Workforce Management Time & Attendance Excellence January 2023

26 U.S. Labor Immigration: Top Developments Key steps taken by the government in 2022 and the likely impact in 2023

- Miguel Manna, Attorney in Raleigh office, law firm Parker Poe

39 The Hybrid Work Model: Best Of Both Worlds? Without clear intention and creativity, worker productivity may be doomed

- Jim Frawley, People Analytics Consultant

- Kevin Akeroyd, CEO, Magnit

Time Tracking For White Collar Workers And Project Management

What is gained? What is lost?

- Charlotte Garry Carne, Senior Counsel, Labor and Employment Practice Group, Dykema

The Shortest Route To Optimal Remote Working

4 ways to get the best out of remote workers

- Jason Richmond, Founder, Ideal Outcomes

Top 6 Emerging Trends In Time And Labor Management In North America

How we work will keep evolving

- Paolo Gilfillan, VP, Sales and Marketing, Synerion Inc.

14 22 31 36

How HR Can Use AI To Decipher And Respond To Labor Market’s Mixed Signals

Empowering resources and talent with automation

- Rebecca Jones, General Manager, Mosaicx

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The Future of Employee Time Tracking

Employees have been clocking in and out for well over a century.

In 1888, a New York Jeweller Willard Legrand Bundy invented the first employee time clock. By 1898, the company had sold more than 9,000 Bundy Time Recorders.

Fast forward to 2023 and today it is a legal requirement in most countries, for employers to keep detailed records of the hours their employees work each day and week. They must also keep a record of any leave, rest periods, and breaks employees take.

What may have originated as a way to track “blue-collar” workers’ hours in manufacturing companies is now commonplace across all industries and jobs.

Check out Softworks Mairead Walsh's Tracking Time For White-Collar Workers, and Dykema Charlotte Garry Carne's Time Tracking For White Collar Workers And Project Management, to understand how it benefits employers and what is in store for the future.

Remote and hybrid working systems, like most successful business initiatives, require a clear-headed management approach and investing in the tools that make

Excellence

them vibrant and exciting. For the employees that thrive in it, remote working creates the motivational energy management teams give their eye teeth to attain.

Ideal Outcomes' Jason Richmond shares The Shortest Route To Optimal Remote Working in his article, and lists down the four ways employers should approach a remote working system.

Also, read Top 6 Emerging Trends In Time And Labor Management In North America by Paolo Gilfillan from Synerion Inc., and How HR Can Use AI To Decipher And Respond To Labor Market’s Mixed Signals by Rebecca Jones from Mosaicx.

This is not all!

This month’s issue of Workforce Management, Time & Attendance, Excellence brings you several other informative and educational articles that we hope will help you achieve excellence and efficiency in your workforce management efforts.

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Disclaimer: The views, information, or opinions expressed in the Excellence ePublications are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HR.com and its employees. Under no circumstances shall HR.com or its partners or affiliates be responsible or liable for any indirect or incidental damages arising out of these opinions and content.

Deepa Damodaran Editor, Workforce Management, Time & Attendance,

In a world of unparalleled challenges (global pandemic, racial injustice, political rivalry, digital 4.0, emotional malaise), uncertainty reigns. Finding opportunity in this context requires harnessing uncertainty and harnessing starts with reliable, valid, timely, and useful information. The Excellence publications are a superb source of such information. The authors provide insights with impact that will guide thought and action.

Dave Ulrich

Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan Partner, The RBL Group

Excellence publications are my ‘go-to’ resource for contemporary and actionable information to improve leadership, engagement, results, and retention. Each edition offers rich and diverse perspectives for improving the employee experience and the workplace in general.

Julie Winkle Giulioni

Author, Virtual /Live Keynote Presenter, Inc.’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers

I regularly read and contribute to Leadership Excellence and Talent Management Excellence. I use many of the articles I read to augment my own presentations and I often share the articles with my clients. They are always quick, right on target for the latest issues in my field, and appreciated by my clients. If you want to stay up to date on the latest HR trends, choose a few of the different issues from the Excellence series of publications.

Dr. Beverly Kaye CEO, BevKaye&Co.

Tracking Time For White-Collar Workers

Benefits of using electronic timesheets when tracking time for white-collar workers and project management

By Mairead Walsh, Softworks

Employees have been clocking in and out for well over a century. In 1888, a New York Jeweller Willard Legrand Bundy invented the first employee time clock. By 1898, the company had sold more than 9,000 Bundy Time Recorders.

The clocks were mainly used by manufacturing companies to measure their employee hours. It was a perfect way of measuring hours worked by so-called blue-collar workers on production lines, who were often paid solely for the hours they worked.

Fast forward to 2023 and today it is a legal requirement in most countries, for employers to keep detailed records of the hours their employees work each day and week. They must also keep a record of any leave, rest periods, and breaks employees take.

In the U.S. while specific rules and regulations differ by state, there are a number of federal requirements that apply to all U.S. employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) requires that records state the date and time a worker starts and finishes work, the number of hours worked each day, and the total hours worked each week. In 2019 the European Court of Justice (the CJEU) held that employers must have a suitable system in place to ensure they are recording employees’ daily and weekly working hours.

Today, we have moved beyond Bundy’s clock and have sophisticated automated time, attendance, and scheduling technology solutions. Along with ensuring your business is compliant with labor laws and health

and safety requirements, there are many benefits of recording your employees’ time, attendance, and absences.

What may have originated as a way to track “blue-collar” workers’ hours in manufacturing companies is now commonplace across all industries and jobs.

In this article, I look at the benefits of using electronic timesheets for white-collar time tracking and project management.

1. Removes Manual Processes, Improves Accuracy, and Ensures Compliance

One of the easiest and most unobtrusive ways to accurately track employee time and activities is via electronic timesheets. Electronic timesheets replace the need for paper timesheets and gather information on hours worked by employees. They interface with payroll and human resources systems.

Electronic timesheets are designed to allow employees to easily enter their daily hours worked or assume their standard contract hours, as well as paid time off via their PC, laptop, tablet, phone, etc. They were developed to reduce administration and manual tasks, increase payroll accuracy, ensure compliance with working time legislation and health and safety and protect organizations against payroll fraud.

2. Automates Payroll Calculations

Once timesheets are completed and approved, the system can then calculate payable hours, based on what is entered thereby avoiding the need for any manual calculations. With electronic timesheets, supervisors do not need to sign off on “paper” timesheets which can be open to errors; instead, they approve employees’ electronic timesheets online directly from their email or via their phone app.

This ensures that timesheets cannot be changed later as once approved they go directly to payroll rather than back to the employee. With electronic timesheets, you can allow employees to view and edit their time, enter absences, submit requests for leave and review their schedules reducing time spent looking for this information from others.

