Motivated employees, on the other hand, make for a strong team. They’re more productive than their unmotivated counterparts and have higher employee happiness, engagement, and satisfaction. 

Understanding how motivation works can be a game changer for your business. Read on to learn how motivated employees benefit your business, how to measure motivation, and five ways to boost employee motivation in the workplace. 

What is employee motivation?

Employee motivation is closely related to employee performance and engagement. Employee motivation is the energy, commitment, and enthusiasm employees bring to their role each day. 

In an ideal workplace, all your employees would be motivated when they come into work for their shifts. Motivated employees have higher productivity rates and go above and beyond to complete the job. 

If your employees aren’t as motivated as you’d like them to be, there is hope. Employee motivation is something you, as an employer, can positively influence with a wide range of motivational incentives. 

Types of employee motivation

If you’re working to improve employee motivation at your business, it’s essential to understand the difference between the two types of motivation—intrinsic and extrinsic. Not every employee will be motivated by the same things, so it’s important to understand how motivation works and how you can adjust strategies based on people’s preferences.

Intrinsic motivation

Intrinsic motivation is when an individual is motivated internally. They’re motivated by their emotions—happiness, pride, and satisfaction push them towards their goals. When you’re intrinsically motivated, you do things because of the positive feelings completing those things gives you.  

Praise and positive feedback are great ways to increase motivation for intrinsically motivated employees. 

Extrinsic motivation 

Extrinsic motivation is when an individual is motivated by external factors. Extrinsically motivated individuals are motivated by rewards, recognition, prizes, bonuses, and even deadlines. 

For extrinsically motivated employees, employee of the month, incentive programs, and bonuses are great ways to increase motivation. 

The benefits of highly motivated employees

No matter your business, you should strive to have a team with highly motivated employees. When your workforce is motivated, your business will experience benefits from that motivation. 

Increased employee engagement

Employees who report high levels of employee motivation also report high levels of employee engagement. Employees engaged with their work are more likely to be productive and save their companies money.

According to the Gallup employee engagement survey, engaged employees:

• Increase sales by 18%
• Increase profitability by 23%
• Increase productivity by 14%
• Increase organizational participation by 13%

There are three levels of employee engagement: actively disengaged (unhappy and intentionally causing issues at work), not engaged (checked out mentally from work), and engaged (works with enthusiasm). If you’re experiencing a lot of disengaged and non-engaged employees, finding a way to boost their motivation can help them re-engage at work. 

Better job performance

Highly motivated employees are likely more productive and effective in their roles than unmotivated employees. Because they’re motivated, they work hard to reach their goals, focus on completing their tasks, and generally do what they can to help the business succeed. Motivation also plays a role in which employees are willing to take on more responsibilities—those who are motivated in the workplace will jump at the opportunity. At the same time, less-motivated people may shy away from added responsibilities.

Positive work environment and company culture

Think of motivated employees as your business’s biggest cheerleaders. They work to make sure there’s a positive, happy atmosphere in the workplace. They go out of their way to help team members feel safe and happy at work. And they go above and beyond for customers.

Motivated employees feel connected to their jobs and the business. This positive outlook and driven nature can influence other motivated and unmotivated employees to jump on the bandwagon, creating a positive company culture with motivated employees.

Lower rate of employee turnover

The average annual turnover rate in the U.S. is 47.2%—nearly half of all American employees leave their jobs in any given year. With the price tag of replacing an employee sitting at approximately 30% of that employee’s first-year earnings, lowering your employee turnover rate is more important than ever. 

Boosting your employees’ motivation can help. Motivated employees tend to stick with a company longer than unmotivated employees. Also, motivated employees can help lower your employee absenteeism rates—employees who are motivated to work show up on time. 

How to measure employee motivation and engagement

The first step in building a strategy to motivate employees is setting a benchmark for employee motivation and engagement in your organization. Because you’re dealing with how your employees feel, it can be tricky to decide how you’ll quantitatively measure motivation in the workplace.

The best way to measure employee motivation is through employee surveys. You should already be using employee surveys to gather insights from your employees on all things related to your business and their employment. By adding questions measuring their motivation and engagement in the workplace, you can set your benchmark and repeat the questions when ready to re-measure. 

These seven questions are a great place to start when building your employee motivation survey. And remember, you can add a few questions to a wider-reaching employee survey—it doesn’t have to focus only on motivation and engagement.

1. How motivated do you feel when you’re at work?
2. How inspired are you by your long and short-term work goals?
3. How happy do you feel when you come to work in the morning?
4. How would you rate your overall job satisfaction?
5. Do you feel you’re contributing to the success of the business?
6. Does your manager recognize your contributions?
7. How stimulating do you find your day-to-day tasks and responsibilities?

Employee surveys should be scheduled into your calendar. Make sure you’re doing them often enough to stay on top of how your employees are feeling but not so often that you overwhelm your employees. Consider an annual or bi-annual larger format survey with employee pulse surveys  every one to two months. An employee pulse survey is a short series of questions asked on a frequent basis to track responses to a specific issue over time. 

How to motivate an employee

There are lots of strategies to improve employee motivation. Employees are individuals, so what works for some may not work for others. Getting to know your employees to uncover what motivates them is always best—a tailored approach to employee motivation is always the best choice.

If you’re looking for a place to start, these five strategies are excellent motivation boosters.  

1. Recognize your employees for their hard work

It may sound simple, but taking the time to recognize your employees for the hard work they put into your business goes a long way. Recognition is a great way to show your employees you appreciate them and to motivate them to keep working hard. A 2023 survey found that for 37% of employees, more personal recognition would be the best motivator for them to produce better work more often. 

An employee of the month program is a great way to recognize your employees for the hard work they put into your business. But it doesn’t even have to be as formal as that. 

Some of the common ways to show your appreciation to your employees include:

• Internal employee shout-outs for good work
• Celebrate milestones like birthdays and work anniversaries
• Give handwritten appreciation and thank you notes
• Say thank you when employees do a great job

2. Offer an employee incentive program

Employee incentive programs use extrinsic motivation to encourage employees to achieve specific goals to receive a reward. The rewards and program set-up can come in many different forms, but the best programs re-engage and motivate employees to become more efficient and productive. 

Incentive programs increase employee motivation, engagement, and productivity. They’re an excellent way to reach extrinsically motivated employees—the promise of a reward or gift will help spur them into action.  

Some of the common employee incentives include:

• Monetary bonuses
• Wellness initiatives
• Fun gifts
• Company swag
• Additional paid time off
• Travel incentives
• Meaningful experiences

3. Give your team autonomy

When you give your employees autonomy, you provide them with control over their time and energy. Whether you’re offering flex schedules, shift bidding, or simply letting go of micromanaging, giving your employees autonomy shows you trust them. And that trust and autonomy add to motivation and overall job satisfaction. 

4. Work on your management skills

Regarding management skills, it’s important to be the best manager for your team. A good manager has a significant impact on employee motivation. When a manager shows employees they’re invested in their success and keeps open lines of communication, employees are more likely to be engaged at work and motivated to give their jobs their all. 

Hold one-on-one meetings with your employees and spend the time building positive relationships with everyone on your team. This is also an excellent way to learn what motivates your employees.

5. Ask for—and act on!—employee feedback

We discussed employee and pulse surveys, but one of the most effective ways to motivate employees is to ask them for feedback. You get the information right from the source by asking your team what would make work more meaningful. 

But for this to be effective, you’ve got to do more than listen to your employees. You must act on their feedback to capitalize on what motivates them. When you get feedback from your employees, give yourself a realistic timeline to make changes in the workplace. 

Give your team the tools they deserve

Another great way to motivate your employees is by giving them the tools they need to make their job easier. With Homebase, employees can clock in and out for shifts, access on-demand pay, and easily access and make adjustments to their schedules. You can also recognize your employees’ hard work in Homebase and send and receive employee surveys in the built-in team communication app. 

Get started today.

The post Employee Motivation: The Ultimate Employer Guide appeared first on Homebase.

Also known as the 2-3-2, the Pitman schedule can help you meet your business needs while protecting your employees’ health and wellbeing.

What is the Pitman schedule and who uses it?

The Pitman schedule is a shift management system in which four teams work either fixed or rotating 12-hour shifts. Employees typically work two day/night shifts, followed by two rest days, and then 3 day/night shifts.

The Pitman schedule allows businesses to operate 24/7 without burning out their employees. It offers workers consistent, predictable schedules with sufficient time off between shifts, promoting productivity and employee satisfaction.

There are two variations, with both versions requiring four teams working 12-hour shifts:

1. The Pitman fixed schedule

On a Pitman fixed schedule, all four teams always work the same shifts, with no rotation. Two teams work day shifts and the other two teams work night shifts.

Day-shift or night-shift, employees work on the following schedule:

• Work two days
• Two days off
• Work three days
• Two days off
• Work two days
• Three days off
  

This is why the Pitman fixed schedule is commonly known as the 2-3-2 schedule. Employees have two days off followed by three working days, then two more days off.

2. The rotating Pitman schedule

On a rotating Pitman schedule, all four teams rotate between day and night shifts. For two weeks, one team works during the day while the other works at night. After two weeks, they rotate.

With the rotating Pitman schedule, employees also alternate schedules each week. 

