A scheduled workforce is a stable workforce

For all of the fear and complaining by senior executives about the lack of people wanting to go back to work, about the inability to find enough people to work “low wage” jobs, and about the worry of retail and factory workers unionizing, consider the concept that maybe these company leaders have been the cause of their own problems for a long time, and that some city governments are actually solving the problems for them.

Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and Chicago are among the cities that have implemented labor scheduling laws. These laws, which vary from one city to another, effectively require a company, e.g., a retailer, to provide their employees with sufficient advance notice of their schedules or else the employer must pay the employee and the city a penalty.

In Los Angeles, the law applies to retail chains with more than 300 employees globally. Here, the retailer must provide employees their schedules at least two weeks in advance. Any scheduling changes within the two-week window must be accompanied by “predictability pay” to the employee: some additional compensation to the employee for the schedule disruption. Also, employees must have at least 10 hours of rest between shifts under the Fair Work Week ordinance in Los Angeles. If an employee works back-to-back shifts, the employee is additionally compensated, e.g., will receive time-and-a-half per hour. 

With the ability to know work schedules far enough in advance, low-wage workers can better plan transportation, childcare, and personal care appointments … you know … the important things that we all really should and do care about and that a lot of higher-paid executives take for granted. Plus, a workforce subject to less volatile scheduling is a more stable workforce, and therefore a steadier workforce. Less turnover is less costly and more productive. 

The more consistent an employee’s schedule, the less stress on the employee. That employee has a healthier mindset as a result and the more focused on the job that employee becomes. The return on investment from consistent employee scheduling—even if a retailer over-scheduled an employee or two occasionally—is greater than having less productive employees or high employee turnover.

Remember: these employees are typically customer-facing; they are usually the last employees who are handling your customer’s goods and services. These are the employees that are making—or breaking—your company’s image. Why shouldn’t they deserve the same consistency in scheduling that everyone else in your company wants and already has?

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