3. Discourages Payroll Fraud

The most common type of payroll fraud is the padding of timesheets by employees and the best control over this is ensuring that timesheets are completed and signed off regularly and in a timely fashion.

With an automated system, there is no need for administration staff to re-enter this information into the system. This allows you to completely eliminate the middle steps which could leave your business open to human error or fraud. The quicker that timesheet information is processed the more exact it will be. By leaving a time lapse between work done and approval you leave your business open to mistakes and deliberate fraud.

4. Makes Timesheet Approval Quick, Easy and Hassle-free

If tracking time and attendance become too much hassle for employees and supervisors, timesheet accuracy goes down. The easier it is for employees to fill in timesheets and for supervisors to approve them, the more accurate this information will be and the faster errors or attempted fraud will be spotted.

Line managers do not want to waste time chasing their team for timesheets and HR and finance departments do not want to waste time chasing line managers. Good electronic timesheet systems have built-in functionality, such as email alerts and SMS messaging, reminding employees and managers about timesheet submission and approval.

At the end of the day, the process should be quick and easy and provide no disincentive to doing it.

By enabling supervisors to easily and quickly edit, authorize and analyze, time, attendance, absences, and additional time from one screen you will increase timesheet accuracy and alert supervisors quickly to any discrepancies. A good electronic timesheet system should offer all of this.

5. Keeps Track of Employees Centrally

Managing variable working hours, times, and days and tracking large numbers of employees and/or contract workers dispersed at multiple locations in real-time can be quite a challenge. With electronic timesheets, you can allow employees and/or contractors to check in from off-site locations.

Electronic timesheets are 100% web-enabled so both employees and supervisors can log in anytime and anywhere via their PC, laptop, tablet, phone, etc. making it easy to record employees’ working hours, times, and days and track large numbers of employees at a central source, no matter where office premises or employees/ contractors are located. This, in turn, makes it easier to track any discrepancies or unusual time and attendance which leads us to management reporting.

6. Management Reporting

In order to keep a close eye on timesheets, managers, and supervisors should be able to generate and view reports easily. This will help them to analyze employee costs, overtime usage, and time off as well as easily and accurately track hours spent on projects or tasks. Furthermore, having a system that generates good reports will prevent employees from booking time for projects that do not exist or are completed or favoring employees on projects, without taking into consideration the cost implications.

7. Legal Compliance

Most countries today have working time legislation for health and safety reasons. As an employer, it is your responsibility to accurately record your employee’s working hours, overtime, annualeave, and start and finish times. If you do not, you could be at risk of prosecution for non-compliance or even face a lawsuit from employees. There is a growing body of case law involving class action lawsuits for unpaid overtime. With so many people now working remotely, it can be difficult to track employee time without an automated system in place to assist.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, there are many benefits to using electronic timesheets for white-collar time tracking and project management. Electronic timesheets are designed to accommodate the complete spectrum of salaried and hourly-paid, as well as on and off-site employees. It is an easy and unobtrusive way to track employee time.

They are particularly suited to organizations supporting a high level of salaried staff or where a “non-clocking” employee empowerment culture exists. They are an easy and unobtrusive way of tracking employee time, activities, absences, and project costs.

Mairead Walsh is the Chief Marketing Officer of Softworks. Would you like to comment?

7 Ways To Turn Employee Schedules Into A Hiring And Retention Asset

By Jim McGeady, ADP

Creating

schedules that work for everyone is hard, and maintaining them on the fly can be even harder. However, being an employer that masters scheduling challenges can be a significant competitive advantage when it comes to hiring and retaining top talent.

Boom or bust the war on talent continues. Who would have thought that it would be so difficult to hire and retain people after a global pandemic that has been followed by economic uncertainty? But the reality is that people are continuing to rethink what their job desires and needs are.

A Microsoft survey of more than 30,000 global workers showed that 41% of workers were considering quitting or changing professions this year.

For your business to continue to thrive and grow, you need employees. You need to attract, retain and engage them. Traditionally, being flexible when it comes to worker schedules has been hard. Varying coverage and patterns and allowing changes from week to week created headaches for managers, so they were reluctant to accommodate them.

More than ever, people want and need to work the shifts that best fit their needs — both their predictable and unpredictable schedules. Being an employer that can accommodate this can be a significant competitive advantage when it comes to attracting, retaining, and engaging top talent.

Here are seven practices that can go a long way toward improving employee satisfaction.

1. Gather Availability in Advance

Do not waste your time creating schedules that will not work for people. Find out in advance when they are available and/or unavailable to work. This helps improve the quality and acceptance of the schedule from the start and will save managers and employees time and frustration.

2. Ask for Preferences

Understanding preferences in addition to availability can improve satisfaction. Employees not only like to work when they are easily available, but they may prefer certain hours and working with certain people as well as performing certain jobs. They may also prefer to work remotely if that is a possibility. Tracking preferences and matching the schedule to them is a big bonus.

3. Keep Employee Skills Up To Date

Perhaps an employee has learned a new language, taken a class, obtained a certification or earned a license or a degree. If these new skills can open a door to more interesting or higher-paying jobs, they may be more satisfied. If you have jobs that require certain skills, make note of that, and then schedule the workers who match.

4. Follow the Rules

Most work rules have evolved from situations that were either undesirable or unsafe for workers. Whether it is not working consecutive shifts, not exceeding maximum hours in a day or a week or another rule, it is best to follow them. Otherwise, you risk a burned-out team who could be unhappy or causing injury to themselves or others. Nobody wants to work in those conditions and knowing they will not have to can be very attractive.

5. Empower Employees to Swap and Request Coverage

Face it, stuff happens. And that means even a schedule that is perfect for everyone may need to change. Letting workers work that out for themselves will save managers' time. Having a clear process and some rules around who can swap with or cover for whom is key.

6. Allow and Prepare for Employees to Drop Shifts

Again, stuff happens. Plan for employees to need to drop shifts or to have a more permanent change in their availability. Understand and predict unplanned absence rates and schedule accordingly. Have a way for employees to quickly communicate that they need to drop a shift and do your best to be able to approve it when it happens. Otherwise, they might have to drop you as an employer.

7. Make it Easy for People to Claim Open Shifts and Work Overtime

If you are going to let people drop shifts, you may need a way to quickly fill them. Having a way to announce or post open shifts, and for employees to claim them, could be key. Keep in mind that some people will take all the hours and income they can get, while others have obligations or situations that

make picking up shifts or working overtime a burden or inconvenience. Find out and make note of who is willing to work late and who is not; schedule and offer extra time accordingly.

Creating schedules that work for everyone is hard. And maintaining them on the fly can be even harder. The practices above can be done manually, and managers in a small business with little turnover, or who have been on the job a long time might have the workforce knowledge to do it all in their heads.

