Recently in Labor Scheduling Category

Does your business have holiday hours? How do you determine who will work and when? In many businesses, seniority is the only tool used to determine who works on the holidays and who doesn't. If seniority is your only basis for scheduling, you may be faced with having your second best team on board during the busiest days and times of your business.

Most successful businesses that I have seen have employed a mix of seniority based and talent based scheduling for holidays. The best salespeople work during the peak periods, while the newer sales people are paired with the best people during these shifts to learn the tools of the trade. On off-peak periods, management often takes on a more critical role to ensure the staff is motivated and prepared in the event the off-peak quickly turns to peak.

Another point about holiday scheduling is the determination by the business as a whole whether to stay open or closed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Many times, it is the mall that a store is within or a corporate decision to open, but often the decision is determined by the local management. Think about your customers, your people, and your long-term business goals before making a rash decision to open or close on these days; it may make more sense to stay closed on the actual holiday itself to give your staff time to spend with their families, while it may make more sense to close the day before or after certain holidays to serve both your customers and your staff best.

I've expanded by client base to include clients from Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando. Each month, I'm spending a few days in the sunnier climate to not only meet and work with new clients and businesses, but also to recharge my batteries.

An HR practice I need to employ as my business grows will be to depend on a remote workforce that I don't see regularly. I've gotten good practice at working remotely with others through my Virtual Internship Program students, so I feel I am prepared to go even further by eventually hiring remote freelancers and eventually employees.

Trust and time management are the two crucial elements of remote work. I've found my best interns have reported to me on time, managed their time well, and worked with limited supervision.

If you'd like to find out more how to manage Virtual Interns or staff, contact me and I'll be happy to offer you some insights.

Whether it is the night audit position of a hotel or inn, a security position, or any other position requiring an overnight shift, it takes a special person and set of skills to work the 3rd shift. People need to have the support of their family (or not have a family) in many cases for people to remain on the 3rd shift for an extended period. What I have noticed is that people who excel at working the overnight have partners in their life who work the same shift and/or enjoy working those hours to allow them to balance their school/work/life balance.

In some cases, where I have seen companies fail in their HR strategy on the 3rd shift is to not tailor the work schedule to the needs of the people. At one of my former employers, instead of having our staff on the 3rd shift work 5 nights from 11-7, we moved their schedule to four nights from 10-8. This gave them the opportunity to interact with more of the daytime staff (allowing them to feel more integral to the operation), and allowed us to retain our third shift staff for longer periods.

One way I'd like to see employers address the third shift issue is to split it up into a different schedule - schedule one employee from 5pm to 3am and another from 3am to 11am. Alternatively, splitting the third shift altogether into smaller 5 hour shifts when necessary from 11pm-4am and 4am-9am to maximize staffing options.

If you are out of work, it may be time to make a list of the 10 reasons you don't have a job. Many people will blame the economy, layoffs, poor bosses, etc, but if you sit down and look at some of the other reasons you are out of work, you may discover that all the reasons you come up with are manageable and fixable.

Here are 10 reasons many people are out of work other than economic conditions

1. An unclear objective
2. A resume that lacks clarity
3. Lack of online presence on sites like LinkedIn
4. Expired credentials
5. Incomplete degree requirements
6. Lack of experience with new technology
7. Poor presentation skills
8. Not accepting jobs that are "beneath them"
9. Gaps in employment that aren't explained
10. Inflexibility in work schedule

All 10 of these items can easily be adjusted. You may want to consider checking out the Career Communications Concepts online learning environment through SaratogaCollege.com. Be one of the first 5 people to email us before 9/18 at robert@saratogacollege.com and you will be given free access to this 12 week career development course and guidance to help you find your next job.

In addition to my offer of free resume critiques online through September 17th (email your resume to robert@saratogacollege.com
), I will be at the following Job Fairs at the times below offering resume critiques and career advice.

Saratoga Job Fair
Saratoga City Center
Wednesday October 5th from 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm

Times Union Job Fair
Albany Marriott
Monday October 10th from 2pm-5pm

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Another great service I'd like to share with you is Google Appointments. Google Appointments allows you to block out time for people to schedule time with you. You can specify the blocks of time, how long the appointments can be, and what for.

