McDonald’s to Hire 50,000 in one day! (Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com, April 4, 2011)

Employers plan to hire 19.3% more recent graduates this year, says a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, stated in USA Today on April 22, 2011. (Marisa Kendall)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology reported that January 2011 was the 16th consecutive month of growth in manufacturing employment.

Kiplinger.com, April 21, 2011

So, how are you planning to increase your workforce to meet a slow, but still increasing demand in your business? Hiring permanent staff, contingent and temporary workers, or something unique and creative, such as your own part-time employee pool (perhaps from your retired workers) are all acceptable approaches in the marketplace. We all know that to hire permanently, when confidence in the economy is still weak, brings on a wealth of issues, including increased payroll cost. Fortunately, companies are starting to take this approach. Others are leaning more toward the temporary work staff. Without entering the debate about whether contingent workers are the way to go, let’s look at the current trend and the impact on your workforce performance measurements.

According to a December 2010 survey by staffing firm Yoh, 88% of all employers have maintained or increased their contingent workforce, and the trend is growing because of the hit this workforce took at the beginning of the recession in 2007. This labor group is getting bigger at a more rapid pace than any other across all industries. If you do have a contingent workforce, how is it impacting your overall payroll cost, performance measurements, and productivity?  Are you counting the work they perform when looking at your performance statistics? If you’re bringing in labor from an outside source to meet your demand for the day, week, month, or project, are you scheduling according to the required skills and work to be done? Making the most of your scheduled dollar? How are you matching employee preferences with scheduling demand? 

You’ve worked to increase productivity, eliminate waste, and optimize your workforce over the past few years. When looking at your employment pool, make sure you’re doing the same with the temporary or contingent labor by ensuring that your workforce management solution works with all types of labor. In my last blog post, I discussed investing in your infrastructure. If you’ve gone to the effort, don’t lose the benefits by only looking at the impact of a percentage of your workforce.

If you’re lucky enough to take advantage of your own retired, skilled labor pool for temporary work, fantastic. This is an interesting trend that’s emerging for some industries—one I’d like to explore later in more detail.

I’d like to hear your approach to boosting your labor force. We’re not all like McDonald’s, so we all can’t hire 50,000 in one day.

Posted by Rochelle Schard, Director, Industry and Product Marketing, Infor WFM Workbrain

Last fall, I blogged about the release of Workbrain 5.1 and what it means to you, our customers. Your response to the general availability of that release has justified our technical focus. Workbrain 5.1 delivered significantly on the total cost of ownership (TCO) initiative, based on our in-depth review of the application’s performance areas involving several of Workbrain’s largest customers. As part of the process, we benchmarked the application with a high volume of data to replicate a typical customer’s environment. Also, by publishing the data counts, we allowed smaller customers to extrapolate the outcome to their own installation. We then used this benchmark in a series of automated tests to compare the previous version of Workbrain (5.0.5.3, released Jan 2010) to the newly released 5.1 (Oct 2010) version, to showcase the performance improvements attained through the TCO initiative.

Not surprisingly, we’ve received a lot of positive feedback. If you haven’t seen the Performance Benchmark March 2011 document that’s available on Infor365 in the Workbrain documentation section, I encourage you to check it out. In that document, I’ve framed the TCO project, published the benchmarking tests, and commented on the highlights of the outcome. It’s really nothing but good news for all of you.

Regarding the two releases for 2011, we’re still committed to building on the technical evolution that 5.1 delivered. With 5.1.1 in the final certification processes, this is the first fix-pack for 5.1. Since 5.1 was spawned from the 5.0 codebase, it will obviously include defect fixes and procedural changes made since the last 5.0 fix-pack (5.0.5.3) was released in January 2010. Of course, Release Notes and updated User Guides to accompany 5.1.1 will be available on Infor365 at the time of the general availability.

I see version 5.1.x as the logical upgrade for any of you on version 5.0 who are thinking of updating. Getting to the 5.1.x codebase will allow you to take advantage of the exciting roadmap that’s slated for delivery over the next 24 months. To support the overarching theme of these releases, the Workbrain development team is working hard to finalize the prototypes for an all-new user interface that will be phased into the application over these next two releases. They’ll be refined and tested over the next few months, so watch out for more updates on the progress and outcome.

