Retaining Hourly Workers - Part 1

November 27, 2007

At an upcoming meeting of the Workforce Institute Board of Advisors in Boston, we plan to spend a good deal of time investigating best practices in retaining hourly workers. Although much is written about the retention of white collar knowledge workers, it’s harder to find actionable advice for how to achieve the right retention equilibrium point for hourly workforces. While a certain amount of attrition is healthy in an hourly workforce, just as it is in the salaried world, many organizations relying on hourly labor struggle mightily to keep their shifts covered.

Dr. Charles Handler recently wrote about this topic in ERE in an article entitled “Turnover: Insights from the Real World”. One of the key points he makes is that for many hourly workers, the job is not where they turn for personal fulfillment, but rather to pay the bills while they seek personal satisfaction through other channels.

We’ll be writing much more on this topic after our upcoming meeting. We’d love to hear from any of you who have real life examples of organizations who do a good job in managing voluntary turnover in their hourly worker populations.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Employee Retention, Labor Market, Meaning of Work | 1 Comment

Are Books and Readers a Thing of the Past?

November 21, 2007

This week in the Boston Globe, there was an article about the decline in reading for pleasure - especially among people under 24, but true across the board. Ironically, the cover story in Newsweek this week concerns the Amazon Kindle- a $399 electronic book reader that will allow users to download books from Amazon wirelessly. This is a logical move for Amazon. They are already a center of gravity for readers, and this provides them with an alternate channel to readers who’ll appreciate a lightweight portable device that allows them to carry many of their favorite books, newspapers and blogs wherever they go. While the technology blogs were abuzz with critiques of the design and business model yesterday (See Andrew Lavallee’s Wall Street Journal blog for a sampling), an equally interesting question to me is whether the eBook readers like the Kindle can have any impact on making reading for pleasure more attractive to those who don’t.

What does this all have to do with workforce management? Think about the following quote from the Globe article:

“Seventy-two percent of employers rated high school graduates deficient in writing, and 38 percent cited reading deficiency. One out of five American workers reads at a lower level than necessary to do his or her job. Not surprisingly, proficient readers are more likely to attain management jobs and higher incomes.”

Despite heavy high school and college course loads, both of my kids read for pleasure in addition to their reading required for school- which admittedly puts them in a minority among their friends. (Business model note to Jeff Bezos, by the way - my college sophomore isn’t particularly interested in reading novels on the Kindle, but thinks it would be fantastic as a means of managing all her required texts and other reading vs. hauling texts all over campus.)

In a different way, though, this generation is even more engaged with the written word than ever before. Although they all carry cell phones, they do a lot more text messaging than calling. They communicate via IM and online communities like FaceBook. They’re in constant interaction, but often at an arm’s length remove - electronically buffered from voice to voice or face to face communications. Unfortunately, while the quantity of written communication may be growing, the quality of the communication is linked to immediacy, not grammar. This may not be a problem when you’re “chatting” with friends, but quickly becomes a problem when you’re relying on the quality of your written communication to persuade others to your point of view in a business setting.

Per the Globe article, literacy is directly linked to success on the job. Above and beyond literacy, plunging into a great book and discovering a new insight is one of the great pleasures of being a reader. Treat yourself this long weekend - read a book.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Workforce Development | 1 Comment

When Black Friday Comes…

November 15, 2007

OK - I borrowed the title from a Steely Dan song from one of my favorite albums (link provided for those born after 1970). The song refers to a few cataclysmic events. For retailers, it refers to the day after Thanksgiving - when the holiday shopping begins in earnest, and retailers’ financial fates are in the hands of the consumers. Retailers are worried this holiday season as the mortgage market does the mambo, oil hits $100 per barrel, and the average consumer may be inclined to limit the holiday budget while waiting out the storm.

In partnership with Retail Systems Research, we’ve recently concluded a survey of major retailers entitled “The State of Retail Workforce Management”. You can download the full text of the survey from their website. This research is especially timely as it highlights the balancing act retailers need to achieve between customer service and expense management. From the Research section of this site, you can download “Customer Centricity’s Impact on the Workforce”, by Nikki Baird, Managing Partner at RSR Research. This article summarizes the survey findings and describes how management practices for the retail workforce and the tools used to manage the workforce must change if retailers are to survive in a customer-centric environment.

