Tanda Blog

Jessica Genio-Ignacio

19 February 2020    |   

Hospitality consistently receives the highest Fair Work Ombudsman disputes per year. In the 2018-2019 financial year, 36% of all anonymous reports were made in the industry. Data underscore troubles as well, with the fast food, restaurants, and cafe sectors leading the way in noncompliance rates. One report of a surprise audit conducted in 2018 netted $471,904 unpaid wages from businesses in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. Compliance issues harm business. There’s the spectre of litigation, as well as the direct blows to brand value. For the workforce, it’s disheartening to learn you may have been ill-compensated for your hours. One survey by hospitality job platform Barcats found of participating hospitality professionals, 40% suspected pay shortages in packets, with 33% of that number discovering suspicions were true.  How non-compliance hits business growth In our study conducted in partnership with Workforce, we found two of the most prominent concerns organisations have about compliance is damage to employee morale (mentioned by 58.1% of respondents) and damage to brand equity (44.2%).  Morale is key to engagement. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace study, engaged employees consistently produce better business outcomes: 10% higher customer ratings, 20% higher sales, and 21% higher profitability. Research also says that highly engaged business units reported a 24% lower turnover in high-turnover organisations. And the hospitality industry has a problem with turnover. High competition, low barriers to entry for businesses and workers alike, and casual employment, all contribute to turnover.  Replacement hiring has costs. In one case study on Australian four and five-star hotels, researchers from Griffith University found $9,591 was the average cost for replacing an operational employee. At the same time, $109,909 per annum per establishment was the average cost for replacing executive, managerial and supervisory staff.  It doesn’t stop at that. The Fair Work Ombudsman imposes a strict set of penalties on those who fail to adhere to workplace laws, each misstep potentially costing businesses thousands to millions of dollars if they aren’t careful. Sanctions include: On-the-spot fines  Court appearances Money paid per infringement, amounts varying by severity Paying back employee entitlements plus interest Mandatory training and audits Compensation payments Some cases can go back decades. One such high-profile case is that of George Calombaris’ (of MasterChef Australia fame) MAdE Establishment group. In 2017, the group paid $2.6 million to 162 affected workers from three Melbourne restaurants. Two years later, that figure grew: In 2019 the company revealed they paid $7.8 million in wages to more than 500 employees. They attributed the errors to lapses in annualised salary arrangements, resulting in mistakes in overtime and penalty rates.  Watch: ASBFEO Ombudsman Kate Carnell on Governance and Compliance There’s even talk of the government drafting laws to criminalise intentional wage theft. Groups believe such rulings merits greater consequences, but it remains to be seen whether harsher penalties make it into law. Why labour violations happen With these risks, why do most businesses only learn of errors through employee complaints? The root is the same barrier preventing hospitality businesses from addressing compliance inaccuracies immediately: the complexity of Australian labour regulations. Wages are influenced by everything. Fair Work also makes periodic amendments to industry award rules, necessitating thorough reviews of changes lest an employer be liable for violations.  A payroll officer needs to take all that into account for calculations. That requires accurate timesheet and attendance records and onboarding documents, including employee information such as birthdays and qualifications. Human resource professionals have their hands full with workforce management, not just with running the daily operations, but also recruitment and onboarding processes to mitigate turnover.  Less breathing room means payroll officers may not catch errors on time—according to our Workforce Management Trends study, 46.1% of HR professionals say manual errors are a challenge they regularly face with time and attendance.  How successful businesses navigate complex regulatory changes Technology helps. Hundreds of workforce software solutions exist in the market aiming to solve payment problems their way. What makes for good software? Seek solutions considering compliance central to their system. Such systems should have an award interpretation engine that: Automatically updates base rates according to age and Fair Work standards Applies prepared allowances directly into staff wage calculations Calculates higher duty rates Provides detailed timesheet breakdowns that summarise all applicable modifiers to an employee’s wage for easy double-checking  Investing in automated solutions cuts down time alongside accurate employee clock-ins. That simplifies the double-checking process and can export directly to payroll as well.  Hospitality leaders can make data-driven decisions when it comes to staffing, which streamlines operations and minimises human error. That puts the future of your workforce firmly in your control: as technology develops, so can the scale of your operations.  