These are exciting times to be a Workbrain user. Infor has a new executive with fresh ideas and a rejuvenating momentum. All Infor product management plans to revisit initiatives and approach work with a renewed mindset focusing on all things product to better serve you, the customer.

I’d love to hear your feedback about the upcoming fix-packs. Please leave a comment to this post with your thoughts and ideas.

Posted by Owen Brangwyn, Product Manager, Infor WFM Workbrain

Click here to view the legal disclaimer.

Recently, President Obama said that businesses are sitting on over $2 trillion dollars waiting for demand to increase before they expand, and that it’s time for businesses to invest. His focus on increasing investment is twofold: economic growth and infrastructure improvements. Setting aside the political arguments on both sides over that statement, I began thinking about the concept of investing in business in a down economy on a more micro level, focusing on individual companies and what it really means to invest hard-earned dollars or borrowed dollars. Is it really time to invest in your company and your employees? If so, should your business focus on growth, infrastructure, or both?

The state of your company
Many companies are running their businesses with the absolute minimum number of employees. Any fewer, and the business model would have to change. Maybe you’d have to drop products off your price list, be it widgets or services, or change the geographic availability of those products or services. Regardless, you believe you’ve done as much as possible to control payroll costs.

Many believe that the most controllable expense in a company is payroll cost. On average, payroll makes up 6% in manufacturing, around 40% in healthcare, and up to 80% in service organizations. Have you really done everything to reduce that figure? What if you could bring it down another 3% to 5%, year in and year out, while also establishing an infrastructure that could support rapid growth of employees and business demand, maintain labor compliance rules, and reduce the risk of fines, penalties, and potential back pay from court judgments?

Investing now?
Businesses that fail to plan for the eventual strong recovery may never get back on their feet. Now is definitely the time to shore up your organization’s infrastructure to put you in a position to grow your business when the opportunity arises. Additional payroll cost savings  can be a great catalyst to begin those changes in infrastructure. Improving processes, supplying employees with proper tools, and upgrading systems to support the newest and most efficient technologies all are critical to achieving a leadership position in any industry. So how do you achieve this annual payroll savings and improve your infrastructure? Simple: workforce management tools. 

Now stop with the old arguments: “It’s not in our culture”; “We don’t make people punch a clock”; “Our people work virtually”; or “We already have a time and attendance system.” There are a multitude of studies proving true workforce management tools do reduce annual payroll cost, and it’s not all about punching a clock. What’s wrong with paying people for the work they actually do? But more importantly, what’s wrong with a solid time and attendance system to set the stage for your company to implement the business tools that help you service your customers more efficiently?

Scheduling, mobility, and wireless communications tools will all impact your customer service and bottom-line revenue. Track any of the leading companies in any industry, and you’ll most likely find that they have higher customer retention or customer service rates and ultimately higher service-oriented revenue percentages. Workforce management tools are an investment in your employees and your company. Time and attendance applications lower your annual payroll costs because the result is that you pay only for actual time worked, and you improve collection accuracy and apply your payroll rules consistently. Scheduling tools optimize your workforce—putting the right number of people in the right job at the right time. Mobility tools keep your employees in the field, on the shop floor, or in front of the customer where revenue is generated instead of in an office looking at a spreadsheet.

You may have done everything possible to lower your payroll costs without changing your business model, but maybe it’s worth a look just to make certain. Because really, are you set for your employees to perform in the next wave of business competition?

Regardless of what growth strategy the country is implementing, smart business dictates that if you can set yourself up for the next wave of growth, then do it. It’s time to invest in your infrastructure. Be prepared for growth opportunities. Employing workforce management automation is a proven way to lower your payroll cost, increase employee morale, and deploy technology that helps your organization become a leader or maintain that spot in your field. If your business is sitting on part of that $2 trillion, maybe it’s time to invest for a stronger company tomorrow.

