Category: Templates

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Free Employee Change of Address Form [Template]

oil painting of someone carrying moving boxes

Summary:

  • Federal and state laws govern how employee records are kept and for how long. These rules can differ by location and industry.

  • Managing employee records is a tall order, but HR software keeps thing simple, allowing staff to update their own info digitally.

  • Download and modify this employee change of address form template for free.

With a small staff count, organizing, tracking, and updating employee records is relatively straightforward for any HR department. But if you have a rapidly scaling business, staying on top of personnel information might be a little more challenging. 

To keep things organized in all of this chaos, you need to keep accurate records. When an employee’s mailing address needs to be updated, you’ll need to rely on more than just word of mouth to get this information processed. 

Many HR departments use a change of address request form. Download ours here – feel free to copy, save, and modify it. 

Using a simple form like this is only the first step in accurate record-keeping. It is 2024; let’s be honest, people don’t use printers anymore. Or at least they shouldn’t be. 

Well, that might be a tad extreme. But you know where I am going with this. 

All kinds of records, such as employee names and emergency contact details, will change over time. Add leave request forms, benefits enrollment, and other templates into the mix, and you’ll realize how quickly recordkeeping can become an administrative burden. 

Paper forms < Going paperless; Here’s why. 

Luckily, you can avoid repeatedly downloading 15+ paper forms to manage your workforce records by using HR software. 

Here are three ways where HR software can help you get a better grip on employee record-keeping:

1. United employee records in one place.

You can collect all of your employee information in one system without storing random paper forms in dusty, beige filing cabinets scattered around your office. Typically, organizations keep some form of the following employee details: 

Time and Attendance

This information is essential to staying on top of your day-to-day operations. This includes records on the clock ins and outs, time off, employee schedules, tardiness, absences, and hours worked. 

Benefits

Insurance enrollments, health coverage, and other company benefits all fall under this category. It can also include records involving the Americans Disabilities Act (ADA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Staying on top of these records will help you comply with federal laws like the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA).

Payroll

Details that have something to do with a person’s pay computation go under payroll information. Details like wages, hourly rates, withholdings, tax forms, timesheets, direct deposits, and W2 and W4 forms all fall under one umbrella. 

Personnel information

These are basic details that typically go under an employee’s file. This includes name, home address, phone number, employment history, emergency contact information, and other new employee paperwork. Over time, this file will consist of documentation around performance reviews, awards, disciplinary records, training, termination, and further employment-related details. 

Medical records

Medical records include doctor’s notes, drug tests, medical exams, and medical expense reimbursement requests.

Separation of employment records

These records are related to an employee’s departure from the organization, including resignation letters, unemployment documents, reasons for separation, whether voluntary or involuntary, and exit interviews.  

2. Compliance with employee record-keeping rules

There are federal rules and state-based rules that govern the type of information you can retain and for how long. Here’s a brief overview of some of these regulations:

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Federal and state-based rules govern the type of information you can retain and for how long. Here’s a brief overview of some of these regulations:

        • Employee’s full name and social security number
        • Address, including zip code
        • Birth date, if younger than 19
        • Sex and occupation
        • Time and day of week when employee’s workweek begins, hours worked each day, and total hours worked each workweek
        • Basis on which employee’s wages are paid
        • Regular hourly pay rate
        • Total daily or weekly straight-time earnings
        • Total overtime earnings for the workweek
        • All additions to or deductions from the employee’s wages
        • Total wages paid each pay period
        • Date of payment and the pay period covered by the payment

Department of Labor (DOL) rules also state that payroll records and collective bargaining agreements must be kept for three years and timesheets for two years. 

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC)

This regulation states that employers retain employee records for a year. Should a staff member get terminated, their personnel records should be kept for one year after their departure from the company. 

Internal Revenue System (IRS)

Under IRS rules, employment tax records should be kept four years after filing the 4th quarter of the year. Some of these records include employer identification numbers, fair market value of in-kind wages paid, and copies of employees’ and recipients’ income tax withholding certificates. 

