary costs and time. Implementing these steps will lead you down a prosperous path of success and a fruitful career in leadership.

December 16, 2020June 29, 2023

How custom fields builds flexibility and simplicity into workforce management

Flexibility is crucial to managing employees.

Advanced workforce management software features such as custom fields improve that flexibility and support immediate, real-time decision making.

The benefits of custom fields

Custom fields eliminate one-size-fits-all rigidity and give managers the flexibility to add, update and store any data on employee files. It’s configurable by groupings of fields and can easily display individuals or customized teams of employees.

Workforce.com recognized the value that custom fields provide to meet employers’ operational needs. Every business has unique circumstances and demands, said Leon Pearce, Workforce.com’s lead software engineer. Integrating additional flexibility into Workforce.com’s software caters to their unique needs.

“There are core common problems that every business faces,” Pearce said. “They need to do scheduling. They need to record employees’ time and make sure they’re compliant. But maybe their industry also has unique requirements. Even down to a single business, there may be unique obligations. Custom fields improve how they’re working. We add an extra layer of flexibility, which helps them achieve their goals.”

Easily track and identify employee needs

With core operations, Workforce.com can take the full schedule experience and customize that for a mobile workforce. Because employees frequently move from site to site, custom fields provide immense value to monitor who is where and when.

Custom fields also can be used to track everything from each employees’ T-shirt size to a specific shift schedule or location assignment, said Michael Valentine, vice president of accounts. “Some organizations provide specialized equipment or clothing for their employees,” Valentine said. “Using custom fields keeps track of boot sizes for employees on a construction site.”

Valentine added that in one case an airline needed to store data on pilots’ flight hours annually. They created a custom field and continuously reported on it while scheduling pilots. Customizing the schedules of multiple employees also eliminated the need to memorize their location.

“It can be hard to remember, so having the ability to include an address and some notes that are unique to that location is really useful,” said Pearce, who was instrumental in developing the Workforce.com custom fields feature. “Being able to add fields to schedules that are completely unique makes operations a lot easier. We designed a simplified approach to set up custom fields. We made this seamless so business admins can get in, make changes and updates and get the value out of it themselves directly rather than relying on an IT department to do it.”

Improving the user experience

Custom fields can be used with most core workforce management functions and across multiple departments.

It’s a straightforward process to add a field, Pearce said. Once the object to customize is selected — a timesheet, employee profile or a schedule, for example — the field gets a name and the information is included.

“The most common one is text, but you can make a special field, like a day, or you can make it a file and that customizes the user experience. It’ll add a button to the schedule that allows you to upload the file. And that’s basically it.”

Adding a custom field to “employee” populates the employee profile. Adding a field to an employee’s schedule shows up on the schedule-building tool, which also can appear on their mobile app.

The same is true with timesheets, Pearce said, noting that it will be added to the timesheet review process. “You can export to other systems,” he said. “So you can leverage that information going out of the system.”

Custom fields also can be set up in the mobile Workforce.com app, Pearce said. Users can automatically link information, say from a particular location, in the employee’s app so they can get background, such as the address and some specific circumstances about that site.

Workforce.com’s custom fields feature

Simplification is the key feature when comparing Workforce.com to other systems that allow for added fields. Workforce.com’s custom fields capabilities are much more simple to use compared to other systems that allow for added objects. Customization also evolves along with an organization’s changing needs, shifting with what’s important to a business.

Interestingly, custom fields have yielded at least one unintended consequence since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Pearce said.

“People have come up with some great ideas to use custom fields for storing information around COVID-19,” he said. “People are being empowered to solve these problems themselves. As someone who’s building the software, it’s been the coolest thing to see.”

While custom fields are not new to workforce management software, Workforce.com’s integration into the operational process is innovative and provides exciting new results. Integrating custom data points to employees’ schedules or exporting it into a payroll and invoicing system improves workflow. Tracking shift data and embedding into the time and attendance process saves money.

“That is a big breakthrough that we’ve had,” Pearce said. “We’re definitely leading and paving the way in that direction. Custom fields are taking our software to the next level in terms of helping businesses solve these problems.”

Organize your employee data with custom fields and get Workforce.com’s scheduling platform working for your business. Request a demo today!

December 8, 2020December 14, 2020

How SMBs can survive and thrive during and after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a curveball at businesses, but small and medium-sized organizations have found themselves in a unique predicament. With limited resources, smaller organizations need to realign their priorities given current market conditions and quickly do so.

A crucial part of the economy

As the pandemic continues, governments are focused on more stringent health and safety protocols. But at the same time, they try to keep the economy moving despite restrictions. SMBs are a crucial piece to doing this.

There are 31.7 million small businesses in the United States, accounting for 99.9 percent of U.S. businesses. SMBs also account for 45 percent of total employment in emerging countries globally and 60 percent in the U.K.

Governments have offered different forms of aid for SMBs. While helpful, such assistance is more focused on helping SMBs survive in the short term. It’s essential to recognize that the speed of recovery will depend on the ability of SMBs to return to sustainable operations post-pandemic after current stimulus measures run out.

