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3 Ways Companies Can Ease Employees Transition Back To The Office

March 29th, 2022 | Posted by ATS in Absence Management | Benefit Accruals | Career | Economy | Employee Productivity | Fingerprint Time And Attendance Toronto | HR | Office | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Toronto - (Comments Off on 3 Ways Companies Can Ease Employees Transition Back To The Office)

Governments across many jurisdictions have released pandemic health restrictions, including the wearing of masks. And, many companies, are also making plans for a return to the office. However, leaders should not expect an immediate return to the same old workstations, ping-pong tables and water coolers. Case in point, when a CEO of an organization  said recently, that there would a “a strong incentive” to demote employees who chose not return to the office, the backlash was swift.

Employees across every industry has cited concerns about safety, including a reduction in their productivity with having to commute again, among others. The best way to the handle the return to the office is through engagement between companies and their employees. And, while, there will be employees clamouring to return to the office others, will be seeking a slow return and/or hybrid approach. Business leaders, therefore, would be wise to consult with their employees and not use the hammer to force them back to the office. There is a reason why the ‘great resignation’ took several companies by surprise, and — why so many employees feel differently about the future of work, compared to some business leaders.

In her blog for the online publication Talent Culture, Business Needs vs. Employee Needs: Finding the Happy Medium Dawn Mitchell, lays out some advice that employers can use to achieve their goals of a return to the office for employees. It reads, in part:

Listening to Employees
“Work-from-home employees are not shy about their preferences and pain points around remote work. Coworkers commonly talk amongst themselves about how much they like not having to dress in full business attire or commute. They also expressed frustrations around digital communications and how, since they’re online, the workday can stretch beyond regular hours.

Before putting forth a return-to-office plan, businesses must listen to what employees truly want. To avoid turnover, some employers plan to skip a return-to-office life altogether, especially since a lack of remote work options is a deal-breaker for many employees and may send them searching for a job elsewhere. Many employees have already made that step, citing lack of remote work options as the main reason for seeking other opportunities. Notably, according to a survey by ResumeBuilder, 15% of workers are planning to leave their jobs before December.

Balancing Employee Needs With Business Needs
While keeping employee needs top of mind is essential, HR professionals must also evaluate how best to serve the company. If remote work begins to negatively impact employee and company performance, that can’t be ignored. Conversely, if an organization consistently meets KPIs, is growing, and employees are engaged, there’s no need to return to the office five days a week.

Instead of assuming performances and company operations will improve in an office setting, HR teams should strive to find balance. There’s no need for extremes. Companies don’t need to decide to keep operations fully remote or shift them entirely back to the office.

Looking to the Future
Before implementing a return-to-office plan, HR teams must equally weigh the needs of the business against those of their employees. Therefore, it may be tempting to develop this kind of plan quickly. However, HR teams must take time to listen to employees and measure their needs alongside business goals. This will create a happier and more effective workplace for everyone”.

Bottomline: Creating a plan to return to the office is not that hard. Where it can go awry is when leaders decide to not engage their employees in the plan. And, a return to the office plan should not imply that remote or hybrid workers don’t do real work. If you infuse, your plan with thoughtfulness and a commitment to minimizing inequities., you are likely to get buy-in from most, if not all of your employees.

About ATS
ATS offers a broad portfolio of time and attendance solutions that streamlines the collection, calculation, and reporting of employee hours for workforce management and eliminates the manual tasks of payroll preparation, increasing efficiency and reducing errors in corporate payroll departments.

Thousands of organizations across North, Central and South America and Europe- including more than half of the Fortune 500 – use ATS TimeWork OnDemand, Workforce Planning, Employee Scheduling HR and payroll solutions to manage their workforce. ATS cloud services offer rapid deployment, support services, software updates, and enhancements; and consulting and training services.

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What’s Causing Employees to Resign from Their Jobs in Droves?

November 11th, 2021 | Posted by ATS in Careers | Economy | Employee Productivity | Fingerprint Time And Attendance Canada | Fingerprint Time And Attendance Toronto | HR | Leave Management | Managers | Remote Work | The Great Resignation | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software | Time and Attendance Canada | Time and Attendance Toronto - (Comments Off on What’s Causing Employees to Resign from Their Jobs in Droves?)

The phrase “The Great Resignation was coined by Texas A&M University Professor Anthony C. Klotz coined back in 2020. Now this term is widely used to describe the challenges many businesses, both small and large face with the max exodus of employees. Some experts have anecdotally, opined employees chose to stay home and collect stimulus covid-19 panademic cheques. However, recent surveys, suggest the real reasons, is because many people have decided to make a major shift in their life and focus on what matters most to them during the pandemic. Some of these reasons for quitting their jobs include: family, children education, and work-life balance. In other words, most people decided to leave their old jobs and look for new jobs that align with their new identity and life goals.

In a recent blog Sophia Lee at Blue Board  lays out some of the reasons why so many employees have decided to quit their jobs.

1. Employee burnout rates are through the roof.

Employee burnout is a long-term reaction to stress that usually comes with mental, emotional, and physical side effects. While 42% of employees were already experiencing burnout before the pandemic, that number skyrocketed to 72% a few months into lockdown—largely due to increased anxiety, heavier workloads, and people taking less time off. 

