A Harris Survey covered in the LA Times  found that by the end of 2012, Americans will leave an average of 9.2 days of vacation unused, up from the average of 6.2 days in 2011.  Hopefully as the holidays loom, you'll be planning some downtime and not risking your vacation carryover.  Research on holiday time off plans we did a few years ago indicated that most employees planned to take time during the December holiday period.

Here are a few other items this week related to workplace productivity during the holidays:

Worker productivity 'wrecked' over the holidays http://ow.ly/fEtIT

Study identifies strategies for workplace productivity during the holiday season (Video) http://ow.ly/fEt36 via @examinercom

Ten Top Tips: Dealing with Persistent Absenteeism: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/features/1160346/ten-top-tips-dealing-persistent-absenteeism/

13 Great Employee Holiday Incentives That Are Better Than Cash http://ow.ly/fIYkx via @blogging4jobs

Other stories of note this week:

4 Hiring Lessons from the Best Cities for Millennials: http://mashable.com/2012/11/25/4-hiring-lessons-from-the-best-cities-for-millennials/

Corporate America: Don't Give Up On Your Workers: http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/13/jobs-worker-training/

Fatigue Is Your Enemy http://ow.ly/fBTRK via @HarvardBiz

Sometimes, it Takes a Hurricane to Know What Engagement Looks Like http://ow.ly/fBT5D via @TLNT_com

GRATEFUL LEADERSHIP: A Little Praise Goes A Long Way http://ow.ly/fBSAY via @blogging4jobs

Culture: Here's Why It Matters Now More Than Ever Before http://ow.ly/fIYdV @TLNT_com

HR and Leadership - A Complaint Letter From a 25-Year old http://ow.ly/fIYi9 via @hrbartender

Kronos News:

RT @pjtec: Published: #KronosWorks 2012 -- #Kronos Hitting on all Cylinders http://ow.ly/fIYqy @KronosInc #HCM #WFM #EnSW

Kronos HR head David Almeda quoted in Obamacare Carries On … What's Next? http://ow.ly/fCFAL

RT @ChelmsfordPatch: News from @KronosInc , Courier Corporation http://ow.ly/fIYum

RT @NucleusResearch: @KronosInc showed its commitment to innovation in traditional & emerging markets @#KronosWorks12 http://ow.ly/fIYwP

Absence and Employee Disengagement - What's the Connection? http://ow.ly/fBSFB via @simonmacpherson @KronosUK

Just Another Cyber Monday? http://ow.ly/fGNAA via @smartercafe

Help me help you upgrade http://ow.ly/fGNDJ via @smartercafe

Some Assembly Required http://ow.ly/fGNFR via @smartercafe

Not all Luck http://ow.ly/fGNIf via @smartercafe

New Time Well Spent #Cartoon: http://ow.ly/fBRxK #scheduling #shifttrade

Sharon Emek is a woman on a mission.  After a long and illustrious career in the insurance industry, she's founded WAHVE (work at home vintage employees) to fill the skill gaps created for insurers by the retirement of their baby boomer (average age 57) employees.  According to Sharon, WAHVE is the only remote outsourced staffing alternative to offshoring for insurance agents, brokers and insurers.  WAHVE matches insurers with employees who can  provide full back-office and customer service, project, and consulting work.  And what's unique about the employees she contracts to these insurers?  They are experienced (typically >25 years) insurance professionals who've reached the stage in life where they still want to work, but desire more flexibility than can be afforded by full time employment.

Many of these retirees wish to continue working, but also require flexibility to downshift, enjoy the grandchildren, care for aging parents of their own, or spend more time pursuing interests they didn't have the time or means for when they were younger.  Their departure, however, is creating challenges for their former employers.  WAHVE serves a matching service between retirees and organizations that can benefit from their services, creating a win-win for both parties.

Tune in to our podcast conversation to hear from Sharon about why hiring vintage workers may be the wahve of the future (pun intended): Sharon Emek Wahve Podcast

Learn more about how Wahve matches retired jobseekers and employers at their website: http://www.wahve.com/.

Today's guest post is courtesy of Sharlyn Lauby, The HR Bartender.  I met Sharlyn at KronosWorks last week in Las Vegas, where we had the opportunity to get to know each other a bit.  As Sharlyn notes below, and we've written about before, absenteeism is a significant and costly business issue around the globe.

During last week's KronosWorks2012 event, I had the opportunity to hear the latest data on absenteeism in the government and education sectors.  The data, presented by the Governing Institute and Center for Digital Education, puts the cost of public sector absenteeism in the billions (yes, that's billions with a “b”).

And part of that cost isn't just the benefits paid or the lost productivity. It's the cost of actually keeping track of employee absences. The Governing Institute and Center for Digital Education says that 52% of organizations rely upon a manual time and attendance system. They figure the average manager spends 1.5 hours per week focused on managing time and attendance.

Using that 1.5 number, let's say the average manager makes $20/hour. That means the estimated national annual cost for managing absenteeism (just the managing part) comes to over $880 million in the government sector and close to $2 billion in the education sector. I don't need to tell anyone that's a lot of money.

But as I was listening to the session, it occurred to me that the challenges with absenteeism in the public sector aren't exclusive to their industry. They're evident in every industry. For example, take my background in hospitality…managers were always dealing with an employee absenteeism issue. Now magnify that to the ten or twenty managers in the company. We'd have ten or twenty absenteeism issues. All costing the company money.