Here are some ways SMBs can quickly adapt and remain on track for recovery.

Reopen safely with technology

According to a Salesforce Research survey, 64 percent of SMBs have focused on safety and health policies due to the pandemic. Cleaning physical spaces is a huge part of it, but another way to promote health safety is to enforce social distancing and manage the number of customers coming in.

Reopen is a free tool that lets customers make appointments. Through the platform, businesses can set their operating hours and customers can book a time slot that’s suitable for them to visit. With bookings set in advance, businesses can control foot traffic, anticipate demand and let clients know that they are safely open for business.

Make cost-efficient decisions

Cost efficiency is crucial for SMBs, especially when demand tends to shift depending on changing restrictions. They need a mechanism that will enable them to optimize quickly to save on costs.

Workforce.com’s live wage tracker enables small businesses and their managers to make cost-efficient decisions on the fly because it tracks demand and labor costs in real time. Managers can see staff count, exact costs and spot potential areas for overspending.

Create schedules that stay on budget

Scheduling for SMBs can be more challenging these days. There has to be a balance between having enough staff, ensuring team safety and staying on budget.

Workforce.com offers a scheduling platform that allows managers to input their labor budget to create a schedule that stays within a set amount. The platform can also pull in data from their POS, which can help forecast demand based on historical data.

Ensure staff safety

Health issues are detrimental to how SMBs operate, especially now. Creating rotational shifts to minimize contact is a good step. It also pays to conduct health check-ins during each shift where employees can declare any symptoms they’re experiencing. This will help managers optimize operations, conduct contact tracing and assist employees should they need to be tested and isolated.

Also read: Staying resilient: 10 ways to use Workforce.com to manage the impact of COVID-19

Workforce.com provides ways to keep track of these things automatically. Managers can create and track qualifications for safety processes such as COVID-19 test results and quarantine expiration dates within the platform. They can also set shift questions that remind staff of sanitation requirements or ask them if they’re experiencing any symptoms.

Adapting to market volatility with technology

SMBs that utilize technology are better poised to overcome market challenges. According to the same Salesforce Research survey, technology influences SMB operations in different ways, especially with customer interactions (51 percent), the organization’s ability to stay open and in business (46 percent) and growth of customer base (40 percent).

The Workforce.com platform is designed to meet the workforce management needs of businesses of any size. It has different functionalities that can help SMBs thrive even in today’s volatile market. See how it can equip your team to make cost-effective decisions and optimize operations promptly. See it in action and try Workforce.com for free today.

November 12, 2020March 28, 2024

Retail workforce management success goes beyond productive operations

Productivity is one sign of a good operation, but many factors are at play to ensure success in the retail industry.

Jim Highfill, president at Lazarus Human Capital Services, sheds light on some of the challenges in retail workforce management and provides insight into what companies can do amidst a changing business landscape. With over 30 years in retail, he shares best practices on ensuring productive operations, creating efficient staff schedules, staying compliant with labor laws and adapting to different industry changes.

The real meaning of successful and cost-effective operations

If you’re a CFO, would you be open to a 10 percent increase in yearly sales resulting in an additional net profit of $100 million but no increase in productivity? Highfill conducted a thought experiment posing that question among 20 CFOs of multinational companies, and half of them rejected the idea.

“The point is, increases in productivity result from technology, process improvements, or clear communication, team involvement and training, the latter being most important,” he said. “It’s not always as simple as requiring more sales generated from fewer labor hours. When the workforce has clear goals and direct involvement in achieving them, they are more productive, more conscientious towards cost mitigating practices, and more rapidly adopt technology and process improvements.”

HR teams also have a crucial role to play as a human capital partner. They need to advocate for the workforce and ensure that communication of goals and the employees’ role in achieving those goals is clear and consistent.

“HR is a force multiplier when equally involved in any discussion of operational change,” he added.

Crucial factors when creating staff schedules

Staff schedules are at the core of any operation, especially for retail businesses. More than ensuring that all business areas are covered, there are other significant factors to consider.

“Everything starts with the forecast of sales, customer traffic and other related indicators that can predict labor demand. If you’re seeing large variances in productivity week to week, check the forecast variance first,” he said.

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

The other thing to identify is where and when labor is required. Companies typically use data for labor modeling, but they need to keep in mind how the human factor can also come into play.

“Even the most talented store managers can have what I call operational bias where they may over- or under-allocate hours to certain departments based on how well they understand those departments. Store-level modeling provides both a guide for allocating hours and evaluating any impacts of variance from the model. If you really want to leverage your company’s data science efforts, this is a level of granularity that shouldn’t be ignored,” he said.

Labor modeling is also crucial to identifying the right ratio of full-time to part-time employees. Weighing pros and cons and variables like flexibility, turnover and knowledge dilution helps strike a balance and create the right mix.

Most importantly, managers need to consider the needs of staff when creating schedules. It seems obvious but can be easier said than done, especially when managers get a handful of requests. “Using an employee self-service software is a great way to make it easier and more cost-efficient for the manager to handle this process, and when used with automated scheduling software, it can be a true game changer,” he said.