J. Barbor, Guest Writer

27 August 2019    |   

Technology as a business necessity In 2017, nearly half of all Australian innovation-active businesses spent on new equipment or technology, making tech the most common innovation expenditure — and rightly so. Technology has become a necessity for businesses everywhere, and the most competitive companies are always looking to upgrade theirs to improve productivity. However, it’s important to keep in mind that investing in innovative technology means more than just purchasing it. Often, the most crucial steps to maximise its benefits are what comes afterwards, when it is integrated into everyday business operations. Businesses must consider how new technologies will affect their employees, and although it might sound obvious, it’s a little more complicated than simply deploying them. Indeed, there are a lot of factors to think about, particularly with regard to how the technology will affect your frontline employees. They play a huge role in customer satisfaction, and the alienation or intimidation they may feel towards new tools will most likely affect their interactions with clients. Rosie Ramirez wrote that the smallest interactions with frontline employees can shape people’s opinions of your brand, meaning that even the small instances of bad customer service can make or break your company in the long run. That’s why getting frontline workers to engage with and accept new technology is essential in keeping them and your customers happy. That said, we’ve listed down some tips to make this adoption of new tech possible with your invaluable frontline workers. Choose user-friendly tech Frontline employees already face a lot of pressure at work — customer service workers know this more than most, and understand how stressful it can be to handle customers well. Adding new and complicated-looking technology can be frustrating (and terrifying) to those who already have a lot on their plate. Remember that there is a myriad of options for functional and user-friendly tech these days, so simply lining them up to compare your options will make a world of difference for your busy frontline workers. Think about day-to-day operations Considering how new technology will affect day-to-day operations is not a one-man job, and at this stage, it’s important to actually talk to your frontline employees who are likely affected by any changes made in the back office. For instance, if you change tracking systems for stock that will benefit your operations managers, how would this affect sales teams on the ground who rely on this information on a daily basis? Don’t assume that you know how everything works, and ask different departments how new tools might change operations from the ground up. That way, you and your workers know exactly what to expect and how to prepare for it. Be transparent about new tools Change can be intimidating, especially when employees don’t know exactly what is changing. It’s important to spell it out for frontline employees who are most likely going to be affected by the new tech. Verizon Connect’s guide on how to get employees to use new technology points out that it’s crucial to constantly repeat the benefits of new tools to employees until they’re integrated into the existing company culture. Resistance can be expected at first, but by being transparent about the new technology, you’re making frontline workers feel confident and included in the change. Guarantee effective training When you invest in new technology, it’s best to invest in effective trainers as well. This can make the adoption of new tools easier for both you and your workers. Staff won’t have to juggle trying to learn the new tech on their own while meeting with clients, since you will give them the one- or two-day training they need to understand it. Of course, follow-ups are key to knowing if additional training is necessary for certain employees, particularly the less tech-savvy ones. Data from the Australian Institute of Family Studies confirms that older generations are less likely to interact with new technology and often require extra training courses to improve basic skills for online activities. Listening to what individual workers need will help everyone gain the skills needed to operate new technology. It goes without saying that more changes should be expected in an increasingly digital world, and it’s critical to think about the individuals working on the frontlines when implementing these changes, given that they are the faces that drive brands forward. After all, what use is shiny new machinery to improve operations if your staff don’t know what to make of them? Ready to adopt a frontline-friendly technology platform? See how Tanda can make rostering and payroll more efficient when you start your free trial today.