To illustrate my point, I wanted to do some more digging on the subject and ran across The Kronos Global Absence survey. If you haven't seen it, I hope you'll check it out. It confirmed that absenteeism is a global issue and shared the extent we're all in this together.

For example, the country with the largest percentage of employees calling in sick when they're really not is, of course, China at 71%. It only makes sense since the population is so large. But that really doesn't explain Australia with 58%, Canada with 52% and the United Kingdom with 43%. BTW - the United States came in at 52%. The best country? France at 16%.

Why do employees call in sick when they're not? Top reasons include stress and too much work.

What would prevent them for calling in sick?! You guessed it - flexible work schedules.

So we can see the direct path between flexible work, engagement and productivity. The absenteeism challenge extends far beyond one industry and one country. And the solutions are consistent between industries and countries as well.

If you're wondering about the time spent tracking time and attendance, the numbers appear consistent. Only half of employers are using an automated system. That means managers spend a lot of time manually monitoring their employee's time.

It makes me wonder. If companies are having challenges with employee absenteeism. And the answer is creating a more engaged workforce to increase productivity. Then it only seems logical to make sure that managers spend their time on activities that will create engagement (not on administrative tasks).

Fixing absenteeism is a manager's problem. But they can't fix it if they're bogged down in administrivia. Free up managers time so they can do what brings the most value to the organization.

What do managers do at your organization to manage unplanned absenteeism?

This week was all about our 15th KronosWorks annual customer conference.  This is the crescendo of our annual marketing plan at Kronos, bringing together over 2100 attendees from around the world. We spend the 5 days of KronosWorks sessions celebrating customer success stories, bonding with those customers over drinks and dinner, and reminding ourselves of how far Kronos has come as a company in 35 years.  It's not the same as being there, but you can watch a bit of the general session here, including remarks from our terrific CEO Aron Ain.  The photo to the left is of a portion of a mural that an artist created real time during his speech - an infogram on the fly if you will.

As in many businesses, our days can sometimes be spent focusing on making things better for customers - especially those who need our help because something's not going right.  Having so many happy customers at an event like KronosWorks reminds me that we do an awful lot of things right - and have for years.  The stories customers shared about the transformational results they've achieved with Kronos were awesome.  We had several guests from the analyst and blogger community in Las Vegas this week who were learning about Kronos for the first time.  One said to me, "I had no idea how cool you guys were!".  This was in response not only to our announcement of Workforce Tablet, but also the friendliness and openness of the Kronos employees and executives they were meeting.

The use of social media by KronosWorks attendees increased sharply this year, especially on Twitter.  You tweeters can check out #kronosworks12 to find hundreds of comments made during the event.  One really intriguing session I attended was conducted by SHRM's Curtis Midkiff via Google+  Hangouts.  You can watch the entire session here to get a flavor for this very cool (and virtually free) means of sharing "live" experts virtually.

If you'd like to see what press, analyst and blogger attendees at KronosWorks had to say, check out the following links:

Of course the election was the big news of the week.  No matter which side of the aisle you lean toward, I think we all share this (now world famous) little girl's fatigue with the election.  Kronos has been in the news this week as the national discussion turns back to the hard work of economic recovery.  Channel 4 in Boston interviewed our CEO, Aron Ain because Kronos is a company that's hiring.  Those of us who already work here weren't surprised to learn that the Boston Globe named Kronos a top place to work in Massachusetts.  Aron also  appeared on NPR to talk about how Kronos customers use scheduling to manage workers who can cover flexible shifts on short notice in a segment titled "Sluggish Economy Relies More on Part-time Workers".

Interesting Items to Read This Week:

Good tips from SHRM about the wage and hour issues raised by Hurricane Sandy.  And here are some examples from the Wall Street Journal about how different companies are compensating employees (or not) as a result of Sandy-induced closings.

Story on Kronos customer Valley Power Systems using mobile devices to log hours.

From TLNT.com: Don't plan for that in-ground pool just yet (Christmas Vacation reference)…is 3% the new normal?

No matter how you feel about the election results from this week, the good news (unless you hate women) is that a record number of women will be serving in the Senate come January.

Kronos:

Healthcare White Paper - Fatigue and Safety in the Workplace

Retail and Hospitality White Paper from Kronos and Mercer on the implications of  Healthcare Reform

KronosWorks starts tomorrow in Las Vegas.  Hope to see you there!

The obvious story of the week is Hurricane Sandy.  Current reports put the US storm-related deaths at 98 - and climbing as recovery efforts continue.  This is in addition to the damage this storm caused in the Caribbean before it got to us.

Businesses closings like the one pictured here hurt not only the business, but also the many employees who don't have a work-from-home option. Because I live in a seacoast town just outside of Boston, lots of people have been expressing concern about how we fared.  We were very lucky in our town - very high winds and tides, but the impact of the storm was mild.  Lots of people, however, are hurting.  If you're looking for tangible ways to help, check out the Red Cross for ideas.

Helpful advice for organizations regarding planning for and recovering from disasters:

And although we've seen reports of appalling failures of human kindness, I like to think that there are more examples like the one pictured here - of people looking for ways to help.

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram