Mike Morini, CEO at WorkForce Software, shares his insights with Working Dads readers about the challenges of offering work/life balance to the deskless workforce – which make up more than 80% of the workforce. Morini notes that turnover is still an issue with this important segment of the workforce, as many organizations are losing this vital cohort of workers due to a lack of flexibility in shift-based industries, where only 31% of organizations provide their frontline staff with scheduling control, flexible schedules, or even the ability to shift swap with colleagues.
Morini gives real world examples of how companies can improve this through modern workforce management (MWFM) technologies. He shares that more forward-looking companies are considering alternatives to traditional work patterns and considering ways to create ongoing flexibility in scheduling including shift-swapping or breaking shifts into smaller units to enable more personalized work schedules – all possible with MWFM technology.
“Increasing flexibility for deskless workers will be a significant step toward closing the employee experience gap between deskless and office-based workers, while helping working parents to remain productive and take an active role in establishing a work-life balance that aligns with their family’s needs,” Morini says.
The article explains how modern workforce management can help tackle burnout, especially for workers that aren’t sitting at a desk, with automatic notifications to managers and HR teams, monitoring hours worked, tasks performed, breaks taken, and time-off scheduled to flag employees that may be at risk of burnout. This is especially important for shift-based parents, who may pick up extra shifts to support childcare needs but go weeks without being near a member of the HR team to discuss any concerns.