Best Tips & Tricks for Employee Scheduling Blog

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Five signs your shift rostering software is making your team anxious

There’s a difference between being busy and being anxious. Busy is normal. Anxiety is a signal that something in your system isn’t working. Your team member might be handling a full shift without any problems. But if they’re constantly anxious about what comes next, about schedule changes, about whether they’ll have enough hours, about how to plan their life around unpredictability – that’s not just being busy. That’s your shift rostering software creating stress. And it’s not a small thing. Research from Harvard’s Shift Project, studying over 20,000 service sector workers, found that unstable and unpredictable work schedules have substantially larger negative associations with psychological distress, sleep quality, and happiness than even wages do. The schedule matters more than most managers realise. These five signs suggest your rostering process is actively making your team anxious. And once you can see them, you can fix them. Sign 1: People aren’t asking for time off. They’re asking for shifts back Notice a pattern in the requests your team is making? They’re not saying “can I have Thursday off?” They’re saying “can I get my Thursday shift back?” or: “what’s my schedule looking like?”. This is a sign that people don’t feel secure about their baseline hours. They don’t know if they’ll have enough work. And instead of confidently requesting time off when they need it, they’re anxious about losing hours. From a manager’s perspective, this can look like engagement. People are keen to work. But it’s actually the opposite — it’s anxiety masquerading as commitment. They’re likely not eager to work. They’re more likely to be worried about income stability. Good shift rostering software creates the opposite pattern. People know their baseline hours are solid. So when they need time off, they just ask for it. Or they swap a shift with a colleague. The relationship to work becomes more secure, and less anxiety-driven. Sign 2: The same questions get asked repeatedly You’ve told your team member their schedule. They’ve acknowledged it. And 24 hours later, they’re asking again. Or someone asks you what the roster looks like – when they could check it themselves but they’re not sure where or how. This happens when the schedule isn’t visible, or it’s in too many places, or people don’t trust that it’s accurate. So they keep double-checking, because the anxiety of not knowing is higher than the social cost of asking the same question twice. This is exhausting for managers. But it’s also a sign of underlying anxiety. Your team member wouldn’t keep asking if they felt confident about the information or there was a true single source of truth on where to find it. What fixes this is shift rostering software that gives everyone one place to look – updated in real time, trusted to be accurate, and visible to anyone who needs it. The repeated questions stop almost immediately. Sign 3: Roster changes create reactions, not adjustments When you change a shift, what happens? Does your team member take a moment to adjust and then move on? Or do they react emotionally with frustration, anger, or resignation? This isn’t about them being difficult. It’s about the impact of change on an already anxious system. If someone is already uncertain about their schedule, a roster change feels like one more destabilising thing. It confirms their anxiety that they can’t rely on anything. If someone feels secure and stable, a roster change is still inconvenient but it’s different. It’s something to solve, not something to resent. Strong emotional reactions to schedule changes are often a sign that underlying roster anxiety is already high. The change itself is just the visible symptom. And if your shift rostering software doesn’t make changes visible quickly and clearly, it’s making that worse. Sign 4: People are giving you information your system should already have Your shift rostering software should be telling you: this person has worked 42 hours this week. This person is approaching their maximum. This person hasn’t had enough shifts lately. This part of the schedule is particularly tiring. But instead, your people are telling you. “I’ve been on a lot this week/month.” “I’m pretty tired – can I get a lighter shift?” or “Any chance of extra hours? I’m running short.” They’re giving you information that your system should be providing. This happens because your roster is fragmented – the schedule in one place, timesheets in another, compliance rules somewhere else, and perhaps your software doesn’t have healthy best practices built-in. Nobody has a single view of what’s actually happening. Your team shouldn’t have to be their own workload monitor. When they are, it costs them mental energy they’d rather spend on the job. That’s anxiety the right rostering software should be preventing. Sign 5: Nobody knows who’s available for what You need someone to cover a shift. So you start texting around. Or you mention it at the end of a handover and see who bites. Or there’s a person you always call because you know they’ll say yes. This is the opposite of a structured system. And it creates anxiety in multiple directions. People are uncertain whether they’ll get asked. People who do get asked feel obligated, even if they don’t really want the shift. Management is stressed about coverage right up until the shift starts. Shift rostering software with open shift visibility changes this entirely. People can see available shifts and volunteer. There’s a swap system. There’s a fair request process that doesn’t rely on relationships or social obligation. When availability and coverage are handled ad-hoc, everyone’s carrying more than they should. The workers wondering if they’ll get hours. The person who always gets the call. The manager crossing their fingers at 6am. What these signs have in common All five signs are ways your team is managing the uncertainty that your rostering system is creating for them. They’re not signs that your team is unmotivated or difficult. They’re signs that your system is making people spend mental energy

