Complying with Labor Laws is About to Become Much Easier
Author: Gary Barnett
There are different laws around the world that dictate when and how long agents can work. While these rules and practices are good in some ways by protecting workers; they can also increase the challenges associated with managing a workforce – particularly a workforce whose schedule stringently revolves around call volumes and flows. Management responsibilities can become even more difficult when companies must comply not only with the rules of their own countries, but also the legislation of an overarching body.
The European Union, for example, has put forth certain protections for workers in all member countries. They include things such as limiting number of hours employees can work each week (the maximum is 48), limiting the number of consecutive days each employee can work (the maximum is six), and ensuring that employees have an adequate amount of time off between shifts (at least 11 or 12 hours depending on the employee’s age).
The European Union has also established “Fairness and Equity,” which basically says that companies must find the balance between good and bad. In other words, managers cannot consistently assign the unfavorable shifts to the same agents; they must be equitably spread amongst all agents. Unionized companies in countries such as the United States face many of these same challenges.
I’m hearing that these types of circumstances can give you a huge headache while you’re trying to manage your staff and simultaneously ensure proper adherence to all of the rules. The good news is that workforce management tools will soon be available to automate this process, and enable you to simply input rules for each applicable country. This technology will also enable you to incorporate fairness and equity logistics so that when you’re scheduling or forecasting, you can consolidate database rules and set the schedule accordingly.
Are you complying with a multitude of labor laws? If so, I’d like to hear how you currently do it.
