Happy Employee Appreciation Day!
July 1, 2009
We write here frequently about the benefits of expressing appreciation to your employees as a means of keeping them engaged, productive and committed to your organization. Today at Kronos, we all got a memo from our CEO, Aron Ain, putting that advice into practice. As is the case with most companies this year, resources have been tight and people have been working even harder than usual to keep our commitments to customers and to each other. The note thanked us for all our hard work and delivered the following thank you gift to each of us:
As a small way to say thank you, we are providing all employees with an “Appreciation Day” to be taken during the months of July or August. We hope you enjoy this additional day off to spend time with your friends and/or family. It’s well deserved!
You won’t be surprised to learn that this memo generated a lot of goodwill at Kronos today. What is your organization doing to thank you and your employees for their efforts?
A Cut(co) Above - Training for Life
June 25, 2009
I was telling our board member Mel Kleiman this story yesterday and he suggested it would make a good blog post. Here goes.
My 19 year old son is working for Vector Marketing this summer, selling Cutco knives. Vector is a 60 year old company that sells high end cutlery through a workforce principally comprised of temporary contract employees. The product is very good - my oldest Cutco knives are almost 20 years old. Having been a prior customer, I’ve been fascinated by a close up view of how they develop their reps and keep them engaged. There are lessons here that most employers can and should apply to their own workforce.
- Train your employees to generate the outcomes you require - Cutco has a formula they’ve refined over 60 years and they make sure their employees can execute that formula.
- Keep in regular contact with your employees to understand their progress and motivate them to even better performance - The reps call the office every day to report on their sales results as well as their pipeline building activities.
- Recognize and reward superior accomplishment - Commission rates expand in proportion to the rep’s cumulative sales. Reps who achieve short term challenge goals earn more.
While my son may occasionnally chafe at the structure of the Cutco process, he’s learned a few things this summer beyond how to sell knives:
- Customer communication skills are critical - he has to make appointments to build a pipeline, and he has to make a compelling argument for his product to earn commissions.
- Planning is key to success - if he doesn’t schedule time to make appointments, they don’t make themselves.
- Customer service is hard, but worth it - he’s had a few difficult appointments with difficult people, but has prevailed through patience and humor.
All in all, he won’t retire for life on his Cutco earnings, but he’s learned valuable lessons he can take to the bank.
Gaming the Clock
June 15, 2009
In a recent survey we conducted with Harris Interactive, we asked over 700 hourly paid employees if they had ever cheated in reporting their hours in order to increase their paycheck. Twenty-one percent indicated that they had. Not surprisingly, of the 21% of respondents who admitted to cheating on their time reporting, the highest percentage (35%) of them were using paper based systems. As the means of time reporting became more automated and harder to deceive, the percentage of cheaters declined, with only 5% of those using biometric time clocks reporting themselves as having gamed the system. Among those who cheated, the tactics included:
- Punching in earlier or out later than scheduled (69%)
- Adding extra time to their timesheet (22%)
- Failure to punch out for meals or breaks (14%)
- Having someone else punch them in or out (5%)
How much does time theft hurt businesses? A recent Diagnostic Assessment analysis Kronos conducted for a 6,800 employee manufacturer revealed rounding-rule abuse cost of over 1.3% of total wages paid. The 4 worst-performing departments in terms of rounding-rule abuse cost the organization approximately $3.6M annually. According to a 2006 Nucleus Research Report ROI report, companies with manual time and attendance systems typically incur unnecessary payroll costs upwards of 1.2 percent of their total payroll costs due to inaccurate application of pay rules, as well as human errors, intentional and otherwise.
Feelings run high on both sides of this issue. This discussion thread from Woodweb, a website for the woodworking industry, is a spirited debate between employers and workers regarding whether automated time tracking is a necessary management tool or Orwellian incursion. The truth lies in how the tools are used, of course. Employee punches collected by time clocks are indisputable data elements. Friction between employers and employees, or failure to comply with standards such as those set by FMLA, FLSA or union rules, is caused by how that data is used to calculate pay. Fair and legal policies, consistently applied via technology, can help to close those gaps.