But many employers still aren’t addressing employee burnout in their retention strategies. One in five workers believes their employer doesn’t care about their work-life balance. And they’ve had enough. They’re quitting in droves, looking for companies that care about their wellbeing. Others are staying put—but at a cost to organizations. The lost productivity of an actively disengaged employee is equal to 18% of their annual salary. This means a company of 10,000 employees with an average salary of $50,000 each will lose $60.3 million a year due to employee burnout.

2. Companies aren’t providing the flexibility employees need.

When COVID-19 sent so many people home, employees realized how powerful (and possible) it is to be able to decide where, how, and when they work. Which is why nine in ten employees continue to demand flexibility from their jobs.

Too many organizations have dismissed this shift, and expect people to quietly return to the office. But this will likely result in significant turnover, as 54% of employees are considering leaving their job in this new normal if they’re not afforded some form of flexibility in where and when they work. 

3. Manager training continues to fall short. 

Managers have the most influence on an employee’s job satisfaction, wellbeing, and likelihood to stay at a company. In fact, 57% of employees have left at least one company because of their boss. But being a manager isn’t intuitive. It requires an entirely different set of skills than being an individual contributor, which is why training programs are essential.

In these uncertain times, managers are playing an especially critical role in supporting their employees. Or, at least, they should be. But due to a lack of effective training, many managers aren’t giving employees what they need, causing them to burn out and look for new jobs. 

Managers themselves are frustrated by the lack of support from their employers. They’ve been asked to take on significantly more responsibility without being given additional tools, resources, or guidance. The employee retention numbers reflect the frustration: as of December 2020, the resignation rate for managers was nearly 12% higher than the previous year.

About ATS

ATS offers a broad portfolio of time and attendance solutions that streamlines the collection, calculation, and reporting of employee hours for workforce management and eliminates the manual tasks of payroll preparation, increasing efficiency and reducing errors in corporate payroll departments.

Thousands of organizations across North, Central and South America and Europe- including more than half of the Fortune 500 – use ATS TimeWork OnDemand, Workforce Planning, Employee Scheduling HR and payroll solutions to manage their workforce. ATS cloud services offer rapid deployment, support services, software updates, and enhancements; and consulting and training services.


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Hot Potato, Hot Potato And The Minimum Wage Debate

June 8th, 2017 | Posted by ATS in Economy | Minimum Wage | Time and Attendance Blog, Workforce Management Software - (Comments Off on Hot Potato, Hot Potato And The Minimum Wage Debate)

The recent announcements of a $15.00 per hour minimum wage in several jurisdictions across North America have left those for jumping for joy and those against it seething. On radio talk shows and, in online forums the debate is like a hot potato. At this point, both sides feel so strongly about their position on the matter, it’s unlikely they will engage in a healthy debate about the subject.

The arguments for and against the wage increase is far reaching.  One of the many groups against the wage hike is The Oakville Chamber of Commerce based, based on feedback from its members, and writes the following;

“Chamber members share the Government’s desire for broadly inclusive growth. However, in order to achieve this, we need to ensure that we are not risking job losses, rising consumer costs, and economic hardship as a result of over-regulation.

The cost of all of these benefits will be borne by small business owners.  We believe the government has not yet fully understood the unintended consequences of these changes.   Chamber members have expressed their frustration and concern over rising costs and over regulation.

Higher costs for employers will inevitably lead to higher prices for consumers.  If the businesses cannot transfer these new costs to the consumer, employers will be looking to reduce overhead by cutting staff hours and possibly cutting the number of staff.  This will reduce the job opportunities available to youth and other low-skilled individuals who need employment.

Hot Potato, Hot Potato And The Minimum Wage Debate

While we understand the commendable intentions of these proposals, it is clear that the government can’t legislate prosperity.  Instead of creating more opportunity for workers, changes like these often have the opposite effect by reducing jobs and increasing the cost of living.”

Arguments in favour of the minimum wage hike:

In a recent interview, venture capitalist and critic of income inequality, Nick Hanauer did not mince words:

“The fundamental law of capitalism is that when workers have more money, businesses have more customers and need more workers… [There’s been] essentially 100 years of wealthy owners telling workers that if wages go up, employment will go down, but in fact it never happens.

The only thing that’s really true about the claim that when wages go up, employment goes down, is that if people like me can get people like your listeners to believe it’s true, it will work out really, really well for people like me. The truth is that this claim really isn’t a description of reality. It’s more of a scam or an intimidation tactic. It’s essentially a threat that powerful people use against not powerful people to scare them away from higher wages.”

Look back historically to the moments when wages went up and take a look at what happened in the past…What you will always find is that when wages go up, particularly when wages go up for everyone all at once, what you find is robust, economic growth.

You have to understand, from the point of view of an individual business owner, paying more wages is bad. Who wouldn’t want to pay their workers poverty wages and keep profits high? But the problem is, everybody can’t have that deal. If no one pays their workers good wages, then who will buy the stuff and who will pay the taxes? The people who are defending these low wages today, essentially are free riders. They’re parasites on the larger economy.”

We will give Don Lee the last word. In his article for the LA Times A new dawn for the minimum wage he writes;

“Community activists and politicians see a $15 minimum wage as the antidote to the ills of rising inequality, a way to reduce poverty and stimulate the overall economy. Business owners warn it will tie their hands in downturns, drive small employers out of business and lead to millions of layoffs.

The reality is not that simple: An increase to $15 an hour would ripple through the U.S. economy in some unexpected ways that are, generally, not as bad nor as beneficial as each side claims.”

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