How are you managing your workforce and its payroll costs? Are you building your infrastructure for the future? Share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment to this post.

Posted by Rochelle Schard, Industry Director, Infor WFM Workbrain

Two weeks ago, Infor exhibited and presented at the NRF 100^th Annual Convention and Expo at the Javits Center in New York City. As usual, the center was bustling with retailers, vendors, and analysts keen to reconnect with customers, suppliers, and industry peers to discuss emerging trends and share experiences. I had a little time to wander around the show floor and, given the significant anniversary of the event, I’d hoped to see photos or footage from previous eras to see how exhibitors presented the innovations in years past. I noted the rolling presentations on plasma screens, sophisticated booths, and social media heralding just-in-time news and promotions. Then I thought of targeted invitations being delivered from a mined customer database, and I wondered how exhibitors in previous decades captured the mind share of show attendees.

Of course, staying current with emerging technologies is the responsibility of a software vendor, and for me understanding how it can be used to improve the Infor WFM Workbrain solution is one of the most interesting aspects of product management. Looking around the exhibition floor, I was reminded that it’s a challenge—but only in a good way. Every year there are increasingly innovative ways of helping retailers succeed in their business. It's incumbent on us as solution providers to analyze how these peripheral yet complementary products can help further our mission to provide seamless and total workforce management that benefits our customers’ bottom lines.

Using software to manage your workforce is a relatively new discipline, which is especially true when we remove time tracking from the discussion. In an entertaining blog just before Christmas, Joachim Petzold pointed out how his customer experience was impacted on one occasion by poor workforce management execution. Now, looking at the myriad offerings available around the NRF show floor and seeing all the different and exciting forms of solutions that could be combined to improve the understanding of customer behavior, I realize that it is truly a complex problem.

Every week I encourage our customers to look at ways to integrate existing technologies and embrace new ones. Most of you using the Infor WFM Workbrain Labor Forecasting and Scheduling Optimization module are analyzing point-of-sale systems and feeding information back into the system to accurately predict business volumes for the next period. We’re also seeing more sophisticated traffic counters both at store entrances and in the store to help us understand customer behavior and predict which customer service activities are the most effective and when. In-ceiling technology provides sophisticated customer flow data to allow the more innovative store layouts and target promotions and events more effectively. I see customers using Infor WFM Workbrain to model new operating policies, improve employee contracts, and reap the benefits through motivated and involved employees. This is only possible because you’ve told us you want to harness once disparate technologies and apply them laterally.

I’m committed to keeping the Infor WFM Workbrain architecture open and current so you can seamlessly integrate it with other technologies. The latest hot trend is mobility—extending the reach and interaction points of all technologies, including workforce management. At NRF this year it seemed subliminal sponsorship was in play by these technology providers! Everyone seemed to have a slate, slab, or tablet, or had one to give away. I wonder what our peers of yesteryear would have made of it all.

What changes have you seen in how technology moves business forward? Are you thinking about deploying new technologies this year to stay ahead of your competition? I’d like to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment to this post.

Posted by Owen Brangwyn, Product Manager, Infor WFM Workbrain

So what’s been happening in the labor markets? Here’s my take on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly employment report.

Isn’t it great to ring in the New Year with some good economic news? The month of December, known for all its holiday glitter, parties, and precious family time, now has something else to be proud of: the beginning of slow, steady job growth. The US economy added 103,000 jobs last month, dropping the unemployment rate to its lowest level in 19 months at 9.4%. And, the increase in consumer spending made this the best holiday season for retailers since 2007.

The number of first-time unemployment applications fell to 425,000, well below the recessionary March 2009 peak of 650,000. But, economists aren’t quite jumping on the “economy is booming” bandwagon. This group says that the weekly applications need to fall to 375,000 or below consistently to really bring down the unemployment to pre-recession levels.

With successive months of positive job growth, we’re taking a step in the right direction. And according to Ben Bernanke, unemployment will likely remain high for the next 4 to 5 years, unless the pace of hiring increases. However, he does feel that there’s evidence of a self-sustaining economy in the works, mainly due to projected increased consumer and business spending.