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) and Americans with Disabilities (ACT)

Both acts mandate that medical information be kept separate from general personnel files. This includes doctor’s notes, disability benefits claim forms, drug or alcohol tests, FMLA requests, ADA requests and documentation, workers’ compensation records, medical exams, health insurance forms, employee assistance program information, and medical expense reimbursement requests. 

3. Saving time with self-service

The most efficient way to update records is to have staff do it themselves. HR software typically offers employee self-service functionality that allows employees to handle their own recordkeeping, often through a mobile device. With this, they can take ownership of updating their details without having to submit support tickets to HR.

Workforce.com makes employee recordkeeping easy.Screenshot of an employee profile in Workforce.com

Workforce.com is a cloud-based HR system specialized for hourly workforces. It offers complete visibility over employee information, documents, contracts, forms, and other data vital to running your workforce. It’s also built with an employee self-service feature that allows staff to update their details without bothering HR. Likewise, HR managers can configure notifications so they never have to dig to find information on form acknowledgments, onboarding reminders, PTO requests, attendance issues, etc.

Book a call today to get started on ditching paper forms. 

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Time Off Requests: 5 Tips + Free Template (2023)

Oil Painting of an Astronaut handing you a piece of paper

Summary:

  • Time off management is difficult when no company policy for leave requests and approvals exists. Confusion can result in overlooked requests, no-shows, and short staffing.

  • Use and customize this employee time off request template to track employee leave requests. It should serve as a formal request that outlines the number of days an employee will be away and the type of leave they will use.

  • Improve leave management with a time-off tracking app.

Managing leave requests can get complicated, especially when your business starts to scale. That’s probably why you are here, right?

Without structure or centralization, leave management can quickly become an administrative nightmare. Managing a flurry of different leave requests from emails, chats, SMS, or in-passing conversations is challenging. With no clear process or paper trail, you could end up with a disgruntled team and understaffed shifts.

Start documenting things better with the template below:

Employee Time Off Request Form

Keep in mind that using a paper template will only get you so far. Efficient time-off management is all about creating structure and sticking to it. Here are some tips to help you do this:

1. Have an HR policy in place

While federal law may not require you to offer time off, in most states, you are required to do so. Even if this is not the case for you, it is best practice to offer time off anyway – you’ll have a hard time hiring without this kind of benefit. 

Have your HR team create a written policy that is easy to follow. Without a policy guiding your business, things can quickly get tricky when multiple employees apply for time off on the same dates, for long periods, or during peak seasons.

A time off policy should include the following key areas:

  • A designated lead time/deadline for applying for leave credits or filing for leave of absence
  • Rules around unforeseen employee’s absence in case of emergencies
  • Clear steps on how employees can submit leave requests
  • Policies around high peak seasons or periods
  • Rules around various types of time off benefits such as sick leave benefits, vacation days, unpaid time off, and floating holidays. 
  • Policy around FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act) and whether they will be accrued other paid time off.

Leave policies vary across organizations. Businesses in retail, hospitality, and healthcare typically have the most stringent policies in order to staff properly during periods of peak demand. That’s not to say that leave requests are less likely to be approved in these organizations; managers just need to have a more efficient system for facilitating them. 

The key here is looking at your data, such as labor forecasts, historical sales, and demand information. See the peaks and valleys in the demand-to-labor ratio so you can plan for employee schedules accordingly and allow employees to take time off.

2. Use software to streamline things.

Managing time off should be simple – using software is the best way to simplify things. The right leave tracking software should allow you to:

  • Let employees submit time off requests in a single place.
  • View and approve leave requests and ensure that all requests go through a single channel. 
  • Customize your own accrual rates and policies.
  • Review available versus current hours.
  • See projected PTO balances on future dates.
  • View leave requests filed in a specific period.
  • Sync leave management with employee scheduling and labor forecasting, ensuring you’re never over or understaffed.
  • Let staff update their availability or unavailability
  • Set blocked periods where employees are discouraged from taking leaves.
  • Access the leave management portal via mobile or desktop. 