Workforce management challenges in the retail industry

Like with any industry, retail players are faced with a set of challenges. Highfill cited overcoming fear, facing political uncertainty, evaluating technology and figuring out the role of gig work as the top challenges that the retail businesses had to contend with.

Fear is usually a result of market volatility, and it can be felt from the executive, managerial and employee levels.

Also read: Work schedule laws and enforcement to expect in 2021

“You could almost call it a psychology problem,” he said. “There’s fear of business viability and financial uncertainty. Fear on the corporate level usually manifests itself as austerity on the store level in the form of draconic staff cuts in brick-and-mortar locations as more emphasis is placed on ecommerce. How does one cut back on staff costs without creating a death spiral where sales drop and more staff is cut and so on and so forth?”

Retailers need to recognize that their strength is in customer engagement. He explained that while it feels risky to invest in store resources, it is essential to preserving relationships with customers.

Political uncertainty is another thing that retail players need to navigate as it can influence how labor laws are being applied.

“HR departments must be prepared for a wide variety of scenarios on the federal, state and local level. It’s a monumental task,” he said.

Workforce management software is vital to retail businesses, but finding the most suitable technology can be difficult.

“The plethora of options can create a decision paralysis, especially for those that are navigating the selection process for the first time,” he said. “My advice is to evaluate five or six options, narrow it down to two for a proof-of-concept. Make a decision, go forward, and don’t look back.”

The rise of gig work is also something that retailers need to navigate. While it offers flexibility, it can also have an impact on an organization’s culture.

“Certainly there’s a place for gig workers in most sectors of retail. But there will likely be a lot of pain involved over the next several years as retailers try and figure out what best matches their needs while preserving the shopping experience and culture of the company,” he said.

Ensuring labor compliance when managing a huge workforce

Technology is vital labor compliance as it can help take into account various laws into the system and automate notifications when there’s a risk of penalty or non-compliance. However, companies need to pay attention to how technology is being adopted into the field.

Also read: Tracking time and attendance a basic but crucial workplace function

“Executives may see scheduling as a logic problem, which it is in many ways. However, on the store level, it is an emotional issue as well. It’s the emotional part that creates bias reflected in schedules, which can cause compliance issues. A well-meaning manager might give favorable schedules to longtime loyal employees to the disadvantage of others, or may fail to recognize that an employee has not been given the number of weekends off, ” he explained.

Retail employee scheduling software provides a clearer picture and helps managers recognize potential areas where non-compliance may happen, enabling them to optimize schedules before issues can occur.

Building resilience in retail

With COVID-19 throwing a curve at the workplace, managers need to be agile enough to optimize their strategy given how quickly things can change.

“The volatility in the labor market will be with us as long as the pandemic is active. Managers are faced with having to reduce or increase staff on short notice as areas experience fluctuating levels of economic lockdown. It not only has an operational impact but a psychological impact as well,” he said.

Given the uncertainty of today’s business landscape, leaders need to step it up and think creatively. Beyond productivity, they must prioritize engaging their people and empowering them to thrive no matter the circumstance.

“Managers must be creative. Cross-functional training, job sharing, and constant communication and goal alignment are the main ingredients in a recipe for maintaining a cohesive team that will thrive in this period of uncertainty and change,” he said.

September 29, 2020February 23, 2021

How Domino’s Israel saved 25,000 hours and increased employee productivity 11%

Domino's Israel, workforce management technology

Domino’s has always been a company that embraces and utilizes technology to make daily operations smoother. Case in point: They implemented an online delivery service in Israel as early as 2009.

Domino’s saw the opportunity in digital platforms and were strategic enough to adopt early. As they continue to leverage technology in the business, they also embrace digital information to manage their people. And they have reaped the benefits ever since.

So it’s no surprise that after rolling out the Workforce.com platform, Domino’s Israel has reported to save 25,000 hours across 42 locations, increased sales per labor hour by 11 percent, and dropped wage costs from 33.5 percent to only 29.5 percent of their revenue.

Challenges that come with business expansion

“Expanding fast means that you need to create a good and solid structure of operation and training,” said Arie Elbaz, chief operating officer and co-owner of Domino’s Israel franchise.

Elbaz, along with the rest of Domino’s Israel management team, recognized that as they open more stores, they need to have enough employees to consistently deliver quality service to their customers. Being strategic with how they create employee schedules is essential to that. It means that they need to cover all their bases in an efficient way that saves on costs and time.

“Before I was introduced to Workforce.com, every store manager did scheduling according to what he feels or believes; according to his instincts,” Elbaz said, adding that it’s not the most efficient way to schedule. They also needed a more efficient way to forecast staff availability and the amount of hours required per store per week per month.

Another challenge is adapting to higher labor costs.

“Here in Israel, we had five increases with minimum wage, and we needed to find a solution that would allow us to be more efficient on one hand, but of course, we won’t compromise on service and the number of employees that we need,” Elbaz said.

