“For some managers, it can be difficult to develop
relationships with hourly employees, and there can be a bit of an unwritten
two-tier system between [full-time] managers and hourly employees,” said Louie
Shapiro, director of human resources at Hotel Nikko in San Francisco, where
Shapiro works with 350 employees. “Among the reasons this happens are that
these two work groups may have different things in common and be at different
places in life—for some hourly employees, their work is a job and for some
managers, their work is a career. These can be two very different
perspectives.”
And that can spell trouble for employers and HR
managers as well as for hourly workers, specialists say. If management doesn’t
develop an environment where hourly workers feel part of the team—even if they
are not on the same compensation level as salaried employees—“the employee has
to look for another job, and the employer has to do more recruiting,” said
Joshua Ostrega, the chief operating officer and founder of WorkJam, a
Montreal-based employee relationship management firm. Not only do companies
face increased costs from hiring and training replacement workers, but “If the
employer is constantly dealing with turnover and retention issues, the customer
experience suffers,” he said.
The key to avoiding this is engagement, said Marc
Husain, the vice president of Raleigh, N.C.-based VMS PeopleFluent, a human
capital management technology company. It’s important to make hourly workers
feel connected to the company. That means using e-mail, LinkedIn and other
social media platforms to stay in touch with employees, especially seasonal
workers the company hopes will return when needed. “If you don’t have the
pieces in place to value that workforce, you will be starting all over again,”
Husain said.
HR experts offered the following advice:
·
Start by
creating a culture of inclusion. That doesn’t mean treating everyone the same,
said Jim Link, chief HR officer at the Atlanta-based staffing company Randstad,
but it does mean treating everyone fairly. Hourly employees, just like salaried
ones, ought to understand that their work contributes to the success of the
company, Link said, and “success, regardless of pay classification, needs to be
part of the culture.”
·
Make hourly
workers feel their contributions matter and are noticed. Jayson Saba, vice
president of strategy and industry relations at the Bloomington, Minn.-based HR
services firm Ceridian, recalled his earlier employment as an hourly worker,
when a manager gave him a $20 gift card for being the “customer service
employee of the quarter.” The manager also gave him a note written by a
customer praising Saba’s performance. The recognition “made me work a little
harder,” Saba said. Holding parties and other worker-bonding events will also
make hourly employees feel part of the team, Husain added.
·
Get to know your
hourly employees. Learn their likes and dislikes, family situations, and career
goals, Shapiro recommended. “These factors are important to know since they
help create a bond and provide helpful background information about team
members that can lead to a more positive working relationship across the
board."
·
Be flexible on
scheduling and involve employees in the process. Some companies have moved to
“just in time” scheduling, under which workers are called—sometimes at the last
minute—when needed, Ostrega note, but that can foster resentment. Instead,
engage employees in schedule management so they can trade shifts, drop shifts
or pick up more hours when it works for both management and workers, he
advised.
·
Keep in touch.
Remember that e-mails, postcards, social media updates all make hourly
employees feel they are noticed and valued.
·
Make hourly
employees feel they have a future at the company. Good hourly workers may end
up being great long-term, salaried employees, so find out who has in-house
career aspirations and help them achieve that. “If you show there’s a path to
promotion at the company, you’ll get more out of them,” Saba said. Rewarding
good employees for referring new recruits is also a good incentive, observed
Husain.
·
And remember
that fostering loyalty among hourly employees can help managers build
successful careers as well. Last year, workers at supermarket chain Market
Basket in Massachusetts walked off the job to demand the return of fired
executive Arthur T. Demoulas because they said he had always put his employees
and customers first. Demoulas got his post back, Saba noted.
Source: http://www.shrm.org/