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Essential workers including; warehousing and distribution, grocery and healthcare to name a few, have been going to their respective workplaces throughout the pandemic. And, while COVID-19 vaccination efforts have picked up, some office workers remain apprehensive about returning to the office. Business leaders on the other hand, are also struggling to chart the new normal.

closeup of a young man in an office holding a briefcase and a surgical mask in his hand

If your company is contemplating a return to the office here are 5 tips from Kate Bullinger and Emily Caruso’s article The Return-to-Work Paradox.

1. Consider the perspectives of your people through deep listening: While many leaders have strong preferences for getting people back into workplaces, the majority of employees do not feel the same way. After a year of alternative work arrangements, our research shows that 85% of employees currently working from home are satisfied with their job. Of those, 82% say that they would like to continue working from home rather than going to their place of work every day. 

More than half of the people we surveyed would go further to request to continue working from home if vaccines aren’t mandated by their employer, with 4% considering leaving their job if they are forced to go back without a company policy that requires vaccination. 

Therefore, actively listen to your people and ensure you are hearing from different populations via surveys, “ask me anything” sessions, and direct outreach.

2.Understand the key drivers of vaccine hesitancy to address them in an inclusive way: On the other end of the spectrum, there are many reasons why people are hesitant to get the vaccine. Understanding these reasons and how they vary among audiences is important for addressing them. 

For example, many people question the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and are concerned about potential side effects. Some are responding to mixed messages from government leaders. And the history of exploitation and neglect that people of color and other minorities have experienced at the hands of the medical establishment cannot be ignored. By understanding the intersection of health and racial equity, you can ensure DE&I is embedded into employee vaccine communications.

3.Seek to meet people where they are, with the information they need:

Except for hardcore “nevers” (approximately 15% of the adult population), most skeptical or hesitant people are open to changing their mind. Accurate information from trusted sources is key to reaching this group. People seek leadership, science, and medical-based opinions. 

More people are turning to friends and family when it comes to making their own health decisions, which highlights the importance of accurate, understandable and shareable information as part of grassroots communication efforts. 

To reach employees with a clear and accurate message, create an employee engagement campaign to educate about the vaccine and promote vaccination. Equip managers — the No. 1 channel for reaching employees — with the information that they need to best support the campaign.

4.Explore alternative ways to promote vaccine adoption: Because of the tensions between those people who would feel more comfortable with a vaccine and those who are more reticent, leaders should focus on incentivizing versus mandating vaccination. While there is a precedent for requiring health screenings across sectors, particularly in those with large populations of front-line workers, requiring employees to get vaccinated, even with the overwhelming evidence about the efficacy of the vaccine, may be seen by some as an overstep of privacy or worse, backfire completely. 

Some incentives include covering administration or transportation costs, providing time off or additional pay, and including vaccines in health resources already offered through employee assistance and/or or workplace wellness programs. 

5.Evaluate what’s driving the need to return to workplaces: Pushing people back to work before they are ready, and before other social systems — like the reopening of schools — are in place could have a significant impact on morale, productivity, and even retention. Instead and when possible, companies are better off remaining flexible with their workplace policies. When not possible, employers should be clear about the criteria that went into the decision, which should at a minimum include observance of local and national public health guidance. 

Bottomline:  While some employees may be itching to get back to the buzz of a busy office environment and mingling with their co-workers, others may be worried about seeing and coming into contact with their colleagues. In the end, these concerns- and others, will likely shape the way business leaders plan to reopen.

To learn more about ATS cloud computing HCM application, go to our website, where you can download a demo. To reach us by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

Two of Canada’s largest grocery stores have reintroduced lockdown/pandemic pay for its workers, a move, that is likely to be followed by other grocers.

A recent press release by David Brown Canadian Grocer, reads in part: “

“Longo’s—which operates only in Ontario where a stay-home order is in effect for four weeks—announced all permanent front-line staff working in Longo’s stores and distribution centres, and for Grocery Gateway, Central Kitchen and Market Café would be receiving a $2 increase. Assistant store managers, department managers, team leads and supervisors in operating roles will not receive the $2 wage increase, but will receive a special weekly bonus.

Read: Canadian grocers and their supply chains unlock business value with ATSTimeWorkOnDemand

Before and during COVID-19 ATS customers, including: food production, grocery, healthcare, manufacturing and retail — have used bonus payments, (commonly referred to as shift differential or premium pay) for both hourly and/or salaried employees.  ATSTimeWorkOnDemand shift differential allows a company to accurately apply them to things such as: shift starting and end times, time worked on certain hours or days, or shifts rendered in a particular role or location.

Our customers use ATSTimeWorkOnDemand for shift differentials/premium pay in the following scenarios:

  • Evening shifts
  • Overnight shifts
  • Weekend shifts
  • Bonus: pandemic or lockdown pay
  • Holiday shifts
  • Shifts outside an employee’s typical schedule
  • Ongoing coverage of an undesirable shift

By using ATSTimeWorkOnDemand, your organization will benefit from harmonized processes and increased role-based experiences across all devices resulting in:

Workforce Productivity and Manager Experience: streamlines payroll costs and is available anytime, anywhere, both online and on mobile devices. The application delivers an engaging experience that drives user adoption across the workforce, giving companies the ability to streamline time-entry and approval processes.

Analytics: delivers end-to-end insight into HR, payroll, and time-tracking processes. Get real-time reporting into actual labor costs and actionable insight with embedded analytics at the point of decision-making.

Real-Time Calculation: A robust, enterprise-grade calculation engine delivers real-time calculations and information on overtime, double time, vacation, shift differentials and more, prior to the payroll run.