Leave management software makes the most sense as it eliminates paperwork and missed leave requests. While having a time off request form helps, it should only be used temporarily to manage employee leave.

3. Allow for shift swapping and/or bidding. 

Unforeseen absences are inevitable. Emergencies happen all of the time, and there may be instances where staff may be unable to make it into their shift at the last minute. Shift swaps and bids are beneficial during such situations.

Workforce.com has a shift-swapping system that lets employees pick their replacement or offer their shift in a bidding process to all available team members. As a result, managers no longer need to scramble to find coverage. Everything occurs over a single mobile app, so nothing slips through the cracks.

4. Consider implementing a rotating time off schedule. 

A rotating time off schedule works by assigning a particular period when employees can take time off. Doing this helps you prevent overlapping leave requests. Remember that you’ll need to exercise discretion here in case of unavoidable, last-minute leave requests. Determine when it is okay for overlapping leave to occur, follow FMLA rules, and figure out how you will find replacements.

5. Incentivize employees not to take time off. 

Only do this during busy times of the year for your business. Rewards for working during peak demand can be higher pay rates, fixed bonuses, or additional PTO. Incentivizing your staff this way will increase the likelihood of leave being taken during slower periods, ensuring your shifts are fully staffed when facing high demand. 

Simplify leave management with Workforce.com

Workforce.com is an all-in-one solution for managing shift workers. While it covers everything from onboarding to payroll, leave management is one of its specialties. Its mobile PTO tracking app lets staff check their balances, view upcoming time off, and submit leave requests.

Requesting time off on the Workforce.com app

Best of all, every leave request is tied directly to Workforce.com’s employee scheduling system – meaning every approved request is automatically reflected on the schedule. 

Book a call today to learn more about Workforce.com’s leave management system.

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Shift Swap Form: free template + 5 need to knows (2023)

Oil painting of two astronauts high fiving

Summary

  • Request and record shift swaps with a printable, free template

  • Make your shift swapping process more efficient and compliant by considering labor costs, schedule validations, and a bidding process

  • Manage employee shift swaps more efficiently with shift swapping software

Without the right documentation and protocol, letting your staff swap shifts can get a little messy. That’s probably why you are here, right?

Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered with this free template with fillable fields:

Shift Swap Request Form Template

Go ahead and make a copy, save it, print it, fold it, roll it – hell, you can even turn it into a paper airplane if you feel so inclined.

But hey, while you’re here, you might want to check out a few ways to improve the shift-swapping process at your business.

Five considerations for shift swaps

Allowing employees to swap their shifts can be as simple as a text message followed by a minor edit to the schedule. But a process as simple as this can run into problems, especially when you have a staff count over, say five. So here are a few ways to make shift swaps not only more efficient but cost-effective and compliant as well.

1. Allow for a bidding process

Sometimes, 1-to-1 shift swaps aren’t practical or efficient. Especially with larger workforces, singling out one coworker for a swap request misses out on potentially better-fit replacements.

As an alternative, consider letting staff members submit general swap requests, which anyone on their team can offer to cover. Managers can review the submissions, see all the bids, and decide on the most sensible swap. Using a bidding process like this eliminates the need for staff to hunt down a single person to swap with, and it allows for better collaboration and communication across your workforce.

Bidding processes also allow you to offer open shifts to your staff in case of last-minute call-outs or no-shows.

Webinar: How to Reduce No Call, No Shows

2. Don’t overlook qualifications & clashes

Whether you use 1-to-1 swaps or a bidding process, there is always a chance the wrong employee swaps in for another. Without proper oversight, you could have an unqualified employee taking a shift that requires special certification; this could land you in some hot water. You could also let a trade go through that accidentally clashes with an employee’s preexisting shift, leaving you with a broken schedule.