Technology and transparency

After transitioning to Workforce.com, Domino’s store managers gained better insight with the scheduling software and discovered how many staff they actually need in each shift.

“This was the first time that every member of my staff can see the same schedule. The delivery guys see what I see, what my supervisors see, and what my store manager sees. Everyone works on the same platform,” said Yonatan Taz, one of Domino’s operations managers.

Store managers also get better insights on peak and slow hours, allowing them to schedule smarter. “Before, we had a problem that I thought maybe the peak would start at 6 o’clock. But the platform showed me that it starts at 5:30,” said Idan Eini, a Domino’s store manager.

Transforming shift management for success

Domino’s Israel started implementing Workforce more than a year ago, running a pilot between December 2019 and February 2020. A full rollout of the system was completed in three weeks following the pilot. “For me, it was a revolution,” Elbaz said. He also shared three advantages of having Workforce.com

Workforce.com provides one platform for shift management. Because everyone uses the same system, it’s easier to see who’s working when and where. There’s less need to remind everyone, and managers can anticipate where the gap is going to be.
Workforce.com shows recommended hours. The platform enables managers to see recommended hours alongside with scheduled hours and actual hours. “As a result, we can better analyze our labor cost and create more efficiency,” Elbaz said.
Workforce.com gives analysis and actionable insights. The system can make sense of labor data and provide insight into aspects like savings, service metrics, etc. The team now has full control over this information.

Going further

Now that Domino’s has an efficient staff management system in place, Elbaz and his team will continue improving their online platforms and seek better ways to provide the best service to their customers as they expand.

Domino’s enables its people with technology and smart solutions to simplify once complex and repetitive processes. This allows them to focus on the more important parts of the job, build their skills, and realize the value they bring. Building up your workforce this way is one of the smartest business decisions.

Just like Domino’s, are you ready to take your workforce further? Book a demo and see how Workforce.com can help you.

September 28, 2020October 1, 2021

Cloud workforce management systems continue their rise

Cloud workforce management solutions have consistently become the norm in recent years, but some organizations continue to stick with their same old on-premise HCM systems.

As organizations look to the future of their organization and how technology will manage HR tasks, consider these differences between cloud-based and on-premise solutions.

Also read: How technology can help your employee engagement strategy

Pricing for cloud workforce management solutions versus on-premise solutions

While on-premise solutions remain in use, eventually all solutions will be cloud-based, priced per employee per month, said Karen Piercy, a partner at Mercer’s Philadelphia office. Still, many organizations are still using the same on-premise solution they’ve had for years.

If a large organization has bought many different technology solutions and constantly moves to the latest upgrade every few years, the costs come through in the large upfront sum to purchase the original technology and smaller annual maintenance costs, Piercy said. Additionally, companies generally choose to upgrade every few years and pay the cost for those upgrades.

Compare that to a cloud-based solution, which updates automatically and relies on totally different pricing models.

“For some organizations, if you bought [an on-premise solution] 15 years ago and haven’t done much upgrading, your costs for that technology is not that significant. Now in the new model, the pricing will be different,” Piercy said. “But I do think there are [cloud] solutions for different sized organizations, and there are different pricing models for different types of employees. Some software vendors cost a lot less if they’re contingent employees or if they don’t have full access to the system or they’re part-time.”

Regarding cloud workforce management solutions, Piercy believes organizations can find a pricing model that fits their needs regardless of the technology budget they’re working with. Plus, it’s a change they’ll have to make eventually. “I do think eventually everything will be priced this way and all vendors will move to that kind of model,” she said.

On-premise decline

While 70 percent of organizations have deployed at least one cloud-based HR application, 40 percent still use at least one on-premise solution, according to the Sierra-Cedar “2019-2020 HR Systems Survey.”

However, now many software vendors are no longer selling on-premise solutions, Piercy said.

“Now if you want [something] new, you can’t really get on-premise. That 40 percent will continue to drop as organizations continue to replace their solutions,” she said.

The future of cloud solutions

Piercy expects that growth will continue in many different HR areas in this marketplace. For example, she believes that we will see more features like artificial intelligence and chatbots as part of the core product.

Of course, she added, organizations will need the right data in their systems to use some of these features correctly.

“You need to have skills linked to employees to be able to do analyses and recommendations around that. But I think as it’s baked into the core solutions, companies are going to use it more and more, and it will get more refined. That’s one area where I think we’ll see a lot of growth,” she said.

Meanwhile, there are new entrants to the cloud marketplace, like the Microsoft and Google, Piercy said. They’re companies to watch as they could choose to do things very differently than the norm.

There’s also been a boom in the products and services involved in every aspect of talent acquisition, especially now since processes like onboarding are not being done in person, Piercy said. Onboarding is an example of something that can be difficult for HR to do, and therefore different cloud vendors are seeking to address this gap, coming at it from different directions.

Analytics are easier with the cloud

Analytics are a heavy area of growth in HR software solutions. Organizations have often struggled with on-premise solutions in terms of getting data in a way where the numbers are actionable and make sense, Piercy said.