For others, technology can help. Modern scheduling solutions make it much easier to match the right person to the job. They also offer mobile and online tools to ease collaboration between employees, managers, and peers. Using such technology can not only make the scheduling process faster and better for the employees, but it can also save managers time and headaches, which in turn can make them happier. Both outcomes can lead to an advantage when it comes to being an employer of choice.

Learn about advanced scheduling solutions from ADP here and by watching this video

This story originally published on SPARK, a blog designed for you and your people by ADP®

Recommended Resource: Rescinding an Offer: What You Need to Know

Jim McGeady is the Head of Product Marketing for the ADP Workforce Management and Data Solutions businesses. He has over 25 years of experience helping clients drive results through the optimal management of their people. Jim has been a leader of strategy, marketing and product management with business software innovators including ADP, UKG, Symplr, Infor and IBM.

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Time Tracking For White Collar Workers And Project Management

What is gained? What is lost?

By Charlotte Garry Carne, Dykema

Time tracking is already well-known for non-exempt, or hourly, employees. Since the dawn of the Fair Labor Standards Act, these employees have clocked - in and - out of work at the beginning and en+d of the day and for meal and rest breaks.

However, a new type of time tracking emerged over the past few decades.

Productivity monitoring, where every minute is measured for efficient work performance, has become prevalent in both exempt and non-exempt positions.

Indeed, since the Covid pandemic and the transition of executive, administrative and professional employees to remote work, both traditional time-tracking and productivity tracking are becoming more common for white-collar employees.

What Is Gained?

Employers claim that adding both traditional time-tracking and newer productivity monitoring to the white-collar work world allows them to manage the workforce with more equity. The software used for this tracking takes out of the equation subjective management. Especially with the influx of remote work, diligent workers can be rewarded and inattentive workers can be identified.

Employers claim that if they are going to give more flexibility in alternative work schedules, these systems help with maintaining management and productivity. Employers can identify employees playing video games, shopping and/ or using social media during work time. Employers also state that other employees become more efficient, wasting less time on things that can be done by lower-paid employees.

Many traditional billable employees, such as attorneys and accountants, also like the advent of these technologies because it helps them better track their billable hours by logging emails sent and received and phone calls made to clients. In addition, some employees at financial firms like the transition to time and productivity tracking because it helps with compliance as well as time tracking.

What Is Lost?

On the other hand, many white-collar employees state that

both traditional and productivity time tracking do not capture their labor. For example, some finance employees state that the software does not account for time spent away from the computer reading spreadsheets, doing calculations and/or just thinking. Many employees are also skeptical of the growing surveillance over each moment of the workday.

employment decisions based on that knowledge.

Last, unionization efforts will likely result in some of the most draconian surveillance being blocked. As we start 2023, this mix of unionization, legislation and business lobbying will likely produce a blended system of manual and software time-tracking to ensure all work is captured properly.

Recommended Resources: The Society for Human Resource Management, www.shrm.org U.S. Chamber of Commerce, www.uschamber.com

Of these complaints, the most common complaint is that the productivity trackers are just inaccurate and unreliable because they do not assess all time spent on a task properly.

Conclusion

In short, time and productivity tracking software solutions are here to stay for all employees. In 2023, employers will be tasked with learning how to effectively use these tools to track performance without alienating the workforce. In addition, we will likely see an increase in legislation requiring employers to reveal the type of information they collect on employees, so employees know how they are being rated and can make

Charlotte Garry Carne is Senior Counsel, Labor and Employment Practice Group, at Dykema. For more than 20 years, Charlotte has practiced employment litigation, traditional labor law, and education law. She routinely provides advice, counseling, and training to management on employment law issues, leadership issues and avoiding litigation. She also excels at written advocacy and drafting employment policies, collective bargaining provisions, and executive employment agreements. She has represented clients in state and federal courts in Michigan and California, as well as in various state courts and administrative agencies.

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Time and productivity tracking software solutions are here to stay for all employees

Are Employment Non-Compete Agreements Enforceable?

By Gary Trachten, Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP

The short answer is… it depends. It is complicated. And the law of non-competes is far from uniform from state to state.

In some jurisdictions, i.e., California, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C., most (if not all) forms of non-compete agreements are unlawful and unenforceable. About a dozen states have statutes that restrict or condition the use of non-compete agreements, and the trend in state legislatures is to pass more limitations on their use.

Even where non-competes are enforceable, courts consistently recite that they are “disfavored in the law” because they create impediments to peoples’ abilities to earn a living in their chosen field and make markets less free. Thus, courts police non-compete agreements and often find them to violate public policy and therefore unenforceable.

Last year, President Biden issued the Promoting Competition in the American Economy Order that asks the Federal Trade Commission to “curtail the unfair use of non-compete clauses and other clauses or agreements that may unfairly limit worker mobility.”

Nonetheless, companies have legitimate interests in protecting bona fide confidential information. For the most part, for information to be bona fide confidential

its secrecy must give a company a competitive advantage in the marketplace. However, companies often try to stretch that notion of confidential information by contractually defining it to extend to everything that is said or done within their four walls.

Companies also generally have legitimate interests in the customer goodwill that they engender through their employees. However, they often try to stretch that notion by contractually depriving former employees of their right to use the goodwill they had brought with them when first hired.

Four Types of Post-Employment Non-Competes

There are essentially four types of post-employment non-compete covenants. They are:

An employee promises not to perform services for any competitor for a specified duration — sometimes limited to a geographical territory. These range from extremely broad (may not work in any capacity for any unit of any competitor) to more specific (agrees not to work for a competitor in a capacity like the one they worked in for the former employer) restrictions.

A promise not to solicit clients and customers of the former employer to become clients or customers of the employee’s new employer (or anyone else).

How to prepare a reasonable post-employment non-compete agreement

A promise, for a specified period, not to solicit employees of the former employer to terminate their employment, generally to join the employee’s new employer.

A promise to forever hold confidential information that is descriptively defined in the agreement – which if described too broadly can (as explained below) be a backdoor way of obtaining a perpetual non-compete. Courts sometimes scrutinize these to make sure they are not enforceable as backdoor unreasonable non-competes. On other occasions, courts enforce them, as they would any contract, in accordance with their stated terms.

Post-employment non-compete contracts must strike a balance between the legitimate interests of an employer to protect against unfair competition, and interests of employees in their mobility, and the public at large in robustly free and fair markets. The public interest extends to labor markets because the markets for goods and services are most efficient when there is competition for talent.

Employers, who usually have the greater bargaining power, naturally desire to limit competition as much

as they can. While employees prefer not to have their future job opportunities restricted, they often so much want the offered job that they often reluctantly sign on to non-competes, often mistakenly believing the common refrain that they are anyway unenforceable. Neither the customers nor the public is at the bargaining table to assert their interests.

What Is Reasonable?