Jessica Genio-Ignacio

24 February 2020    |   

Millions are being poured into locations around Australia as hospitality and tourism infrastructure projects aim to create thousands of new jobs and improve each city’s economy. But expensive new buildings may not be enough to attract local talent. According to projections from the annual National Skills Week in 2017, waiters, chefs, bar attendants and baristas, cafe and restaurant managers, and event organisers are all in high demand in the industry.  So how can we combat this, get more talent interested in hospitality, and improve retention? One way is for human resources leaders to turn to technology. Employers need to preserve a sense of connectivity between individuals while avoiding fostering an environment that encourages them always to be “on.”  Technology for a new workforce Why does good use of technology, especially a roster system, matter in hospitality?  It’s well-known that youth populate the industry. Many young people enter the workforce part-time while studying, with hospitality being their most likely choice. However, less and less young people are opting to stay afterwards. In this case, going digital matters—Generation Z’s entrance into the workforce has shown they’re vastly different from millennials, caring even more about technology, diversity, and money.  This is good: Gen Z employees can help solve age-old problems with a new perspective and can push businesses to innovate further. But to hold and keep their attention, you need digital tools. Hospitality businesses need to prove they not only invest in the people they recruit but also in the technology they use. Benefits of a hospitality roster system  HR technology solutions employed in many companies, unfortunately, don’t centre around the employee experience, but rather management’s. According to SAP researcher Gabby Burlacu, “Their job is not to complete a goal plan or fill out a self-evaluation of their performance, engage in learning and development courses, complete an engagement survey or any of the other HR-type tasks employees are frequently asked to do. But to many employees, it probably feels like HR thinks that is their job.” On an HR professional’s end, it could look like everything they need, organised in one convenient place. On an employee’s end, it could just be a mess. What people need out of a roster system now isn’t purely business process automation. Technology now needs to substantially improve the employee experience in a people-centric, flexible, and holistic manner, according to Burlacu. If a workforce platform provides this, benefits follow. Attendance Frequent tardiness, although initially small, can add up. In the frontline and shift worker heavy hospitality industry, tardiness can mean not just a wrench in the day’s roster, but loss of profit as well. Even the shortest tardy times can accumulate and impact the bottom line. Using a roster system that accurately tracks time and attendance can identify who these individuals are so that you can address their pain points immediately. Systems also protect your business from time theft with the bonus of saving processing time. Read more: Should you approve shift swaps at work? Productivity According to HR Technology News, a new Forrester study revealed that tech expenses have increased, but productivity gains usually associated with adopting tech have flatlined. While there’s no doubt proper utilisation of HR technology results in better productivity, instead of just using potential productivity to decide on a technology solution to use, look at overall business effectiveness instead. Software that can facilitate better communication among managers and employees, for example, isn’t necessarily a productivity solution but contributes significantly to improving the work environment.  Work-Life Balance A proper rostering software has the potential to improve employees’ work-life balance if it allows them more flexibility with their schedule. Plus, if it has the capability, seeing their potential benefits, leaves, and wages in one place gives them an accurate perspective of wages, enabling them to budget more. A roster system that allows for requests for shift swapping and unavailability markers (especially for those studying or attending to other responsibilities regularly) ensures employers don’t overstep.  Read more: 3 Ways Online Rostering Software Helps Businesses These are just a few of the benefits technology can provide for the hospitality industry. However, in such a customer-centric industry, HR professionals and hospitality leaders must not overlook how technology should augment and aid the human value of their workforce, and not replace it. Rote, repetitive, and inefficient manual tasks may be streamlined, but ultimately providing the best customer experience through human interaction is what the industry is all about. Making this easier for your employees to achieve will make overall business easier, too.    Tanda’s rostering system integrates seamlessly with other features to streamline workforce management and free up time for core business tasks. Give it a try today. No credit card required.

Jana Dee Reserva

18 February 2020    |   

With business growth comes the increase in tasks in a manager’s plate. Critical thinking, staying abreast with the trends, making data-driven decisions, and empowering the workforce to ensure success become more important. But as a business grows, admin and paperwork tend to balloon too. So how do you grow your business but not your paper stack? Enter: Workforce management platforms. Various solutions are offered in the market today, each promising to take out the administrative burden of timekeeping, rostering, processing payroll, and other repetitive tasks involved in workforce management. However, adopting this technology will only be as good as how it’s implemented and integrated into existing processes and solutions. According to a study, 31% of respondents struggle with finding a workforce management platform that will meet their needs, while those who currently have platforms in place cite seamless integration to core HR and payroll (40%) as a challenge. Scaling Productivity Minus the Paperwork Different business owners and managers shared how a workforce management platform, Tanda, in particular, has helped them take their business further and keep admin tasks to a minimum. Here’s how they successfully integrated the platform in their processes. Rostering: From hours down to minutes The backbone of any operation are rosters. But rostering is more than just setting schedules for your staff. It involves optimising wages and looking into factors such as staff leaves and unavailability. When done manually, this process can take hours, if not days. Additionally, it can be prone to inaccuracies and affect other processes later on, such as timesheets and payroll. But this is not a concern for Schnitz Balaclava, a fast food franchise business.  “I log in to Tanda, and I can do a roster in about 5-10 minutes. Before, it would take me at least an hour or two to work the cost,” shared Jas Sidhu, owner of Schnitz Balaclava.. “[It] is convenient. It doesn’t cause me stress to do the rosters, trying to figure out who’s available, and working out wage costs.” A grand total of one Another story is that of MyHealth Medical Centre’s, one of the largest shopping centre-based medical operators in Australia, serving 1.2 million patients yearly and employing about 800 staff. They initially faced the challenge of finding a platform for accurate timekeeping that’s user-friendly and easy to use. That’s when they found Tanda.  Given that their needs are quite unique, our team worked with them to tailor the platform to their specific requirements. With Tanda, they eliminated issues with timesheet processing and saved a significant amount of time in rostering.  “Tanda appeals to us in the sense that it’s very, very user-friendly. We really haven’t had any issues across any of our practice managers that range in their level in computers. It’s very easy from their end, but also for accounts. They’re able to export the times and timesheets that already have the award rules applied to it. So it saves time in that respect,” shared Natasha Laidler, Systems Development Manager of MyHealth Medical Centre. As a result, they also streamlined payroll processing, and the number of people working on their pay runs has been reduced to a grand total of one. “So the wage costs have dropped substantially as well. Basically, a whole salary has been taken off our wages,” Natasha shared.  Less timesheets, stronger strategy While fast food and medical services are thriving with Tanda, the benefits of using a cloud-based workforce management platform aren’t limited within these industries. Hospitality businesses have also been succeeding with software taking away the bulk of manual work from them, allowing managers to focus on training people and handling guests. BIG4 Caloundra Holiday Park is one of the recommended destinations on the Sunshine Coast. They wanted to improve how they managed timesheets and veer away from the manual and time-consuming process that they used to follow. “For us, Tanda is really the opportunity to create controls around timesheet collection and on the back of that is really the rostering,” shared Angus Booker, CEO of BIG4 Caloundra Holiday Park. Since using Tanda, the team has more time for marketing, better data analysis, and improving overall operations. “Systems like Tanda are an important part of getting the admin away from the staff, and letting them focus on creating great customer experiences,” added Angus.     Photo from BIG4 Caloundra Holiday Park Stamping out admin tasks Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co. is a classic 1950s-inspired burger shack that serves made-to-order burgers made with the finest and freshest ingredients.  Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co. faced challenges with workforce management because a lot of their systems were not integrated. This resulted in twice the amount of work for their staff and a lot of complexities. The goal is to simplify the process for the team, so they can build relationships with customers and strengthen teamwork. Also, they are expanding the business, which means that it’s high time to have efficiencies in place.  “We needed tools for rostering, training, and forecasting. But we also wanted to reduce the time it took to complete payroll. The reason that we went with [Tanda] was it was the most user-friendly out of the ones we reviewed. It also had the most integrations,” shared Ebony Harty, the National Training Manager of Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co.  When Betty’s Burgers & Concrete Co. implemented Tanda, they were able to save 12 hours a week. “So across 24 restaurants, 12 hours a week–that’s about 280 hours which is a massive amount of savings,” shared Ebony.   Paperwork that’s as simple for a small team Managing a small team is simple. Take that simplicity with you even as your workforce gets bigger. The administrative burden doesn’t have to add up as the business grows. Tanda has always been committed to reducing time on admin tasks and empowering businesses to focus more on things that matter, their staff most especially. Over the years, the platform has developed around the specific needs of customers. In fact, in the second half of 2019 alone, Tanda has released 50+ new features so that you can spend as little time on paperwork and low-value admin tasks.  Experience how Tanda can help you grow your business but not your paperwork. Try Tanda today for free. 