Also read: Labor analytics add power to workforce management tools

In the past when the leadership team would be making a decision on something, it was often the case where HR would bring in one set of numbers and finance would bring in a different set, she said. If people couldn’t come to a consensus, generally employers would end up siding with finance’s numbers, not HR’s. The cloud, however, allows teams to more easily access the same data.

Additionally, the new technology that’s being baked into HCM systems is allowing for much better basic reporting and much more detailed analytics around that, Piercy said.

One of the key results of the new technology is that organizations are going to be able to leverage the data.

“[People will] finally be able to leverage their data much better and do the deeper analytics that HR has been wanting to do — being able to prove business cases and value of HR programs, and understanding their workforce in more detail,” Piercy said. “We’ll see more and more of this promise coming through with technology.”

September 21, 2020June 29, 2023

Workforce management tools to help address modern workplace challenges

HR tech; hr manager; workforce management software

As the world throws curveballs at businesses, new workforce management tools are created as old ones may become irrelevant or even more daunting to use.

Luckily, new technologies are constantly being created to address these challenges.

Geofencing

With more employees clocking in on their phones, it could be possible for them to clock in anywhere. Geofencing — a capability in which time and attendance tools can put a fence around a location that that workers cannot clock in unless they are on premise — is one solution that’s gaining momentum.

Karen Piercy, a partner in Mercer’s Philadelphia office, said that she’s recently seen more clients ask about geofencing when looking for vendors. While it used to be something that clients were not directly seeking when looking for a vendor, now it’s something on many wish lists.

Also read: Companies may pay the price for poorly managed payroll practices

Fighting burnout and fatigue

One of the biggest challenges of recent years is the quick pace of transformation and innovation, said Jan Bruce, CEO and co-founder of meQuilibrium. These changes can impact the way that employees work on a day-to-day basis. Even before COVID-19 hit the U.S. in early 2020, companies and employees were struggling with how to deal with change effectively.

She gave the example of distribution workers, who years ago may have gone about their day with a clipboard and a manifest and did their daily deliveries based on that paper document . Now it’s more likely they used an iPad, where tasks can be updated whenever it is convenient. In the future, it’s possible that self-driving cars are instructed where to go, and the employee is essentially only used to offload products.

People don’t change as quickly as technology does, which can lead to change fatigue and burnout, Bruce said. Change fatigue refers to people feeling tired out by constant change, and burnout refers to people feeling overwhelmed by not having enough resources to deal with these changes appropriately.

Bruce suggested that resilience training software can help employees deal with change better. Resilience refers to not necessarily working harder but adopting the skills to solve problems or address a situation as efficiently as possible with the resources available.

Additionally, managers have a role, as well. It’s not all on the employees. Managers should understand how employees as a group are feeling and learn the overall climate of the workforce, Bruce said. If workers are stressed, managers can explore the question of what is causing burnout and hindering their productivity.

Also read: How technology can help your employee engagement strategy

For this, Bruce recommended using a HR tool or software that provides managers data-driven insights, rather than something that simply shares tips and guidance. Good workforce management tools here will deliver actionable insights to managers.

Adopt workforce management tools with personalization

In the context of burnout, personalized tools can help in many ways. Bruce said the right tools could help people track their stress levels and get instant feedback from a chatbot if someone is seeing a pattern of feeling more stressed than usual.

Users could get insights like that they’re always a little more stressed on a certain day of the week or after a specific type of meeting or event. From there, they can identify a specific stress point and go on from there trying to deal with it better, Bruce said.

Personalization is also something that applies to the broader spectrum of workforce management tools and technology.

Machine learning is gaining traction

The Gartner report “Six Emerging Human Capital Management Technology Trends” explored different tools and technologies likely to become commonplace in the near future. One of these tools is machine learning in HCM, likely to see mainstream adoption in the next five to 10 years, according to the report.

Machine learning is broadly applicable to most, if not all, HCM processes, the report stated, and in order to be successful, organizations must have access to rich data sources, including historical data. By adopting this tool, organizations may be able to take advantage of the many benefits from helping people and processes evolve to guiding talent planning and investment decisions.

The report also included some warnings regarding the impact of machine learning. “Beware of the limitations of machine learning in HCM. A decision based on bad data or a bad analysis will usually result in an unexpected/poor outcome,” it stated.

Additionally, deploying machine learning as a one-off initiative is not the most effective use of the tool, the report said. It’s better used consistently for continuous improvement over time.

Voice of the employee technologies

The Gartner report also highlighted “voice of the employee,” or VoE, technologies, which are able to collect and analyze the opinions, perceptions and feelings of employees through means such as surveys or feedback tools. It is estimated that these tools will see mainstream adoption in five to 10 years, according to the report.

These solutions offer a way for managers to measure and improve employee engagement and retention, and they better allow managers to identify any commonplace issues among staff.

One important recommendation Gartner has for organizations interested in this technology is to build a VoE strategy with data privacy and security requirements in mind.