If you'd like to book an appointment with me, you can visit Robert Braathe of Braathe Enterprises Google Calendar to schedule a time to speak with me via Phone/Skype/GoToMeeting

Once you are established and well into your HR career, your next thoughts most likely center on advancement. Human Resources is continuously evolving to meet the business needs, requirements, and laws that are ever changing. If you want to move to the next level in your field, you must work hard and prove yourself. This means taking on extra projects, not being afraid to voice new ideas , becoming a Subject Matter Expert, and going back to school for additional training, certifications and/or an advanced degree.

1. Taking on more projects - When new projects arise, that usually means extra work and most people avoid more work like the plague. If you want to advance your career, you must be the person who steps up to the plate. Why? Well, for numerous reasons. When promotion time comes, you will be at the forefront of the minds of management for your willingness to roll up your sleeves and help the company in their time of need. Secondly, you are showing eagerness and a willingness to both learn and try new things and that is also a positive with management. Thirdly, with each new project that you complete, you are proving just how knowledgeable you are and how much your help can improve the HR process.

2. Voice New Ideas - Everyone has an opinion, but most are too afraid to voice them. If you have an idea or suggestion that you feel will help the HR process, then voice it. This shows initiative and drive, and it can also make a great addition to your resume if your idea succeeds.

3. Become a SME (Subject Matter Expert) - Read HR blogs, start an HR blog, answer questions on LinkedIn, build your profile on social media sites, and get recommendations on those sites. In other words, spread the word that you are an HR professional and a true subject matter expert in the field. Not only will your employers take notice, so will other in your industry and that can only help you in the future.

4. Advance your education - Many Senior level positions requires certain certifications, training, and degrees. By taking educational classes focused on HR, you stay ahead of the pack by learning of the new laws, regulations, and business process hitting your industry. Do you think you don't have time? Online education is becoming increasingly popular and is now widely accepted by big organizations. Here is one HR class being offered online that is merely 8 weeks and is centered around your schedule. You already have the education and with training classes, you also have the education, which makes you the ideal candidate for promotion.

With these four steps, you will be on your way to advancing your HR career. Have you recently moved up the ranks in HR? How did you do it?

by Sarah Palmo, Braathe Enterprises Virtual Internship Program participant

In an article published on August 12, 2011, in the Business Review, the focus was on the opportunity for college students to take part in an internship with a growing company, Global Foundries. Global Foundries is located at Luther Forest in Malta.

Over the next couple years, Global Foundries wants to grow their internships. They recently had 1,000 students throughout the United States competing for 20 summer internship positions. These positions are in fields such as finance and engineering, and are located at the new operation in Malta, as well as California.

Global Foundries is offering an incredible opportunity to students who are close to graduating and want to gain experience in a specific field. Many of these interns may be offered positions within this growing company.

To read the full article, please click Here.

These past 8 months have been an amazing experience working with virtual interns from all over the United States. Recently, I added interns from around the globe.

I've found one of the biggest issues in virtual work is the trust and communication that needs to exist, developed and nurtured throughout the process. Each intern has their own unique way of doing work, and each has provided me with their own degree of productivity based on their skills, knowledge and abilities and their personality, interests and preferences.

I'm excited to be expanding this program this fall to add more project based interns as well as offering an online course free of charge to interns as a perk for being a part of the Braathe Enterprises Virtual Internship program.

For more information, visit http://www.braatheenterprises.com/internships

One of the joys of teaching is the ability to access a multi-talented array of speakers in the Capital Region and beyond who are interested in sharing their wealth of experience with students.

In addition, it is truly a pleasure to see speakers coming out to local events who have the passion and energy to truly engage an audience and put a different perspective on events than we can do from within our own organizations.

As a member of the Capital Region based Consulting Alliance, many of my colleagues speak regularly on a variety of topics related to business, marketing, law and health care professions. I encourage you to view our Find a Speaker page for the Albany Capital Region area serving New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut as well as surrounding areas.

The past week has seen a flurry of activity as major league baseball teams have scurried around to find that one or two missing pieces they feel they need for a run to the playoffs. Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cleveland and Texas proved to be some of the big players in this years trading frenzy. Many teams stayed out of the trading race this year as the cost of trading prospects was too high or there was no one on the market who was better than what the team already had in its minor league or major league rosters.

In business, when it's time for the holiday rush, a sales blitz, or other peak in business, it's often easy to get caught up in the game of landing that flashy new salesperson or hiring extra staff to get through a peak period.

Sometimes, the best solution for amping it up during peak periods is to value your existing staff even more; reward them with overtime, sales performance bonuses, or some other perks to give them the opportunity to meet the goals you seek. Indeed, sometimes right at home is where you can find the talents and people you are looking for outside.