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World Health Day: What A Healthy Workplace Looks Like

Most health advice assumes a stable life.Eat well. Exercise. Get eight hours of sleep. Manage your stress. Good advice, in theory. But if you work shifts, almost every one of those things is actively harder. Not because of personal discipline, but because of the structures your workplace either has or doesn’t have. This World Health Day, it’s worth being honest about something: for shift workers, health isn’t mainly an individual challenge. It’s a systemic one. And the systems that affect it most are the ones sitting in your operations: your roster, your communication tools, your pay visibility, your scheduling lead time. Here’s what genuine workplace health actually looks like for shift-based teams. Why Shift Work Makes Health So Much Harder Your body is built for rhythm. Morning light. Activity. Food at predictable times. Sleep. Repeat. When that pattern is stable, your body adapts and your systems settle. Shift work disrupts that rhythm. And when the roster is also unpredictable – when your team finds out their hours three days before the week starts, the body stays in a low-level alert state. Cortisol stays elevated. Sleep quality drops even when hours are technically adequate. Recovery doesn’t stick because the underlying stress doesn’t let up. This is physiology, not weakness. And it explains why shift workers report higher rates of sleep disorders, persistent fatigue, and digestiveissues at rates well above the general workforce. What helps isn’t a different morning routine. It’s predictability. Two weeks of schedule visibility can shift a team’s collective health more than any wellness initiative. The Mental Load Nobody Talks About The stress of shift work isn’t usually dramatic. It’s low-level and relentless. Do I have enough hours this week? Can I commit to my daughter’s sports game? Will this shift get cancelled again? These questions run in the background constantly. And constant low-grade uncertainty is, over time, genuinely exhausting in a way that a good night’s sleep can’t fix. A stable, predictable schedule does something simple: it lets people exhale. They can plan. They can look forward to things. They can say yes to their family instead of “I’ll have to check.” One useful way to think about team morale is what we call the “Friday feeling.” When your team’s week ends, do they feel genuinely finished – or are they just glad to finally escape the uncertainty? A healthy workplace creates that Friday feeling by design, not by accident. Social Connection Is a Health Issue Too Shift workers often miss the events everyone else takes for granted – weekend gatherings, weeknight dinners, school pick-ups. This isn’t a personal failing. It’s a structural reality. But unpredictable scheduling makes it significantly worse. If you don’t know your roster until three days out, you can’t commit to anything. You become the friend who always cancels. The family member who’s always unavailable. Over time, that has real consequences for connection and belonging, both of which have documented links to physical health outcomes. A stable roster doesn’t solve every social challenge that comes with shift work. But it makes reliability possible. Your team members can actually plan. They can say yes with confidence. They can be present in their own lives. Financial Stress Is Physical Stress This one often gets left out of workplace health conversations. It shouldn’t! For shift workers on minimum wages, the difference between 35 hours and 28 hours in a week is significant and if the roster is unpredictable, they don’t know which one it’ll be until the week has started. That uncertainty keeps the nervous system activated. It’s constant background math: what if the hours drop? What do I cut? Financial stress doesn’t stay in your head. It drives elevated cortisol, disrupted sleep, and reduced immunity, the same cycle that unpredictable scheduling creates. Schedule visibility reduces this burden. Not because the pay increases, but because people can finally plan. The anxiety comes down when the uncertainty does. Work/Life Harmony — Better Than “Balance” Most workplaces talk about work-life balance. It’s a phrase that implies two separate things on a scale, competing against each other. For shift workers, that’s not the reality. Work is part of life. The question isn’t whether they balance evenly, it’s whether they can coexist without constant friction. Harmony is a more useful idea. A harmonious workplace is one where the schedule respects people’s lives. Where your team can plan a meal, a weekend, a child’s event, because the roster was published far enough ahead to make that possible. When harmony exists, health outcomes follow. People sleep more consistently. Relationships are easier to maintain. The low-level anxiety that comes from constant uncertainty subsides. What a Genuinely Healthy Shift Workplace Looks Like Picture two teams. Team A: The roster is published two weeks ahead. Shift swaps are easy to arrange. Pay and hours are visible at any time. There’s one place for schedules, updates, and messages. Management communicates clearly. People feel trusted to do their work. Team B: Shifts change constantly with little notice. Updates come via group text at 10pm. Checking pay requires asking three different people. Communication is scattered. People feel watched. The health difference between these teams is real and measurable. Team A has lower stress, more consistent sleep, and stronger relationships. They report higher satisfaction. Their turnover is lower. The work actually gets done better, not just because they’re more engaged but because they’re healthier. The good news: getting from Team B to Team A isn’t primarily a budget question. It’s a systems question. Health Is Systemic & That’s Good News Here’s what often gets missed in conversations about workplace wellness: individual choices matter far less than the systems people are working within. Telling a shift worker to sleep better is reasonable advice. But it doesn’t help much if their roster gives them 48 hours notice before a 5am start. Telling them to manage stress is fair. But not if they’re constantly uncertain about their hours and pay. When you build systems that support health – predictable schedules, visible pay,