Show me the numbers …
Jobs increased within leisure and hospitality (+47,000) and in healthcare (+36,000). The temporary professional and business services market continues to add jobs (+16,000) and has risen by 495,000 since a recent low in September 2009. The construction industry accounted for the most job losses (-16,000). Retail trade ticked up a little by 12,000 and manufacturing added 10,000 jobs, while most other major industries remained unchanged.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers, including contractors that completed temporary jobs, dropped by 548,000 to 8.9 million in December. The number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for more than 27 weeks) remained at 6.4 million (44.3% of those unemployed).

And those working part-time due to hourly cuts or an inability to find a full-time job (sometimes called involuntary part-time workers) fell slightly to 8.9 million workers (down from 9 million in November). Added to that figure are 1.3 million discouraged workers (up 389,000 from last year), and another 1.3 million workers who are marginally attached to the workforce and not counted as unemployed because they hadn’t searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

But overall, there are numerous signs that the economy is finally moving in the right direction: increased manufacturing production, a growing services sector, and lower unemployment applications. Economists believe that the job market is the lagging economic indicator. Is this a sign that the economy is gaining momentum and hiring is about to accelerate? I’d like to hear your thoughts and ideas. Leave a comment to this post.

Posted by Ray Prendergast, Vice President Sales, Infor WFM Workbrain

In my last two posts, I discussed the Department of Labor (DOL) as a primary influencer on how you set your policies and procedures around paying people through Administrative Interpretations and the We Can Help program. Both are beneficial to your employees, but how do you protect your business—and yourself—from violating the law and protecting your workers at the same time?

One way to protect yourself as an employer is to follow the third program: Plan/Prevent/Protect. This DOL strategic plan was released September 30, 2010. “Employers and others in the department’s regulated communities must understand that the burden is on them to obey the law, not on DOL to catch them violating the law.”¹ This principle is at the heart of the new DOL worker protection strategy and replaces “catch me if you can” with Plan/Prevent/Protect (3P). It’s an expansion of many existing compliance requirements set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Wage and Hour Division, among others. The 3P strategy “will require all regulated entities to take three steps to ensure safe and secure workplaces and compliance with the law.”² And although the details will vary by industry, laws, and regulations, the steps are the same:

• Plan to find and fix violations of the law and other risks to workers.
• Implement the plan to prevent violations of the law.
• Ensure that the plan protects workers.

Bottom line is that most employers will need to have some form of “compliance plan” in place. In the past, you’ve associated these types of plans with OSHA requirements for health and safety in the workplace. The 3P plan takes the idea across many new areas of a business and affects new industries. The DOL’s proposal “would establish a requirement that employers provide workers with basic information about their employment, including how their pay is calculated. Any employers that seek to exclude workers from the FLSA's coverage would be required to perform a classification analysis, disclose that analysis to the worker, and retain that analysis to give to WHD enforcement personnel who might request it.”³

So let’s put this all together. In the new DOL, it’s your responsibility to define and interpret any legal definitions as they concern the federal labor laws. There’s no longer any “get-out-of-jail-free card” with WHD Opinion Letters. You must create, publish, and execute on compliance plans backing up your interpretation of how you’re defining your labor policies. And now there are additional auditors and regulators across the country to ensure that you’re following the letter of the law and the regulations set forth in We Can Help. It does increase the burden on your HR and risk management groups to understand and follow all procedures because now you, as the employer, are subject to not only fines for violations of the law and the new regulations, but also the potential for back pay and class action suits.

The new strategies of the DOL will impact your business. The question is by how much. Employer protection will be about law interpretation, documented policies, and automating those policies so they’re applied consistently, all so WHD audits/investigations can be passed efficiently and with no violations. It won’t be easy (for example, “define changing clothes”), but if done right, you can be covered.

What plans do you have in place to make sure you’re staying compliant? Have you implemented the DOL’s 3P program? If so, how has it impacted your business? Share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment to this post.

