KronosWorks 2009 Highlights
November 10, 2009
For those of you who couldn’t join us this year, following are some conference highlights from Las Vegas:
- Blue Man Group at the opening session - high energy start to the conference
- Ken Dychtwald on workforce management across the generations
- Nice blog post from Mark Smith of boutique analyst firm Ventana Research summarizing his perspective on conference highlights.
- Lots of tweeting at this year’s conference. For those of you who tweet, check out comments from analysts, customers and Kronites by searching on hashtag #kronosworks.
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.
Climbing the Hourly Ladder - An Interview with Paul Facella
December 31, 2008
I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Paul Facella, a former Regional Vice President of McDonald’s Corporation and now CEO of Inside Management. He is author of Everything I Know about Business I Learned at McDonald’s (McGraw-Hill, 2008). During Paul’s 34 year career with McDonald’s, he learned a lot about growing his own career as well as how to motivate and develop others to do so. He was kind enough to share some of those lessons during our discussion and in a guest blog he wrote for us (below).
Click here to listen to a podcast of our discussion and read on to enjoy Paul’s blog below.
(Paul’s blog post is presented here as he submitted it to us)
The jobless figures for the U.S. economy in November were the worst in 34 years. With more than 9.5 million Americans now out of work–and rising–many job seekers are wondering if the American Dream is fading. Is it still possible in today’s economic climate to work hard, rise up the corporate ladder, and get ahead?
No doubt about it. As someone with firsthand experience, I encourage you not to lose heart in this tough job market. There are opportunities hiding in some of the least likely places–namely, in the hourly workforce.
Like four out of seven McDonald’s CEOs and three out of four senior-level managers, I started my stellar career climb at the bottom rung–as a crew member. That scenario is as likely today as it ever was.
But there’s a caveat. If you want to grow in a company, you have to find one that has aggressive talent development policies and is committed to promoting from within. McDonald’s, for example, has created more millionaires–including more women and minority millionaires–than any other American company. That’s because the company culture is based on rewards and recognition. If you work hard there, you will be rewarded.
Job seekers who are willing to work for hourly pay initially, want to learn and develop, are ambitious, and have a clear vision of where they’d like to be in three to five years are good candidates for such jobs. But don’t waste your time at the bottom unless you are confident that the company hiring you has your best career interests at heart.
So how can you find out which companies have the right stuff for career advancement? The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out a detailed and excellent set of guidelines and resources, at http://www.bls.gov/oco/oco20046.htm, for finding out more about a prospective company before you say yes. Do as much homework as possible before an interview so you can be reasonably sure this will be a goal-and-growth-oriented job–not a dead-end job.
In your job interview, ask such questions as: What percentage of your mid- to senior-level managers are promoted from within? What programs and policies are set up for helping high-achieving employees develop new skills? Is mobility at your company limited, or could one apply for jobs for which one qualifies elsewhere in the company?
What types of companies have the peachiest low-end jobs that are likely to lead to bigger and better positions? One rule of thumb is size. Large Fortune 500 companies usually have well-developed promote-from-within policies and are dedicated to career advancement for their lower-end employees. Some of the names that consistently come up, in addition to McDonald’s, are Walgreens, GE, FedEx, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and LL Bean. Each of these organizations has a track record for fast-tracking low-rung workers, such as store clerks, drivers, and low-end office workers into managerial positions. Also, the US military is well known for recognizing exceptional smarts and talents and promoting promising people quickly.
The take-away message is this: If you’re discouraged about the job market, don’t forget that a great job may be staring you in the face. Bottom-level jobs are not always dead-end jobs. In the right organization, they are a first stepping stone to rich career opportunities ahead.
What was your best hourly job? What did you learn from it?
Put Down the Technology and Step Away from the Keyboard
November 24, 2008
Our latest whitepaper, Empowering the Hourly Workforce Through Enterprise Workforce Management, comes to us courtesy of our board member Tim Lett of the Axsium Group. Tim addresses the importance of engaging employees as part of the implementation and ongoing use of workforce management technology.
Tim’s company helps organizations deploy a wide range of workforce management technology solutions. While the products they work with may vary, the time tested advice Tim offers is consistent. Take the time to scope your requirements fully and involve representatives of the relevant stakeholders in your project to ensure project success. Here are a few tips:
- Involve representatives of the end user community in your pre-implementation requirements gathering. Incorporate returns related to employee empowerment and self service in the business case for the project.
- You need to have an executive sponsor with sufficient authority to push a project through the normal obstacles to any change effort. To make that sponsorship work, you need to arm that executive with communications support to ensure that all stakeholders are informed and persuaded to participate and cooperate throughout an implementation project.
- Establish a balanced scorecard of relevant metrics that will be used to measure progress and success over time.
- There is no such thing as over communication during a major change effort.
Read the whitepaper and listen to a podcast of my discussion with Tim to learn more.
> Listen to the Podcast with Tim Lett of the Axsium Group
Goodbye HR Tech, Hello KronosWorks 2008!
October 18, 2008
This has been a very busy week – Dallas Sunday through Tuesday for our annual Sales and Service kickoff and Chicago Wednesday through Friday for the HR Technology show. I wrote this post sitting at Gate K8 at O’Hare waiting for a flight to Orlando where I’ll spend the next 5 days at our annual customer conference, KronosWorks.
I don’t travel a lot in my current job, and it’s energizing to get out of the office and have the chance to talk to coworkers, customers and old friends in person. HR Tech, in particular, was old home week for me as many friends and former colleagues and partners from my BrassRing days were there.