How small NDIS providers are growing faster by working smarter

Three years ago, Maria ran her NDIS provider business with a hand full of carers covering around 15 participants. She was managing rosters in a shared spreadsheet, collecting timesheets over email, and spending her evenings reconciling hours worked against rates paid. Every time someone went sick or needed to swap shifts, she’d spend 20 minutes hunting for coverage. Today, her team is 11 carers supporting 35 participants, and she spends far less time on the admin side of things. She’s not working longer weeks – she’s just working differently. This isn’t an unusual story in the NDIS sector right now. The providers who are scaling sustainably aren’t the ones hiring more admin staff; they’re the ones who’ve figured out how to give their carers better tools and their own teams clearer visibility. And that shift is changing the game. The quiet crisis no one talks about NDIS providers face a unique puzzle. You’re not juggling abstract projects or software deployments, you’re coordinating human care for people who depend on you. Miss a shift and it directly impacts someone’s week. Roster changes need to happen fast and fair. And compliance isn’t optional; it’s bedrock. Most small to medium NDIS providers start with the same toolkit: Excel or Google Sheets for rosters, email for timesheets, a shared drive for documents, and a lot of institutional knowledge kept in someone’s head or in a folder that no-one actively reviews. It works at a certain size. But as you scale the friction becomes real. Small providers with less than 20 support workers spend 3 to 4 hours every week on rostering and for teams managing multiple locations or high participant numbers, it’s multiplied and roughly the cost of an extra hire. Combine this admin overhead with the fact that turnover in the sector runs high and you can see the hidden costs; around 1 in 4 disability workers leave their job annually – a ‘churn’ rate roughly three times higher than the overall Australian workforce, which translates to at least 45,900 workers leaving the NDIS workforce each year. Why the smart ones are moving now The providers scaling right now have a different approach. They’re using systems built specifically for NDIS operations, ones that understand compliance requirements, block and book logic, rate templates, and the reality of variable shift patterns. What’s interesting is that they’re not doing this to cut costs. They’re doing it to move faster, retain staff, and give themselves space to focus on care quality instead of logistics. When a provider implements proper workforce management tooling, a few things happen pretty quickly. First, rostering that used to take hours on a Friday now takes minutes. Second, carers get visibility into their shifts earlier, which reduces last-minute stress and improves retention. Third, timesheets and payroll reconciliation become automatic rather than error-prone. And fourth – and this matters – compliance audits become straightforward instead of a nightmare of pulling together scattered documents. One provider we’ve seen recently went from processing payroll over days to having it clean and ready in minutes. Providers who switch to a single platform consistently report unlocking hours of administrative time every week. Neither of those is a small thing when you’re operating on thin margins. The NDIS-specific factor General workforce tools don’t cut it for NDIS providers. You need systems that understand SCHADS rosters, that can enforce compliance rules, that integrate with NDIS pricing logic for invoicing, and that give you clean reporting for reconciliation. The providers getting the most value are the ones treating their tech stack as part of their care promise, not an afterthought. If your carers spend 15 minutes each week chasing down their roster or hunting for timesheets, that’s 15 minutes they’re not preparing for client visits or building relationships. It sounds small, but culture compounds over months. What’s also changed is that dedicated NDIS workforce tools have matured. Five years ago, your options were slim. Now there are platforms built specifically for this sector, which means you’re not paying for bloat around sales pipeline management or field service scheduling that you’ll never use. You get what you actually need: NDIS-compliant rosters, rate handling, compliance-ready reporting, and carer-friendly apps. Growing on your terms The providers scaling smartest are doing it deliberately. They’re not hiring aggressively and hoping systems will catch up; they’re putting systems in place first, proving they can manage more participants without adding proportional overhead, then growing the team. What that looks like in practice: a provider with eight carers can usually run that on Excel with friction. A provider with 15 carers will start feeling the pain. A provider with 25 carers will be bleeding money to admin overhead if they haven’t upgraded. But a provider who moves at 12-15 carers, upgrades their systems, then scales to 25-30 is in a completely different position. They’ve got the foundations in place. They know who their reliable staff are. They can onboard new carers into an actual system, not chaos. The economics matter here too. Implementing a proper system costs something upfront and monthly, sure. But the ROI for an NDIS provider is often clear within a quarter. If you’re saving hours of admin time per week, you’re looking at real money. If you’re reducing turnover or improving participant continuity, that’s care quality. If you’re making your carers’ lives easier, you’re reducing turnover. All three of those compound. Making the move The providers who’ve made this shift most successfully tend to do a few things right. They pick a system that’s built with the NDIS in mind rather than trying to force a general tool to work. They involve their carers in testing and rollout – not because it’s nice, but because carers using the system know instantly whether it makes their life better or worse. And they don’t try to digitise all the chaos at once; they start with rostering or timesheets, see the win, then layer in the next piece. It also helps to move when you have some runway