In the first week, employees work the following schedule:

• Work two days
• Two days off
• Work three days
• Two days off

In the second week, employees work the following schedule:

• Two days off
• Work two days
• Three days off

The rotating Pitman schedule is also known as the 2-2-3-2-2-3 schedule (a mouthful, we know) because employees always work two days, have two days off, then work three consecutive shifts.

Industries that use the Pitman schedule 

The Pitman shift schedule requires enough employees to maintain a consistent schedule while managing absence and vacation coverage. This means it’s most commonly used by medium-large organizations that operate outside of a 9-5 workday. For example:

• Police forces
• Gas stations
• Emergency services
• Hospitals
• Customer care
• Manufacturing
• Dispatching

Pitman schedule example

This is what a 14-day Pitman schedule rotation might look like. Teams continue working the day or night shift for the next two-week rotation. In a rotating Pitman schedule, Team 1 and Team 3 would switch to the night shift, and Team 2 and Team 4 would switch to the day shift.

Advantages of the Pitman schedule

The Pitman schedule is popular because it offers a number of benefits for both businesses and employees. Here are some of the most common advantages:

Advantages for businesses

• 24/7 coverage: When your business needs round-the-clock staffing, the Pitman shift schedule ensures consistent staffing even during busy or high-demand periods. And because employees have predictable shifts with plenty of days off, you’re less likely to deal with absenteeism due to personal reasons
• Reduced overtime costs: With a 12-hour shift structure, employees often work fewer days per month than they would with a traditional 8-hour shift schedule. This means employees accumulate fewer overtime-eligible days per month, reducing your staffing costs.
• Improved employee satisfaction: With longer shifts, employees may have more days off and better work-life balance. A healthy work-life balance is critical for employee happiness and retention—a huge win. Employees with time for their personal lives are more likely to stay put.
• Increased productivity: Because employees on the Pitman work schedule tend to experience less burnout, they may be more focused and motivated when they’re on the job. Additionally, longer shifts mean less time spent transitioning between tasks, making it easier to complete work in full, further boosting productivity.

Advantages for employees

• Higher earning potential: Employees on the Pitman schedule receive their base wage plus an added percentage for the extra four hours worked on each shift. Because of the longer shifts, employees are able to earn more money without working additional shifts.
• More time off: One of Pitman schedule’s main benefits is that employees get more days off than they would working a standard shift, five days a week. Workers on the Pitman schedule get around 15 days off per month compared to a typical eight days. They also get every other weekend off work, which is why the Pitman schedule is sometimes called “EOWO.”
• A consistent schedule: Shift work is often criticized for its lack of predictability, making it tough for employees to schedule life outside of work. A Pitman schedule provides employees with set, consistent work hours so it’s easier to manage personal obligations, time with family and friends, rest, and other important commitments.
• Better sleep: With a minimum of 2 days off between shifts, employees have more time to adjust to changing sleep patterns. This can make it easier to establish good sleeping habits and contributes to better overall health and stress levels.
• Reduced commute time: Longer shifts mean fewer days on the job and less time spent traveling to and from work. Employees save money on transportation costs and stress less about a daily commute. 

Disadvantages of the Pitman schedule

As with any shift management system, the Pitman schedule has its challenges. Here are some of the common disadvantages of this schedule:

For businesses

• Not suitable for all industries: The Pitman schedule requires enough employees to make four teams that cover all shifts, vacations, and absences—all while maintaining a consistent schedule. At least two people per team is recommended, but realistically you’ll need more. The Pitman schedule may not make sense for very small businesses with limited staff.
• Difficult to find employees: A lot of employees prefer working longer shifts in exchange for more time off. But for many people,12-hour shifts equal burnout. Using the Pitman shift schedule at your business may decrease your pool of potential candidates and make it harder to fill open positions.
• Tougher to find coverage: Because employees are already working long hours, they may prefer not to take overtime when asked. This can make it more difficult to arrange for sick coverage or vacation leave. 

For employees

• Long shifts: Despite the extra days off, 12-hour shifts can still be exhausting. When employees are tired, it can lead to poor performance and an increased safety risk—especially when they’re nearing the end of three consecutive 12-hour shifts.
• Health issues: While the Pitman schedule’s predictability may help with healthier sleep habits, it still has the potential health risks that come with shift work. Research shows that consistently working long hours can lead to fatigue, low mood, heart issues, and other health problems.

The Pitman schedule is designed to reduce the impact of shift work, but it’s still important to care for your employees’ health with adequate breaks, areas for night-shift workers to nap, and any other health-related benefits you can offer. 

How Homebase can help you create and manage a Pitman schedule

Do you think the Pitman schedule might be right for your business? Here’s how Homebase can help you build and manage your new schedule:

Just drag and drop. Build your Pitman schedule in minutes with one of our scheduling templates or the drag and drop feature in our work schedule maker. Since the Pitman schedule repeats, simply copy your schedule over to the next pay period as far into the future as you like.

Manage and share from anywhere. With an online employee scheduling app like Homebase, you can share your schedule instantly and send updates from any location. With built-in team communication tools, you and your employees are always in the loop—a huge bonus when your team doesn’t work a standard week. 

Keep your labor costs in check. Homebase makes sure you only pay for the shifts you scheduled by preventing employees from clocking in early and sending you alerts when employees approach overtime limits. You can also break down your labor costs by hour, department, or role and optimize all aspects of your scheduling.  Create your Pitman schedule quickly and easily with Homebase today. Get started for free.

The post What Is The Pitman Schedule and Is It Right For Your Business? appeared first on Homebase.

As a business owner, what do you do when an employee just stops showing up?

In this article, we break down what job abandonment is, how it’s different from quitting, and what you should do when an employee fails to show up for work. 

What is job abandonment?

Job abandonment is the act of an employee not showing up for work. Specifically, it’s when someone stops showing up with zero contact or explanation. There isn’t one definition of job abandonment, so the amount of days that is technically considered “abandonment” differs according to business policy.

Job abandonment shouldn’t be confused with absenteeism. Absenteeism happens when employees habitually miss work days away from the office for actual reasons. For example, an employee can take a vacation, then take PTO because they got sick, and then have an extended family emergency all back-to-back.

Is job abandonment illegal?

It’s not illegal to abandon your job. However, employees who abandon their job can still receive severe consequences for abandoning their post. For example, let’s say this employee tries to find a role elsewhere. As an employer, you can be honest that they failed to show up, which could hurt their chances of getting a new job. 

Job abandonment is also different for employees under contract. Contracted employees may be required to fulfill certain obligations as outlined by the contract, regardless of whether or not they abandoned their role. If this is the case, it’s up you as the employer to choose what to do if they didn’t deliver the product outlined in their contract.

Common reasons for job abandonment

There are many different reasons for why an employee might abandon their job. Here are a few to consider:

• A genuine emergency: It’s easy to jump to conclusions. However, most of the time there’s a logical reason why an employee may miss a shift without communication. As an employer, it’s important to do your due diligence and reach out to an employee’s emergency contacts to see if something’s up.
• Miscommunication regarding scheduling: Sometimes employees no-call, no-show a shift because they simply didn’t know they were scheduled that day. To prevent this from happening, be sure to have one source of truth for schedule information so employees know exactly when they’re scheduled to work.
• Feeling uncomfortable discussing their absence: An employee may choose not to discuss their absence with you. To ensure transparent communication with your employees, it’s important to provide a safe space for your employee to be transparent, and they feel safe discussing any issues with you.

What are the consequences of job abandonment?

Job abandonment can lead to a lot of issues for employers. An employee abandoning their post can be hard to manage, especially if it’s unclear if they’ll return. Here are a few ways job abandonment can affect employers:

• Major loss in productivity: Employers often staff employees based on the amount of work that needs to be completed. If an employee doesn’t show up to their post multiple days in a row, that’s multiple days of work that’s not completed.
• Disruption of day-to-day operations: If the employee in question is an integral part of the team, their absence may cause a major disruption in operations. For example, if your restaurant loses their head chef multiple days in a row, finding someone to take their place might be challenging. After all, it’s not your sous chef’s responsibility to take on the extra work with no extra pay.
• The cost of rehiring a new employee: Hiring and training a brand new employee is expensive. If an employee abandons their role, you have to go through the entire hiring and onboarding process again to bring a replacement up to speed.

What to do if an employee abandons their job

We get it: preparing for employees to just not show up isn’t how you want to spend your time. Yet as the boss, it’s important to set up policies to ensure your bases are covered—just in case. If your business already has a job abandonment policy in place and your employee has met those qualifications of abandonment, here’s what to do.

Contact the employee

If you notice that your employee is absent without notice, the first step is to try to contact them to figure out if they’re okay. Maybe they forgot they were working that day, or they were clearly too sick to work. If that’s the case, you can continue with any disciplinary action. 

If you don’t hear back and they miss a second shift, that may be cause for concern. It’s time to get in touch with the employee’s emergency contact if you haven’t already. Continue doing this until they have reached your company’s policy for what is considered job abandonment. 

Tip: Avoid staff missing their shifts by using an easy digital schedule. Homebase lets you create schedules, swap shifts, and send updates to the entire team.

Document communication attempts

Keep track of every time you attempt contact to ensure that you’re doing your due diligence as an employer. Documenting how many times you contacted the employee is helpful in the event that this scenario turns into a larger legal issue. Track when you reached out, the form of contact used, and the result.

