Best Practices For Handling Irregular Work Hours And Compensating Employees Fairly   

Teamwork is at the core of any business with the management holding the reins and employees the driving force. 

However, it has become complex to handle new job opportunities like part-time, work-from-home, gig work, passive income, and online freelancers working irregular hours. 

Dealing with this fragmented employment scenario is urgent because it increases the mental stress of the workers and impacts overall productivity.

So, how can you manage irregular work hours effectively without additional costs? 

Creating a robust strategy, integrating automated scheduling software, fair pay practices, and promoting work-life balance are ways that a company can implement. 

Let’s delve deeper into finding the causes and the best solutions to counter the rapidly changing workforce scenario and provide employees with what they fairly deserve.  

Provide Flexible Scheduling Options

The industries that provide the most flexible schedule options are retail, hospitality, healthcare, transportation, customer support, food delivery, etc. 

Other industries are doubtful of handling the challenges of employee work tracking. Some steps that companies can implement to  improve workforce scheduling  are:

• Create a strategy according to the business needs by outsourcing work or providing job-sharing plans. 

• Assess employee skill set that also aligns with their daily schedule. Hiring the right talent requires looking for people who are hard-working and quick learners. 

• An automated tracking system helps in maintaining discipline and punctuality. 

• Communicate work policies clearly and offer additional benefits for better performance. 

• Provide an opportunity for line managers to cover sudden shift changes. 

THINGS TO CONSIDER
By offering remote work, businesses are indirectly helping the environment with less traffic on the road, less paper usage, and less energy consumption in offices. 

Promote A Healthy Work-Life Balance

According to a survey by ResearchGate, an absence of work-life balance results in stress causing dysfunctional effects on employees. 

This shouldn’t come as a surprise because workaholics tend to have irregular sleep patterns resulting in losing focus, and impacting productivity. 

Here are some ways that companies can promote a healthy work-life balance. 

• Survey every department to assess employee-specific needs and understand their pain points. 

• Prepare a one-on-one meeting to counter common issues that are affecting negatively. 

• Provide varied working options with fair pay according to the worker’s performance. 

• Encourage mandatory breaks to attend important life events. 

STATISTICS:
The graph here shows that most employees with flexible job options are happy to maintain a work-life balance compared to those without flexible work options.

Provide Training To Manage Productivity

It is difficult for employees with irregular work hours to manage their schedules because they don’t know how to balance their personal and professional lives. 

So to help workers, once you have planned a strategy and integrated a scheduling system, train your workers to understand the policies and how to follow them. 

Some key methods that will help employee training for maximum productivity are:

• Align employee project timings with the company goals to manage discipline and availability.

• Establish a flexible timetable that can be changed on a weekly or monthly basis.

• Enable a punch-in system for the employee and a tracker to assess punctuality. 

• Prepare a shift-swapping system in case of emergencies or to attend important life events.

Offer Additional Benefits 

Though the increased demand for gig workers poses scheduling issues, it could be managed by providing worker benefits to boost employee morale. 

Neglecting to provide basic facilities to professionals with irregular work hours will only lead to increased costs in the future. 

Let’s look at the suggestions that could help improve an employee’s well-being by offering additional benefits. 

• An office staff is happy when they believe they are being paid fairly. It includes not just those who are working per hour but also women and entry-level workers. 

• Inclusivity helps the brand to prevent bias in any form. For example, offering additional support to pregnant employees is a great initiative to retain talent. 

• Providing overtime also encourages them to work more to earn more. This will help the worker to pay off any loan that they have. 

• Some companies that hire workers on a contract also provide wellness programs, transportation subsidies, etc.  

Review And Adjust

Managing a business is a huge responsibility and scheduling employee’s attendance and project timings is a work in progress.

Review and audit each worker’s performance regularly and likewise prepare a new schedule or offer fair compensation for their work. 

Any adjustment can be finalized after discussion with the line managers and the office staff. 

It is necessary to acknowledge hard-working employees with irregular work hours as they help a business stay consistent in the market. 

With a robust strategy powered by an automated scheduling system, employees can manage a better work-life balance and contribute to a company’s success.

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