Despite legislative trends, non-competes are for the most part enforceable if they are “reasonable,” with “reasonable” in this context being a term of art. An agreement is “reasonable” if (1) necessary (or in some states useful) to protect legitimate employer interests, (2) no broader in scope than is required to protect those legitimate interests, (3) not unduly burdensome for the employee, and (4) not meaningfully detrimental to the public interest. In New York, an employer bears the burden of demonstrating that the agreement meets all four prongs of this test.

However, in some other states, the former employee contesting the enforceability of a non-compete covenant bears the burden of proving that the covenant he or she signed is not reasonable.

Since there is a public policy interest in robust competition, “legitimate” interests exclude an employer’s interest in reducing fair competition. For the most part, legitimate interests extend only to (a) protecting confidential information that the former employee had access to that can be used in an unfair manner against the former employer or (b) protecting against the former employee unfairly competing by exploiting the customer goodwill that the former employer had engendered through the employee. The trend in the law is that restraints on soliciting or hiring the former employer’s employees are not enforceable because these employer-legitimate interests are not served by such restraints.

But some courts nonetheless enforce “non-poach” restrictions on grounds that they do not interfere with the ability of the person who signed the agreement to obtain employment.

In determining whether the scope of the written restraint is greater than is enforceable, courts scrutinize its duration, nature, and geographic reach. An enforceable duration should be no longer than the useful shelf-life of confidential information to which the employee had access, or the period within which a replacement employee would have

sufficient opportunity to cultivate similar goodwill. While the court may find a covenant not to work for a competitor too broad to be enforceable, it may in the same case enforce a restraint on soliciting those customers who had been serviced by the former employee. The geographic scope may not extend beyond the employer’s current and soon-to-be markets.

Whether a restriction imposes an “undue burden” on the employee calls for a subjective judgment. Are the employee’s experience and skills readily transferable to another employer for similar compensation? A court might consider how well the employee had been compensated during the employment. In a few industries, the customary agreement provides for the employer to pay the employee non-compete pay during the period of restriction, and this will go far in establishing that the restriction does not impose an undue burden.

The public interest concerns whether the agreement unduly limits fair competition for talent between companies and/or is detrimental to the interests of clients, patients, or customers in being able to decide who they want to service them.

Are Employment Non-Compete Agreements Enforceable?

Confidentiality covenants are generally perpetual and when they reasonably define confidential information they will be enforced so long as the information remains confidential. But when they are overbroad in their description of what is confidential, such as when generic business strategies are defined to be a “secret sauce,” that can be detrimental to the former employee’s ability to work in the field. Courts often (but not always) recognize that where the purpose and/or effect of a confidentiality agreement is unjustifiably anti-competitive, it is a backdoor, perpetual, and unenforceable non-compete agreement.

Depending on the law in the particular state, a court that finds a non-compete to be unenforceable and overbroad in scope may nonetheless choose to re-write the scope and enforce it, or “bule pencil” the agreement by striking (rather than re-writing) the overbroad terms, or void the agreement in toto if a narrower version would have passed muster.

"You’re Fired; and Don’t Forget Your Non-Compete!”

As a rule, when a non-compete is part of a broader or simultaneous employment contract, the non-compete will not be enforceable when the employer materially breaches the employment agreement such as by firing the employee without cause during the agreed-to term. But what about when an employer fires without cause an “at-will” employee (who has no contract that protects from being thus fired) but had signed a non-compete agreement?

Can the employer enforce the agreement? That very much depends on the state law that applies. Although the non-compete will still be enforceable in most states, the current governing case law in New York is that an employer that fires an employee without cause loses its right to enforce the non-compete. But what in this context constitutes “cause” is far from clear. Nor is it clear whether the language of the agreement (“termination for any reason”) can trump the rule.

Self-Enforcing

Whether and the extent to which a non-compete is enforceable (where enforceable at all) in a court

depends little on the language of the agreement but a great deal on the circumstances. But this is the most important thing to know: Regardless of what a court would decide, non-competes are most often self-enforcing. That is because most employers, even if they recognize that the applicant’s non-compete is not likely enforceable, will usually decline to hire someone who signed a non-compete because they want to avoid the risk and expense an of potential litigation.

And that risk is not limited to becoming embroiled in litigation against (and seeking to enjoin) the employee, but also litigation against the new employer. If the new employer procures an employee’s breach of a valid non-complete, the new employer could be liable to the former employer for interference with the non-compete agreement.

Gary Trachten, a Founding Partner of Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP, has a practice concentrating on employment law and commercial litigation. Providing both transactional and dispute resolution services, he regularly represents inter-dealer brokers, traders, portfolio managers, investment bankers, corporate officers, physicians, salespersons, middle managers, and other employees. Would you like to comment?

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The Shortest Route to Optimal Remote Working

4 ways to get the best out of remote workers

By Jason Richmond, Ideal Outcomes

Life

is all about change. Some of it happens for the better, and the rest, not so much. Remote working was a lifestyle shift that came at us like a hurricane, energized by the pandemic’s social distancing cautions. Yet it has endured, severely impacting our traditional work habits. And it is not because emergency conditions still exist - they do not. It is still in play because it falls into the “a change for the better” category. Consider the following:

An extensive Stanford University study across 16,000 worker respondents discovered that working from home resulted in a 13 percent productivity enhancement. The primary contributors to the improved results were:

● A quieter environment.

● Fewer distractions.

● Reduced daily breaks and sick days.

● A 50% drop in employee churn.

● Unique expressions of improved job dissatisfaction.

Another study by ConnectSolutions found that 54% of the respondents did more in the standard hours, and 55% did more work in fewer hours. So it appears that HR has a running start - a springboard - to get even better remote working results. In other words, it is not a case of turning a lemon into lemonade, instead making it sweeter.

Step One - Establish a Dividing Line

Businesses should never try to force a round peg into a square hole or vice versa. Some jobs are simply unsuitable for remote work, and no matter how much in vogue it is to go in that direction, do not buckle on that one. In certain situations, employees must work under one roof: it is black and white - no grays. However, conversely, If remote working is viable, do not count it out.

Step Two - Focus on Technology and Data Security as Critical

A company-centric, technology-integrated, Wi-Fi-secure, hacker-protected environment with IT technicians close at hand has channeled our work habits for as long as we can remember. Indeed, traditional in-office protocols steer employees to working only on company computers, adhering to company IT protocols, using company-mandated passwords, and following company-designed rules for drawing files, clocking in, and clocking out. Also, communication between team members physically nearby works naturally and seamlessly.

Then, in one fell swoop, we leave everything described above behind to work remotely without on-premises IT support. Still, it is showing substantial dividends despite the pitfalls, although In the worst instances, we see remote working/workers immersed in the following:

● Removing electronic devices that never previously left the office.

● Using personal mobiles for business purposes.

● Frequenting public environments like Starbucks with minimal virtual protections.