Make sure all shift swaps go through a schedule validation process to avoid these issues. Managers need an easy and immediate way to see missing qualifications and shift clashes; otherwise, they will slip through the cracks eventually.

3. Stay compliant with labor laws

Staying with the theme of schedule validations, it’s essential to know if a shift swap will violate any labor laws that apply to your workforce. For instance, if a swap puts someone over their maximum hours for the week or gives them a dreaded “clopening” shift, your organization could risk legal repercussions. Ensure the validation process catches these hazards before the DOL comes knocking.

4. Shift costs aren’t created equal

Once all compliance validations are accounted for, you should consider your labor costs. Ideally, you want to prevent shift swaps from costing you more. For instance, if a trade causes one employee to edge into overtime because their requested new shift is longer than their current one, you’ll be paying overtime rates that previously were never scheduled. Not great.

It’s a good idea to include wage costs, hourly rates, and work-hour totals on shift swap requests. Managers should be able to tell at a glance whether or not approving a trade will incur higher labor costs. This is where a bidding process comes in handy; managers can approve even swaps that result in no change to expected wage costs for the pay period.

5. Utilize the supercomputers in your employees’ pockets

Accounting for all the things above might seem like a lot of work – and it is if you are using paper shift swap forms. While you’ll technically have documentation of your swaps, you’ll have no real idea if you are doing them efficiently or compliantly. Luckily for you, there is a high likelihood that each of your employees has a supercomputer in their pocket at all times. Use them.

These days, employee scheduling apps come with real-time shift swapping functionality that makes shift change forms obsolete. Incorporating the modern-day extension of the human body into a workflow like shift swapping only makes sense, especially in fast-paced environments like hospitality and nursing. Shift changes take less time and are easier to manage when you condense all the admin work into a single, easy-to-use app.

Ditch the template: let the software do the work

A paper shift switch form – even ours – will not cut it if you want to manage shift swaps correctly. With Workforce.com’s shift swapping software, you can automatically validate every trade request for qualifications, maximum hours, employee availability, shift clashes, and overtime.

Shift swap requests on the Workforce.com app

Once approved, everyone gets notified over the app, and the work schedule is automatically updated accordingly. Sounds nice, right?

Leave the templates behind and get started with smarter shift swapping by contacting us today.

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Free overtime calculator

Summary:

  • Overtime refers to any and all hours worked beyond the standard 40-hour work week. According to the FLSA, it should be paid at a rate no less than 1.5x the regular hourly pay rate. – More

  • Only non-exempt employees are eligible for overtime pay – More

  • Miscalculating and underpaying overtime can result in DOL fines lawsuits. Avoid this by using time and attendance software and by running routine audits. – More

Ah, yes, overtime. You probably loved it back in high school working your summer lifeguarding job at the local pool. But flash forward to the present, and it has probably lost some of its luster, becoming more of a necessary evil in your day-to-day business operations.

While it is undoubtedly convenient to have employees stay late or work extra days while short-staffed, this convenience comes at the price of higher labor costs and sensitive calculations.

Luckily, we have a solution for you: the trusty overtime calculator. 

What is overtime?

But wait, let’s back up for a second and clearly define the concept of overtime. 

Overtime refers to any and all hours worked beyond the 40-hour standard work week. According to the DOL, employees “must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rates of pay.”

In other words, employees must receive 1.5x their regular hourly wage for working overtime, at minimum. Overtime pay rates vary, however – and herein lies the key difference between overtime and another common term: time and half. 

Overtime vs. time and a half

While overtime is a blanket term referring to the time worked beyond 40 hours in a week, “time and a half” is a specific rate at which overtime pay is calculated. Time and a half is the legal minimum for overtime. 

Overtime pay can also be calculated at higher rates, like double or triple time. Many businesses do this once overtime hours reach a certain threshold, or if the overtime shift occurs during a critical period of the day. 

Who is eligible for overtime? 

