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By Liz Ben-Ishai
November 26, 2014
Job Schedules that Work for
Businesses
Employers rely on their employees to keep their businesses running. That’s why they work to recruit and retain
the best possible staff—workers who will not only fulfill their duties but be ready each day to push the business
to the next level. However, workers can only show those strengths when they have quality jobs, which include
(among other features) stable, predictable, and flexible schedules.
Too often, lower-wage workers receive their weekly schedules just
days before their shifts, have erratic schedules that change from week
to week, get sent home from work early without compensation, or
receive too few hours. These types of scheduling practices wreak
havoc on workers’ lives; they disrupt child care arrangements, make
budgeting impossible, and prevent workers from securing much-
needed second jobs or taking classes to improve their employment
prospects. And volatile scheduling is not just bad for workers; it’s bad
for business, too. Employers who adopt fair scheduling practices find
they have lower turnover, higher morale, and healthier, more
productive workers. They also find that improved scheduling
practices are easy to implement and generate cost savings.
Fair scheduling practices are good for the bottom line
When hourly workers have workplace flexibility,
productivity increases and absenteeism decreases. In a survey of
lower-wage, hourly workers with access to workplace flexibility and
their managers, 80 percent of workers and 79 percent of managers
reported increased team productivity and effectiveness. Additionally,
64 percent of workers and 74 percent of managers reported reduced
absenteeism.
i
Accommodating employees’ scheduling needs significantly
reduces turnover. One study of retail employers found that when
managers more closely considered employees’ scheduling needs,
stores had 22.9 percent lower turnover and 6.6 percent greater
retention.
ii
A review of numerous studies of the impact of turnover
found that for workers earning less than $50,000 annually, the cost of
turnover is 20 percent of salary.
iii
Flexibility promotes employee engagement and reduces
operation costs. In a study of one large retailer, managers reported
that hourly workers with schedule flexibility were more engaged on
the job, leading to lower turnover and reduced operating costs.
iv