● Iffy home WIFI at best, and significantly lax password protections.

● Inadequate and unreliable team communication lines.

● A home office environment disrupted by pets, kids, and chores.

● An overwhelmed IT department.

Alternatively, the most successful companies in the remote arena apply methodologies that converge on the following:

1. IT cybersecurity guidelines and job descriptions that throw light on:

a. “Dos” and “Don’ts” related to maximum remote working protections.

b. A monitoring process to ensure employees are following the guidelines.

c. A hotline for all employees to contact should they experience difficulties.

d. Hands-on assistance for remote workers with little tech know-how.

2. Establishing a confidential, virtually secure feedback schedule for remote workers to share their feelings, thoughts, and ideas on performance in their remote environment.

3. Installing a communications network on Zoom or equivalent conferencing platforms to parallel in-office meetings as closely as possible.

4. Relying on five to ten Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) relevant to each remote working job, digitally tracking employee output, and confirming one way or another if the system meets expectations.

5. Aligning job milestones with the KPIs channeled through a robust online reporting program.

Step Three - Go the Extra Mile on Communication

Crucially, we advise you to communicate as clearly as possible on the five items above to get the company and the remote-working employees on the same page. For example, explain that there are core three-hour sections when everyone must make themselves accessible for meetings and conversations. In addition, convey that punctuality is crucial - with sessions starting and ending on time - thus erasing time wastage.

Then, invest in the apps and software packages essential to making remote working a viable proposition uniformly for faster training and traction. Easy adaptation with little hassle is the oil that keeps the remote working wheels turning.

Step Four - Consider Expert Freelancers

Pinpoint those jobs that professional freelancers with stellar resumes can do versus a full-time employee. Why do we make that suggestion? Because there are ten significant freelancer benefits:

1. They do not require healthcare, sick or maternity leave, rental space, IT monitoring, or termination pay.

2. There are no downtime costs. You only pay for agreed hours

on the job or project by project basis on a milestone approval basis.

3. There is generally no limit to accessing a freelancer you are in sync with over the long term.

4. You only pay for what you need.

5. Freelancers in the “expert” category are as good as you get. Their results speak for themselves (or do not use them again.)

6. Training expenses never enter the picture. Simply provide an easy-to-follow brief detailing the results you expect, and that is it.

7. Finding competent freelancers is seamless through sophisticated platforms that provide excellent profiles, reviews, and ratings.

8. The most significant expense is some trial and error. Still, freelancers’ failure to meet your brief traditionally ends in substantially reduced fees or even zero out-of-pocket - only time loss.

9. You will likely discover several candidates bidding for your jobs, thus providing you with options and negotiating power.

10. Freelancer services are a fantastic stop-gap or fallback when an employee leaves the firm, or you need to relieve overload situations.

Conclusion

Remote and hybrid working systems, like most successful business initiatives, require a clear-headed management approach and investing in the

tools that make them vibrant and exciting. For the employees that thrive in it, remote working creates the motivational energy management teams give their eye teeth to attain.

Approach it with the same enthusiasm as the most ardent participants. They will sense your passion and appreciate your efforts, rewarding you with better results.

Jason Richmond is the Founder of Ideal Outcomes. Jason is an in-demand keynote speaker, widely recognized as a noted authority on helping companies build strong, sustained revenue growth by empowering their employees and developing energizing office cultures. Over the course of his career, he has assisted organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 100 companies. He is the author of Culture Spark: 5 Steps to Ignite and Sustain Organizational Growth and Culture Ignited: 5 Disciplines for Adaptive Leadership. Would you like to comment?

The Shortest Route to Optimal Remote Working

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New Ideas and Tools for Effective Performance Management Virtual Event

Jan 31, 2023

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The State of Contingent Work

Feb 7, 2023

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Jan 25, 2023

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Feb 15-16, 2023

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Feb 22, 2023

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U.S. Labor Immigration: Top Developments

Key

By Miguel Manna, Parker Poe

E

mployers across the United States spent much of 2022 grappling with the bustling labor market and competing for U.S. workers as demand outpaced supply. Many employers also looked overseas to recruit candidates to fill open positions, but their efforts have been stymied by an immigration system still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic. Application backlogs and lengthy visa processing delays have made it difficult for companies to actually hire otherwise qualified candidates.

The good news is that the U.S. government has implemented various measures focused on cutting processing times and minimizing workforce disruptions. The bad news is that some of these measures are temporary, and others are to be phased in over several years, meaning relief may not be immediate.

Below is a summary of the key steps taken by the government and the likely impact heading into 2023.

Disruptive Visa Delays Cause Open Positions to

Remain Unfilled

As of June 2022, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency responsible for processing immigration benefits, reported a backlog of more than 8.5 million pending immigration cases. While backlogs have been a regular complaint in the immigration system over the years, the current number of pending cases is particularly high.

A combination of factors over the last several years, including policy changes implemented by the previous administration and the Covid-19 pandemic, created a veritable pile-up of visa applications at USCIS and U.S. embassies and consulates around the world.

For employers, this backlog has created significant delays in the issuance of employment-based immigration benefits, such as employment authorization documents, visas and green cards. This is problematic because foreign national employees cannot work in the United States without work authorization and these processing delays often mean that employers must wait many months before they can actually onboard their new hires and fill the position.

In fact, the current average processing time for a work authorization document for an employment-based visa applicant ranges between eight to more than 15 months.

Processing delay complications are not limited to new hires, however. Foreign national employees must renew their visas at certain intervals, and while renewal applications are usually fairly straightforward in the absence of significant changes in circumstances, these applications get added to the visa queue with all of the others.

steps taken by the government in 2022 and the likely impact in 2023

If the foreign national employee does not receive an extension of their status or employment authorization document (EAD) before their existing work authorization expires, the employee must stop working. A lapse in work authorization can severely delay or scuttle critical projects and add complications and additional expenses to HR if recruiting a temporary replacement is necessary.

Many employers rely on premium processing to expedite the processing of certain visa benefits by USCIS. Premium processing is a service offered by USCIS, for an additional fee, that guarantees that USCIS will take some form of adjudicative action within a specified time period (based on the type of immigration benefit requested).

However, while premium processing is a helpful option, it does not apply to all employment-based immigration benefits. It is also expensive. As of the time of this article, the cost for premium processing applications is currently $2,500, which is paid in addition to all the other filing fees associated with the underlying visa application. This can be prohibitive for employers.

Government Intervention to Reduce Backlogs

USCIS acknowledged the extensive backlogs, and in early 2022 announced an agency-wide initiative to wrangle processing times and improve the speed with which foreign nationals receive decisions on their cases.

Below is a summary of the key components of the agency’s plan, including a discussion of the steps that have already been taken and those still in the works.