Among the principle findings of the survey is that while retailers almost universally cite their workforce, and specifically their customer facing workforce, as their most important asset, many still treat their workers as a means to an end vs. a strategic asset. There are some exceptions out there. In his blog HRCleanUp, my friend Jay Hargis cites customer service leaders like Starbucks and In-N-Out Burger that offer their employees benefits and seem to reap the rewards in employee and customer loyalty. A recent Boston Globe story indicates that some retailers are rethinking the marathon hours for their employees, and foregoing 5 am opening times in favor of having well rested employees who they believe will produce a better result for them.

I’d love to hear from you about retailers you think are doing a great job balancing employee satisfaction with business results. Happy shopping!

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Customer Satisfaction, Employee Retention | 1 Comment

Nina Giovannelli Guest Blog: Veterans at Work - Helping on the Home Front

November 9, 2007

The Kronos Marketing Department recently packed and shipped 175 care packages to Company H in Baghdad where one of our family members is serving in the infantry.

As we honor the veterans of wars past and present this weekend, we offer you a new article entitled Supporting Our Troops and Our Employees that highlights organizations’ legal obligations for their employees who are on active duty, as well as insights about organizations considered the best in the country for these employees.

Many companies proactively seek out men and women who have served in the military due to their willingness to relocate frequently (domestically and internationally), their ability to perform in physically demanding environments, and their familiarity with highly complex equipment, machinery or technology. They display qualities that any organization can leverage to great advantage, for example:

Sense of urgency: These men and women are comfortable with a fast pace and the need to make rapid decisions even without perfect information. They’ve developed the focus to stay on task until completion. They are trained to think on their feet and be responsive to changing conditions.
Leadership: They are trained to lead by example as well as through direction and motivation. Especially as they move up the ladder, they are trained to be leaders and to manage for results. While they are comfortable in leadership roles, they also understand the importance of being accountable up and down the chain of command.

Attitude: They typically have a positive, “can-do” attitude. They are trained to solve problems and remain calm in stressful situations. They have a strong work ethic and commitment to the team. They execute orders well, communicate results, and understand the importance of being reliable.

Where to find employees with military experience

Because of privacy concerns, there isn’t a central database of veterans that the military makes available to private employers. To hire veterans, go to GIJobs.net, the local ESGR committee, and your local reserve center. Other resources include job banks and services such as HireVetsFirst.gov, RecruitArmy.com, VetJobs.com, and Vets4Hire.com.

Author Nina Giovannelli is a senior marketing professional at Kronos, Inc. and a member of the Workforce Institute.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Employee Retention | 2 Comments

Not everything that happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas…

November 7, 2007

I’ve spent the last 5 days in Las Vegas attending KronosWorks. Kronos, our sponsor, had close to 2000 attendees at the conference - customers, press and analysts, and Kronos employees. Although I’m not typically a fan of Las Vegas, I had many “aha” moments this week that I’d like to share. Here are my top ten from this over-the-top city in the desert.

Customer community building is king for any company. For technology companies like Kronos, creating opportunities for customers to interact with each other is incredibly powerful as users share both their successes and their failures with each other. Companies can’t throw a big party like KronosWorks every day, but they should be relentless in their pursuit of the customer point of view throughout the year.
I’ve written a few times about customer service and customer retention in this blog. As an employee, there is nothing like seeing a couple thousand of your loyal customers together in one place to make you feel proud of your contribution to making that happen and to energize you to find more reasons for those customers to feel that loyalty. One of Kronos’ top sales reps told me he’d never been to the conference before, and that the opening day of the conference was one of his proudest days at Kronos, as he looked across the huge crowd.
Daniel Pink’s tip on the best interview question - Are you lucky? Those who anwer yes tend to be collaborative, creative, and successful at work.
Marcus Buckingham’s speech about the central fallacy of performance evaluations was intriguing. He talked about the power of focusing on developing employees’ strengths and leveraging them - vs. focusing performance conversations on what employees need to “fix” about themselves. He didn’t imply that managers should ignore ineffective behavior, but rather find ways to help themselves and their employees to maximize the frequency that they can be their most effective at work by identifying individual strengths and leveraging the knowledge in individual and team assignments.
In a follow on meeting with about 35 executive attendees at the Workforce Institute Executive Seminar, Marcus led an equally compelling conversation about the behaviors that make for effective leadership. His definition: the purpose of a leader is to rally people to a better future. He talked not only about the importance of providing a clear vision of the future, but specifically about the need to make that vision vivid through storytelling and picking the right heroes in the organizational culture.
Former Navy Commander Michael Abrashoff spoke about the importance of harnessing the wisdom of the team. I had read a profile on him in Fast Company when it was published in 1999. He is notable for having transformed the ship under his command from the worst to the best in the Navy at that time. He has subsequently retired from the Navy and is a well known author and speaker. He attributes his success to his focus on demonstrating respect for his sailors - not just through common courtesy, but by actively investing in their development and proactively seeking their advice on how to improve the command. His story about rusty bolts alone was worth the price of admission.
Gary Heil of the Center for Innovative Leadership spoke to the Workforce Institute event attendees about strategies for driving change in their organizations. One of the interesting ideas he talked about was the notion that many leaders never really get comfortable with the change they say they want to achieve in their organizations. If leaders aren’t committed to leaving their own comfort zones, it’s unlikely they’ll inspire others to do so.
Heil also talked about the importance of the impact of the environment on in supporting the change you seek. The specific environmental factors he encouraged us to think about were:
1. Having a cause worth committing to
2. Providing people with an opportunity to learn and grow
3. Giving people the responsibility to a make a meaningful contribution
4. Enabling a culture of mutual support and friendship
5. Ensuring that structures (pay, benefits, opportunities) are fair and equitable
I loved this quote from Heil - “People without information can’t take responsibility”. Business intelligence and business analytics are one of those topics that can seem arcane or obscure until you finally realize that you’re flying blind as you make risky and expensive decisions.
Last, but certainly not least, I was reminded again about how lucky I am to have such a great team of colleagues at Kronos. As is true in all organizations, there are plenty of daily obstacles to overcome to drive results. Great outcomes like KronosWorks are the payoff for a lot of hard work. Even more important is the great esprit de corps that pervaded the last five days. Hats off, fellow Kronites! Let’s do it again tomorrow….