Platform Extensibility and Data Integration: A modern technology infrastructure, seamlessly integrated with foundational applications employees use every day. Cloud-native, with open APIs, and extensible — mold to your business and easily adapt as it evolves. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand enables organizations to integrate time clock data with inbound/outbound integration to import clock-in/outs).

More Control: Managers can override rate during time entry and correct time off. For multiple jobs, approvals can be routed separately to each manager, eliminating approval delays.

To learn more, go to our website and download a demo. And, to reach an account executive by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

Read: Increased Functionality: ATS Enhances Its Time and Attendance Shift Differential Premium Pay Codes

Read: ATS Releases Contactless Biometric Face Recognition Time Clocks With Temperature Reading Capabilities

While the coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt organizations worldwide, many are turning to digital technologies to help reinvent processes and go-to-market strategies. The grocery and their supply chain industry know, all too well that consumer expectations of the shopping experience, has to align with brand and inventory management strategies- to ultimately meet demand, while protecting margins.

Here are 5 ways the grocery industry and their supply chains can leverage the best of ATSTimeWorkOnDemand to fuel profits and increase productivity.

  1. Real-Time Analytics Delivers Business Continuity: ATSTimeWorkOnDemand for grocery and supply chain ties every part of your organization together under one system, capturing every detail and maintaining a single version of your data. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand cloud analytics combines workforce planning, forecasting and demand, response and supply, demand-driven replenishment, and inventory planning. Leading grocery companies choose ATSTimeWorkOnDemand for its powerful supply chain analytics, what-if simulation and alerts to stay ahead of change and improve responsiveness.
  2. Fast Deployment: ATSTimeWorkOnDemand for grocers and their supply chain has a plethora of pre-built visualizations and data elements designed for the grocery industry. The scalable platform of ATSTimeWorkOnDemand means that it is easy to grow-with and make changes in the future.
  3. Ready To Use Information: HR, payroll and finance needs accurate data and ATSTimeWorkOnDemand intuitive dashboards viewable by functional areas of the business to ensure users across all departments, can focus on the data that is relevant to them.  ATSTimeWorkOnDemand is also accessible to employees on their mobile devices or tablets; to check overtime, schedules and to request time-off through the employee self-service portal.
  4. Manual Time Reporting is a Thing of the Past: Archaic spreadsheet-based reporting won’t help business move forward. With ATSTimeWorkOnDemand instant forecasting and budget analytics helps grocery and their supply chains establish a data-driven culture that will help decision makers can easily retrieve up-to-the-minute data without relying on IT or the next report run. That means getting actionable insights from across your grocery supply chain to understand impacts and execute adjustments in a timely way.
  5. Managing profit when margin pressures are high: With ATS best-of-breed data collectors, grocery and their supply chains, will obtain real-time visibility and transactional updates. Sometimes, the truth about a company’s performance is often hidden deep within labour costs and operational data. ATSTimeWorkOnDemand for grocery and supply chain, does the heavy lifting, by sorting through the noise to isolate, calculate and track the business metrics that really matter.

To learn more about ATSTimeWorkOnDemand for Grocery and Supply Chains, go to our website. You can also register for one of our webinars, or download a demo of our software solution from our website. And, to reach account representative by phone, call: 866.294.2467.

Since the early days of COVID­-19 pandemic several industries like grocery and retail jobs were deemed essential services while some others were furloughed or moved online. As some businesses slowly reopen it can be nerve-racking to head back into the office, while a global pandemic is still looming over everyone’s head.

Here are some useful tips, companies can take to help their employees adjust to the new conditions, and also ease their fears, as they slowly reopen:

Temperature Check Time Clocks
Some of ATS customers have migrated to a contactless and temperature check biometric time clocks. These data collectors offer an automatic, touch-free tool for accurate employee temperature screening. And, with real-time results, Payroll and HR leaders can create a policy for failed temperature checks to ensure a safe environment and a consistent experience for all employees at the point of entry to the workspace. 

Pandemic Pay/Shift Differential
The high volume of shutdowns caused by the global corona virus pandemic has triggered organizations to consider salary continuance options to help employees through this difficult time and to retain their talent. While some industries, like grocery, healthcare and retail chains have eliminated pandemic pay, others have added shift differential to bolster employees pay. Whichever option you choose, ATSTimeWorkOnDemand will ease the burden for HR by seamlessly applying these pay codes through our software configuration.

Working from Home and Managing Childcare
The shut down of schools in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, had many parents working from home with their children-managing professional priorities, while helping their kids with school work. Some of ATS customers have made use of online timesheets and project tracking solutions for these remote workers.

Leave Management
While some parents are able to stay home with their kids, others are not so fortunate, and without access to childcare, like some of their colleagues, will likely find themselves in a stressful situation. HR can encourage these parents to request time-off by making use of existing vacation time they have accrued. This simple act, could alleviate some of the stress, these employees are trying to manage. And, don’t forget the employees who do not have children, they could also benefit from taking time-off, to deal with the stress of COVID-19.

ATS Workforce Planning
With COVID-19 showing no signs of abating, companies can make use of ATS Workforce Planning for employees who want some flexible options as they manage work and at life at home. ATS Workforce Planning gives managers a real-time schedule that changes with the organization’s needs. With ATS Workforce Planning managers gain immediate insight into how many staff members to schedule at any given time and optimizes planning breaks, setting vacations, adding time for training and addressing unplanned absences.

Bottomline; maintaining compliance, keeping track of employment agreements, and internal policies during these trying times can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be.  ATSTimeWorkOnDemand HCM suite is a comprehensive workforce management application with a— future-ready platform that addresses the unique requirements of a company. In short, we have got your covered.

To learn more, you can download a demonstration of our product or to reach us by phone, call: 866.294.2467.