Ensure the employee’s future shifts are covered

Okay: it’s reached the point in time when an employee has abandoned their post. Now, you need to cover the employee’s future shifts as much as possible. While you might not be able to hire someone right away, talk with your existing team to see if anybody is willing to cover some extra shifts or is willing to work overtime to cover the missing gaps temporarily.

Complete a termination procedure after contacting the employee

After doing your due diligence trying to contact your employee to the best of your abilities, it’s time to plan for termination. If you’ve been unable to contact them, send them a termination letter via email, snail mail, and document it within your system. 

Within your termination letter, include the reason for termination and your job abandonment policy clearly stated within the the letter. That way, if the employee does ever contact you regarding their position, you’re able to discuss with them the situation and why they were terminated.

Make sure you’re covering your HR bases by using a tool like Homebase, which makes digital documentation easy, and even provides compliance support.

Best practices to avoid job abandonment

Job abandonment can cause a lot of headaches and administrative work for employers. It’s best to implement policies that help prevent abandonment from happening in the first place. Here are a few policies that can help prevent job abandonment from happening. 

Create a clear process for how to call out of work

If an employee isn’t sure what they need to do to call out of work, some may be embarrassed to ask. Or, they might just not show up. Create a clear process for how an employee can call out of work, and share it with your team. 

Create policies for employees to switch shifts to accommodate for unexpected events 

One of the common ways employers provide autonomy to their employees? Giving them the opportunity to switch shifts. Employees typically appreciate having more control of their own schedule. That way if something comes up, they can manage their schedule on their own.

Allow opportunities to request for time off

Providing your employees the ability to request for specific days off or times off helps to prevent job abandonment. Create policies that alert employees of when schedules are being made, and when they need to submit their time off request. If an employee requests specific days or times off far in advance, they’re doing their due diligence. The best things employers can do is to respect that request and accommodate it as much as possible. 

Be transparent regarding shifts and communication

Establish a clear process for when the schedule is going to be released. Employees should know at least a few days in advance when they’re going to work. That gives them plenty of time to switch shifts or plan around their schedule. 

Be clear about how communication happens, and where. The best way to do this is by using an employee scheduling tool like Homebase that helps clearly outline who is working when, and how to communicate to team members. Start for free today!

The post Job Abandonment: What to Do When Employees Fail to Show Up appeared first on Homebase.

With a strong offboarding process, your business can guard against security risks or damage to your reputation, get valuable feedback, and ensure a smooth transition for both your existing and departing employees.  

What is offboarding?

Offboarding is the process of transitioning a former employee out of your business. Offboarding procedures should be followed any time an employee leaves, whether they resign, retire, or they’re being terminated. 

The goal of offboarding is to ensure the separation process is handled professionally, and that your business and your former employee are treated with respect. 

The exact steps are different depending on why they employee is leaving, but the main goals of employee offboarding are:

• To fulfill all state and HR requirements related to an employee leaving  
• To get honest feedback about the employee’s experience
• To ease the transition from one employee to the next
• To capture knowledge the employee gained on the job
• To minimize the impact of the employee’s departure on the rest of your business

The difference between offboarding and onboarding 

Offboarding and onboarding are opposite processes, but they’re both important steps in the lifecycle of an employee. Onboarding ensures an employee is properly integrated when they start and offboarding ensures a stress-free departure.

Employee onboarding occurs at the start of an employee’s lifecycle with your business. It’s the process of familiarizing a new employee with their role, responsibilities, and your organization’s culture. A well-planned onboarding process has been shown to help prevent employee burnout, reduce turnover rates, and contribute to a stronger company culture.

As we touched on above, employee offboarding occurs at the end of an employee’s lifecycle. It prepares an employee to transition out of your business with minimal disruption for everyone involved.

Why do businesses need an offboarding process?

Following a clear, consistent offboarding process has many benefits for your business. First, it helps you maintain positive relationships with departing employees. Parting on good terms reduces the risk of legal disputes or a former employee sharing a negative experience. Plus, offboarding an employee with care means they’re more likely to act as brand ambassadors or become boomerang hires.

Second, offboarding an employee can be a great learning opportunity. Insights gained from exit interviews can help you improve employee engagement and retention, as well as your hiring process. 

Finally, saying goodbye to an employee comes with a rather long to-do list. An effective offboarding procedure can help you make sure nothing falls through the cracks and that you’re staying compliant.

How long does offboarding take?

The time it takes to offboard an employee varies depending on why they’re leaving, how much notice they give, and a few other factors. Regardless of the circumstances, the offboarding process can be broken down into three stages:

• Before an employee leaves
• The day an employee leaves
• After an employee leaves  

Each stage contains a number of steps that should be handled carefully and respectfully. Let’s break down the steps in each stage so you can establish a strong onboarding process for your business.

Your employee offboarding process checklist

Best practices suggest making a checklist or offboarding document to help your management team and other employees understand and complete key tasks. This offboarding process checklist will help you track all the necessary steps when an employee leaves, ensuring all your bases are covered.

Offboarding steps before an employee leaves

Issue formal notice

As a first step, you need to issue formal notice (if you’re terminating the employee) or request formal notice (if the employee chooses to leave).

Formal notice is the official acknowledgement of an employee’s departure from an organization. It should be documented in written form, and note the reason for the employee’s departure, their last day, and final details about pay or benefits. Formal notice should be signed by both you and the employee.

Notify everyone affected by the offboarding process

As soon as formal notice is given, notify anyone participating in the offboarding process. For example, the employee’s manager, the people responsible for documentation and payroll, whoever manages keycards, uniforms, and other company assets, and the person conducting the exit interview.

Start the documentation process

Provide the employee with all the paperwork relating to their exit, like state-specific separation forms or requests for unused PTO. Don’t forget to address any concerns about outstanding pay or the return of company assets. Complete the required business and accounting forms, and if applicable, draft an experience letter or reference.

Schedule an exit interview

Book some time on the employee’s last day to conduct an exit interview. This gives the employee time to reflect on their experience with your business and think about any issues they may want to address. You should also choose your interviewer carefully—employees may be more forthcoming with someone they don’t have a close relationship with. 

Plan work handoff or coverage

Meet with the employee to discuss their current responsibilities and identify what needs to be done before they leave. If you have a replacement or coverage in mind, determine what kind of training they’ll need and begin transitioning them to their new role. This way work can continue as usual once they’re gone. 

Notify other employees

No one needs gossip getting ahead of them. Notify your team of the employee’s departure and keep lines of communication open.

Begin the knowledge transfer

Ask the employee to document any knowledge they’ve gained on the job, especially if it’s not in your current training materials. If possible, have the employee help train their replacement so there’s an opportunity to share knowledge directly.

Offboarding steps on the day an employee leaves

Recover company assets

Collect any item issued to the employee during their time with you, including key cards, laptops, cell phones, name tags, uniforms, or anything else belonging to the business. 

Remove personal items

Have the employee clear out their cubby, locker, or desk so they can take their belongings home.  

Conduct an exit interview

Exit interviews help you gain insight into the employee’s experience and what they really think about working for your business—whether it’s good or bad. Thoughtful offboarding questions should help you discover:

• Why the employee is leaving (if they’re resigning)
• Where things went wrong (if they’ve been terminated)
• What the employee thinks about your culture and policies
• How they felt they were treated
• What they liked and disliked about their job
• What they would change about their experience
• The dynamics with their manager and colleagues

Depending on the circumstances of the employee’s departure, they may be reluctant to answer honestly. In these cases, offer them a detailed questionnaire. They can hand it in just before they leave.

Confirm the employee’s contact information

Maintaining a connection with an employee after they leave may be valuable, so it’s important to have a current phone number, email, and address. You never know when you’ll need a brand advocate or a referral.

Tie it all up with respect

At its heart, the offboarding process is about managing a relationship with another person. Show the employee that you value them and their contributions to your business. When appropriate, consider a thank you note, a parting gift, or a going away party. 

Offboarding steps after an employee leaves  

Deactivate access

Immediately terminate the employee’s access to the building and to company systems like email, team communication, and scheduling apps. This is the best way to protect important data and information. 

Notify external contacts

If applicable, inform any vendors, clients, or other external contacts the employee had a relationship with. There’s no need to include details of their departure, this is just a courtesy to the stakeholders in your business.

Streamline your offboarding process with Homebase

A clear, well-documented offboarding process helps protect your business and ensures an easy transition when employees leave. However, getting your process organized and accessible can be a challenge. Automated tools like Homebase can make offboarding simple and efficient by keeping important information in one place and providing expert HR guidance when you need it. Get started with Homebase today.

The post Offboarding Procedures for Smooth Transitions in 2024 appeared first on Homebase.

Unfortunately, time management is sometimes a balancing act for SMB owners. For small businesses to grow and thrive, employers need to make sure team members are making the most of their working hours so they get everything done while still keeping labor costs under control. On the other hand, business owners should be taking care of high-level work and driving the business forward instead of being caught in the weeds with routine, low-priority tasks.

There’s no perfect SMB time management hack because the world simply doesn’t work that way. But we’ll still do our best to help optimize your team’s working hours by putting forward these five fantastic time management strategies that are perfect for small businesses.

Time management hacks that are ideal for small businesses

Not all time management strategies make sense for SMBs — they may be overly complicated, difficult to implement on a smaller scale, or just downright confusing.

That’s why we’ve curated the following selection of five ideas that work for small business owners, managers, and team members and can be implemented right away.