June is Innovation Month
June 5, 2009
…at least according to Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe. Scott is encouraging his readers to think about ways to revive the New England economy from its doldrums by supporting new innovators and innovations. You can visit his website for ideas on how to “make new connections, share your expertise, find out about and support new ventures. Help accelerate some of the important, cool, life-saving, world-changing innovations being developed here in New England.”
Having worked in high tech in New England for the past 28 years, here are my favorite innovations and innovators that I’ve had the opportunity to work with in no particular order:
- Our own Mark Ain - father of the computerized timeclock and founder of the world’s leading workforce management software company
- Lotus Notes - first in collaborative computing. Sharepoint is still trying to catch up!
- An Wang - a genius and a very gracious man.
- Wang Imaging - ahead of its time, but gave me the opportunity to travel the world educating hundreds of consultants on business process improvement.
- John Landry - a wild man on the dance floor and prescient force of nature. You called it on eCommerce in 1994!
- Mark Dane - visionary and pragmatic, you never forget the customer.
- My colleagues at BrassRing - we had a wild ride, leading the way to applicant tracking on the Internet
Who’s your favorite innovator today?
Discussion with David Caruso: Reducing Costs and Boosting Productivity in a Challenging Economy
May 6, 2009
I recently had the opportunity to talk about the importance of labor cost management in manufacturing with David Caruso, the founder and Principal of David Caruso & Associates, Inc. David’s consulting firm specializes in manufacturing, supply chain, and technology strategy. We talked about how manufacturing organizations are increasingly focusing on labor cost management in the current challenging economy.
In our conversation, David provides a number of examples of how manufacturers have used labor analytics tools to analyze and improve both worker productivity and product quality. In one firm he assisted, they found that quality eroded over the course of the day due to worker fatigue. They inserted more breaks into their process and achieved significant improvements in productivity and quality. Click here to listen to a podcast of our conversation and hear more tips from David Caruso.
You can find additional information on this topic in this new Kronos whitepaper as well as in this article from IndustryWeek by my colleague Gregg Gordon on effective ways to manage a global workforce.
Pandemics and Presenteeism
May 1, 2009
In light of this week’s worldwide frenzied reaction to the appearance of the H1N1 flu virus in Mexico and its apparent rapid spread elsewhere in the world, it’s important to remember that according to the Centers for Disease control about 36,000 Americans die each year from complications of “normal” seasonal influenza viruses. That’s about 0.01% of the US population. Whether the H1N1 virus turns out to drive higher than average mortality in affected people remains to be seen, but flu outbreaks are clearly a major health concern that employers need to take seriously in order to protect their employees health as well as their organizational well being.
This April 2009 study published by the Journal of Occupational Safety and Health indicates that absenteeism and presenteeism combined cost employers $2.30 for every $1.00 they spend on medical and pharmaceutical claims. As recently as last week, we published the results of a recent Workforce Institute survey in which 30% respondents indicated they are more likely to go work when they would normally stay home due to their concern about financial security. This economic stressor, combined with the looming flu pandemic, makes it more important than ever for managers to curb worker presenteeism.
We agree with advice being offered by government authorities and suggest that employers encourage employees to stay home when they are sick and provide flexibility and the necessary infrastructure to enable employees to work from home when they are sick. At Kronos, we’re practicing what we preach. We closed our Mexico City office until May 6, encouraging employees to work from home, or, in cases where their jobs aren’t conducive to working from home, we have given employees paid time off. We will reevaluate over the next several days to determine if it is safe for employees to return to work.
We have also:
- Encouraged our leadership team to suspend all non- essential travel to Mexico for all employees;
- Encouraged employees to speak to their manager if they are planning business travel and have concerns over the trip given the potential health risks; and
- Encouraged employees who are returning from Mexico (business or pleasure) to work from home for two business days before returning to the office.
