Workforce Management Blog

After reading this blog entitled “360 Degree Reviews” by Jim Estill at CEO Blog – Time Leadership, we thought that this would be an interesting topic to further elaborate on. In the original blog, Jim briefly highlights how he conducts the reviews for his company, so we thought we’d give more insight into how and why do 360 degree reviews.

First off, let’s talk about what a 360 degree review is. It is an appraisal technique that uses raters that are all around the employee that is being evaluated. This includes supervisors, subordinates, peers, and internal and external customers – all the people that the appraisee interacts with.

As Jim stated in the blog, he emails everyone who interacts with the person being reviewed for 3 things they are doing well and anything they could improve on, and then takes all the feedback to create a review.  One of the major benefits of this appraisal system is it enhances the perception of fairness. With a typical supervisor review, results can be slightly skewed because you are only getting one persons point of view on the employee.  Since the 360 degree method of appraisals involves multiple raters, the review will be more accurate because you can consolidate various perspectives.

Although the 360 degree approach can be more time consuming, they contribute to companies as more than a tool for measuring performance.  360 degree reviews also promote activities such as performance feedback, coaching, leadership development, succession planning, and rewards & recognition.

As the presence of 360 degree reviews continues to grow, more and more companies are realizing the benefits of adopting this method. Giving the employees both positive and constructive feedback from all the people they interact with can only help in the development of the employee.  Feedback from different sources allows the employee to see how they are doing in all aspects of their job, and work to improve. A better worker means increased efficiency and productivity for the organization as whole. Now maybe it’s time to start thinking of 360 degree reviews for your company!

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Absenteeism is becoming a growing problem for companies of all sizes. Here are some reasons to explain absenteeism, and some resolutions to combat it.

Reasons

1. Lack of Commitment: Employees who are not interested in the success of the company will likely be willing to miss work without a legitimate excuse. This lack of commitment to the organization and their jobs can stem from poor working conditions, which will be discussed later in the article.
2. Lack of Consequences: Simply put, incentives encourage attendance and punishments discourage absence. Furthermore, employee packages that allow for a lot of time off can lead to workers abusing this.  
3. Poor Working Conditions: Working in an environment that is unpleasant will discourage employees from coming to work every day. Poor conditions can include a lack of breaks, an excessive workload, a stressful atmosphere or poor treatment from managers. Working in these poor conditions leads to a lack of commitment, simply because employees don’t enjoy their jobs.
4. Honest Excuses: Although there is a fair bit of unexcused absence in the workplace, employees are often away from work for legitimate reasons. These can range from sickness to car trouble, or anything in between.

Resolutions

1.  Work-Life Balance: Striking a balance between the workplace and personal life is something that companies should allow for employees. Building “personal days” into absence packages or implementing a “flextime” system can help with this.
2. Follow-ups: Conducting post-absence interviews can help managers clarify the reasons for absence, discuss ways the absence could have been avoided, and reinforce why absenteeism hurts the company (especially for employees who show a pattern of absenteeism).
3. Consequences: Absenteeism can be discouraged through negative consequences (punishments), and attendance can be encouraged through positive consequences (praise, recognition, monetary bonuses, or awards such as “Employee of the Month”).
4. Automation: Installing a time and attendance system to automatically track employee hours reduces illegitimate absences, and does not allow employees to get away with simply not showing up for work. An automated system can also produce fair schedules and track who is eligible for overtime, to ensure employees are happy with the hours they work, to ultimately motivate attendance.

Visit our website for more information on automated time and attendance solutions.

Now that you know the objectives for your interview, you have decided on the structure, you are aware of the things to keep in mind while conducting an interview as well as the common mistakes, and you have designed the interview, it’s time to actually conduct the interview. The following 5 steps will help to ensure you are conducting an effective interview.