1. Use technology that’s specifically designed for small businesses

If you want to master small business time management, you first need to streamline how you run your operations. That means minimizing the time you spend on work, especially manual tasks you may dedicate hours to each week but could take mere minutes with the right tool.

Remember, we’re not living in the days of yore without any technology. Some platforms like Homebase are specifically designed for small business owners and managers like you to quickly and effortlessly take care of your more time-consuming, burdensome administrative tasks.

Here’s a just selection of the kind of work platforms like Homebase can help small business owners with:

• Scheduling: Our drag-and-drop schedule builder is easy to use, but it doesn’t stop there. We’ve also got pre-made templates, auto-population capabilities, self-scheduling features, and the option to attach shift notes and reminders.
• Time tracking: Employees can use their smartphones (and various other devices) as time clocks, so they can easily sign in and out of work without you having to maintain any physical sign out sheets. Even better, their hours get automatically transformed into timesheets that are ready for payroll processing without any extra work on your side.
• Payroll: Our built-in payroll system syncs with the rest of our tools and means you can spend minutes instead of hours on calculations every pay period. Homebase payroll can take care of paychecks, tax calculations, and withholdings.
• Team communication: SMB owners and managers waste a ton of time switching between their computers, phones, and various apps to get ahold of their employees. Homebase’s team communication app means you can reach everyone in one easy place.
• HR and compliance: Getting employees to fill out paperwork, reminding people to get their certifications updated, researching local labor laws, and verifying that schedules are compliant with applicable regulations is hard work and can have complicated consequences if you get it wrong. Our HR tool and team of HR experts can take that stress off your plate.

2. Try out prioritization techniques

Poor task prioritization and lackluster time management skills often go hand in hand. It’s only logical — small business owners should dedicate their attention to pressing issues that affect their operations the most. It’s also just downright bad business sense to spend a ton of time on unimportant tasks each day that could otherwise be delegated or batched.

If you have trouble figuring out what your highest priority tasks should be, there are several prioritization techniques you can try:

• Red, yellow, green: Assign tasks as red, yellow, or green depending on their urgency. Red means the task is critical and needs to be done ASAP. Yellow means the task is high priority but not urgent. Green means the task is both low priority and low urgency.
• The Eisenhower Matrix: Sort tasks into four categories according to their importance and urgency — do first, schedule, delegate, and don’t do.
• The ABCDE method: Designate tasks with the letter A, B, C, D, or E depending on their priority.
  • A: Most important, with significant consequences if they don’t get done.
  • B: Important but with minor consequences if they don’t get done.
  • C: It would be nice to get these tasks done, but not much will happen if they don’t.
  • D: Delegate these tasks to others.
  • E: Eliminate these tasks altogether. They’re just busy work and aren’t really important for your business.

When it comes to excelling at task prioritization, it’s also helpful to use a dedicated small business management platform like Homebase. We’ve got features like:

• A manager logbook so team leads can bring the most pressing matters of the day to their colleagues’ attention.
• The ability to leave shift notes on Homebase schedules so coworkers can give each other a heads up about anything that needs to be addressed. 
• A team communication tool that makes it easy for the whole roster to stay in touch about daily happenings.

3. Master task batching

Task batching is a popular productivity strategy that extends far beyond the world of small business operations. However, it’s a great way for SMB owners, managers, and team members to reduce the time they spend on tasks and work more efficiently.

Basically, task batching involves grouping similar tasks into one time period. This saves time because it avoids people having to switch between different kinds of work — which can be both ineffective and taxing physically and mentally.

For example, let’s say you’re a cafe employee. You have to open the coffee shop every morning at 8am, but you arrive at 7am to clean and prepare the space for customers. You have to get through the following tasks:

• Refill all the supplies you need to make beverages like milk, tea bags, sugar, and coffee
• Take note of anything you have to order
• Call suppliers
• Sweep and mop all the floors, both behind the counter and in the cafe itself
• Clean all the windows
• Unload the dishwasher

If we’re using task batching logic, it would be much more efficient to do all the cleaning tasks first (all the sweeping, mopping, window cleaning, and dishwasher unloading) and then move on to inventory and restocking tasks. That’s ultimately more productive than mopping a couple of rooms, refilling your coffee, and going back to clean some windows, for example.

4. Implement time blocking

While this time management tip is especially relevant to small business owners who struggle to get through their to-do list every day or week, it can be useful to anyone who is trying to bring a little more organization into their lives and better optimize their time. 

If you’re not familiar, time blocking is a technique where you divide your day into chunks dedicated to certain tasks. That means you’re not just aimlessly trying to get through a list of tasks on a checklist or in an agenda — you have dedicated time slots throughout the day, so you know when you’ll get things done.

Here’s an example of how a time-blocked schedule might look for the owner of a small retail shop. Let’s say they arrive at 9am:

• Administrative work (9am-10am): Check emails, listen to and return voicemails, and respond to messages on the team communication app.
• Open store (10am-10:30am): Check in with store manager, help with daily setup tasks, and establish the day’s priorities.
• Hiring and recruitment (10:30am-11:30am): Online interview with potential new hire.
• Financial management (11:30am-12:30pm): Look over the previous day’s sales data and financial transactions, pay bills, send/file invoices, and monitor bank accounts.
• Lunch break (12:30pm-1:30pm)
• Meetings (1:30pm-2:30pm): Get together with managers or employees who need to address any ideas, explore opportunities for networking and collaboration, and meet with potential clients or partners.
• General daily operations (2:30pm-3:30pm): Help out in the store as needed, train/guide employees, oversee the business, check for product/service quality, and address issues and challenges as they come up.
• Marketing and customer service (3:30pm-4:30pm): Post and/or engage on social media platforms, respond to customer concerns, questions, and comments, and observe what competitors are doing on social media.
• Inventory (4:30pm-5:00pm): Take inventory of the shop and note down anything that has to be restocked the following day.
• Wind down (5:00pm-5:30pm): Check in with the store manager before leaving, answer any questions before you go, and check email and phone messages one last time. 

5. Master delegation and outsourcing

Excellent time management is about recognizing what tasks you shouldn’t or can’t do just as much as it is about getting things done thoroughly but in as little time as possible. If you want great time management skills, you need to excel at delegation and outsourcing. But those abilities don’t come naturally to everyone, so here’s one way you can get better at assigning work to other people:

• Determine your own strengths and weaknesses: Ask yourself what kind of work you’re particularly good at and can get through more quickly and with more enjoyment than others. If you have any tasks you struggle with, consider whether someone else would be better suited to complete them. Perhaps you have great interpersonal skills and love networking and connecting with customers but have difficulty with numbers and math.

• Dig into employees’ strengths and weaknesses: Now, consider the same questions, but think about your team members instead of yourself. Consult your team leads if you don’t feel you know employees well enough to identify their strengths and weaknesses. You likely already have staff members with strengths and weaknesses that balance out your own. For instance, a retail shop floor worker might feel awkward greeting customers but would cherish the opportunity to spend some time in the back checking inventory.

• Outsource what you’re lacking in-house: On occasion, you may need to bring an additional team member on board — even a part-time worker or a contractor — so you can effectively delegate all the tasks you need to. A hiring tool designed with small businesses in mind, like Homebase hiring, can come in handy in those situations as it lets you take care of recruitment in the same place as your other team management tasks. Not to mention, you can automatically publish job postings to several top sites like ZipRecruiter, Craigslist, and Indeed.

Homebase’s tools are designed to save time

Working efficiently can be the difference between a small business that’s successful and thriving and a small business that’s overpaying on labor and contending with stressed-out managers and employees who don’t have time to get through their to-do lists. That’s why great time management isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s a downright necessity.

Luckily, it’s not hard for SMB owners to take their time management practices up a notch and bring a little more order into their lives. It can be as simple as trying out a new prioritization strategy, optimizing how you batch your tasks, blocking your time, or delegating work more effectively.

And, of course, no matter what strategies you apply to manage your time better, implementing an affordable, small business team management tool like Homebase is a must. Our wide range of streamlined, easy-to-use tools means you can spend minutes rather than hours on tasks like scheduling, time tracking, payroll, team communication, and human resources each week. Not to mention, you can try out many of our features for free. 

The post 5 Time Management Tricks For Small Business Owners appeared first on Homebase.

But a surprising amount don’t have a clue how those numbers stack up and, ultimately, how many hours and days team members work on average over the course of a year. And if you’re not using a small business management tool like Homebase that takes care of these kinds of calculations and considerations for you automatically, you might not have any idea how to figure it out.

You’re in luck! We’ve put together this useful guide so you’ll understand.

Why understanding work hours and days matters for small businesses

Figuring out your employees’ average annual work hours and days is more than just a matter of curiosity — the results can significantly impact your small business operations. Here are just a few of the main reasons why:

• Compliance with labor regulations — It’s essential to correctly understand your team members’ average work hours and days to comply with relevant labor laws or you risk audits, fines, and other unpleasant consequences. For example, businesses have to pay non-exempt employees 1.5x their normal hourly rate for the time they work that exceeds 40 hours in an average week. In addition, team members may have the right to certain benefits like extended leave or health coverage if they work more than a certain number of days or hours over the course of a year. 

The good news is you can use an SMB-friendly tool like Homebase HR and compliance to help keep you up to date with these considerations and legal regulations.

• Allows for proactive hiring and recruitment — As a small business owner, you likely already know how many days your business is open per week and how many working hours you need to cover on average. So, accurately estimating your current team’s average annual work hours or days can help you understand whether you have enough employees to cover your labor needs or if you need to start hiring proactively. You certainly don’t want to end up in a situation where you’re scrambling to find a new staff member when your team is already stressed out and overworked. 

• Better understanding of hourly rates and annual income — Knowing your employees’ average annual work hours and days gives you a better picture of their “hourly rate” (even if you pay them a salary) and/or how much money they take home yearly. This ensures that you’re paying people a fair wage and equips you with the information you need to enter salary conversations and negotiations from a well-informed point of view.

• Improved awareness of team members’ work-life balance — When you have a precise picture of the number of hours or days team members work per year, you can see how much of their time they spend at work vs. with their family and friends, pursuing their hobbies and interests, and taking care of chores or other personal responsibilities. That information may prompt you to address work-life balance issues and rethink the benefits you offer your employees. For example, you may consider providing additional PTO (paid time off) or personal days to your benefits package.

How to easily work out employees’ average work hours and days each year

If you’re not using a handy small business management platform like Homebase, you may need to manually calculate how many hours or days your team members work per year on average. Luckily, these calculations are fairly simple to do on your own and consist of just three steps.

Basically, they can be broken down as follows:

1. Add up an employee’s average weekly work hours or days
2. Multiply their average weekly work hours or days by 52
3. Subtract public holidays, their paid time off allotment, and other expected absences 

1. Add up weekly work hours or days

First, calculate how many hours or days the team member works in a typical week. These numbers might be the same for all employees or vary greatly depending on how regular your staff schedules are.

In the United States, the typical full-time work schedule consists of 40 hours distributed over five days, usually Monday through Friday. However, small businesses, especially those in customer service industries like hospitality, often have more irregular timetables as they’re open in the evenings and over the weekend.

Let’s consider a couple of examples:

• Amanda works for a construction company. She normally works 10 hours per day from Monday through Thursday. She begins work at 7am and finishes at 5pm. So, on average, she works 40 hours per week and four days per week.
• Mark is a manager at a local children’s clothing store. He usually works 8 hours per day from Wednesday through Sunday. He begins work at 10am and finishes at 6pm. So, on average, he works 40 hours per week and five days per week.

Pro tip: Be sure you’re calculating the individual’s working hours or days in a normal week as you’ll be using this total as the average for the entire year.

2. Multiply average work hours or days by 52

There are 52 weeks in a calendar year, so next, all you have to do is multiply the employee’s average amount of weekly work hours or days by 52. Let’s continue with the examples we used in the previous step:

• Amanda works 40 hours and four days in an average week. So, she would have 2080 possible working hours and 208 possible working days per year.
• Mark works 40 hours and five days in an average week. So, he would have 2080 possible working hours and 260 possible working days per year.

Don’t rush off! Our work isn’t done yet because not many people actually work all of their possible working days or hours each year. We still need to account for public holidays and other variables like paid time off, sick leave, and other foreseeable workplace absences.

Pro tip: Learn how Homebase’s scheduling, payroll, and HR and compliance tools work together to help you manage your employees’ paid time off (PTO) for you with this informative video.

3. Account for public holidays, paid time off, and other foreseeable absences

Depending on established public holidays, the local and federal labor laws that apply to you, and your own internal policies, your team members will be allocated a certain amount of working days off per year for things like holiday, sick leave, and other personal reasons. 

So, to correctly estimate your employees’ average working hours or days per year, you need to consider those fixed absences ahead of time. Of course, there may be some slight discrepancies between how many vacation days team members are allocated and how many they end up taking, but we’re talking about averages rather than fixed numbers.

Using the previous example, let’s imagine that Amanda gets all 11 federal public holidays per year off work. She also gets another ten working days of paid vacation, five sick days, and five personal days. That amounts to 31 working days or 310 working hours off per year.

On the other hand, Mark gets all 11 federal public holidays off work but is also entitled to another three because he lives and works in Texas, and the state has several regional public holidays. His employer also gives him 15 working days of paid vacation, five sick days, and two personal days. That amounts to 36 working days or 288 working hours off per year.

Now, we have to subtract Amanda and Mark’s expected days and hours off from the total we came up with in the previous step:

• 2080 (Amanda’s possible working hours in an average year) – 310 (Amanda’s expected hours off in an average year) = 1770 (Amanda’s expected working hours in an average year)
• 208 (Amanda’s possible working days in an average year) – 31 (Amanda’s expected days off in an average year) = 177 (Amanda’s expected working days in an average year)

• 2080 (Mark’s possible working hours in an average year) – 288 (Mark’s expected hours off in an average year) = 1792 (Mark’s expected working hours in an average year)
• 260 (Mark’s possible working days in an average year) – 36 (Mark’s expected days off in an average year) = 224 (Mark’s expected working days in an average year)

Homebase makes small business admin easy

At face value, understanding the average number of working hours and days your team members complete each year may not seem important. But it’s useful information for both small business owners and employees to understand because it supports you in staying compliant with local labor regulations, informs proactive hiring and recruitment decisions, provides a better picture of team members’ hourly rates and annual take-home income, and helps you uncover work-life balance issues.

In addition, as we’ve seen, it’s not too difficult to calculate average annual work hours and days — simply follow the steps we outlined above. However, as a small business owner, there’s no such thing as saving yourself too much time. So, why not use specialized small business tools like Homebase payroll and HR and compliance to take care of those calculations and considerations for you?

The post Calculate Your Team’s Work Hours Per Year With This Easy Guide appeared first on Homebase.

Exit interviews are a chance for businesses to learn more about the reasons for and context around why an employee leaves. This information can be used for a lot of things, but chief among them is to learn what could be done to prevent other employees from departing in the future. And that has a big impact for the organization, considering that the estimated cost of replacing an employee can range from one-half to two times their annual salary. 

This article will share everything you need to know about exit interviews, and provide a list of questions to ask departing employees. 

What is an exit interview?

An exit interview is a final interview or conversation with a departing employee, often conducted by a manager or HR representative, that aims to learn more about why they’re leaving and their impressions and feedback about the company. 

The goal is to learn as much as possible about what led the employee to resign, and what could be done better to improve life for existing employees. 

Exit interviews are the final step in the employee lifecycle. This typically encapsulates everything from when they first apply for a role to when they walk out the door for the last time. It’s a learning opportunity for the organization, but it’s also a chance to leave a positive final impression. 

What’s the purpose of an exit interview? 

As mentioned, exit interviews are designed to gather information about the employee’s experience with and perception of the company. It’s a valuable exercise that allows the company to learn about all of the good, bad, and ugly things going on in their business that may impact its employees. 

Generally, the goal is to uncover: 

• Why departing employees are leaving and sought new jobs
• Why they didn’t decide to stay
• What makes their new position better than their current what
• What, if anything, could the company fix to prevent future departures 

Individual employee exit interviews offer this information somewhat of a vacuum. But, at scale, they can uncover trends that may point to specific systemic issues that need to be addressed in the company.

Depending on what those trends are, actions can then be taken to improve: 

• Company culture
• Talent acquisition and employee onboarding
• Talent and performance management
• Manager training 
• Compensation and total rewards 
• And any other factor that contributes to attrition 

The goal with these actions is to improve the overall quality of life and engagement of existing and future employees, thereby stemming historical reasons for why employees choose to leave the company voluntarily. 

3 benefits of employee exit interviews 

Information and understanding are the two primary benefits of conducting employee exit interviews. Together, those lead to three key outcomes that ultimately improve the business. 

• Uncover systemic, structural, and cultural issues. First, exit interviews shine a light on the ugly within an organization. They help to identify problems areas that might be leading to a drain on productivity, morale, and ultimately, voluntary departures. 
• Build and maintain a positive employer brand. Employees and alumni talk—especially if they’ve had a negative or unfair experience at a company. That sentiment can easily get around, either through online reviews or word of mouth. Exit interviews are a chance to both make a good final impression with departing employees, but also to show that the company still values their opinion and is open to feedback. This goes a long way to fostering positive sentiment amongst alumni, making them ambassadors for the company’s employee brand, and more likely to recommend them to friends and colleagues. 
• Improve the experience for existing employees. As mentioned, the goal of exit interviews is to help the company move forward. They help to identify and solve issues that may be harming employee satisfaction and engagement. And, according to Gallup, companies with highly engaged employees can see 21% higher profitability than those without. 

Now that we’ve hammered home the benefits, let’s talk about exit interview best practices.

How to conduct an exit interview: best practices

Exit interviews are a delicate tactic. Afterall, they require someone to interview an employee who’s leaving the company. To get the most out exit interviews, try the following best practices: 

• Have a qualified team member conduct the interview. Preferably, this is an experienced HR staff member who understands how exit interviews work and what the goals are. If it’s a small business, then the owner or direct manager will suffice, as long as they follow these best practices.
• Ask if they’re willing to participate. Participating should be optional; emphasize that the goal is to understand what the company can do better. 
• Create a list of questions to be used for all exit interviews. These questions should be designed to uncover specific information about various parts of the interview. Use the same questions for each interview so that the feedback is consistent, and it’s easier to uncover trends. 
• Be friendly, approachable, and open to feedback. Exit interviews shouldn’t be standoffish or defensive of the company. The goal is to receive honest and candid feedback, not to change the mind of the departing employee. To accomplish that, interviewers must be open to feedback and curious about what the employee has to say.
• Reassure the employee that their comments are anonymous. Most departing employees are concerned about burning bridges if they talk negatively during an exit interview. This can muddy the results and leave potential issues unmentioned. To help put the employee at ease, reassure them that their answers will only be used for statistical purposes, and won’t be shared widely with former colleagues. 
• Have a strategy to address feedback and action change. Exit interviews can open a Pandora’s box of potential issues that need to be addressed. And there’s no point in holding these sessions if there’s no intention to address them. If exit interviews are part of the employee lifecycle, ensure that processes are in place to record and store interview feedback, track and analyze trends over time, meet and discuss potential solutions to those trends, and action those solutions. 

Specific and individual feedback

Occasionally, exit interviews may include particularly noteworthy feedback or accusations about specific teams, managers, or staff members. In these cases, it’s critical that the company has policies in place for how to deal with those issues immediately. If they don’t, there could be legal ramifications for the organization, on top of ongoing cultural issues for remaining staff. 

10 employee exit interview questions to ask

The questions asked during an exit interview should be deliberate, well-structured, and aligned with a specific area of the business. This ensures that all answers provide valuable insights. It also makes it easier to target their answers and transform them into action.

Here are 10 sample employee exit interview questions, sectioned by theme and business area. 

Reasons for leaving

1. Why did you decide to leave the company?

If the employee is leaving voluntarily, the answer can provide specific reasons for why they’ve chosen to move on.

2. Why did you decide to re-enter the job market?

This gives the interviewer a baseline understanding of why the employee started shopping around for a new role, and helps them spot trends into why people decide to look elsewhere. 

3. What’s your general impression of our company?

This gives the employee a chance to elaborate on how they see the organization and their unique point-of-view. 

4. Is there anything we could have done to prevent you from leaving?

This is an opportunity for the employee to offer honest feedback, including shortcomings in talent management, their direct supervisor, the company culture, and any other area of the business they see as needing improvement. 

Compensation 

5. Was your decision to leave motivated by money or total compensation? 

This gives the interviewed a simple yes or no answer (with possible elaboration) that lets them record whether compensation was a factor. Over time, this question can point to trends associated with displeasure or satisfaction with the comp structure. 

Management 

6. What do you think of your manager and department heads?

The goal here is to collect specific feedback about the employee’s manager and other leaders in their orbit. Leadership has a major impact on employee morale and productivity. When you identify shortcomings, it’s a major opportunity—and priority—for organizations. 

7. Did you have regular conversations with your manager about your development, performance, and future with the company? 

The answer to this question can provide insights into how effective, or ineffective, the company’s talent management and strategy was for this employee. If your employee shares that they received little to no feedback or guidance on future career growth, then this is a red flag that needs to be addressed. 

Role-specific 

8. Do you think the expectations and responsibilities in your role were clear?

This offers insights into how the position was advertised and sold to the employee, plus, how effectively their job was communicated to them once onboard. Unclear expectations can be a sign of poor communication during recruitment, or a sign of an issue with management. 

9. Did you feel that you had the resources you needed to do your work? 

The answer to this question will offer insights into resourcing and support systems for individual employees and departments. If support and resourcing just isn’t there, take it as a signal to think about more investment. 

General 

10. What advice would you share for how we can improve? What would make this a better place to work? 

This is an open-ended question that invites the departing employee to provide open and honest feedback about the good, bad, and ugly in the company. Pay close attention to this feedback, as there may be nuggets of information that can have a big impact on morale for remaining employees. 

The post 10 Employee Exit Interview Questions to Ask Departing Employees appeared first on Homebase.

But it’s not the only work schedule for employees. In fact, many small businesses are opting for a different approach to the work week by trying out a 9/80 work schedule. 

A 9/80 work schedule may have longer hours, but those who are working within it can enjoy more overall balance. Ahead, we’ll unpack what the 9/80 work schedule is, how to schedule it, some of the benefits and challenges involved, along with legal labor considerations, and how Homebase can help make scheduling for it easier on your small business. 

What is a 9/80 work schedule?

A 9/80 work schedule is when shifts are divided into 80 hours over nine working days. That means employees get an extra two days off a month that allows for longer weekends.

How does a 9/80 work schedule work?

For the most part, a 9/80 work schedule is intended as nine hour shifts over a two week period for a total of 80 hours worked.

A typical 9/80 schedule can look like 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. for five days the first week, and then 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. the following four days with an additional day off. Some schedules may split a shift so that employees work a half day instead.

Here’s a full sample schedule below. 

Week one:

• Monday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. 
• Tuesday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Thursday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Friday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday: no work 

Week two:

• Monday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Tuesday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Thursday: 8 a.m to noon; one hour lunch break; 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: no work

These schedules, of course, can be amended and created depending on your small business’s needs. For example, if you’re a café that needs coverage early in the morning, a 9/80 schedule may have your employees starting at 5.a.m or 6 a.m.. Then, they work until 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. In some cases, employees may work a half day on both Fridays, rather than have a complete Friday off during the second week. 

This schedule also doesn’t need to run Monday to Friday like traditional schedules. As long as it’s over a two week period—paying particular attention to how this impacts payroll—you can schedule 9/80 shifts however you need for coverage. 

What are the benefits of a 9/80 schedule?

It may look like a lot at first glance, but the 9/80 work schedule can actually be a very worthwhile investment. There are a number of benefits for both employees and employees. 

Increased productivity 

If you’ve ever got really in the groove of a task at work, only to realize it’s quitting time when you’re thisclose to finishing it, it’s a bit of a bummer. All you need is one extra hour! A 9/80 schedule is a great solution for that.

In other, traditional work schedules, employees taking an extra hour to finish out a task may end up in overtime hours. And since those hours are more expensive for you, it’s often not ideal for the business. Instead, with a flexible 9/80 work schedule, employees are encouraged to keep up or increase their productivity, knowing they’ve got the time. Tasks can be divided up more appropriately for completion during the work day, and there’s the added benefit of a longer weekend on the horizon twice a month. That long weekend is a huge incentive for employees to make the most out of their work time. 

Longer weekends more frequently

There’s honestly nothing better than a long weekend. When you’re an employee and you know there’s an extra day that week just for you, it makes working hours that much sweeter and easier to enjoy. 

With a 9/80 schedule, employees are guaranteed an extra day off every two weeks.

Less commuting

No matter how your employees get to work—car, bike or public transit—there’s something nice about not having to sit in traffic and endure the commute. 

Commuting is necessary in our very busy work lives, but any chance to take a day away from the traffic, noise, and pollution is a good one in our books. 

Stronger emphasis on work/life balance

With a 9/80 work week schedule, employees are given the opportunity to complete any necessary life-related tasks, appointments, or even tend to their hobbies. Whether it’s a dentist appointment on their Friday off, or joining their kid on a field trip, they’ve now got an extra day to do it instead of taking paid time off.

Flexibility 

For employers needing coverage, there’s a benefit to the 9/80 work schedule. Since not everyone needs to be on the same 9/80 schedule, you can have rotating days off. Suddenly not every employee is begging for that same Saturday off work.

A 9/80 schedule allows employers and employees to build out a schedule that works for the business and its workers. 

Higher task completion

It’s a given that with more hours in a day to do your job, there’s a likelier chance your employees will be able to finish the tasks you assign them. This is good to keep in mind if you’re leaning toward the 9/80 schedule. Think carefully about how you’re going to delegate tasks and assignments per shift.  

What are the challenges of a 9/80 schedule?

Like everything else in life, with benefits come some challenges. There are a lot of great aspects and benefits to a 9/80 work schedule, but there are challenges that, as an employer, you definitely need to be made aware of in order to assuage them accordingly. 

Longer work day 

Working for nine hours can take a toll on folks who aren’t used to it. So can shift work. If you’re thinking about implementing a 9/80 work day, it’s beneficial for employers to take a look at this challenge first. See where adjustments can be made for optimized breaks, trying out different tasks so it doesn’t exhaust or tire out employees. 

Longer work days can wear down morale if employees feel they only have time to be at work and not enough time at home. 

Staffing gap

Small businesses of different sizes and industries need shift coverage. It depends on what your business does and its specific needs, but, at the end of the day, you need people there to make sure it runs smoothly. 

A 9/80 schedule can cause a staffing gap for businesses that are too small or have too few employees. Staggered schedules may not be available for the business, or wear down on employees who want to take a Monday off instead of a Friday, but are unable to. 

Time off and sick day challenges

Along with staffing gaps, there’s the added challenge of employee time off and sick days. How is a sick day in the middle of a 9/80 work schedule going to impact your business and other employees?

Early start times and late end times 

A 9/80 schedule does take up most of the work day, leaving not a lot of time for employees after hours. Depending on the commute, employees may spend up to 10 to 12 hours in a work mindset—from travel time to and from to the actual work day. This can take a toll on employee morale, and cause issues at work. 

Overtime challenges 

If task management and delegation isn’t handled well, your employees may end up starting a new task late in the day and complete it well after their scheduled shift end time. This may result in your figuring out of overtime hours. It may also lead to uncomfortable conversations about the realities of what your employees are doing, if they’re trying to earn more by working past their scheduled shifts.

It’s not all nefarious but overtime can be a challenge for employees on a 9/80 schedule. 

Inability to focus 

A lack of focus on work goes hand-in-hand with adjusting to a longer work schedule. Not all hours of a shift pass by with ease. If your employee is bored three hours in and they’ve still got six to go, that could be a problem.

What kinds of companies can benefit from a 9/80 schedule?

Not every industry is going to thrive in a 9/80 scheduling environment. But: there are definitely many that could make the switch from the same ol’ 9-5. 

Retail 

Retail is the easiest to accommodate 9/80 shifts. For any full-time staff your business relies on for daytime or prolonged coverage, this is ideal.

Customer service representatives

Many customer service representative roles and call centers need to have staggered shifts to cover not only volume of calls, but timezones. In many cases, these roles have become remote. That means a 9/80 may actually be ideal. Suddenly a business can maximize the number of calls for an agent without delays that come from employees starting and ending their shifts.

Hospitality 

Like retail, hospitality companies can benefit greatly from the 9/80 shift. This might actually make the most sense for your managing staff, helping to ensure someone is there for coverage from the afternoon to close. When you do the 9/80 schedule right, it means any 24/7 coverage has shift overlap, meaning better communication and better quality of care.

Tech

Developers tend to work long hours. Anyone working on software or coding may appreciate the extra time spent on a project or sprint to get their tasks completed, plus the extra time off.

Creative 

Not every creative person or job can function during a strict 9-5 shift. Inspiration comes in sprints, kind of like developers, or any tech-involved role.

Writers, editors, graphic designers, you name the creative role, and a 9/80 shift schedule can work for them. It may not be as rigid as nine days of the same shifts in a row—allow some room for flexibility of shifts.

What are the legal considerations involved in the 9/80 schedule

As of 2023, there are no federal labor laws restricting or prohibiting the 9/80 work schedule. However, there are a couple of existing labor laws you’ll need to consult and follow.

• According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), you must pay any non-exempt employee who works over their scheduled 40 hours per week overtime.
• Check state laws to see if there are any restrictions. California, for example, has rules around overtime and alternate work schedules that require approval from the state’s division of labor standards enforcement. 

Make scheduling easier with the right tools 

If you’re looking to make a switch to an alternative schedule for your employees, you’ll need the right tool to make scheduling a breeze. Homebase helps optimize the scheduling process, freeing up time for you to focus on other tasks for the business. Decrease how many hours you spend each week on forecasting and scheduling with Homebase’s automated scheduling. 

Change in schedule? Homebase can sends out notifications to employees about shift changes, a new schedule, or anything else. Email, text, or your own team app: find what works for you. Homebase empowers employers and employees alike: employees can manage their time-off and shift change requests all from the app. Try Homebase for free today. 

The post Everything You Need to Know About a 9/80 Work Schedule appeared first on Homebase.

The great news is that workforce management is for businesses of every size and owners of every experience level.

There are systems and tools designed especially to help small businesses with their unique team operation issues — all priced within a small business budget. 

If you’re concerned about the time and effort it will take to transition from easy-to-use paper and spreadsheet methods to an overly complicated workforce management system, don’t worry. Let’s remove the mystery and clarify what workforce management can look like for your small business.

The processes of workforce management

Workforce management is the set of processes businesses follow to increase productivity and efficiency for their teams. Essentially, WFM is about simplifying and automating your employee operations with the right software. You can use online tools and platforms to make most of your processes more streamlined, including tasks like:

• Time tracking
• Team scheduling
• Payroll
• HR and compliance
• Hiring and onboarding
• Labor costing

While small business owners don’t have to use complex systems to do WFM well, they should set achievable business goals before implementing completely new management tools. Developing a solid set of objectives first prevents them from wasting time and money on software and apps that don’t serve their ultimate purpose — to grow their small business or franchises in a way that makes sense for them.

While WFM focuses on updating your employee processes, it can have a far-reaching impact on your business. Specific benefits include:

• More efficiency — Workforce management allows business owners and managers to automate administrative tasks like scheduling, time tracking, and payroll. It also saves employees time by simplifying tasks like clocking in and out, shift trading, and team communication.

• Higher productivity — Monitoring attendance, overtime, and team member performance can help you spot potential bottlenecks and adjust your tasks and workflows.

• Better labor forecasting — WFM platforms like Homebase will track trends in scheduling and overtime so you can make more strategic scheduling and hiring decisions for your business.

• Increased revenue — By cutting down on inefficiencies and allowing you to focus on bigger business objectives, WFM can help you increase your profitability without having to expand your marketing budget or hike up the prices of your products and services. 

• Happier employees — Team member self-service tools for scheduling, time tracking, and team chat put more control back into the hands of your staff and give them more ownership over their work experience.

Who should use workforce management?

Workforce management is for companies of every size, but it’s particularly essential for:

• Small business owners who are running their operations on their own or with a small management team. 

• Owners and managers who don’t have much administrative or HR experience and need extra support to help them meet their business goals. 

• Shift supervisors and team leads who often feel stressed about covering shifts and creating schedules for team members with varying degrees of availability.  

• Employees who are stressed about taking on more responsibility than they would have in a larger business, or those who often get frustrated about delayed schedules and inaccurate paychecks.

The best tools and software for small businesses

Once you explore the wide breadth of options of WFM tools on the market today, you’ll see how easy they are for owners, managers, and employees to use. Here are a few options that are well-suited to small businesses and franchises.

Homebase

Homebase is a team management platform that streamlines scheduling, time tracking, communication, and payroll for hourly, shift-based teams. With the platform, managers can create schedules in minutes and share them via the Homebase mobile app. Employees can then receive auto-reminders for upcoming shifts and clock in directly from their phones. Once they’ve started time tracking with a GPS-enabled time clock, Homebase immediately converts their hours into timesheets for payroll.

Business owners can also use the platform to write job descriptions, hire, and onboard new employees before their first day of work. Best of all, Homebase is great for helping small business owners stay on the right side of employment law — users that have access to Homebase’s HR and compliance features can contact one of our HR experts at any time to answer questions about labor and tax regulations most relevant to them.

You can access Homebase’s time tracking, scheduling, messaging, and hiring tools for free for up to 20 employees. For more advanced features, Homebase pricing starts at $20 per location per month.

Connecteam

Connecteam is an employee management app that serves small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with automated scheduling, time tracking, and team chat features — all accessible via its mobile app. Managers can also use Connecteam to assign tasks and subtasks for every shift, making it a great solution for businesses where quality assurance is of the utmost importance, such as in the construction, care, and hospitality industries. 

Connecteam has a free plan for up to ten users, and more advanced plans start at $29 per month for the first 30 users.

Arcoro

Arcoro is a platform providing HR solutions specifically for the construction industry. The software offers workforce management features like hiring, applicant tracking, time tracking, scheduling, benefits, and compensation tools for your salaried employees. It also makes training and developing your construction teams easier with built-in performance and learning management systems. 

Arcoro pricing doesn’t provide pricing on its website, but you can contact their team for a quote.

Skedulo

Ideal for “deskless,” mobile businesses in industries like healthcare, real estate, and residential maintenance, Skedulo’s scheduling and dispatching features help assign the right jobs to the right people, keeping clients satisfied. As your team members go out into the field, Skedulo lets you view their locations and job statuses and check in with mobile messaging if they need assistance with a task. Finally, when employees call in sick or get a last-minute client request, you can use the work offer feature to find available workers quickly. 

To learn more about Skedulo’s pricing, you can book a demo and get a custom quote from their sales team.

Paycom

Paycom is a human capital management platform that helps business owners streamline applicant tracking, performance management, and HR data and compliance. But it’s also a payroll solution with various tools for paying team members and giving them early access to their wages. For example, business owners may also appreciate their employee self-service payroll feature called Beti (Better Employee Transaction Interface). This feature guides employees through checking and correcting their own timesheets so they can ensure their paychecks will be accurate and reduce managerial liability.  

Contact Paycom’s sales team to get a custom quote for your business.

Ease your workforce management task load with Homebase 

The fact that you own and run a small business doesn’t mean you have to be limited to painstaking manual paper and spreadsheet processes.  Just the opposite: You’re probably so busy acting as an owner, manager, and HR professional every day that you need an easy-to-use workforce management platform to act as your digital assistant.

That’s why our customers feel so relieved when they add Homebase to their toolkit.  As an intuitive team management app, Homebase helps you cut back on time spent at a desk scheduling team members, checking time cards, arranging shift swaps, and ensuring new hire paperwork is in order. 

With tools for time tracking, scheduling, hiring and onboarding, payroll, and HR and compliance, Homebase not only helps you save time and helps you lead a more efficient team, but it also gives you peace of mind that you’re reducing labor costs and doing it all by the book.

The post What Is Workforce Management? appeared first on Homebase.

Timeboxing is a fantastic solution to overwhelming task lists because it requires you to banish distractions and concentrate on one thing at a time. That may seem radical when you’re running a small business, but it’s essential if you want to bring some peace back to your day and check more items off your to-do list.

Like any new approach to productivity, learning how to make timeboxing work for you can take some time. That’s why, in the spirit of easing stress for busy small business owners, we’ve broken it down into five simple steps.

*Cerebrum Medical Journal, 2019

What is timeboxing (and why is it useful)?

Timeboxing is a time management technique that involves setting aside a certain amount of time to focus entirely on a specific task or project until it’s done. It’s practical for small business owners who feel stressed every time they look at their ever-growing to-do list because it requires them to prioritize their work and accomplish more of it without distractions. 