Posted by Rochelle Schard, Industry Director, Infor WFM Workbrain

¹ Leveraging Limited Resources to Increase Compliance: “Plan/Prevent/Protect,” DOL, paragraph 1.

² Leveraging Limited Resources to Increase Compliance: “Plan/Prevent/Protect,” DOL, paragraph 5.

³ "Plan/Prevent/Protect": The Beginning of a Broader Regulatory and Enforcement Strategy, Records to be Kept by Employers Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (WHD), DOL.

Last Saturday, I visited a Starbucks location close to Times Square in Manhattan. I’d taken my family to New York for the weekend to burn some free Starwood nights I’d racked up during my consulting travels. Young children + no babysitter = early nights. So, we were already headed back toward our hotel around 8:30 p.m., when the sight of the Starbucks in question triggered an immediate craving for a caffeinated beverage.

If you’ve been to NYC on a December weekend, you know how crazy the city gets during this time of year. So, I wasn’t overly surprised to find myself at the end of a long line upon entering the Starbucks. Preoccupied with my son’s entertainment, I didn’t realize for a few minutes that the line wasn't moving at all. A closer scan of the staffing situation (can't help it) yielded only three employees: one at the register and two baristas—for a queue of more than a dozen customers deep. After waiting about five minutes with little to no progress, I gave up and left.

So, what went wrong? I have insufficient information to answer this, but can think of a number of things that need to go right from a workforce management perspective in order to ensure good customer experience:

• A suitable labor model, including an appropriate selection of volume drivers and corresponding time standards (consider a venti triple, no foam, extra vanilla, decaf, skim, caramel macchiato vs. a simple cup of coffee), good forecasting, and labor demand calculations that take into account desired service levels
• An employee pool with controlled full-time/part-time mix and sufficient availability with the right skills
• A solid scheduling engine that uses the above to create an optimal labor schedule
• Tools and business processes for effective schedule management to account for short-notice changes in labor demand, call-outs, compliance-related issues, etc.

Perhaps we just got there at exactly the worst time. Perhaps everything would have been fine if we’d arrived five minutes later, or if there’d been one less temper tantrum on the way back from dinner. Then again, perhaps not!

By the way, by the time I gave up on my Starbucks fix, two other customers had already left the line and at least two more had turned away right at the door: a lot of lost revenue due to insufficient staffing.

What tools do you use to schedule your staff ensure sufficient customer service? Share your thoughts and tips with the Infor Workbrain community by leaving a comment to this post.

Posted by Joachim Petzold, Strategic Solution Architect, Infor WFM Workbrain

So what’s been happening in the labor markets? Here’s my take on the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ monthly employment report.

As the year quickly draws to a close and the 111^th Congress wraps up its final session, there are still so many uncertainties. Will the Bush-era tax cuts be extended? If so, for whom? What about extending the long-term unemployment benefits? And what about healthcare?

November’s employment numbers seem to be suffering from the election hangover, with no relief in sight. The above uncertainties have kept money, jobs, and growth in the pockets of many US companies not ready to loosen up and take the risk of new hires until these issues have been resolved.

So, where are all the new jobs and why?

Show me the numbers …
Job growth stalled in November, coming in at +39,000, a fraction of the projected 150,000 that economists were expecting, according to a CNNMoney.com survey, which pushed the unemployment rate up to 9.8%, dangerously close to the 10% rate of a year ago. There are currently 15.1 million unemployed Americans.

Jobs increased within professional and business services temporary help (+40,000) and in healthcare (+19,000). Retail trade fell by 28,000 and manufacturing dropped 13,000 jobs, while most other major industries remained unchanged.

Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and contractors that completed temporary jobs rose by 390,000 to 9.5 million in November. The long-term number of unemployed (those unemployed for more than 27 weeks) ticked up slightly to 6.3 million (41.9% of those unemployed).

And those working part-time due to hourly cuts or an inability to find a full-time job fell to 9 million workers (down from 9.2 million in October). Added to that figure are 1.3 million discouraged workers (up 421,000 from last year), and another 1.2 million workers who are marginally attached to the workforce, and are not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the four weeks preceding the survey.