Also read: Shift feedback software is an immediate conversation starter

Chatbots for bots

Organizations have been incorporating AI-enabled chatbots in their HR systems for years, but that becomes difficult to manage when there’s a different bot for each HR function, said Will Manuel, partner at Mercer.

One of the newer innovations is bots for bots, he added. Socrates.AI is one of these software technology companies that helps manage the bots an organization uses so that the way questions are being answered is consistent across bots.

“Otherwise, even though you’re leveraging new technology, you’re still creating silos. And integration is better,” Manuel said.

September 15, 2020June 29, 2023

Cloud workforce management saves on costs, resources and time

While cloud-based human resources applications are now the standard for new buyers, many organizations still use on-premise systems, according to Sierra-Cedar’s “2019-20 HR Systems Survey.”

The report noted that 40 percent of organizations still use at least one on-premise HR application, and that number is decreasing at a relatively slow rate. Meanwhile, 70 percent of organizations use at least one cloud HR system, the report stated.

Organizations that aren’t investing in cloud workforce management systems may be missing out on many advantages.

“If you’re not in the cloud right now or if you’re not on the path to the cloud, then you are considerably behind,” said Wilson Silva, senior vice president of outsourcing at Alight Solutions. “You’re missing out on the opportunity for many workplace benefits.”

Also read: Unify those far away workplaces with global mobility tools

Simplify the data entry process

Typically with a cloud workforce management system, a big benefit is that organizations just have to deal with one source of information, Silva said. A manager could enter a data element in one place, and that can be considered for multiple processes. They don’t need to use several competing platforms and make sure they are all in sync with the correct shared information.

A united platform allows managers to be more efficient with data entry and focus on the quality of data entry rather than the amount of time it takes to sync up multiple platforms with the same data, he added.

More frequent updates

Most cloud-based workforce management systems come with automatic updates multiple times a year, unlike older types of workforce management platforms for which organizations must wait a year or more for more hands-on updates, Silva said.

Anything that allows you to adopt new functionality and apply it in a timely manner is a strong benefit for any organization, he added.

Compliance with new laws

While cloud-based software can’t do all the compliance work for a manager, it can make their job much easier, Silva said. For example, with payroll, cloud workforce management systems can consider tax rates of different geographies. And the cloud allows companies to more quickly address legislative changes.

The ongoing update piece of this also allows companies to feel comfortable that they are on the same page as competitors, said Jake Soliman, vice president of cloud services solutions at Alight Solutions. They have access to the same functions and features as others.

Given this standardization of much of the workforce management process, organizations can more easily benchmark themselves against their competitors and see where they stand.

”This is what the software delivers. ‘This is the best practice for 90 percent plus. Let’s use it as our benchmark and use it for a more standardized process.’ It can be that driving engine behind helping HR to be as efficient and standardized across the globe as they can,” he said.

Easing the workload of your workforce

The cloud essentially allows organizations to offload infrastructure onto a third party, Soliman said. The costs, resources, time and expertise that in-house IT or HR departments used to save for maintaining a workforce management system can now be used for something else.

“You get out of what might not be a core competency for your organization, and are able to move that into a company that specializes in that delivery. It’s a cost save and a resource save as well,” he said.

Better data security

While some people might worry about the safety of their information in the cloud, the reality is that for cloud workforce management systems, data security is usually better than the old way of doing things, Soliman said.

Also read: Labor analytics add power to workforce management tools

“Do your due diligence and put your security team on it, and I think you will be pleasantly surprised that their standards are more likely than not better than what you’re running now,” he said. For cloud based systems, he added, “they all understand their business is predicated on data security, and one breach could be catastrophic to their organization. So their budget and their attention to controls are above and beyond what most would do on their own.”

There’s always the implication that “outside my network” means “not safe,” but that’s just not true, Silva said.

“It is possible to have your data outside of your network or in the cloud and it is just as safe if not safer for them as when it was in your network,” he added. “Where you find potential for breaches is when the data is when somebody is handling data outside the cloud or passing spreadsheets around.”

Rely on the experts

For the customer who hasn’t moved on to the cloud yet, there’s no need to do the switch alone, Soliman said.

“Having the in-house resources can be daunting, but having a partner help build that design and run it is becoming much more commonplace,” he added.

Having someone who has expertise in deployment is critical, Silva said. Whether an organization chooses to rely on the vendor’s expertise, there are many consultancies that also help clients maneuver the cloud because learning a new software takes time, he added.

“It’s not just a data entry system. It’s a transactional system, and understanding the configuration and workflow that goes with it is sometimes harder than it may seem,” he said. “If people view that an HR or payroll system is simply ‘You just enter data in,’ I think they find out pretty quickly that’s not the case. The skill set around it is a whole lot more challenging.

“So get some help,” he added. “It’ll make your project way more successful.”

The future of the cloud

Wilson noted that there is a level of maturity in the cloud software marketplace now. Large players have either through acquisitions or in-house developments created comprehensive services that offer everything including HCM, payroll, compensation, time tracking, performance and recruiting. But now rather than building out their product offerings they’re moving on to analytics and benchmarking.