Stay well!
Workplace Tug of War - Workers Want More Work
April 21, 2009
Our most recent workforce survey reveals that, not surprisingly, many people’s work habits and attitudes have changed as a result of the turbulent economy.
Some of the key findings:
- 45% of workers surveyed say that they are more willing to take any available shifts in order to protect their earnings.
- 30% of respondents stated that they are more likely to go to work in this economy regardless of their physical or emotional state, scheduling conflicts, or the weather.
- 49% of respondents have considered taking on a second job in recent months because of financial reasons while 27% said that they are actively applying for or have already secured a second job.
- 19% of hourly workers say that because of the economy their managers are reducing the amount of overtime they can work.
- 33 % of respondents say their companies have downsized during the past year because of the economy, and 28% of respondents say that their workload has increased, putting added pressure on employees who remain on the job.
I interviewed author and former McDonald’s executive Paul Facella in this blog a while back. In a recent article in the Boston Globe, when asked whether there’s such a thing as a job that’s “beneath” an unemployed worker in this market, he says bluntly: “I don’t think there is. There’s no question in my mind that tolerance for that kind of switching down is much greater than it was one or two years ago. Most employers looking at resumes a couple of years from now are going to be respectful that people needed to do it to survive.”
That sentiment no doubt also applies to those we surveyed looking for supplemental employment. How are the statistics above playing out for you and your friends and family?
The Domino’s Effect - Presenteeism Among Food Handlers
April 17, 2009
While Domino’s has been in the news this week due to the unfortunate video hijinks of a couple of their workers in North Carolina, the issue of sick food handlers is one of serious and ongoing concern according to our board member, David Creelman who submitted the following food for thought:
Here is a big issue for organizations who have large numbers of workers who handle food (e.g. hospitality industry, food processing etc.) A ground breaking study by Toronto Public Health found that “between 20 per cent and 40 per cent of food-borne illnesses in restaurants can be traced to sick food handlers who transfer bacteria to diners through the food they prepare.” About 6% of Toronto’s citizens get sick every year due to sick food handlers — that’s a big public health issue.
This is clearly an HR issue since the main reason sick food handlers come to work is that they feel they can’t afford to take a day off sick.
No doubt this study will lead governments at all levels to get worried about companies who let sick food handlers come to work; so HR leaders had better be prepared to deal with the issue pro-actively.
The story on this study appeared in the Toronto Star
http://www.thestar.com/article/619941
Just to add a bit of colour to this story, if you are the sort of person who routinely eats in the world’s top 10 restaurants you will no doubt be aware that the Fat Duck in London recently had to shut down when many diners became ill. One suspected cause for the outbreak of illness was that customers picked up a bug from sick staff.
Picture This
April 5, 2009
This is from Wordle, a website that creates visual maps of blogs, websites, or other text you provide. This is a map of the Workforce Institute website.
Are Newspapers a Thing of the Past?
April 2, 2009
My Sunday morning ritual for at least 40 years has been to read the Boston Globe and NY Times for a couple of hours. Last Sunday, while reading those papers, I was listening to a CBS story on TV about the looming demise of the newspaper industry.
What is the future of newspapers? A good friend of ours with 25 years as a reporter and editor at a Boston area newspaper was laid off Friday. Mark Lange, a friend and freelance journalist, sent me the attached tongue in cheek story yesterday about Twitter as the future of news. With the breathtaking speed that news content is racing to the web, is this story really so far fetched?
While I get a lot of information online, I would miss that tactile experience of flipping through the paper and finding stories I might not otherwise find online because I wouldn’t be looking for them. That being said, I got a Kindle for Christmas and I love it. I can order books and newspapers and have them in less than a minute. It’s lightweight and a no brainer to carry with me when there’s a possibility that I may have time to read while travelling or waiting.
Should we feel guilty about the traditional newspaper and publishing jobs being lost to digital alternatives, or see this as an opportunity for new contributors to the public conversation?
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