Jim Mertz, Consultant with CCG and Frank Pereira, Managing Partner at CCG... #workforcemanagement #employeesurveys #alternativeworkschedules #HR

Having worked all over the country with workers from all walks of life, I can attest to the fact that not everyone – a large part of the American population – do not view the trappings of high-income, high-rent areas as amenities. And on top of that, money is not often the primary motivator for most people. You have only to look at the Millennial Generation to prove that point. I have interviewed and surveyed thousands of people over the past 20 years. I have had highly train

It’s been a number of years since I left submarine duty. What a lot of people may not realize is that every ship in the Navy, including submarines, are fully staffed by shift workers. Daylight Savings Time as a shift worker can be another day of getting the short end of the stick – even in the fall. While most people are comfortably getting an extra hour of sleep when the clock “falls back”, night shift workers often find themselves at work for an extra hour – or a half hou

Working as an intern and traveling to new cities can be quite fun and entertaining. I have met tons of new people and have learned how different companies seem to provide a service for the next. This past week I attended an event called DisruptHR, and I learned from various speakers about ways that small and large companies can excel with collaboration. Many HR professionals attended the event, as well as some small business owners looking to network. I spoke with several peo

In the modern world, most companies are challenged with optimizing an increasingly difficult supply chain with an evolving workforce. Lean principles, demanding customers, limited inventories and stingy capital investments have forced manufacturers to increase flexibility. At the same time, workers across all age groups are demanding better work hours with more predictability and more flexibility. Matching employee desires with tough business demands is difficult, but not imp

Now more than ever, there needs to be an emphasis on flexibility for working parents. Not only are they a larger share of today’s workforce, they also demand more from employers. Decades ago, for at least one spouse, working long hours away from families was typical. This was even more true in the traditional two parent families, where often one parent stayed at home so the other could prioritize work over family time. Today that trend has shifted dramatically. Our survey da

First, their organization, just like most across the country, is experiencing a retention problem. Second, the practice of ghosting (an empl

I’ve been designing and implementing shift schedules for over 20 years. I get excited every time I have the opportunity to design something from scratch for a place that hasn’t even hired its first employee. In 2014, leading ceramic tile manufacturer Dal-Tile broke ground on its newest ceramic tile production facility in Dickson, Tennessee, and I was asked to work with the new management team to design shift schedules for the facility. The biggest challenge in designing the r

A few years ago a North American regional police authority asked us to find and implement a schedule that would improve service and reduce costs. The entire effort was backed by the chief of police, the officer’s association, and the police services board. At the time, police officers were essentially “flat-staffed” in large blocks throughout each day. The schedule did not account for workload variations by the time of day, the day of the week, or seasonal fluctuations. Nee

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

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

I have really had to learn to bring balance to my life. I admit that not so long ago I was a workaholic. I still am to some extent, but I have done a much better job of finding ways to step away and shut down work – especially when there is fun to be had with the family. Thanksgiving is no different. I typically enjoy being the cook for Thanksgiving day. With a family of eight children, and adding their friends as they have gotten older, means cooking for two or three dozen p

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

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

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

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

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

Are you one of those companies that has been using overtime to cover the increased demand for your product or service? Or maybe you added an extra shift of people because you were working too much overtime and realize that wasn’t the right answer either. Maybe you’re reading this and wondering where the heck is he going with this blog. Luckily I recorded this video to explain why both of these situations is a problem. I have a solution that could make your schedules more pred

Our bodies body’s Circadian Rhythm, or biological clock, is controlled by a bundle of cells (the hypothalamus) atop the bridge of the nose in your head. It tells a person when to wake up, when to go to sleep, and when to use the bathroom among other things. Circa means “about”, and dian means “daily,” so these are daily rhythms and they are the products of the biological clock. When the biological clock is in sync with the clock on the wall, everything works smoothly. Whe

Over my twenty years of designing and implementing shift schedules, I have stopped a number of companies from going to 7-day operations just as often as I have recommended 7x24 operations. My number one tip is, “Don't just put in 7-day schedules in every department.” Just because employees are working every weekend and no matter how many hours you schedule it doesn’t seem like the facility can keep, doesn’t mean it’s time to schedule a 24x7 operation. A food manufacturer str