Wednesday, February 27. 2008
Employee Morale
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Not sure if this is the right blog but....I'm mechanic and work at a power plant. How can I get my manager (as well as my union steward) to look at different work schedules?
Everytime I bring up employee scheduling issues I never get a good answer. There seems to be a "this is the way we have always done it" mentality. I know others are interested as well but no one else will speak up. Any ideas to get people talking about scheduling?
Everytime I bring up employee scheduling issues I never get a good answer. There seems to be a "this is the way we have always done it" mentality. I know others are interested as well but no one else will speak up. Any ideas to get people talking about scheduling?
Comment (1)
The key to making a change is understanding what is at risk and what can be gained. Try building a case for change. It can't be that you have some "neat" ideas. You have to have a concrete plan. Typically, traditional schedules are very inefficient and somewhere between 12 and 17% of total labor costs can be saved. Core Practice Partners is a firm I work for and we offer a Labor Strategy Workshop for free. Take a look at our website and download the 1 page document. It is a 3 hour meeting and will lay out the plan and answer the question, "is it worth it to change?"
Comments (2)
I supervise the night shift at a manufacturing facility and we are always working the weekends. Our schedule is listed as Monday through Friday for 8-hours for all three crews, but our busy season always results in Saturday work. Sometimes our schedule requires Sundays as well. I love the overtime pay, but I need more than one scheduled day off each week. I suggested getting parttime employees to work Sundays and some of the Saturdays so that we can still get some overtime pay and some days off. Any other ideas?
Comment (1)
You have raised very important points.
First, working unscheduled weekends is a morale killer. Not giving employees predictability wreaks havoc on their personal lives and gives the perception of disrespect. Understanding the real demand (workload) should allow you to create the schedule you need verses the schedule that doesn't have any weekends built in (even though you work them all the time). Building flexibility into a schedule can be complicated and requires an in depth understanding of adverse labor costs. Be careful with this or you could end up spending a lot of money on idle time.
Your second point about wanting more than one day off even though you want overtime really points towards working longer shifts. There are a lot of bad ways to do this so be carefull. You can end up doing more harm then good and having it cost you an arm and a leg, but if done right longer shifts can improve morale. You can end up with an extra 13 weeks off each year AND built in overtime. Having more days off allows for more overtime opportunities to fill in for other team members vacations and absences.
Please AVOID part time employees on the weekends. It is a concept called weekend warrior and it doesn't work in almost every case. Part time employees can be helpful, but when they are the majority of the team at any point quality suffers. They typically don't have the skills or commitment to be more than 12% of the workforce without lowering quality and productivity.
Good luck and feel free to email me with any questions or call my office at 212 534 0539 to discuss it in person.
John
First, working unscheduled weekends is a morale killer. Not giving employees predictability wreaks havoc on their personal lives and gives the perception of disrespect. Understanding the real demand (workload) should allow you to create the schedule you need verses the schedule that doesn't have any weekends built in (even though you work them all the time). Building flexibility into a schedule can be complicated and requires an in depth understanding of adverse labor costs. Be careful with this or you could end up spending a lot of money on idle time.
Your second point about wanting more than one day off even though you want overtime really points towards working longer shifts. There are a lot of bad ways to do this so be carefull. You can end up doing more harm then good and having it cost you an arm and a leg, but if done right longer shifts can improve morale. You can end up with an extra 13 weeks off each year AND built in overtime. Having more days off allows for more overtime opportunities to fill in for other team members vacations and absences.
Please AVOID part time employees on the weekends. It is a concept called weekend warrior and it doesn't work in almost every case. Part time employees can be helpful, but when they are the majority of the team at any point quality suffers. They typically don't have the skills or commitment to be more than 12% of the workforce without lowering quality and productivity.
Good luck and feel free to email me with any questions or call my office at 212 534 0539 to discuss it in person.
John
Comments (2)
I'm the afternoon shift production supervisor. My turnover is 50% a year and I have a hard time getting employees to show up, on time, on Saturdays. On one hand they like the overtime, but they hate working 6 days in a row. The night shift get the same premium as we do, but I think we should get more to lower our turnover. Our current premium is $.50. How much more would lower turnover to 25%?
Comment (1)
First, let me say that there are very few employees that like working saturdays, but a lot that like the extra pay associated with overtime! (how do we make that work for them?!)
If you have a regular need for Saturday work, create a base schedule that includes saturday and bite the bullet. Shift schedule predictability is king with employees and if they have a better idea of what they are going to work, at least they can start making family plans more often.
If they like the overtime and just don't like working 6 in a row, I would strongly recommend longer shifts. You can give them a 5 day weekend every 3 weeks with more predictability and the same cost profile. You can give them a five day schedule with 12 hour shifts that would allow working on Saturdays on overtime and still never have them work more than 4 days in a row. Schedule options are endless, but the key is to pick the right one that meets both the business needs and the lifestyle and preferences of the employees. THAT WILL LOWER YOUR TURNOVER! Forget about shift premiums and shift differentials. They are efforts at paying off employees, but they don't ever solve the problem. Try solving the problem and improve the schedule to end the revolving issues associated with employee morale and cost savings.
Again, to lower turnover learn why your employees are leaving. If it is what you say it is (many times there are unknown causes that require some research and the obvious complaints don't solve the problem) then follow the advise above.
If you have a regular need for Saturday work, create a base schedule that includes saturday and bite the bullet. Shift schedule predictability is king with employees and if they have a better idea of what they are going to work, at least they can start making family plans more often.
If they like the overtime and just don't like working 6 in a row, I would strongly recommend longer shifts. You can give them a 5 day weekend every 3 weeks with more predictability and the same cost profile. You can give them a five day schedule with 12 hour shifts that would allow working on Saturdays on overtime and still never have them work more than 4 days in a row. Schedule options are endless, but the key is to pick the right one that meets both the business needs and the lifestyle and preferences of the employees. THAT WILL LOWER YOUR TURNOVER! Forget about shift premiums and shift differentials. They are efforts at paying off employees, but they don't ever solve the problem. Try solving the problem and improve the schedule to end the revolving issues associated with employee morale and cost savings.
Again, to lower turnover learn why your employees are leaving. If it is what you say it is (many times there are unknown causes that require some research and the obvious complaints don't solve the problem) then follow the advise above.
Comment (1)
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