Improved cycle times

One of USCIS’ key goals is to reduce internal “cycle times” for each form type. Cycle times equate to the number of months’ worth of cases pending with USCIS for each form type. They are used by USCIS to measure its progress in reducing backlogs and processing times. The agency believes that improved cycle times will result in faster processing times.

While cycle times differ from processing times (processing times measure the average time it takes to decide a particular case type from start to finish), the two metrics are generally comparable.

The new target cycle times issued by USCIS are aggressive. For example, the target cycle time for EADs is 90 days, and only two weeks for most temporary work visa petitions. By way of comparison, most EADs and work visa petitions currently take more than nine months to adjudicate. USCIS plans to hire approximately 4,000 new employees, enhance its technology and streamline some of its internal adjudication practices, but it is not clear whether the agency will be able to hit the new targets by the end of the 2023 fiscal year as they hope to. Processing times have improved incrementally in the short time since USCIS announced the plan.

Expansion of premium processing

As noted earlier, premium processing has long been a tool used by employers to help mitigate the impact of processing delays. Traditionally, only certain case types were eligible for premium processing. As part of their initiative to cut processing times, USCIS has commenced a phased approach to expanding the list of eligible case types to include work authorization documents, extensions of stay/change of status applications, and various additional green card petitions.

This is a critical step as the expansion covers a wider range of popular and frequently used benefits that were otherwise not eligible for any type of expedited processing.

USCIS has taken steps to codify the premium processing expansion into a formal regulation, which means the additional case types would become eligible for premium processing on a permanent basis. However, it is important to note that the expansion is scheduled to go into effect over the next several years. To date, USCIS has completed three phases of the planned expansion to extend premium processing eligibility to certain categories of green card petitions but extensions of stay/changes of status for temporary visas and EADs are not yet eligible. USCIS has not provided a specific timeline for the expansion.

Two more practical notes about premium processing to consider:

● Employees may pay the premium processing fee themselves; it does not have to be paid by the employer. This may be a good time for employers to create a policy to determine when they will pay

for premium processing upgrades and when the employee will be responsible.

● Employers should be aware that USCIS has the authority to suspend premium processing when it deems necessary (typically in the event of filing surges). This seems unlikely in the current climate given that USCIS is expanding premium processing to help address the visa application backlog.

Automatic work authorization extensions

USCIS has also temporarily increased the automatic extension period for certain EAD renewal applications from the standard 180 days to 540 days. That means that certain foreign nationals who have filed an EAD extension with USCIS may continue to work for an additional 540 days from the expiration date of their employment authorization.

This is significant because, as discussed earlier, current processing times for EADs range anywhere from approximately 240 to 465 days, which is well outside the standard 180-day automatic extension period. In most cases, the 540-day extension is sufficient to prevent lapses in work authorization for foreign national employees.

The 540-day extension is automatic and does not require payment of an additional government fee. It is important to note, however, that the automatic extension period is set to revert back to the standard 180 days for renewal applications filed after October 26, 2023.

Additional Efforts by U.S. Agencies

The U.S. Department of State (the State Department) is also taking steps to address the processing delays and backlogs affecting U.S. embassies and consulates around the world. This is significant because U.S. embassies and consulates are responsible for issuing the actual visa stamps that most foreign national employees require in order to enter the United States or to return from overseas travel. To obtain or renew a visa, most foreign nationals are required to attend an in-person interview at the embassy or consulate before the visa is issued.

Unfortunately, complications caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, including closures and travel restrictions, made visa interviews nearly impossible and thus severely limited the number of visas that could be processed. Exceptions were made only for serious emergencies or for employees that could demonstrate that their role was vital to U.S. infrastructure or pandemic recovery efforts. To complicate matters, the reduction in application fees and revenue caused by the closures contributed to a hiring freeze that left more than 300 overseas positions open in 2020 and 2021, and further limited visa processing.

In an effort to clear out the backlog, the State Department is now prioritizing the issuance of employment-based visas. Additionally, the agency has also temporarily waived its in-person interview requirement for a number of popular visa categories, including certain foreign nationals applying to renew their nonimmigrant (temporary) visas in the same visa classification. According to State Department estimates, approximately 30 percent of nonimmigrant visa applicants may be eligible for the interview waiver. This is a huge timesaver in the visa adjudication process for the visa applicant since wait times for visa appointments can be very long.

The State Department’s interview waiver is set to expire on December 31, 2022. If the interview waiver is not extended, those applicants who do not get their visa applications approved prior to December 31st will be required to attend in-person visa interviews.

Looking Forward

It seems a positive sign that USCIS and the State Department are taking steps to improve processing timelines and streamline the immigration process. Their efforts have only been in place a short time and there have already been incremental improvements.

In the meantime, employers may want to consider taking the following steps to help manage their foreign national populations and mitigate additional processing delays:

● Track visa and EAD expiration dates and set calendared reminders to file timely extensions. In many cases, extensions can be filed 180 days months prior to expiration. Given the processing delays, it is especially important to file as early as allowed for the specific visa benefit sought.

● If your company has a work-from-home or workfrom-anywhere policy, you may want to keep an updated record of where each employee is physically located. This is important because many immigration benefits require the disclosure of a work cite. For one of the most popular immigration categories, the H-1B, the geographic location determines several compliance factors including prevailing wages.

Miguel Manna is an Attorney in the Raleigh office of law firm Parker Poe. He provides strategic immigration solutions to clients of all sizes and across a wide variety of industries, including health care, higher education, technology, and banking and finance.

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Top 6 Emerging Trends In Time And Labor Management In North America

How we work will keep evolving

By Paolo Gilfillan, Synerion Inc.

In recent years, the workplace has experienced notable changes, which have forced many organizations to reevaluate how they work. One thing is sure – how we do work will keep evolving. Based on our experience working in the time and labor management industry, we put together six emerging trends that organizations need to know. These trends include:

1. Hybrid Workplaces 2. Employee Experience 3. Mobile Technology 4. Facial Recognition and Contactless Clocks 5. Data Analytics 6. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in HR Processes

Here’s a brief overview of each trend below:

1. Hybrid Workplaces

Since the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown rules have eased, many employees have found it difficult to return to being onsite every day. Organizations have had to find a model that allows employees to work from wherever they want while also having a few days of onsite work — giving rise to the hybrid workplace.

Gartner’s research has shown that more than six in 10 organizations have some sort of onsite requirement for employees whose work can be done remotely. In a hybrid workplace, employees can manage their week while still feeling connected to their organization. Hybrid workplaces will need to rely on time technology tools to help them manage employees’ productivity.

2. Employee Experience

According to Gallup, employee experience is “the journey an employee takes with your organization. It includes every interaction that happens along the employee life cycle, plus the experiences that involve an employee’s role, workspace, manager and wellbeing.”

Technology systems have an impact on the employee experience. Time and scheduling tools must simplify time tracking and work scheduling processes, not complicate them for employees.