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Customer Satisfaction, Employee Retention | 3 Comments

Guest Blog: Aron Ain - Competing for Talent at Kronos

November 4, 2007

It’s been an exciting week at Kronos. We successfully completed our 58^th acquisition (Deploy), celebrated our 30^th year in business, and today begins our annual user conference, KronosWorks. We’re on a roll, and it feels great to see the momentum we have as an increasingly global company. Having been here almost from the beginning, I’m immensely proud of where we are today.

In the midst of all this good news, I think about the opportunities ahead of us and what it will take for us to continue to grow our company. What I hear from customers and partners every day is how much they value our people. We’ve always had an unflagging commitment to providing our customers with great products and services, and a culture that values integrity and commitment to results. Those are great statements for a poster on the wall, but I know it comes down to every Kronos employee believing these things and behaving this way for us to continue our growth and success.

Like most companies today, we are competing hard for the best possible talent for our company. We are constantly looking for people who believe as we do that customers come first, and who will be willing to go the extra mile to make things happen. We’re working hard to make it possible for employees at different stages in their lives and careers to find a good fit at Kronos.

Enabling people to work remotely is an increasing and successful practice for us. Not only does it make for satisfied employees, it allows us to tap broader candidate pools. We’re actively recruiting workers who are at the beginning of their careers – in order to build more bench strength for the Kronos of the future. We believe that employees need to have the schedule flexibility to invest in and manage their lives outside of Kronos, and so we encourage managers to enable them to do so. The work has to get done, but not always on a 9-5 schedule.

We’ll continue to invest in recruiting and retention programs to attract employees like those who’ve made us so successful for the last 30 years. There is no Kronos without our people.

Aron Ain is CEO of Kronos Incorporated.

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Employee Retention | 1 Comment

Balancing Work and Family: What Makes “The Best Places” Different?

November 2, 2007

Two of our board members, Ruth Bramson and Jared Bernstein, have recently collaborated on a new article entitled “Balancing Work and Family: What Makes “The Best Places” Different? We asked them to think about how organizations are helping employees to manage work-life balance - not only for the white collar ranks, but for their hourly workers as well. To us, it just makes good business sense to assume that greater flexibility for hourly workers should help organizations expand their candidate pools and retain their high performers. It’s clear, however, that many hourly workers have far less flexibility than their white collar counterparts. This makes sense for jobs that absolutely require face time (cashiers, nurses). Even for these roles, though, there are options that can help. Jared and Ruth explore some of these options in their article.

I encourage you to take a few minutes to read their article, and think about the questions below. We’d love to hear your comments. While you’re at it, take our quick poll.

Do you think that flexible work options should be available to hourly as well as salaried employees?

Does the availability of flexible work options help organizations recruit and retain hourly workers? Or do organizations with high hourly populations accept high turnover as a cost of doing business?

What are additional best practices that you’ve heard about that we should add to our list of recommendations?

Posted by Joyce Maroney | Filed Under All Blog Posts, Employee Retention, Work Life Balance | Leave a Comment