#Business

Marco Juarez

Scheduling the Holidays

Every holiday season I see people villainize retailers, manufacturers, and many businesses for their holiday work practices. “They should let their employees enjoy time at home during the holidays!” That is generally the message people convey. I don’t have an opinion for or against the practice of working on holidays – there are already so many shift workers that are essential to the functioning of our society working on holidays that I see there are many ways to help employe

Frank Pereira

The Power of the Right Schedule

We often say at Coleman Consulting Group that a schedule is not about your day on and day off pattern or your shift length. Schedules are about understanding the impact of the entire system on process and people. #shiftschedule #shiftlength #businessneeds #employeedesires #DisruptHR #HR #Workforce #HRonPurpose #Business #turnover #schedules

Frank Pereira

What do the "Three Circles" mean?

The "Three Circles" represent the three key elements required to design the best schedule successfully. These elements also reflect Coleman Consulting Groups definition of a schedule: Business Needs - "a system for deploying capital and personnel." Employee Desires - "with employee buy-in." Health & Safety - "specific work, pay, and coverage policies." Our consultants are experts in the field of scheduling and resource optimization. They work across multiple industries to ide

Rebecca Bugas

Don’t Fall Behind on Sleep while Falling Back on Sunday

This weekend we will "Fall Back" once again for Daylight Savings Time. Every year, we hear the arguments for and against, and the debate has even made it to the ballot this year in California. Where you live in the country, what time you go to work, and your personal habits and lifestyle can all affect your positive or negative view of DST. So what are the issues surrounding DST, and why should we be paying attention? The reasons typically given in support of DST are energy

Marco Juarez

Are You Underpaying Your Employees?

Do you know if your company is in compliance with the provisions FLSA? In the last two years, 100 percent of the clients we have consulted are at risk of back pay – and they had no idea. In some cases up to millions of dollars. #HRonPurpose #HR #shiftlength #overtime #Business #scheduling #shiftwork #flsa #Humanresorces

Frank Pereira

How Does Fatigue Affect Your Employees?

At Coleman Consulting Group, we have surveyed thousands of employees across the country and around the world. The health and safety portion of the survey asks about sleep and fatigue relative to employee schedules. Our senior partner Frank Pereira talks about the implications of overworking your employees and how it directly affects your business. #Sleep #HR #shiftschedule #shiftlength #employeescheduling #scheduling #Humanresorces #Business

Marco Juarez

More Capacity – More Days Off – Happy Employees – Win, Win Win!!!

I love it when we make a real difference for both the employee and the company! This story starts out like so many others in manufacturing plants all over the world. Demand for the product being produced grows, so a facility that might traditionally run Monday through Friday starts doing work on Saturdays. Demand grows further and suddenly production is happening seven days a week. This was the situation at Keystone Foods’ processing facility in Eufaula, Alabama. Growth was g

Frank Pereira

Back to school thoughts on Work/Life balance

Now that the summer is nearly over, many parents are getting ready for school. For many people, this tends to be a high demand period where we "bend" our schedules to make sure we are there at the right times for drop off, pickup, and to support all the afterschool demands. Work schedules that allow people to meet those demands can make a big difference for many employees. A segment of the population that continues to grow is the dual income families with kids that manage th

Frank Pereira and Marco Juarez

9-1-1: We Have a Hiring Problem

A recent Wall Street Journal Article discussed the difficulty in finding workers for 911 call centers. As the labor market tightens, all organizations, not just 911 call centers are having trouble acquiring and keeping qualified employees. This situation reminds me of the “Bear in the Woods” story – no not that one, the other bear story. Two hunters are in the woods when a bear jumps out of the bushes. The first one starts running. The second one sits down to put on this tra

Frank Pereira

Are Longer Shifts Better?

I am asked all the time, “Are longer shifts better?” More commonly, the question is, “Isn’t it true that 12-hour shifts are more dangerous (or less productive) than 8-Hour shifts?” It depends. Given a choice, most employees I encounter – and it doesn’t matter what their job is – would like a schedule that gives them more days off. The only way to get more days off with the same paycheck is to work more hours in fewer days. For example, if you work four 10-hour shifts, you wor

Marco Juarez

The True Cost of Turnover?

As unemployment declines, turnover increases in every industry, but industries where shiftwork is most prevalent seem to get hit hardest. Employees that are left behind have to work harder – and sometimes longer –hours to make up for the open positions. As overtime increases, I have seen multiple instances where managers and supervisors make it worse by promising to get employees home early only to hold them late, call them in early, or require them to work a day off. Pretty

Frank Pereira and Marco Juarez

A Healthy and Safe Schedule is About More Than Just Work

Is scheduling having an impact on workplace fatigue and accident rates?

Frank Pereira and Marco Juarez

The Three Phases of Scheduling

A few years ago we worked with a large employer with several locations in and around Detroit. They had missed customer service goals and labor goals the previous two years and were heading into one of their busiest seasons. It was a constantly changing environment and we really had to show them how to break down the process of scheduling their employees. It simply boiled down to looking at it as three phases: Long, Medium, and Short range planning. Some managers struggled to

BEYOND YOUR TYPICAL SCHEDULING