And now some good news …
In the wake of these numbers and the promise of tax hikes on January 1, Congress finally passed the tax deal compromise first announced by the president December 7 to extend the Bush-era tax cuts, plus other tax-related and jobless benefits, temporarily for the next year or two. This at least lessens the burden on taxpayers already in tight situations. And I’m sure there’s something in the bill to offend both sides. But, will these extensions get the economic motor running again?

What effect do you think this will have on the job market? Leave a comment to this post with your thoughts.

Posted by Ray Prendergast, Vice President Sales, Infor WFM Workbrain

In my last post, I began a discussion on the Department of Labor (DOL) as a primary influencer on how you set your policies and procedures around paying people. We focused on the DOL’s turn from issuing Opinion Letters to issuing Administrative Interpretations and the impact on your business (no more get-out-of-jail-free cards). Now that you’re in charge of interpreting a federal pay law without the benefit of a solid opinion letter backing you up, what do the new DOL programs, “We Can Help” and “Plan/Prevent/Protect,” mean to you? This week I’ll focus on the “We Can Help” campaign.

 I’m all for employees getting paid for legitimate work they’ve done. No employer should knowingly withhold or underpay legitimate wages. But law-abiding employers need to be aware of the other two campaigns, which are the result of not having a get-out-of-jail-free card (formerly the Opinion Letter). The “We Can Help” campaign is an educational program to help employees file claims. New investigators—250 of them—have been added to target repeat offenders, specific cities, and specific industries such as construction, janitorial work, hotel/motel services, food services, and home health care, to name a few.

Just in the DOL district where I live (Southwest, with five total districts), six new DOL offices have opened this year, and three targeted geographies and industries for investigations have been announced. Over 20 overtime and minimum wage cases have been settled.

As a side note, in 2009 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) class action suits were up 44% from the year before, and the top 10 settlements totaled $364 million.

Face it, no employer wants to get in trouble with the DOL and risk internal fines, back pay, and potential class-action suits. The DOL is serious about finding employers that violate the FLSA and are giving the employees the tools to win.

As employers, it’s our responsibility to understand the law, interpret the law, and defend our actions. Our safety net of Opinion Letters has been removed after 60 years, and the government has put more feet on the street to find any of those employers who have “slipped” on purpose or through misinterpretation.

What are you doing to make sure you are staying compliant? Share your ideas with the Infor Workbrain community.

Tune in next week and find out how the third program, Plan/Prevent/Protect, can actually benefit you as the employer and protect the employees.

Posted by Rochelle Schard, Industry Director, Infor WFM Workbrain

A new survey of executives at primarily large companies brings up some interesting findings: Most executives lack important workforce management capabilities for labor forecasting, staffing, scheduling, and adjusting for the unforeseen. The survey of 107 enterprises by Gatepoint Research shows that more than 85% can’t automate schedule-swapping requests that make allowances for union and organization work rules. More than three out of five can’t integrate employee-scheduling preferences or create a work schedule based on historical trends or patterns.

We all know that a correct work schedule is critical to generate the most revenue. It rated 3.9 on a five-point scale for importance in the survey, which also found that 37% of the respondents use homegrown WFM systems. Fewer than one in four companies have software and tools in place to handle absence management, scheduling collaboration, and employee self-service kiosks. In addition, less than half can manage their workforce schedule in multiple locations or configure reports to meet specific requirements or needs.

Other common complaints of WFM systems are:

• It takes too long to write work schedules.
• Accessing multiple systems frustrates everyone.
• It takes too long to capture and reconcile employee costs.
• Supervisors take too much time to close payroll.
• There are too many time-consuming errors on payroll.

Companies that employ workforce management technology say they’ve increased their net profit margins, often by 15% to 40%, while reducing their labor costs by up to 6% and slashing the time to complete administrative tasks by as much as 60%. More importantly, in the process, they improve employee benefits—and morale.

Click here to request more about the survey and report.

Posted by Owen Brangwyn, Product Manager, Infor WFM Workbrain