How a Comprehensive Absence Management Strategy Can Help Drive Business Continuity in Manufacturing
It’s no secret that, due to the current global health and economic crisis, manufacturing organizations have faced massive disruption to their business operations, especially those that depend on workers whose jobs cannot be performed remotely. Manufacturers have acted and created new processes to help keep their employees safe and their operations running, but are these processes sustainable?
To respond to business disruptions while planning for the future, manufacturers need to implement a comprehensive absence management strategy that enables them to manage employees who are sick or on leave as well as easily deploy and schedule available workers to help to maintain business continuity; all while prioritizing the health and safety of their employees.
Stay Compliant While Managing Through Uncertainty
Managing compliance with local, state, and federal leave regulations has never been easy. With the recent introduction of new policies and regulations such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economics Security Act (CARES), managing compliance is even more overwhelming.
Without a comprehensive leave management strategy supported by technology, employers are at risk of noncompliance with leave regulations and potentially subject to fines or class action lawsuits. What’s more, administering leave requests, tracking leave eligibility, and reporting on granted time off can be time-consuming and error-prone, resulting in inconsistent policy enforcement.
An automated leave management solution from Kronos can help simplify compliance with standard policies and regulatory changes by:
- Automating the administration and tracking of paid and unpaid federal, state, and employer-specific leave policies
- Ensuring leave policies are enforced consistently and accurately across the entire organization
- Using attestation processes in new ways to automatically track whether employees are feeling ill or are following proper safety standards and lower the risk of liability
- Adjusting compensation models to reflect payroll protection regulations, stimulus packages, and loans that businesses now have access to through programs such as FFCRA and the CARES Act
- Adjusting accruals to account for unique forms of time off, including required sick time and time to care for sick family members
- Staying up-to-date on who’s taking advantage of new crisis-related leave types, track cases as they are happening, and report on them to track how your organization is being affected
- Automating the tracking of compliance with new Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) policies and union rules
Keep Business Operations Running with Unexpected Changes and Absences
Agility is of the utmost importance during times of business disruption. Shift scheduling for the manufacturing workforce has always been complex, and when you add unexpected absences due to illness or caring for a sick family member, lack of coverage for a young child, and mandatory quarantines, the process becomes even more challenging.
To keep business operations running, manufacturers need to quickly find and deploy replacement workers and create flexible schedules that adjust to last-minute changes and potential reduced workforce availability.
By leveraging automated employee scheduling software, manufacturers can help keep employees safe and maintain productivity by:
- Responding to scheduling changes and unplanned absences by quickly identifying the best-fit, available worker to fill open shifts
- Providing managers with the tools they need to efficiently manage open shifts and staffing levels
- Allowing employees to request shift swaps with other qualified employees – using the device of their choice– helping to promote well-being and preventing unexpected absences
Fuel lasting resiliency with a comprehensive absence management solution
Whether facing a global pandemic, a major business disruption, or adapting to typical daily operational changes, it is critical for manufacturers to have the workforce management tools and processes in place to effectively manage leave and time-off programs, adhere to changing regulations and policies, and keep operations running while protecting the organization and the health and safety of its workforce.