3. Mobile Technology

About 86% of the world’s population owns a smartphone currently. Companies need to leverage mobile technology with their employees because 2.7 billion workers worldwide (80% of the global workforce) are deskless. It’s easier for deskless workers to quickly complete their training, check for updates, and look up schedules on their mobile devices rather than rely on a desktop.

4. Facial Recognition and Contactless Clocks

In the post-pandemic world, companies will need facial recognition technology and contactless clocks for tracking employees’ work hours. According

to Fortune Business Insights, “the global facial recognition market is projected to reach USD 12.92 billion by 2027.”

This technology relies on biometric methods (scanning of facial features) when employees clock in and out — it is easier, more accurate, and costeffective for HR and payroll processes.

5. Data Analytics

Businesses gather data from different business systems, including time systems, and analyze them for long-term decision-making, such as labor forecasts. Today, we are seeing a trend in augmented analytics, where machine learning is applied to automate data analysis and business intelligence for organizations.

6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in HR Processes

Currently, AI and ML are changing the game for HR technology systems used for recruiting, succession planning, and reporting. We can expect to see AI and ML helping businesses with scheduling, data gathering, and reporting for time and labor management systems.

This article first appeared here

Paolo Gilfillan is the VP of Sales and Marketing at Synerion Inc. Leveraging over a decade of domain expertise in the workforce management industry, he is responsible for managing the national sales team, as well as developing and executing all North American sales and marketing initiatives. Paolo specializes in a variety of strategic workforce management areas, including workforce management application design, consultative technical selling, technical sales solutions, and service delivery. Would you like to comment?

Hybrid Work: Problems Galore, Solution None

The far-reaching advantages of flexible work

By Kevin Akeroyd, Magnit

Everywhere I look, business leaders and analysts are lamenting the shallow hiring pools American businesses are facing. At the same time, a looming recession has news of layoffs at high-profile tech companies rippling across the country as cost-saving measures become the guiding light in certain industries. Then, there’s the “loyalty crisis,” which is seeing full-time employees sticking around for less time than in previous eras. Further complicating the issue is unemployment, which is sitting at just 3.7%, despite ongoing cries that “no one wants to work.”

The thread that connects these seemingly paradoxical talking points is a temptation to place the blame for workforce woes elsewhere. It’s the economic climate or a lack of employee loyalty or laziness or something else. It’s not me—it’s not my business. The desire is understandable, but to take this view ignores the very real shifts in the labor market that are happening before our eyes.

While it’s true that companies are finding it challenging to attract and keep top talent, the idea that a lack of quality candidates is to blame is a myth. No, the issue is not that workers have changed—it’s that employers haven’t. For workers already yearning for a change of pace, Covid-19 offered an opportunity to reevaluate priorities. Now, businesses must do the same. Where yesterday’s workers valued stability above all else, today’s crave freedom and flexibility when choosing roles. That’s a lead that businesses would do well to follow when developing their total talent strategy, and I don’t just mean by offering work-from-home options.

Today’s workers are looking for a different experience from their workplaces. They are pursuing careers at companies that value their unique skill sets, and they want the freedom to use those skills to advance innovative products, services, and brands. Sometimes, that means foregoing tenure in favor of something that excites them, and they’re happy to do it. To fulfill these new career priorities, American workers are turning to flexible work arrangements (e.g., contingent roles, freelance opportunities, and contracted positions) in droves, and most employers aren’t keeping up.

The Far-Reaching Advantages of Flexible Work

Once regarded as a consolation prize to landing a full-time role, flexible positions are becoming more desirable to workers looking to align their lifestyle with their passions. A 2022 report by the Future of Work Exchange found that 47% of the American workforce is contingent, and that number is growing. This workforce is comprised of highly skilled, experienced professionals who choose to take on short-term assignments because their talents allow them to do so. Whether these employees are looking to take time off between jobs, work for themselves as a contractor or consultant, spend more time with their families, or simply want to stay in their hometowns while getting to work for a top company, the desire to use their talents on their terms remains a constant.

Embracing a flexible workforce isn’t just good for employees. It can also help companies win the war for talent while streamlining teams for optimal efficiency. Just as these arrangements provide flexibility for workers, they give employers the freedom to change course if needed. They are agile and flexible, making them easy to scale as a company’s needs change.

Some businesses have been leveraging the power of extended workforces for decades. Tech industry giants like Meta, Google, and Amazon have been utilizing extended workforces for some time now and reaping significant rewards for their willingness to push for a more innovative approach to recruitment. They’ve embraced the extended workforce and posted record profits while doing it.

My company, Magnit™, has seen this increased investment from our client base first-hand. Our five most prominent tech clients all expanded their existing contingent work programs in 2022 and grew their diversity spending by 34.6% during that time. Furthermore, our client’s overall spending on contingent workforce programs across industries has more than doubled over the past year, growing from $11 billion to $23 billion. It’s clear that companies that explore this option see its benefits.

So, if professionals are waking up to the benefits of taking on limited contracts, and some of the

biggest companies in the world are too, why aren’t all employers? Because they think it’s easier to stick with the status quo.

They’re not wrong, of course. Doing nothing is always easier than doing something — but complacency comes at a cost. In this case, the costs of continuing as usual will add up fast in the form of lost opportunities. With contingent workforce growth likely to continue into the coming decades, employers must now realize that, soon, their “contingent employees” will just be their “employees.” Those who resist the evolution of the workforce at this crucial juncture will find themselves unable to compete sooner rather than later.

Kevin Akeroyd serves as Magnit’s Chief Executive Officer and leads the vision and strategy for the company. He is recognized as one of the technology industry’s most tenured and trusted experts. Kevin has held executive leadership roles at some of the world’s most notable brands that were category leaders in Cloud Software, Services and Data.

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VIRTUAL

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WEBCASTS

WEBCASTS

January 26, 2023

How HR Can Use AI To Decipher And Respond To Labor Market’s Mixed Signals

Empowering resources and talent

with automation

By Rebecca Jones, Mosaicx

Demand for workers is intense. As states reopened their economies in 2021, employers drew from a smaller pool of available workers. Wages increased, and job openings soared, remaining high in 2022. The number of workers quitting their jobs has also remained elevated.

Despite the number of job openings, the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7% (by 306,000 people) in October. The new data comes amidst ongoing layoffs, as seen in the tech industry

This “contradictory labor market” leaves business leaders, including HR teams, scratching their heads, potentially unsure how to move forward.

Examining How the Complex Labor Market Impacts HR

The unprecedented number of U.S. workers leaving jobs across industries in the Great Resignation — and the resulting mad dash of hiring — added to the

pressure on HR teams struggling to keep a pulse on their current employees.