The question software companies are seeking to answer is, “How do you leverage the data that companies input to give them analytics on how to drive performance?” Wilson said. How can analytics help drive value through data companies already have?

The next direction he sees things going is benchmarking, he added.

Also read: Labor analytics: A how-to guide for company leadership

“It’s not just about the ability to let customers utilize data, but the question now is, ‘I have this metric or insight. But is this good or bad?’ ” he said. Cloud systems can allow companies to compare themselves to what competitors are doing. An organization can assess “if I’m doing well or not based upon what other companies have the ability to do.”

August 20, 2020June 29, 2023

Restaurant workforce management tips to reduce turnover

The restaurant sector sees one of the highest turnover rates, at 81.9 percent as of 2019. But proper restaurant workforce management practices can help managers move the needle in the right direction and motivate employees to work harder and stay longer.

Even keeping restaurant employees a little longer can help restaurants out, according to Lil Roberts, CEO and founder of fintech company Xendoo. Lower turnover ensures that managers spend less time training new employees, which also ultimately saves money on training costs.

Also read: Boost your managers’ effectiveness with an essential mobile clock-in tool

Here are six restaurant workforce management tips to help owners and managers keep good employees longer and keep them engaged with the job.

Find the right team members that will be consistent and dependable

Most restaurant employees don’t understand that their job can become their career, Roberts said. Moving higher up the ladder at the restaurant or moving to a higher-tiered establishment can be a potential career path for them.

Managers must more carefully consider how to hire right, Roberts said, suggesting that they create scorecards unique to the establishment that allow them to vet candidates for job duties, culture fit and job expectations. Conversely, when they make a bad hire, they should “find the door they came through and nail it shut,” she said.

For example, if a restaurant sees many employees who are inconsistent about showing up to work on time, managers can consider how to add behavioral-based questions into the traditional interview process.

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These behavioral questions shouldn’t be too direct, which might ultimately give a manager a yes-or-no answer that isn’t helpful. The question “Are you organized?” would give a more generic answer versus something like “If I opened your closet and looked left, what would I see?” Roberts said. A more organized candidate might end up being a phenomenal host or hostess, she added, while someone with different strengths may be a better server.

Talk to employees about their future and career goals

People often see restaurants as a workplace with few benefits and low pay, but the reality is that benefits and compensation depend on what level of the restaurant someone works at, Roberts said. It also depends on the dining establishment itself. A waiter at a casual sit-down restaurant may value flexibility and making enough money to get by until they move on, but at a more family-oriented restaurant managers have the opportunity to have meaningful conversations with wait staff, Roberts said.

Questions include: What are your life goals? Are you going to school? Would you like to use this job as a stepping stone to a career in the restaurant industry?

High-end restaurants like Morton’s Steakhouse with good wait staff jobs will hire based off skills and years of experience, Roberts said, and managers at more casual eateries can use the appeal of these higher tiered restaurants to retain employees longer. They can teach these workers skills needed to work at a high-end restaurant and give them the experience years needed to be eligible for those jobs.

Also read: Employee performance shines bright with valuable, continuous shift feedback

Not only do employees benefit in this situation, but employers in the restaurant industry can save money by reducing turnover.

Keep temporary employees just a little longer

Not every wait staff member wants a career in the industry, and that’s OK. Restaurants can still benefit from enticing them to stay a few months longer than they originally planned. Managers can do this by learning what drives workers, Roberts said.

If someone wants a fun workplace, one way to keep them engaged is creating contests that keep them entertained and happy, she said. If someone wants stability in their schedules because of other responsibilities that limit when they can work at the restaurant, managers can honor that and give them the same days and times each week.

“Then your life is easy, and theirs is easy,” Roberts said. “And it all stems from behavioral hiring and hiring the right people. If you’re a business owner and you’ve got a revolving door, you need to not say ‘Oh, the workforce is bad.’ You need to look internally and say, ‘What process can I change?’”

Invest in the latest technology

Restaurants have been notorious laggards when it comes to adopting new technology, according to Sam Zietz, CEO of payment technology company GRUBBRR, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic has in part exposed what companies have embraced technology versus those that have been stuck in the past. Fast-food establishments like Chipotle, Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s had invested in technology before the pandemic, and they’re leading the pack, he added.

Technology that makes restaurant workforce management simpler falls in a broad range, from self-ordering kiosks that allow former cashiers to find more satisfying jobs at the restaurant to shift-swapping software that gives employees a simpler way to trade shifts.

Meet employees where they are

Regarding communication, managers should consider employee preferences, whether that’s texting, calling, emailing or something else. It’s simple, and respecting employee preference goes a long way, Roberts said.

“As long as the employee is doing their job and fitting the culture of the company and the responsibilities of the job, pick what matters most,” she said. “Don’t try to have your whole team that just represents you and the way you move through the world.”