Emerson Domingo

4 December 2019    |   

There is a pattern consistent in most industries. Companies that succeed are ones where frontline managers have influence in improving the execution of business strategy. Former Schering-Plough (now Merck & Co.) CEO Fred Hassan says frontline managers ‘represent an all-important feedback loop that allows the CEO to stay abreast of the latest developments in the business.’ At Tanda, we believe frontline managers need to be in the frontline — enabling their team to be their best selves. In the past 6 months, our product team has been working on making each task you do on Tanda quicker and easier. So you can use our software less and grow your business more. Here are 50+ features that do exactly that. 1. Tailor Tanda to your business needs with The Platform The Platform lets you customise your Tanda workflow. Using custom objects and custom fields, you can create new ways of storing and communicating information. No matter how big or small your team is, they are always informed. Learn more about The Platform > 2. Demystify part-time compliance by rostering from Regular Hours of Work Having a permanent part-time (PPT) staff is more cost-effective than a casual team. However, the administrative requirements of having PPT staff may be a discouraging factor for employing them. One of the most labour intensive requirements for managing PPT staff is rostering. Keeping track and manually implementing regular hours of work (or contract hours) in rosters can be exhausting — especially if it’s for an entire team. Rostering from Regular Hours of Work removes these administrative hurdles. Learn how to roster from Regular Hours of Work > 3. Brand-new, more powerful, more customisable rosters Our new, more powerful rosters have the same features you’re used to, but with more functionality on top. See what’s new > 4. Approve and edit timesheets from anywhere No need to stay behind a computer to go through your team’s timesheet. With the Tanda app (version 0.34.3 or newer), you can edit and approve timesheets from anywhere. See what else you can do on the mobile app >   5. Onboarding: Multiple contract uploads and welcome messages In the first days of your newest hire, a smooth onboarding is one of the best ways to ensure early success. One of the core parts of this process is signing a contract. The easiest way to do that is with Tanda’s onboarding offering. Learn more > 6. Customise leave by hiding leave balances and leave types This is helpful for leave staff cannot apply for (e.g. public holiday paid/not worked); less common leave types, such as long service leave; and types that are not commonly taken by your team, such as maternity leave for a majority-male staff. Learn more > 7. Pay overtime for work outside contract hours Learn more > 8. Key Alert: Maximum qualification hours reached A key alert can now notify managers if an employee will go over their qualification max hours. Learn more > 9. Roster edit history filters Filter roster edit history by staff and action. Learn more > 10. New Employee Navigation: See unavailability, leave, clock-ins, and other employee information in one place Everything about your employees is now all in the employee profile. Learn more >