Shift worker burnout and how to manage

Why are shift workers burning out faster than ever? and can be done about it? You watch your team arrive for their shift and you notice it straight away. The energy is flatter than it used to be. The quick jokes aren’t happening. Someone’s snapping at a coworker over something small. And when you ask how they’re doing, you get a tight smile and “yeah, all good” – but you know they’re not. This isn’t just a feeling. In Q3 2025, 40% of Australian employees reported feeling burnt out. For shift workers – the people who keep hospitality venues running, NDIS care services staffed, and industrial operations moving, that number climbs higher. But here’s what often gets missed: shift worker burnout isn’t the same as regular job stress. It’s unique, compounding, and it happens faster. The difference is rhythm. Office workers can predict their week. Shift workers live in fragmentation. Their body clock never settles. Social plans crumble. Sleep becomes a luxury. And if your rostering system makes it worse, changing shifts at the last minute, with no way for people to swap, no visibility into what’s coming – you’re not just managing a tired team. You’re actively building the conditions for burnout. The good news? You can change this. Not by working harder or pushing through. By actually listening to what your team needs and building a rhythm they can count on. The real cost of unpredictability Shift work is inherently unpredictable in ways that office work isn’t. Your barista doesn’t know if tomorrow will be a lunch rush or a quiet Tuesday. Your disability support worker doesn’t control which clients she’ll be caring for or how their needs might shift. That’s the nature of the work. But there’s a difference between the unavoidable uncertainty of the job itself and the uncertainty you create through poor scheduling. When rosters change without notice, when people find out their shift is cancelled 24 hours before they were supposed to work, when there’s no way to swap with a coworker who has that day off, you’re adding a layer of stress that has nothing to do with the actual work. This uncertainty has real physical consequences. Your nervous system stays in a low-level alert state. Cortisol levels stay elevated. Sleep becomes harder, even on nights when you’re technically “off”. You can’t plan anything with certainty – childcare, transport, even just a reliable dinner time. Over months, this becomes exhaustion that no amount of sleep on a weekend can fix. For team leaders and business owners, the impact is direct. Burnt-out shift workers call in sick more often. Turnover spikes, and the cost of replacing skilled hospitality, care, or industrial staff is significant. More subtly, engagement drops. People show up, do their job, and leave. The loyalty and discretionary effort that makes a team function smoothly – the person who stays late to help a struggling coworker, who mentors new staff, who takes pride in their work – that disappears. Stability doesn’t mean less flexibility Here’s where many employers get stuck. They think that fixing burnout means reducing the number of shifts people work, or locking everyone into rigid schedules. Neither is realistic or necessary. What works is predictability with flexibility. It means publishing rosters far enough in advance that people can plan their lives. It means having a clear system for shift swaps so that if something comes up, your team member can solve it themselves instead of going to a manager. It means communicating changes early, with genuine notice, not at the last minute. Some of the most engaged shift teams we’ve seen are ones where the roster is clear three weeks out. They know roughly what they’re working, they can arrange childcare or transport or social plans. And when something does need to change, it’s handled transparently, ideally with the team member’s input. The paradox is that this kind of stability actually makes your rostering more flexible, not less. When people have visibility and control, when they can offer available shifts to the team, when they can see what’s coming and adjust, they’re more willing to pick up extra work when you genuinely need them. When people feel like their schedule is done to them, not with them, they become defensive. They’ll say no to extra shifts. They’ll look for another job. They’ll burn out. What this looks like in practice A hospitality group in Brisbane started seeing the same pattern. Good staff, decent pay, but turnover was high and the remaining team looked exhausted. They made three changes. First, they moved to publishing rosters two weeks ahead instead of a few days. Sounds simple, but it meant the team could actually plan. Second, they created a shift swap system where people could propose swaps directly, instead than going through a manager. Approval took minutes instead of being a negotiation that happened in bits of quiet time. Third, they started sharing actual workload data – not just shifts, but a simple weekly view of how many shifts each person was working, so busy periods were visible to everyone. No one was suddenly discovering they’d been scheduled for five nights in a row by surprise. Within two months, requests for shifts off dropped – because people actually had time to ask for them. Turnover dropped too. And when we asked the team to rate their stress around scheduling specifically, the numbers improved significantly. The role of small, consistent systems Burnout often gets framed as an individual problem – “you need to take better care of yourself” or “you’re not managing your stress.” But when 40% of Australian employees are burnt out, and shift workers are even higher, that’s not an individual failing. That’s a system problem. You can’t fix a system problem with individual effort. Your team member can’t meditate their way out of unpredictable rosters. They can’t sleep better if they don’t know when they’re working. What they need is for their workplace to stop building stress into the

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Workplace Stress Is More Than a Feeling