Typically, hourly workers who make less than $684 a week, or $35,568 a year, are entitled to minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standard Act. Specifically, they have the right to overtime pay at 1.5x their regular hourly rate. However, the FLSA also deems workers who have limited artistic, scientific, executive, or administrative responsibilities as eligible for overtime as well, regardless of their weekly earnings.

Examples of employees who receive overtime include: 

  • Construction workers
  • Plumbers
  • Mechanics
  • Firefighters
  • Police officers

People who primarily do non-manual work and earn more than $684 a week are generally deemed “exempt” from the FLSA right to overtime. While exempt employees typically hold salaried, white-collar jobs, this is not always the case. 

Read More: Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Employees

How to calculate overtime

In its most basic form, calculating overtime pay is really quite simple. Just take the employee’s regular hourly rate and multiply it by the overtime rate. Then, take the resulting number and multiply it by the number of overtime hours worked. 

For a more in-depth example of how this works, check out our detailed guide to how to calculate time and a half.

For many businesses, computing overtime isn’t always this simple. To get overtime pay right, you first need to determine the regular rate – this becomes much more difficult when dealing with variables like shift differentials, commissions, bonuses, and holidays. One miscalculated bonus or forgotten holiday could throw off an entire overtime computation, landing you in hot water with not only your employee but the U.S. Department of Labor. 

Penalties for getting overtime wrong

Whether intentional or not, miscalculating overtime pay can lead to underpaying your workers – which eventually leads to legal action. 

In 2022, a district court judge in Alabama upheld a $13.2 million lawsuit in favor of some steelworkers. Their employer had not been paying overtime correctly due to the use of a suspect rounding policy that rounded clock-ins and clock-outs down by 30 minutes. 

While the employer of course claimed to be unaware of the mistake, blaming it on their previous lawyer, ignorance is not a valid excuse here. You see, it was found that they had acted in bad faith by not keeping accurate and complete work time records. If they had been keeping complete records, it would have shown they had every intention of following FLSA standards. 

How to avoid overtime lawsuits

The last thing you want is a $13.2 million lawsuit on your hands for making simple computation mistakes. Routine timekeeping miscalculations can add up over the years and result in a significant amount of unpaid overtime that you don’t want on your hands. Here are a couple of the best ways to safeguard against this happening:

Keep accurate and complete wage and hour records

Act in good faith and you’ll have nothing to hide. Keep daily records of hours worked and wages owed so you’ll always have a paper trail to fall back on if the DOL ever comes knocking. 

Also, consider running routine overtime audits. If you catch a mistake, address it quickly before it snowballs into a larger issue. And of course, keep records of these audits to demonstrate a proper intention to abide by FLSA standards. 

For more on this, check out our Q&A with Annette Idalski, a Labor and Employment Trial Attorney and Partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

Q&A: Employers sued for wage and hour violations

Use software to calculate overtime for you

Calculating overtime may be a breeze for one employee, but when you are dealing with hundreds, as well as things like bonuses, vacation hours, and shift differentials, things suddenly become much more tricky.

Overtime needs to be calculated accurately and on time, not just for the sake of your employees, but for the survival of your business. Sure, you can use spreadsheets and phone calculators to figure it all out. But the easier choice is to use dedicated time and attendance software to do the tedious admin work for you. Not only does it automatically track hours of work and compute overtime compensation for you, but it also accounts for any and all overtime laws unique to your region.

A time tracking platform like Workforce.com automatically recognizes when staff go into overtime, quickly flagging and recording these hours alongside regular hours on digital timecards. At the end of the pay period, all you have to do is quickly approve and export these timesheets with a few clicks. Yes, it’s true, paying your employees accurately is that easy. 

If you are ready to get started calculating overtime pay, sign up for a free trial today, or, get in touch with our team.

Or, if you’d like to find out more about how to avoid overtime in the first place, check out our free webinar below:

Webinar: How to lower your overtime hours