Joel Jensen

15 November 2019    |   

Introducing Tanda’s New Employee Onboarding feature! Tanda’s Employee Onboarding Feature is the paperless way to collect all those necessary staff details such as Tax file Numbers and Super Choice forms, without the hassle of scanning and signing forms, or chasing new staff for paperwork. Through Tanda, managers will now be able to onboard new staff and their details directly into Tanda. How does it work? Talk to the Tanda Onboarding team to have the onboarding tool enabled in your account. From here, managers can send out an email with the onboarding link to new staff, prompting them to complete the necessary forms. Using this link, the onus is put on staff to fill in all their details, which are then submitted securely to Tanda. Once all the details have been submitted, Tanda will then automatically create a staff profile for the new team member in Tanda. If your payroll software has an onboarding integration, Tanda will export the newly created staff profile to your payroll software where it will create a new staff profile in payroll as well. What forms can my new team member fill out? Through Tanda’s Employee Onboarding feature your team member will be able to fill out all the core paperwork, that is required for them to be paid, and rostered. Personal Details Emergency Contact Details Bank Account Details Tax File Declaration Form Super Choice Form What are the benefits of Employee Onboarding for Employers? Cuts out paperwork by replacing the forms new staff have to sign, with digital versions. No chasing up paperwork, as staff can enter their details themselves. Reduces errors by validating BSBs, Addresses, Tax File Numbers, and Super details. No problems trying to decipher staff members’ messy handwriting. Cuts out double entries for payroll by automatically syncing with certain cloud based software. Improves engagement with your new staff.  What are the benefits for Employees? Simple easy to follow process for staff – they no longer have to enter their name, date of birth or address multiple times. Can be easily completed from home or from your mobile phone, wherever you are. No need to print, scan, email or post hard copy forms. Get started with Tanda’s Employee Onboarding today! Tanda’s Employee Onboarding feature is already live! For more information contact one of our friendly Tanda Consultants today, on 1300 859 117 or via email at support@tanda.co to get started with Tanda Employee Onboarding.

Rosie Ramirez

4 June 2019    |   

“Staff members have good and bad days. We need to adjust. There will be times when there is a short deadline. We need to drive and lead because we are the team leader. There will be times when you’ve got the flexibility to take staff on a journey,” says leadership expert William Gooderson of PwC. Once a British Royal Engineers Major, William is a class unto himself. After leaving university in 2003, he spent the next 9 years leading troops in Europe and Afghanistan. What was first a job with 30 soldiers soon grew into missions with over 2,000 people involved. But his journey into challenging work had just begun. Throughout the next few years, he would continue working with people in various fields. Becoming a master of work in the service of others William Gooderson left the army and moved to Australia to work in construction and government. Soon after, he joined consultancy firms and began to specialise in leadership and coaching. Today, he brings all of these different experiences to the table. “We’re very fortunate within the military to spend a year learning leadership before you actually run any teams. So you learn a lot of experiences before you get a hands on,” he shares. “That’s where I’ve realised the lessons that I was getting or taking for granted through my military career would actually be very relevant to industry and the corporate mindset.” 1. Strive for a flexible coaching style “Industries spend less money on training its leaders than it does on any other area of development,” William lamented during his talk at the Workforce Success Conference last year on the Gold Coast. Indeed, there is little hope for an organisation if it doesn’t coach the next level of staffing. He encourages leaders to first determine how much time they can invest. “Do you have the time capacity and energy to take your staff on the journey? Or do you need to be more direct? [Are] there staff members struggling because you keep giving them direction and they’re not listening?” he asks. “Maybe they need actually to be given a bit more of a pointed approach to how they need to undertake things.” The key is staying flexible and adapting to how people are feeling. Read more: From Battlefields to Boardrooms: Finding Good Managers with William Gooderson 2. Track performance, give and take feedback Two-way communication is important for every organisation, regardless of the industry. Tracking performance without communicating is a clear waste of time and resources. And above all, there must be a way for employees to give feedback. “There is a real importance around […] the opportunity for staff to be able to give that feedback to their team leaders. If they can’t, the team leader can never learn where the staff is being challenged,” he says. “Without [the feedback loop] you aren’t really going to struggle to be an effective team leader an effective team member.” He adds that it’s impossible to get it right every time, but each mistake is a learning point that can be developed for next time. Read more: Actionable feedback from the front line 3. Use tech to bridge communication gaps “We now live in a very much a data-driven world where you can live and work in the global workspace,” he muses. Managers can take advantage of this and use it to do more face-to-face interactions. A telephone call or an email doesn’t have the ability to convey emotions. But he also reminds managers to balance it out with other aspects of the job. “It doesn’t have to be daily. We’re all busy. Your staff members are busy, the [operation] teams are busy, but there is nothing to stop you walking the floor on a Friday, or actually getting out and about. Drop by saying hi and make them feel like you’re actually listening,” he advises. Managers need to communicate well and often to achieve success. Read more: Four Ways to Keep your Managers on the Frontline Leadership is communication “You can’t just have communication on its own and expect it to work. You need to have an environment where people feel like they can communicate. You need to make the time to communicate. You need to provide opportunities and transparency. [You can’t just be] a one trick pony every now and again where you release a statement and expect everything to come back to it,” he advises. For William, communicating means listening as much as talking. It also means building a strong rapport that will make communication easier. Finally, he stresses taking care of the core leadership team that you work directly with. “They will know what’s going on the level below and the level below,” he notes. Regardless of how many people are in the team, the principles are the same. It’s the core leadership that bridges you to them. “Talk to them, work with them, understand them, and then it’s your job to trust them to do the same to their team,” he advises. “If you have good communication and good leadership then you will hear the problems. It will be communicated all the way through the chain.” Want to communicate with your staff better? Eager to train the next generation of leaders? Learn from William Gooderson and other topnotch speakers at the Workforce Success Conference on 26 July 2019. Get your tickets now!