April is National Stress Awareness Month in the United States. It’s been observed every April since 1992, when the Health Resource Network launched it to bring healthcare professionals and the public together around a topic that affects nearly every working person in the country. This year, we want to talk about workplace stress a little differently. It Lives in Your Body, Not Just Your Head When we talk about workplace stress, we tend to talk about it like it’s a mood. Something you feel on a tough day. Something that passes once the shift ends or the schedule finally sorts itself out. But stress is not just a feeling. It’s a full-body event. When the brain perceives a stressor, it sets off an alarm that ripples through the entire nervous system. Hormones are released. The pulse quickens. Muscles tense. Respiration deepens. The senses sharpen. CDC Your body is preparing for action whether you asked it to or not. Physically, this shows up as headaches, muscle tension, elevated heart rate, fatigue, trouble sleeping, and an unsettled stomach. Emotionally, it can look like irritability, restlessness, and difficulty staying focused. SingleCare That’s not just a bad day. That’s your whole system under load. When stress becomes chronic, the effects go deeper. Research points to increased risks for heart disease, hypertension, digestive problems, and weakened immune response. Stress also disrupts sleep and poor sleep makes stress worse, creating a cycle that’s hard to break. American Institute of Stress For shift-based teams especially, this matters. Irregular hours, last-minute roster changes, and communication that’s spread across too many channels can quietly pile pressure onto people in ways that aren’t always visible. The team member who seems distracted might be running on three hours of sleep. The manager who snaps in the group chat might be holding together five competing schedules. Stress doesn’t announce itself. It accumulates. The Numbers Behind Workplace Stress The American Institute of Stress a nonprofit founded in 1978 to serve as a central source of knowledge on stress-related research has tracked workplace stress for decades. What they’ve found is hard to ignore. According to the American Institute of Stress, 80% of US workers say they experience stress because of ineffective communication at work, and 39% report workload as their primary source of workplace stress. American Institute of Stress Approximately 65% of US workers describe work as a very significant or somewhat significant source of stress in their lives, and 83% say that work-related stress affects their home life. Occupational Safety and Health Administration That last number is worth sitting with. Workplace stress doesn’t stay at work. It comes home. It shows up in relationships, in sleep, in the ability to switch off and rest. Workplace stress has been linked to around 120,000 deaths in the US each year. Occupational Safety and Health Administration This is not a peripheral issue. It sits at the centre of how we think about work, teams, and the people in them. But Stress Isn’t the Enemy Here’s something that gets lost in most conversations about stress: not all of it is harmful. In fact, some stress is essential. Eustress — derived from the Greek word “eu,” meaning good — refers to the kind of stress that arises when we face challenges we feel equipped to handle. Unlike distress, which depletes us, eustress is energising and can support personal growth, job satisfaction, and stronger performance. Leadership IQ The concept was introduced by endocrinologist Hans Selye in the 1970s, who proposed that stress could be a constructive force — one that leads to motivation, adaptation, and resilience. The difference between stress that builds us up and stress that wears us down often comes down to one thing: context. When people have clear expectations, good communication, a manageable workload, and a sense of support around them, pressure becomes something they can work with. When those conditions are absent, the same pressure becomes something they endure alone. Research has shown that employees who thrive under stress are more likely to be engaged, resilient, motivated, and productive. Where one person finds a tight deadline energising, another might find it draining — the difference often lies not in the deadline itself, but in how supported and informed they feel going into it. ADP This is why the environment matters as much as the individual. A team that’s well-connected, clearly informed, and not constantly chasing updates is better placed to channel pressure in a direction that helps rather than harms. What You Eat Shapes How You Handle Stress Managing workplace stress isn’t just about changing how you work — it’s also about taking care of the body that does the work. Diet plays a meaningful role in how the body responds to stress day to day. The food your team eats affects energy levels, mood, concentration, and the body’s ability to recover. Small, practical changes — made consistently — can make a real difference to how people show up and how they feel. What Helps at the Team Level Understanding stress as a physical and systemic experience changes what “support” actually looks like in a team context. It’s not just about mindfulness resources or a wellbeing poster in the break room. It’s about the day-to-day experience of work. The clarity of a shift. The ease of a message. The confidence that comes from knowing what’s expected. When schedules are clear, communication is in one place, and people aren’t spending their energy chasing updates or decoding messages from three different platforms, something shifts. The background noise of operational uncertainty goes quiet. And that quietness – that bit of relief – is where people do their best work. Research consistently shows that empathetic management practices, open communication, and a safe environment for transparency about mental health and stress levels can meaningfully reduce burnout and help teams work better together. American Institute of Stress Stress awareness isn’t a one-day conversation. But National Stress Awareness Month is a good moment to look honestly at the conditions your team