Promote a culture where team members feel comfortable approaching management

It’s very important to make sure managers create a safe workplace, Roberts said. According to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data, hourly employees in the restaurant and retail industries are some of the most susceptible to harassment. Managers need to know how to deal with this.

“As owners, you have to train your manager team how to deal with these kinds of situations. The manager can’t just fly off the handle and yell at the employee who called an employee a name. That’s not going to solve anything,” Roberts said. “ You have to be very careful. One thing I will say is if a restaurant doesn’t have an HR person, find a fractional HR person that is HR certified who can help you handle that.”

August 16, 2020August 14, 2020

Angel Assistance spreads its wings for families in Atlanta

Attending Georgia State University on scholarship after living in a small town, Savannah Samples didn’t originally envision her part time jobs would eventually bloom into the business opportunity she’s pursuing today.

The young founder of Atlanta-based total family assistance company Angel Assistance started out doing nanny work to support herself alongside full-time studies.

“I always did nannying as well as doing other things — doing laundry, doing dishes, cooking dinner, taking the kids places, all the different kinds of stuff the moms usually do. When they got home they would be all, ‘oh thank you so much, you helped so much, not just nannying but doing everything,’ ” Samples said.

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

She worked hard — a necessity when coming from humble beginnings. She found one regular in her sophomore year of university, and another the year after — and as word-of-mouth referrals from those two poured in, the list began to grow. Two became twelve, and she now had a loyal client base. But juggling the number of clients on top of schoolwork took a toll on her.

“Everybody kept referring me, a good problem to have, but I only have so many hands. And this mom I was working with at the time who owned two businesses, said why don’t you just start up your own company?”

From side gig to full-fledged business

She decided to go for it despite no entrepreneurship background and little knowledge about government requirements. It took two years of her learning the ropes of business ownership alone for Samples to hire her first full-time employee.

From there, it snowballed. Angel Assistance, once a one-person company, now employs six full-time “angels” and 30 clients, around 23 of whom have set recurring weekly schedules. The company’s services? A common misconception about it is that they do elderly care, or purely nannying. That isn’t the case.

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“We wash, we walk the dog, we cook you dinner, we grocery shop, organize your closet, do summer, winter switch up on closets, make your beds, everything you can’t get from a deep cleaner, you can’t get from a babysitter, you can’t get from a chef, from a dry cleaning service. We do all in one. So family assistance totally, with individuals as a family as well,” Samples said.

This scale-up meant Samples needed to find a reliable employee scheduling app to ease her managerial load. Employees would contact her to manually schedule shifts, and repeatedly fielding calls would make her “go insane.” She tried one brand of workforce software, but despite the good customer service as time went on the app would glitch to the point where it caused operational issues.

Employees wouldn’t be able to see their schedules, and clients would be waiting for an angel to show up at their door to no avail. It also didn’t have as much features as she would like.

“I like the app and the people that I did talk to when I first started were great […], but the app glitched enough to where it was causing issues with our clients where angels weren’t showing up to the location because they couldn’t see their schedule published. So I knew something was going to have to happen.”

Finding the right scheduling app

Workforce.com’s name came up when Samples asked around for possible alternatives. She became interested in it once she did some research: It had more features than the previous app, and the possibility of developing more in the future.

Angel Assistance now uses Workforce.com primarily for its employee scheduling app. They’ve adapted to use it for their specific needs as well, instead of just Samples holding the manager title, Angel Assistance’s families have manager accounts of their own, enabling these recurring clients to see and respond to the shifts of their assigned employee. This was in contrast to their previous app, where families ended up with a “put it out in the universe and hope the angel shows up” situation.

Being someone who does organizing work herself, Samples especially appreciates how Workforce.com has room for consolidating information about her angels. Other than the time clock and location features, which they also use, she mentions the qualifications tab: a place where she can keep a file on each angel that contains their background check, driving record, profile, and more. “I love that Workforce.com has the qualifications tab where i can put all of those on the app; if we need them we can pull them up and look at them.”

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

Forward-looking enthusiasm

Workforce.com has also helped Samples cut down on her role as middleman between clients and angels. She handles two to three different families per day herself for about four hours each, and keeps in touch with others in-between, with a short break for lunch. But the work doesn’t stop there.

She gets home at around 9 or 10 p.m., but sometimes the phone keeps ringing. “I’m to the point now where I have to put my phone on ‘do not disturb’ past like, 11 o’ clock because otherwise I probably wouldn’t sleep.”

Despite her busy schedule, Workforce.com does help. With the employee scheduling app having features for leave requests and shift time changes, employees don’t need to contact her as much as before.

Her eventual goal? To fully transition to overhead management.

“It’s a lot, and I don’t mind it because it’s what I do and obviously I love what I do,” she said. “But I know I can’t give my 100 percent to families because I’m doing management. I’ve had some kids 4 or 5 years old, so I feel bad that I’m not giving them full attention because I have to answer the phone for a management call for 20, 30 minutes.”

She may be a business owner now, but Samples — and Angel Assistance — retains the core that made clients trust her years ago: the sincere compassion and heart for the families they serve.