Rosie Ramirez

23 May 2019    |   

John is 5 minutes late for work every day while his colleague Martha is late for 30 minutes once a week. Do these late clock ins really matter? For many businesses, they do. In shift work industries and frontline roles, frequent tardiness can mean disruption and loss of profit. Even just 10 minutes of being late accumulates over time and eats away at the bottom line.  But in a 2017 CareerBuilder survey, 29% of respondents said they came in late at least once a month. 49% blame the traffic for their tardiness, 32% blame it on oversleeping, while the rest blame bad weather, procrastination, and “too tired to get out of bed.” How can managers discourage lateness among employees? How to increase employee attendance Many traditional managers believe that harsh sanctions are the best way to eliminate lateness at work. However, sanctions lower employee morale. They can drive productivity down and result in a high turnover rate. That’s why at this year’s Workforce Success Conference, we are inviting students to propose ways to increase employee attendance in Australia. Read on to know more about the tried-and-tested ways to increase employee attendance. Get the chance to improve on these methods by signing up for the case competition today! An internship and cash prize awaits the winner. 1. Track time and attendance accurately The first step to making sure that proper clock ins and outs are observed is by tracking them accurately. Otherwise, your company will be exposed to a risk of time theft, or employees being paid for the hours they did not work. Lax monitoring systems make companies vulnerable. Manual time clocks are no longer reliable, as they are susceptible to time theft. Investing in cloud-based time and attendance software saves you time and energy on processing employee timesheets. Download a clocking system app for free and give it a try. Read more: Time Theft: Top 3 ways employees steal time and how to stop it 2. Address frequent lateness ASAP Feedback and coaching are important parts changing behaviour. Those who fail to meet time and attendance targets could be doing so for any number of reasons, such as single parenthood, chronic illness, or even financial instability. Understanding what they are going through is instrumental to helping them perform better. Managers should be able to empower employees to comply with their work hours. Schedule consultations with them to identify the issues and address them accordingly. Download and customise: Written warning – Late Attendance 3. Reward good employee attendance Deducting pay for frequent lateness is one solution and is a common one. But employee incentives for punctuality serve to underscore the importance of time and attendance in a more positive way. There are many ways managers have incentivised coming in on time. They require some work for managers, but the effect on morale and productivity cannot be understated. Here are some of the most frequently used strategies to increase employee attendance. Provide free breakfast once a month One popular way to reward punctuality is to provide free breakfast. This can be done once a month on a set day, or even more frequently, but on random days. Those who have good attendance will feel the benefits of coming in early, while those who don’t will start thinking about it. Give out tokens to multiple employees Gift cards, lunch vouchers, and company apparel cost little but are always appreciated. Keeping the rewards budget-friendly will allow you to give them out to more people and more often. It’s also a great way to keep attention on the program. Create a “Hall of Fame” for time and attendance Publicly recognise employees who consistently come in on time and do not have unexcused absences. It will boost their morale, and hopefully inspire others to follow suit. Give consistent performers time off Don’t think of this as an additional expense, because a consistent performer will have more than made up for it. This can be the high value reward given out during your end-of-year party. Include a plane ticket and hotel accommodations if you can afford it! Read more: Only a Matter of Time: Punctuality and attendance in multicultural workplaces Forge the workforce of the future Modern managers are people-centric. Many of them want to create a work culture built on trust, respect, and balance. When employees are constantly late to work, there are usually reasons that lie below the surface. Empowering them through attendance programs are more likely to increase morale and productivity. Sanctions and punishments for lateness are sometimes necessary, but there is plenty of room for creativity in this area of management. In the end, increasing employee attendance will benefit not just them, but also their team and the company as a whole.   Ready to forge the workforce of the future by increasing employee attendance? Form a team of 3-5 students and sign up today. A cash prize and internship awaits! We’ll email you more details and provide consultation once you sign up.