Why Rest is Productive: Embracing the Power of Doing Nothing

In our culture that glorifies nonstop hustle, to-do lists, and 24/7 connectivity, rest might feel like a luxury—or worse, lazy. But what if pausing and doing nothing is actually one of the smartest productivity moves you can make? Redefining Productivity What if rest isn’t a break from productivity but part of it? Far from being indulgent, intentional downtime fuels creativity, sharpens your mind, and sets the stage for deeper presence and effectiveness. Think of rest as a power-up—a necessary recharge that boosts your capacity to thrive. The Science (and Stories) Behind the Pause Your brain never really turns off. Even when you’re zoning out, your Default Mode Network (DMN) kicks into gear—processing, problem-solving, and sparking insights behind the scenes. Ever had a breakthrough in the shower or during a lazy walk? That’s your brain in action. Rest is a creative springboard. Letting your thoughts wander—not obsessively focusing—helps foster innovation. Boredom, believe it or not, can stir original thinking. Even rest needs structure. Just like athletes schedule recovery, building rest into your day—strategically—improves mental clarity and emotional balance. Quiet the internal pressure. Constant hustle and productivity can silently morph into toxic productivity, where self-worth ties into output—and burnout follows. Purposeful rest is how you break the cycle. What Real People Say Consider this personal insight: one high-achiever shared how guilt around doing nothing used to dominate them—but reframing rest as “productive recovery” changed everything. By taking a cozy mental-health day and doing only things that brought joy, they returned to work energised and proud of their output. Simple, Effective Ways to Rest the Right Way Schedule your rest. Literally mark “think time” or “do nothing” in your calendar—even a short block of unstructured time can be a game-changer. Choose active, mindful idleness. Go for a slow walk, sit in nature, sip a hot drink—without devices, agendas, or expectations. Do less, think more. Give yourself permission to step back—even leaders like Einstein and Bill Gates intentionally left room for reflection. Shift how you define productivity. Does it always have to look like checking boxes? Reframe it to include mental well-being, creativity, and deep connection. Connect with others—doing nothing together. Unschedule time with friends or family without structure. These moments reduce stress and deepen bonds. Final Thoughts At MyTommy, we believe real productivity isn’t about cramming more into your day—it’s about making your mindful presence more meaningful. Next time you’re tempted to feel guilty for slowing down—remember: rest isn’t just part of the process, it empowers the process. Sometimes, doing nothing is not just okay—it’s essential.