Workforce planning is an essential function of HR. HR professionals must understand talent supply and demand and how it relates to the company’s goals. Achieving this perspective has been tricky in today’s market. At the same time, HR teams (like other departments) are strapped for talent. They’re responsible for balancing workforce planning with fewer resources.

How AI Can Support HR Operations

AI solutions can streamline HR processes, enable automation, and increase productivity and savings. Diverse sectors are finding that AI is an effective solution for HR and business operations. In fact, 25% of companies already use AI to support recruiting, hiring, training, performance management and other HR-related operations.

Below are three examples of how AI can support HR operations.

Innovate Recruitment and Reduce Hiring Bias

Job seekers have been in the driver’s seat since the Great Resignation. Employers can adjust their recruiting processes in new and innovative ways to find talent to fill open positions. AI is one tool HR teams can use to innovate the recruitment process. For example, AI and machine learning can filter applications and flag profiles that match the job description. AI can also determine what candidate sources provide the best-matched workers, which can improve a company’s recruiting efforts.

AI can also play a vital role in helping businesses avoid bias in job advertisements and descriptions. Biased language in job descriptions can discourage capable and talented candidates from applying for a position for which they are ideal. AI-enabled tools can analyze job descriptions to highlight and remove discriminatory language. These tools might

identify biased language such as “guru” or “ninja.” They might also encourage gender-neutral pronouns. Ultimately, AI-enabled tools can suggest changes without sacrificing the passion and impact you want to demonstrate to potential applicants.

Streamline Operational Tasks, such as Scheduling

Today’s employees want flexible schedules, and they want to manage their schedules autonomously. Businesses can deliver on these expectations with intelligent virtual agents (IVAs). An IVA is an AI-powered software that engages humans in natural and sophisticated conversation. Let’s say an employee needs to adjust their scheduled shifts. The employee can easily text or call an IVA to notify leaders of the change and suggest alternative staffing options. Leaders and HR teams can then use the IVA to share the updated schedule with other employees.

Not only do IVAs streamline shift changes, but they grant the autonomy workers want.

Answer Questions About Company Layoffs

As previously mentioned, some industries are experiencing large-scale layoffs. The way a company communicates a reduction in staff can have an impact on its current workforce, future employees, and reputation. AI-enabled tools can support a company’s communications efforts about layoffs.

For example, an HR team can create an FAQ for employees to reference. The FAQ can answer questions about the state of the business, what led to the reduction in force, what actions they’re taking to support affected employees, what remaining employees can expect going forward, etc. Companies can then program their IVA to answer these questions from employees and direct them to knowledge base articles for more information.

The labor market has been sending mixed signals for a few years now. HR teams can decipher and respond to these mixed signals with the help of AI and AI-enabled tools. Businesses can preserve, empower and maximize existing resources and talent by introducing automation of everyday tasks and improving communications.

Rebecca Jones is the general manager of Mosaicx. In her career of 25+ years, she has held a broad range of operations executive roles focused on growing businesses, people, and profit margins. Rebecca also serves as a member of the board for the Families for Effective Autism Treatment (FEAT) of Louisville.

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The Hybrid Work ModelBest Of Both Worlds?

By Jim Frawley, Bellwether

The hybrid work model may be the best of both worlds But without clear intention and creativity, worker productivity may be doomed. There’s no shortage of opinion when it comes to the debate between remote, office, or hybrid work models. And whether or not a particular model fits your organization depends on various factors such as industry, size, and culture. What is no longer up for debate is the recognition that the traditional way of working is no longer on the table.

Businesses are grappling with the reality that worker productivity is at a nearly 70- year low. Individuals are embracing remote opportunities with enthusiasm, claiming to be far more productive when working from home, but it’s not that simple. There’s a massive

crack in the system somewhere, as employees are reporting improved productivity, while businesses are finding they have been significantly less productive as a unit.

As countless organizations sweat to bend and adapt in response to the changing economy and employee demands, many have settled on a “hybrid” model, one in which people come into the office on designated days each week, in an effort to satisfy all parties and achieve what we describe as “the best of both worlds.” While this sounds effective in principle, there are a few things to keep in mind and practice in order to alleviate the challenges and benefits this model presents.

Without clear intention and creativity, worker productivity may be doomed

The Hybrid Work Model - Best Of Both Worlds?

A successful hybrid work model requires an unconventional approach to management, communication, and relationship building. In order to reap the full spectrum of benefits of a hybrid model, the focus must remain on the employee – how they are managed, how they communicate, and how they connect.

Before launching into a hybrid model, first address why you believe this to be the best choice for the organization. The intentionality has to go deeper than surface-level reasoning – to alleviate commute time, expand employee benefits, etc. In order for the business to continue driving forward, consider all the ways in which the organization is impacted by the model.

It’s crystal clear when members of an executive team push for a return to the office strictly due to the fact that they’re uncomfortable with change and fearful of a loss of control as the future of work shifts more and more in a remote direction. But in an effort to redefine what productivity and success look like, try to identify what being in the office really means – what exclusive advantages does that present in contrast to a remote or hybrid model, and how can those things be replicated or reimagined?

There is immense value when people come together in person; creativity and collaboration swell, communication flows seamlessly, and the energy is palpable. You can argue that creativity, collaboration, and accessibility drive results and productivity, but it’s not impossible to foster these things in a virtual environment.

The hybrid model presents the challenge of coordinating who is in the office when, and doesn’t always guarantee that the right people are crossing paths with time and availability to collaborate. Investing in physical office space just to provide space for individuals to come into the office to participate in video calls and meetings seems frivolous. Whether establishing working groups or promoting schedule visibility, give the employees the opportunity to coordinate schedules, meetings, and tasks to make the most of the time they may be spending in the office.

Beyond employee interactions, managers are having to find a new approach to promote accountability, while keeping a close and accurate pulse on the day to day business – without crossing the line into micromanagement. Much of this can come from setting clear expectations from day one and utilizing innovative tech solutions to measure and track productivity. It is absolutely reasonable to expect that when executed with intentionality, accountability can rise, flexibility can increase, and work-life balance can improve without sacrificing the success of the business.

Above all, don’t underestimate the importance of employee buy-in. It may be an uphill battle to get employees enthused about returning to the office after a long-term remote existence. Be transparent about the methodology, as well as the benefits you’re looking to spread throughout the organization, and coordinate schedules so the time spent in the office is engaging, collaborative, and truly enjoyable and employees personally experience the benefits.

The data proves time and time again that there is value to gathering in person – we are communal creatures at our core. The beauty of the hybrid work model is it creates structure and consistency by combining a collaborative approach while offering the flexibility demanded in the new reality of work. Prioritize appropriate management, communication, and relationship-building, and the path to success will undoubtedly remain clear.

Jim Frawley is a coach, consultant, and the CEO and founder of Bellwether, an executive development firm. He specializes in helping corporations maximize their efficiency and enhance their growth. Would you like to comment?

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