Monic Del Rosario

20 February 2020    |   

“We help busy doctors manage thriving practices.” When you visit Hoxton Medical Practice Management (MPM)’s website, that’s the first slogan you’ll see. A company focused on relieving pressures off of practitioners’ minds, this company based in Hampton East, VIC, Australia offers expertise ranging from virtual reception services down to medical billing support. But with several facilities on-hand means hiring people with different skills who work varying hours. While Hoxton MPM is completely dedicated in providing their clients 100% peace of mind, manual administrative work used to get in the way of maximising their own line of services. It was at this point of their operations that they figured out how they can reallocate hours rostering into focusing more on their customers. We talked to one of their managers, Shamita Singh to see how eliminating blockers at work changed after using a time and attendance software. End-to-end servicing for practitioners On the daily, Shamita helps manage Hoxton. “We do everything — from setting up [the clients’] practice to typing, in-patient billing, bookkeeping, and virtual reception, which my team primarily does.” Digital administration, one of their core services, stemmed from the need of medical specialists who didn’t require their own full-time staff. This made Hoxton MPM’s service stand out in terms of value and efficiency, filling in the operational gaps for doctors who used to worry about such things. They not only personalise every practitioner’s booking system, they also cover database recording and after-hours correspondence. “Some staff are in the office and others are on-site with the clients,” says Ashley, one of their virtual receptionists. On top of everything they do, they also take care of the clinic they’re assigned to and manage their practitioner’s diary, sometimes answering up to 200 calls in a day. Among Hoxton’s core values are efficiency, certainty, and freedom. Allowing doctors to focus on their practice helps the integrity of their business. Shamita emphasised that the goal in properly running the platform is to help clients remain experts in their respective line of work and being the best at their craft. While people like Shamita are committed to focusing on clients save time and money by cutting down their documentation chores, Hoxton MPM’s own boatload of paperwork could be lessened too. Operating for 5 years now with approximately 30 staff members, they started taking on Tanda’s cloud-based digital platform to see how it can improve. On unique operational needs and manual rostering “We needed something that was both dynamic enough to work across our multi-team structure and that could also be online and easily accessible,” says Shamita. Having multiple offices and a number of remote staff who work from home was something that they considered when they chose Tanda. Hoxton MPM placed high importance on their offsite staff, and they wanted to ensure that a workforce management platform could cater to people who were both coming in everyday and those elsewhere.  “Another thing we were looking for is to make our timesheets easier, which we’ve done with Tanda’s clock-in and clock-out functions,” Shamita adds. It was also important that logging hours were not logistically limited, seeing that they have so many staff members spread in different locations. However, the fit of software for their employees wasn’t the only factor. “Before Tanda, the difficulties were mainly around timesheets, rostering, and applying for leave. Everything was completed manually and it was done in a document.” Rosters were also done in a spreadsheet, where they added dates and hours. It took several steps for a manager to have people on their shifts. Read more: 3 Common Rostering Problems Manager Face (And How to Solve Them) For example, if somebody filed for time off, they had to go back and forth the company’s annual leave registry before approving the leave request. This process applied when it came to rostering people, too. They then had to email the roster to the team every time an update is made, which would be often due to doctors’ fluctuating clinic hours. It was also quite taxing for them to track sick days, early shifts, and overtime hours. It took Shamita and her team several hours a week to get these tasks sorted — from creating spreadsheets to double-checking everything, down to sending them to staff and letting them know of any updates. The practice was far from sustainable. With last minute changes often happening, staff have to log back in and check the spreadsheet just to confirm who’s coming in at certain times of the day. “It was definitely hard to keep up with where we were going, especially that we’re changing the site,” Ashley mentions. Simplifying a complex process using software After using Tanda, a multi-step rostering process became a lot simpler. “It’s been a lot easier having Tanda, like having the live rosters for all members and being able to access them on the app,” Shamita says. For somebody who’s always at the forefront of operations, not having to manually log her hours on a spreadsheet made coming to work easier for Ashley. “It’s good to be able to have that accuracy on when we’re starting and finishing. Being able to get those live updates from the roster, [like] if there was a last minute change, you’d get a notification and you can always just log in and have a second look. I’ve also added the Tanda link to my calendar so the roster automatically goes into my calendar, so I know where I am in that order. Updates itself as well,” she concluded. No longer did she have to fuss over updates on documents and look at them every now and then; Tanda has been able to streamline the way they receive shift details directly from their managers. In addition, it provided peace of mind for people in Shamita’s position. The new technology made it simple for everyone, specifically by having a time clock that everyone could use. “People just seem to remember what time they worked by having the clock-in and clock-out function. People will have the app and they can just log in and see when they’re working. It’s been quite easy for [them] to pick up.” For Hoxton MPM, rostering doesn’t take hours anymore. While their clients’ hours still vary from time to time, having a platform where they can just apply pre-built schedules significantly reduced what used to take them several hours a week. “For me, in particular the template rostering [is] the feature that I use the most. Doctors usually have a regular schedule, so just having a template that I can match up to the week that they’re in [is useful] to roster my staff.” Shamita also mentioned that it’s been really critical for them to use said templates in rostering because they need to ensure that doctors have receptionists working with them in every shift, leaving no phone call unanswered. “Tanda allows us to see exactly what needs to be covered and if it is on us.” Hoxton MPM streamlined their rostering and time tracking across multiple staff and locations. With Tanda cutting hours of manual scheduling for their managers, it’s helped the business stay even more dedicated to their mission of reducing their clientele’s manual administrative work. To see how we can help your business simplify complex workforce management tasks, try Tanda for free today.