13 Best Facebook Workplace Alternatives for Shift-Based Workplaces (2025 Update)

Facebook Workplace is shutting down—and that has left thousands of businesses scrambling to find a reliable, user-friendly, and cost-effective alternative to keep their teams connected and informed. Whether you used it for announcements, culture updates, shift coordination, or internal communications, the clock is ticking. Meta has officially announced Workplace will be retired by 2026, with services winding down over the next year. For shift-based businesses—especially in hospitality, aged care, healthcare, and retail—this isn’t just an inconvenience. It’s a chance to upgrade to a solution that was built with the realities of frontline work in mind. In this guide, we’ve reviewed 13 of the best Facebook Workplace alternatives and why Tommy is the #1 choice for shift-based teams looking to maintain smooth communication, improve scheduling, and enhance work-life harmony. Why Businesses Are Looking for Facebook Workplace Alternatives While Facebook Workplace offered a familiar social feed-style interface, it wasn’t purpose-built for frontline teams. Its shutdown is a signal to reassess whether your internal comms and shift tools actually support productivity and wellbeing. Top reasons to switch: It was built for desk-based users, not frontline staff No shift scheduling, time clocking, or wellness features Data privacy concerns for some organizations No longer actively supported after 2025 Now is the perfect time to adopt a tool designed for the unique challenges of managing a flexible, distributed, and shift-based workforce. 🏆 Top Pick for Shift Workplaces: Tommy Tommy is an all-in-one communication, scheduling, and wellbeing platform created specifically for shift-based workplaces. Unlike generic tools, Tommy blends team messaging, onboarding, shift notifications, time tracking, and wellness nudges into a single app employees actually want to use. Why Tommy is the best Workplace alternative for shift teams: ✅ Built for hospitality, aged care, NDIS, retail, and shift-based environments ✅ Combines smart scheduling, time clocking, and messaging in one ✅ Unique Work-Life Harmony score to prevent burnout and reduce absenteeism ✅ Employees can clock in, read team updates, and complete onboarding in one place ✅ Works on mobile-first and low-bandwidth connections ✅ Free trial, no credit card required 12 More Facebook Workplace Alternatives to Consider While Tommy is ideal for shift-based and frontline businesses, here are other options suited to various teams: 1. Slack A flexible team chat tool with tons of integrations, but not ideal for scheduling or mobile-first shift workers. 2. Microsoft Teams A strong enterprise-grade option if you’re already deep in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Not purpose-built for shift workers. 3. Zoom Team Chat Mostly known for meetings, Zoom’s chat feature has grown in functionality but lacks frontline scheduling features. 4. Workvivo An employee engagement platform focused on internal comms and culture—less useful for rosters and shift management. 5. Yammer (Viva Engage) Microsoft’s legacy social platform. Still around, but many organisations are sunsetting it too. 6. Connecteam An app targeting deskless workers with features for scheduling, task management, and HR tools. Can be overwhelming for smaller teams. 7. Deputy Popular for time tracking and scheduling, but lacks true team communication and employee wellbeing tools. 8. Blink A simple employee app for internal communication, geared toward large distributed organisations. 9. Beekeeper A secure chat platform tailored for non-desk employees. Less robust on scheduling or onboarding. 