The potential uses for timeboxing are infinite. You can implement it if you need to do more creative, strategic planning for your business, but it can also be handy for the smallest administrative tasks.

How is timeboxing different from time blocking?

Timeboxing is a technique that can change from day to day, whereas time blocking is an approach that encourages you to develop a daily routine and regularly assign specific chunks of time to certain kinds of work.

With time blocking, for example, you may create a morning work schedule that looks like this:

• 8:00am – 9:00am — “Eat the frog” and accomplish the most daunting or least enjoyable task first thing in the morning.
• 9:00am – 9:30am — Administrative tasks like email, checking in with team members via Homebase messaging, and following up on scheduling issues.
• 9:30am – 11:30am — Deep focus work.
• 11:30am – 2:30pm — Free for meetings, calls, and interviews.

With time blocking, the time frames are a bit more rigid, but the tasks themselves are more flexible. You don’t have to lengthen a time block if you haven’t accomplished everything you set out to do.

With timeboxing, dedicate individual “boxes” to certain specific tasks. The time frames are more flexible and based on how long you think the task will take to complete. For example, you might timebox your to-do list like this:

• 1:00pm – 2:00pm (1 hour) — Review and finalize employee timesheets.
• 2:00pm – 2:30pm (30 minutes) — Process payroll.
• 2:30pm — 4:30pm (2 hours) — Create Facebook and Instagram posts for next month’s sales promotion.
• 4:30pm — 5:30pm (1 hour) — Prepare for tomorrow’s in-store event.

How is time boxing effective?

Without a technique like timeboxing, you may try to work through your to-do list from top to bottom, not paying attention to how long each task takes and thinking about a dozen other projects you need to accomplish before the day’s over. You’ll likely only get through the most urgent tasks and feel exhausted by the end of your workday.

Timeboxing empowers you to establish more realistic goals and set better boundaries with your schedule and energy, focusing solely on one item at a time and not giving a project more focus than it’s due. As you get more practice with timeboxing, you’ll also learn how long specific kinds of work take and feel less frantic when you’re faced with a long list of responsibilities.

How to start timeboxing in 5 steps

Timeboxing is a straightforward technique, but that doesn’t mean that it looks the same for everyone. Follow these best practices so the timeboxing technique becomes your secret weapon and not another source of frustration.

1. Get clear about your priorities

Prioritization can be one of the most challenging aspects of timeboxing because it’s not always immediately clear which tasks should come first. Remember, though, that the goal here is to organize your workload and not spend too much time worrying about getting things right.

Still, you can use a few methods to figure out which work to prioritize and which may require more time:

• The Eisenhower Matrix — Organize tasks into four categories: Do first, schedule, delegate, and don’t do. 
• The Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule) — Identify the 20% of tasks that’ll yield 80% of the results. For example, your social media posts and marketing campaigns will drive more traffic to your store or restaurant, so you may want to work on those first and devote more time to them.
• The ABCDE method: Each task gets a letter based on its order of importance and impact. For example, A tasks have significant consequences if they don’t get done, but you can delegate D tasks and even eliminate E tasks completely.
• Eat the frog — Each day, decide which tasks seem the least appealing or most complex so you can finish them first.
• The 2-minute rule — If you can complete a task in two minutes or less, do it first. 

Don’t forget to lean on team management platforms like Homebase to help reduce the time many common small business admin tasks take. For example, Homebase scheduling can help tackle employee shift swaps within minutes. Team members simply sort out shift trades amongst themselves and submit them for managers to request or deny. 

Pro tip: Create a master list of tasks for your future reference. That way, you’ll keep your daily to-do list more manageable without worrying about forgetting anything later.

2. Group related tasks together

Grouping tasks by type or purpose is an essential step for making timeboxed schedules less hectic. This prevents you from too much context switching, which is our natural human tendency to move back and forth between unrelated jobs. While we need this ability to manage the unpredictable demands of our day, it taxes the brain and makes it harder to regain focus. 

To avoid putting your mind through the wringer, organize similar tasks close together so you can work on them one after the other. Here’s an example of how that might look:

• Financial management 
  • Check yesterday’s sales and revenue 
  • Set next month’s revenue goals 

• Marketing
  • Plan next month’s social media calendar
  • Reach out to two local influencers and enquire about a collaboration

• Employee time management
  • Check today’s time tracking data
  • Respond to requests for shift trades
  • Work on next month’s schedule

• Suppliers and vendors
  • Take inventory of what’s fully stocked and what needs to be ordered
  • Work on pitch for negotiating new prices for bulk orders

Pro tip: If a task feels so complicated or unpleasant that you’re hesitant to do it, you may need to break it down into smaller steps and treat each of those as separate tasks. 

3. Set time estimates

While there’s something to be said for dedicating an entire day to one or two tasks, it’s often just not doable. That’s why it’s crucial to set time estimates for each job so you can stay efficient and get more done. 

If that seems easier said than done, keep these tips in mind:

• Come up with a best-case/worst-case scenario — For example, it may typically take you about two hours to check inventory at your wine shop, but you know it can take up to four hours if you encounter any issues or have to start searching high and low for missing products. Be generous and allocate three hours to account for any potential delays.
• Anticipate interruptions  — There are going to be times throughout the day when team members and managers need your help or you have to be available for calls with customers or vendors. When times are hectic, give yourself more time to accomplish tasks that require extra focus.
• Consider your energy levels — If you’re a morning person, you may prefer to frontload your day with more challenging jobs. But if you’re someone whose energy level peaks around noon, you may be better off assigning yourself the easiest tasks in the morning.

4. Map out your timeboxing plan based on your typical schedule

It’s likely that your work weeks follow predictable rhythms of meetings, phone calls, peak-hour rushes, or large shipments. You may also be a hands-on small business owner who prefers to spend time with customers and team members daily. Your timeboxing schedule shouldn’t conflict with those well-established routines, but complement them. 

For example, let’s say that you’re a restaurant owner who typically spends every Monday reviewing revenue and inventory spending from the previous week. It may be best to timebox all of your financial management tasks together on Mondays.  

Or, perhaps you just opened a small bookstore. You want to start marketing your business, but you’re not sure where marketing tasks fit in your schedule. You might consider grouping those tasks on the days you typically spend refreshing your in-store and window displays because both of those jobs have to do with your branding and company image.

5. Assess your progress and make adjustments

Your timeboxing process doesn’t need to be set in stone. Commit to trying it for a week and seeing how it works. Keep track of the projects and goals you manage to accomplish, as well as tasks that feel overwhelming, so you can determine where you need to modify your approach.

You may find that you tend to underestimate your time limits for each item on your list. That’s not a problem. Now that you know how long the work really takes you, you’ll plan more accurately in the future.

Maybe it feels too overwhelming to have so many tasks filling up your schedule. In that case, you may prefer to be lenient with your time estimates or reduce your number of priorities. You might even want to time block your schedule instead to avoid so many start and stop times. 

Common timeboxing mistakes to avoid

Timeboxing may not be for everyone, but it’s worth a try when you consider how much more efficiently it allows people to work and all the goals they’re able to accomplish as a result. To avoid getting discouraged at the beginning of your timeboxing journey, it’s best to be aware of some common blunders before you start.

Not making tasks simple enough

A long list of steps may be masquerading as one seemingly simple task. Thankfully, your brain often sends you panic signals when a particular job feels too daunting and needs to be broken down into smaller chunks.

If you’re dreading an item on your to-do list, identify the task within the greater project that’s intimidating you the most and focus on it exclusively. Once you get it out of the way, you may feel much better equipped to face the rest of the tasks on the list. You can also try plugging the whole project into an AI tool like ChatGPT and asking it to divide it into smaller steps for you.

Forgetting to cut out all distractions

You may have asked your team members not to interrupt you for a certain two-hour time period, but have you made sure those two hours will be completely distraction-free?

For the deepest focus, turn off your phone and get an analog timer. Close down any apps and shut off all notifications on your computer, too. If that’s not possible and you need to be accessible in case of an emergency, you can use apps like Freedom or RescueTime to block out specific websites or prevent you from using the internet during focus time.

Not taking enough breaks

If you don’t prioritize rest and recuperation, it’ll get harder for you to sustain your physical energy throughout the day. Sure, you might get a lot done in the morning, but you’ll likely be exhausted and less productive by the afternoon.

Make sure that you plan at least one fifteen-minute break and one thirty-minute break within a three or four-hour period of timeboxing. While you may worry that you’re interrupting your flow, recovery is essential to preserve your stamina throughout the day.

Team management can be one of your easy tasks with Homebase

As a small business owner, your time is extremely valuable, and you need to make sure that you safeguard it. Not only can a technique like timeboxing help you use your time more effectively to the benefit of your small business, but it can also keep you from burning out and conserve more of your energy for your life outside of work.

However, timeboxing alone isn’t the answer to running your small business more efficiently. You also need the right team and the right tools to make that happen.

Homebase is the team management platform that every thriving SMB needs. Our platform allows you to streamline the tasks that often feel daunting to small business owners, like hiring and onboarding, scheduling, and payroll. And with small business HR experts at the ready to answer your questions, you can feel reassured that you’re creating a safe yet productive work environment that employees will genuinely enjoy.

The post 5 Steps to Supercharge Productivity With Timeboxing  appeared first on Homebase.