1. Planning the Interview – You need to figure out who is conducting the interview, who is asking what questions, where it is taking place, etc. A procedure should be established to be followed.
2. Establishing Rapport – Greeting the candidate in a friendly manner puts them at ease so they will not be too tense or nervous during the interview, so you will be able to obtain honest information regarding if they are qualified and will fit in with the job.
3. Asking Questions – Decide on the questions beforehand, and ask them in the same order for each candidate. Listen to the responses, encourage them to express their thoughts and ideals fully, and take brief notes on their answers. This increases the validity of the process and ensures that candidates are compared equally.
4. Closing the Interview – As the interview is coming to an end, allow some time for the candidate to ask any questions they may have.
5. Evaluating the Candidate – After the interview is complete, each interviewer needs to rate the candidate’s performance.

Once all of the candidates have been evaluated, and the top candidates have been narrowed down, organizations should conduct a reference and background check. After those checks have been passed, the top candidates are generally asked to have an interview with their immediate supervisor, and go through a realistic job preview. Finally a hiring decision is made and the candidate is notified. The ultimate decision is typically made by the immediate supervisor.

This concludes the final installment of How to Conduct a Successful Interview. You now know all the steps involved with the interviewing process and will be able to successfully go about conducting an employee selection interview!

Last week we discussed the common interviewing mistakes, so now we are going to go over how we can prevent them from happening.

You can avoid making these mistakes by designing an effective interview with the following five steps:

1. Decide who is involved in the selection process and develop the selection criteria – clarifying and weighing information in the job description and specification.
2. Specify the needs and wants and weigh the wants
3. Determine the assessment strategies and develop an evaluation form – Once the criteria has been established and weighted, this is the basis for how candidates will be compared and evaluated.
4. Develop interview questions – Use job-knowledge and worker-requirement questions to determine the capabilities of the candidate and their motivation and willingness to work under certain conditions (i.e. shift work or travel).
5. Develop candidate-specific questions – Open-ended, job-related questions based on the candidate’s application form and resume can be a great indicator of the applicant’s abilities.

To this point, we have learned about all of the prep work needed before the interview. Now it’s time for the moment everyone has been waiting for. Stay tuned until next week (Wednesday Sept 28th) for our final installment – Conducting an Effective Interview.

Today’s workforce management (WFM) systems help companies to maintain the required level of service at lower costs. Automated WFM systems save substantial management and clerical time, while reducing labour costs by optimizing staffing resources.

You are probably already familiar with the benefits of WFM and what it can do for your business. But when it comes to choosing a WFM solution, how do you select the right one?

Here are some guidelines to consider when choosing a WFM system:

1. Invite all qualified vendors to present their products. Insist on a detailed demonstration and ask questions about how their system would meet your needs, including scheduling, time and attendance, absences and interfaces to payroll and HR. Make sure that you have everything covered, even if you do not intend to implement all modules in the very beginning. You do not want to replace systems after 6 months.
2. Talk to other users. At a minimum, talk to three or four other organizations similar to yours, that have implemented a system. Visit at least one of these and talk to managers about the benefits they have received as well as the day-to-day users about ease of use and customer support.
3. Make sure that the product is localized. An important component of Workforce Management is time and attendance and absence management. Unlike other systems, Workforce Management needs to comply with the local legislation of working hours, overtime, time-off etc. This gets even more complicated as legislation often changes and maintaining full compliance with local labour laws is an ongoing process. 
4. Consider vendor support. Workforce management software systems are not simple, off-the-shelf packages. They require specialized training and ongoing consultative support to make the most of their capabilities. Ask about customization capabilities, documentation, training, and access to customer support. It is also important to understand the product roadmap for future upgrades and enhancements.
5.  When you compare, consider more than just the price-tag. Prices for workforce management systems cover a wide range, depending on whether you are considering a single module or a comprehensive integrated system. Some of the more comprehensive packages may seem expensive, but do not lose sight of the fact that each employee may have a cost of $10,000 annually or higher. Saving just a couple of employees’ labour expenses can quickly justify the cost of even the most expensive package.
   
6. Plan for a successful implementation. During the purchase process, it is critical to communicate and motivate everyone in the business to participate in the process. While implementing workforce management results in a more efficient operation and a less stressful environment in the long run, such an implementation may mean a cultural change for supervisors, HR, payroll and management in the short term.

For more information on choosing a workforce management system visit our website