Following on with our series of blogs about the Approved Contractor Scheme, Paul Ridden looks at aspects of people management outlined in the SIA Guide. In this blog he discusses how workforce management software can help specifically with managing rosters and employee work/life balance, and achieving business goals.
Whatever the size of your operation, looking after your staff is a priority. Employee wellbeing should always be a key factor when working out rosters to match customer needs. Managing working hours and holiday entitlement is important to avoid burnout and time off due to stress, as well as ensuring positive staff morale.
Today complex HR legislation means that using multiple manual spreadsheets to manage working hours is no longer an option. You need to be rigorous in roster creation to comply with employee working time regulations to protect the wellbeing of staff while carrying out their duties.
Keeping on top of staff benefits
The criteria listed in section 6 of the SIA Guide focus on ensuring that employee hours, pay and holiday entitlement are managed according to government HR legislation. Section 6.3.1 specifies that a holiday entitlement policy is implemented and communicated.
Using workforce management software can help you to manage this aspect efficiently. With an app on their phone officers can easily book time off and track holiday due and taken. Electronic records ensure that requests are captured with no errors or lost forms. In addition, it can flag if an employee has accrued holiday and may be at risk of burnout.
The SIA criteria discusses the requirement to have both a pensions and health and safety policy in place (6.3.2 and 6.3.3). Again, the administration and management of these can be facilitated using workforce management software. Policy details can be electronically stored and accessed, and signatures of staff can be captured to confirm that they have read and agreed to the terms.
Importantly, you can also address Lone Worker protection. Using the same app, staff can clock on and off and the control room has visibility of an officer’s location at all times. Built-in escalation features flag when an officer fails to check in or out, enabling a quick response to ensure their safety and wellbeing.
Another benefit of storing personnel records electronically is that it is easy to manage individual personal training programmes, (referred to in our previous blog: Using workforce management software to manage your people, policies and processes), which can help to identify potential for leadership opportunities and career development.
Managing work/life balance
While lone worker safety is an important for employee wellbeing, managing working hours is also vital for the health and welfare of staff as well as meeting service delivery targets.
Section 6.4.1 of the SIA Guide mandates that the organisation must adhere to the current legislation on working hours. Using workforce management software working hours are tracked in real time, making it very easy to see if people are working too long, or not taking sufficient breaks.
Rosters and shift patterns can be planned to ensure that staff are given schedules that put welfare first. For example, not too many long shifts in a row and rest days together where possible.
The Guide states that ‘work-life balance is the equilibrium between an individual’s priorities at work and their priorities in other aspects of life.’ As a considerate employer, it’s important to manage the demands of the business but ensure that staff are supported and have the time off that they require to meet family or home commitments.
Accurate records of working hours ensures that staff are paid the right amount and promptly. Integrating the software with payroll guarantees that staff are paid the right hours at the correct rate, as it accounts for differences in day shifts, weekend and night working. This automation removes the possibility of manual errors and speeds up the process.
Maintaining regular welfare visits
The SIA workbook outlines the need to maintain regular contact with employees working at customer sites. Workforce management solutions with electronic forms can help drive a consistent management process to ensure welfare visits both look after the employees’ needs and ensure the business is delivering the desired service to customers. Compliance dashboards can help keep track of which welfare visits still need to be completed and can be used to evidence compliance during ACS audits.
Ensuring your business is on track
Of course, as well as looking after your staff, measuring performance of your organisation as a whole is key to achieving your business goals. The guide (6.5.1) suggests that: ‘The organisation regularly reviews performance against key staff performance indicators’.
Using workforce management software is a great way to monitor KPIs. Some platforms provide reports that can be displayed graphically on dashboards, helping discover patterns, trends, run ‘what-if queries’ and draw conclusions. Whether it’s managing response times on a crucial contract to demonstrate compliance, reviewing checkpoint patrols or monitoring mobile patrol profitability. Summary data can also highlight when KPIs are in breach, so that proactive action can be taken to rectify the situation.
You can explore quantitative or qualitative data instead of relying on individuals to track and report on performance. This may involve analysing employee hours, project statuses and overtime hours to determine the productivity of employees.
Adjusting employee hours or allocating projects differently may help to increase productivity, with no detriment to the individual. It can also help identify improvement areas so that you can suggest new skills or training to help with employee work performance.
If you would like to discuss how workforce management software could support your operations and move towards SIA accreditation, contact us today.