Here at Sirenum we spend a lot of time meeting with teams responsible for managing large workforces, sometimes as many as 250,000. We also spend time talking with the little guy, who’s trying to grow a business from 30 to 50 employees on a shoestring. And we also love movies. So because of all that, we’ve got a great view on what keeps today’s managers of dynamic workers up at night. And we like long flights because we get to catch up on movies. Here’s a top five of what we’re seeing and hearing now, inspired by some movies we love:
1. Clueless
So many agencies we talk to are not at all knowledgeable about their dynamic workforce. They don’t know how many late shifts there are. They don’t know where their workers are supposed to be. They don’t know how many uncovered shifts there are. Far too often, they don’t even know who their workers are or how to get in touch with them properly. Making business decisions about a workforce without the intelligence needed to do so is a recipe for disaster.
2. The Money Pit
Keeping track of the amount of money spent on your staff is hard. Doing so without a strong technology platform is even harder. For temp agencies, it’s especially hard and you also want to know how much you’re missing out on. In regulated industries, many of our clients and prospects complain about spending on overtime just to manage health and safety issues. So, yeah, managing your hourly workers can definitely feel like a money pit.
3. Clear and Present Danger
Companies, especially those in highly regulated industries, are more and more worried about regulation and compliance. Because making mistakes on the job is dangerous. And a big cause for those mistakes is putting the wrong person on the job–either because they’re lacking training, skills, or rest.
4. This is Where I Leave You
Turnover is a productivity killer. And it’s a customer satisfaction killer. Especially with those dynamic workers who are customer facing. So that’s why many managers stay up at night trying to figure out how to limit staff turnover. Increased employee engagement is one way. So is improved shift matching to staff desires. Enhanced communications with staff is also a key lever in keeping your workers on board
5. Pay It Forward
Payroll is probably the biggest worry we hear from our prospects. The primary reason is that they’re thinking about it backwards. The vast majority of employers are calculating payroll at the end of the process of managing that worker through their shifts. This ensures a payroll process that is ugly, time-consuming, and still inaccurate more often than it should be–who likes getting that phone call from the worker who got paid too little?!
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