Jessica Genio-Ignacio

14 February 2020    |   

Valentine’s Day: On this day celebrating love and relationships, couples, friends, and family prepare their choice of gifts for the special people in their lives. Hearts adorn storefronts, packages and discounts abound, and behind the bustle and celebration are the retailers that make it all happen.  Today is one of the busiest days of the year for the Roses Only Group, a business founded in 1995 that has grown into Australia’s leading flower retailer. It brings together more than 45 years of floristry and retail experience to create a business that provides gifts of all kinds to those who want to share the love: boxed roses, seasonal flowers, full arrangements, wines and champagnes, chocolates, and more.  We caught up with Chief Operating Officer Kelly Taggart as she prepared for the busy season to ask about how she manages it all. “A day in the life of me,” Kelly says, “no two days are the same.” Bobby Rein Photography The search for the perfect software fit Not everything was always wrapped up neatly at the Roses Only headquarters. “Our biggest time and attendance problem was really about planning rostering,” Kelly says. “Previously we were working in spreadsheets, and as a growing team, you tend to spend a lot of time in those spreadsheets. That time would be much better spent elsewhere, on making the business more productive.” Using spreadsheets was an ordeal. Roses Only holds multiple warehouse locations throughout Australia, and an online store. With many teams and all 300-plus staff working in-house, balancing administrative tasks without a good platform was challenging. That search for better shift scheduling software led them to Tanda.  Kelly recalls: “When we were comparing solutions, what actually stood out was the feedback Tanda had received from all of their existing clients. And for me personally, and for us as a business, recommendations are so important. For Tanda to get that client feedback, that was a big factor in our decision.”  They implemented Tanda across the organisation to positive reception. Changing from a manual process to a technology solution suited the team, with them even having some fun with the selfie photos in the employee time clock. The integrations the platform offered was a big part of that decision, as Roses Only uses bespoke systems and they found it fit neatly in alongside their preferred payroll software.  Trimming hundreds of hours from rostering means more time for operations Roses Only has been using Tanda for so long, the team barely thinks of the problems it helped solve. “They would be things like the administration time managers take to look at what time people show up to work every day. You really want your managers to be leading the team and making them more productive and hitting those business targets, not clock-watching.” All in all, Kelly estimates Tanda saves them 100 hours a week across all locations. These saved hours go a long way—especially on huge business days like today, Valentine’s Day, and other peak periods like Mother’s Day and Christmas where they use the shift scheduling software to compare labour data from the previous year. Roses Only uses a significant amount of big data in its operations, and that’s essential to their success each peak season. Understanding their processes and building efficiency into them is key to scaling for significant events. By having efficient operations already set in place, they don’t need to make too many changes: it’s just the same, only bigger. “We found it’s even more beneficial with the extreme growth that we’ve had in the last 2 years, that our managers have been able to focus on other things besides managing people’s time and rosters because they have such a great platform in Tanda,” Kelly adds. Blooming in a competitive industry So what’s next for the retailer? As the market leader in delivered flowers and gifts, the organisation is setting its sights on supporting the future of its business through leadership development. They’ll also continue to serve their customers in the best way they know: with efficiency, productivity, and excellent service. “Everyone’s collecting information, and you’ve got to be able to put that information through in the right way and understand what customers are trying to do, so you can provide them with what they’re looking for. Then look at your own infrastructure and the way that your operations are set out, the way that your teams are set out, to support that offering to your customers.” “This business, in particular, has been in the industry for the past 12 years, and we have been online in a big way from the beginning. So we’ve already experienced many of these learnings and we’re making sure our infrastructure is supporting what we’re learning from that big data so that we can be the most productive that we can.” Want to streamline operations to support your growth and expansion? Try Tanda for 14 days for free, no credit card required.