Mitzi Adwell, James Sale, Kelly Cartwright and Ed Newman of the Newman Group– thanks for the fun dinner and great conversation Thursday night.
Tom Kramer, John Haworth and Mark Lange – you were all great marketing leaders in your turn at BR. It was wonderful to catch up with you.
Mike Hennessey – looks like Smashfly is taking off. I’ll keep watching and wishing you great success!
Gary Gang of HRMC– Keep on keeping on – in Phoenix or Atlanta.
Starr Tincup Lads – thanks for the drink and for the introduction to Jerome Ternynck from Kronos partner MrTed. I hope Hilary Clinton makes it home safely!
George Larocque, sales leader extraordinaire – I wish you well at Arbita
Elaine Orler of Knowledge Infusion – looking forward to talking to you more about the Workforce Institute board of directors.
Judy Duff and Amy Tatarka of Salary.com – even though you didn’t win the Talent Management shootout, your application looks great and I was truly impressed with the breadth of your offering.
Now, off to KronosWorks. If you’re going, or wish you were, join our Facebook group.
Why We Need Skype Now More than Ever
September 30, 2008
Perhaps many of you have been Skype-ing for a while, but I’m a recent convert. I mentioned in one of my first posts that I’m a big fan of technology and often an early adopter. Skype’s been around for a while in the UK, but only recently began advertising in the US. I’d heard about it a couple of years ago, but didn’t get serious about trying it until my daughter went to London for the semester and the reality of long distance phone call bills drove us to this VOIP wonder.
Skype allows you to make free (yes, that’s right, free) telephone calls via the Internet. You download Skype to your computer and can connect for free with anyone else who’s got Skype installed on his/her computer. You can also make competitively priced calls to cell phone or landlines from your computer via Skype. If your computer doesn’t have a built in microphone, you need to add that, but otherwise you’re good to go with no big investment. The best part of all - add video! With a cheap webcam attached to your computer, you get a pretty good real time video of the person you’re talking to.
Why now more than ever?
- Whether you’ve got kids living abroad or not, pinching pennies is becoming second nature for all of us whose savings may be shrinking as a result of the current turmoil in the world markets.
- In tough times, it’s more important than ever to stay connected to those we care about - and Skype makes that easy to do.
- As more and more workers are working remotely from their management, this could be a great tool to forge and sustain a more personal relationship with co-workers than the phone alone permits.
Are any of you using Skype (or similar VOIP) technologies at work to support remote workers?
The Summertime Crunch
May 31, 2008
Our latest workforce survey reveals that 69% of US workers polled plan to take off time between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This obviously presents challenges for employers who seek to keep their operations running smoothly throughout these peak vacation months.
According to our board member Steve Hunt, what employers should NOT do is discourage employees from using their vacation. This is especially true when managing employees in high stress jobs who might readily forego vacation if they thought it could adversely affect their careers. There is quite a bit of empirical research showing that vacation plays an important role in keeping people physically healthy in terms of managing stress. People who do not take vacation are likely to suffer decreased work performance and satisfaction over time. Vacations really do allow us to “recharge” and avoid burn-out - as such they can be thought of playing a similar role for ensuring a long-term, effective workforce as ensuring employees’ work schedules allow them to get a reasonable amount of sleep.
The New Industrial Revolution
May 19, 2008
Photo Credit: ClawzCTR
There was a recent article in IndustryWeek, “How Ceradyne Increased Productivity through Effective Labor Management” that raised some questions for me. This article was co-authored by one of my colleagues, Gregg Gordon, and explains how Ceradyne has used Kronos solutions to optimize their workforce productivity. Ceradyne is using a broad suite of Kronos capabilities to improve overall labor effectiveness (OLE) - a key performance indicator that can be used by manufacturers to measure the optimal balance of workforce availability, productivity and quality.
What I wondered about is how the implementation of Kronos technology affects worker morale - and what companies can do to take advantage of workforce productivity tools without leaving their workers feeling that they been taken advantage of.
Gregg focuses on the manufacturing sector for Kronos, and had a number of war stories to share - as well as some great suggestions he’s picked up from customers who’ve successfully implemented workforce tracking and scheduling software. He’s worked with companies around the world who walk the delicate line between the need to control expenses and the need to hold onto skilled workers in competitive economies. Here are some of his suggestions:
- Get employees who’ll be affected by these changes involved in helping management implement them. An example Gregg provided was of a pharma company implementing time and attendance tracking for scientists. This population had not had to “punch in” in the past. The reason for the change was to map R&D human resource investments to projects in order to substantiate proposed pricing - an objective these workers understood and applauded. The ultimate solution was to have the scientists update a timecard biweekly by noting any exceptions to their exempt 8 hour days - but not by having them punch in and out every day.
- Explain to affected employees how they’ll benefit. These types of Kronos solutions can benefit employees by providing more accurate overtime tracking, accommodating employee preferences in shift scheduling, fair and consistent application of policies, etc. Workers who understand these benefits - and experience them personally - are more likely to support the change.
- Implement changes in small increments. Enterprise software solutions can impose a lot of change on an organization. The key to successful implementation is to enable the new capabilities in digestable increments that employees can accept, master and absorb. For companies new to time and attendance, just getting employees to punch in and out is a big step forward.
- Measure progress. Pick a few key metrics, track them and report back on them to key stakeholders. The metrics will vary based on your business, but you can’t improve what you can’t measure. Kronos customer Crossland Construction believes that their ability to provide these types of metrics to their customers is providing them with a competitive advantage.
How do you think organizations can take advantage of human capital management technologies without taking advantage of the humans involved?
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