Recently in Labor Scheduling Category

Using flexible work schedules can enable a team to develop a stronger, more energetic workforce both short-term and long-term.

On a short-term basis, using 3 employees each working 5 hour shifts to cover a work day can save on break time and improve productivity.  In most areas, a 5 hour shift only requires a 15 minute unpaid workbreak.  An 8 hour shift requires a 30 minute paid break and 2 15 minute unpaid breaks.  

If you business is open 7am-10pm and you schedule employees from 7-3 and 2-10, you'd need to find 2 hours of time in which to run your operation short a person.   If you schedule employees from 7-12, 12-5, and 5-10, you only need to find coverage for 45 minutes of that same block of time.

Over-reliance or under-reliance on full-time staff can affect any business, but finding ways to cover your operation without running a traditional 8 hour work day can lend to better productivity and options for your employees.

On Tuesday December 8th at 1pm, my students at SUNY Delhi at SCCC in Schenectady will be debating hot issues in human resources.  

The conference call can be an effective way of keeping everyone on the same page.  However, becoming a serial conference caller can create a situation where the call becomes a chore for those who are on it, and a redundant way of communicating.

Effective conference calls can get people on the same page from remote locations.  They can get everyone into a "room" who needs to hear critical data but can't necessarily be in the same place at the same time.

To avoid making conference calls a chore, ask yourself whether the call needs to be weekly (or daily, or whatever regular frequency you have it).  Much like any other meeting, determine an agenda beforehand, and send out information related to the call before the call.

Some of the worst calls I have been on have had similar themes:

1.  Too frequent

2.  Too focused on minutae.

3.  Untimely (at an inconvenient time to the flow of the day

The best calls have had similar themes as well

1.  Sporadic

2.  Focused on a global big-picture agenda

3.  At the beginning or end of the day

Tell me about your best and worst conference calls at robert@galaconcierge.com

 

I heard a commerical on the way in to work today asking for part-time employees who "must be available nights and weekends."  Some of the greatest turnover I have seen has been in the night and weekend workforce.  One of many challenges managers face is how to deal with turnover of this type while still keeping the business afloat.

A best practice I have seen work best is to require all full-time staff to work at least one evening in order to qualify for full-time pay and benefits.   If nights and weekends are such a concern, then utilizing some of your best staffers to cover your most difficult to cover shifts will increase productivity and hopefully decrease turnover.

There are many arguments for and against this policy, but when looked at from the perspective of total organizational success, this policy can work in any setting.  It rewards those who are flexible with their schedule to the fruits of full-time salary and benefits, while encouraging those who may just be joining the workforce that there are opportunities to participate in the company other than just night and weekend work.

 

When September 1st arrives, baseball teams bring up anywhere from zero to 15 players to support their teams during the playoff stretch.  In the case of the Yankees, this came in the form of a 3rd catcher, a second backup infielder, a backup infielder/outfielder, and 6 or 7 extra "arms" in the bullpen.  These callups were used to help give people rest before the postseason begins, give people an opportunity to prove themselves in key situations, and in some cases provide a resource on the bench for late inning running or hitting opportunities.

Lack of timeliness on the job (both from the employer and employee view) causes lapses in productivity, stress, and in some cases severance of employment.

From an employee point of view, the excuses I heard often were "my commute is too long", "i got stuck in traffic", "i woke up late", etc...  Learning how to manage your time better despite these issues is the solution.   Even now, students who are late to class often reference these same problems.  As I like to say, it never hurts to get somewhere too early.

From an employer point of view, catching the problems that cause lateness in the first place can prevent it from happening at all.  If you have staff you know come from a long distance and through a difficult commute, you may want to look at options to be flexible with start and end times.  In my own life now, I have office hours either until just around 4 or until 6pm, because if I leave anywhere in between, there is going to be a delay inevitably.

Finding the right balance between caving to demands and running a successful operation is important when considering how to prevent lateness caused by commute.  However, if you are able to make this work, then you can focus more on the lateness that is occurring that is especially bad for business - the lateness of those who just show up late because they have been allowed to get away with it.

Having a strict attendance policy that is followed through the document, discipline and dismiss process will enable you to hold people accountable while addressing issues in a fair and just manner.

Our national pastime is rich with memories and parallels to everyday life.  A friend of mine knows how much I love baseball, and I told her that I had been thinking about writing a baseball column relating to HR.  She told me to run with it, so here we go!

In the first in a regular series on HR in Baseball, I will share with you how the pitcher and catcher relationship is so important to having an effective game.

The catcher is ultimately responsible for calling the correct pitch for each batter and each situation.  However, he must team with the pitcher to call pitches that the pitcher is comfortable throwing, is effective at throwing, and can create the greatest good for the team.

Two examples of how much the pitcher/catcher relationship is important can be seen in the perfect game pitched by Mark Buehrle earlier this summer, and in the Yankees/Red Sox game this past Saturday.

In Buerhle's perfect game, he trusted his catcher so much that whatever the catcher chose, Buerhle threw.  Every pitch magically worked, and it resulted in the rare feat of a perfect game.  Having kept an eye on Buerhle in warmups, and having discussions with him prior to the game, they created a game plan that would be effective.

Let's look at when pitching and catching don't get along.  AJ Burnett and Jorge Posada were clearly not on the same page on Saturday.  Burnett and Posada met several times during the first couple innings of the game to address communication issues, and after Burnett delivered a pitch he did not want to deliver, he turned his back to home plate and asked "Why, why, why" in clear view. 

What could have improved Burnett's performance may have been the ability that day for Posada to see that his fastball was not quite what it should be.  Every time Posada seemed to call for a fastball, the Red Sox hit the ball a million miles.   If there was better communication prior to the game, and better adjustments during the game, the results may have been much different.

To bring this over to business, one can look at the relationship of a manager (the catcher) to the people who work for the manager (the pitchers).  The catcher may not have ultimate authority, but they do have the ability to guide the success of the pitcher, capitalizing on their talents on any given day.  The best "catchers" know when someone may be struggling in an area of their work, and know when they need to capitalize on secondary strengths to bring out the best in someone on any given day.

Q:  What are your thoughts on "mental health days"?   What should employers do about people who want to take these?

In retail and hospitality especially, the value of on-call shifts and on-call hours is priceless.  

When it comes to business, sometimes,  "shaving our head and starting over" means throwing out old practices completely and starting fresh with something knew.

I was asked last week what was the meanest thing I ever said to someone.

A few years ago, someone new I had met about 5 minutes earlier said "I'm not sure what I should do with my hair."  I told her "Maybe you should shave your head and start over."  My friends were aghast, but she actually said "Yeah, maybe that's not such a bad idea."

Whether it is restarting your website, changing your orientation program, or changing your hiring strategies, putting a fresh look on things may require getting rid of any type of material related to your old way of looking at things.  The same thing can be applied to redoing your resume or looking at ways to search for work in the first place.

Sometimes, we have our "head shaved" when somebody ends up deleting files, losing information, or because circumstances require a total shift from the old way of doing things.  This could present for you a unique opportunity to give a fresh outlook to your ways of operating.

Share with me stories of "Shaving your head and starting over" at robert@galaconcierge.com