10. Zoho Cliq A free alternative from Zoho’s suite, best for internal chat if you’re already using other Zoho tools. 11. Crew (by Square) Designed for shift workers, but now folded into the Square product ecosystem. May lack flexibility for non-Square users. 12. Basecamp A project management tool with internal chat features. More for desk teams than field workers. What to Look for in a Facebook Workplace Alternative? When replacing Workplace—especially for shift-driven teams—your new platform should: Be mobile-first and easy for non-desk workers to use Support automated shift reminders, time clocking, and announcements Help you build a positive, sustainable work culture Ensure data privacy and control for your org Scale with you as you grow and shift across sectors Final Thoughts: Don’t Just Replace Workplace—Upgrade It With the sunset of Facebook Workplace, businesses that rely on shift workers have a rare opportunity to pick a solution that does more than just keep people chatting. Tommy goes beyond communication—it promotes balance, wellbeing, and smarter shift coordination that reduces burnout and builds happier, more reliable teams. Before you choose, ask yourself: Will this tool make work better for my team—or just louder? Try Tommy free for 14 days and see why it’s the top Workplace alternative for shift-based teams. 👉 Get started with Tommy References Meta confirms Workplace is shutting down Why work-life harmony matters in shift work

The Must Haves In Your Resume 2025

According to Dr. Arnsten, professor in Neuroscience at Yale University, people have a shorter attention span due to stress post pandemic. Hence, managers have a shorter attention span in reading piles of resumes on their computers. Not to mention the stricter guidelines that the company might have set before recruitment, picking only the best among the best.Applying for a new job became more difficult during these times. You have little time or opportunity to make it to the cut, or else your resume would end up in the recycle folders.To catch the attention of hiring managers, you must be able to come up with a superb resume that contains all the qualities they are looking for. Getting interested? Don’t go away and keep reading as we reveal the must-haves of a standout resume. Essential Social Skills That Must Be Added to Your Resume Social skills or Interpersonal skills allow us to communicate and interact with other people efficiently. These skills involve those non-verbal aspects such as emotional intelligence and active listening.Social skills are the first must-haves in your resume. Don’t forget to include the social skills you are good at, so hiring managers would definitely see you as a strong candidate for their job position.Whether you are talking to a potential client, mingling with your officemate, or understanding people, these interpersonal skills will help you ace any battle involving people. Here are some of the skills that you may pick or decide on your resume: 1. Empathy Have you once sympathized with your friend who wasn’t able to land on his first job yet? Are you compassionate with the people around you? If yes, start writing this trait in your resume because you might be the one that the manager is looking for.Empathetic people are needed in the office because they have the sincerest care that relieves challenging times. Compassionate people are most likely to have the potential to become good leaders because they understand and interpret people’s emotions and harness those feelings to create a tornado of possibilities. 2. Active Listening Active listening can be viewed by many applicants as an unneeded skill because everyone can listen; however, not everyone is willing to listen. Active listening involves your full attention to the speaker for you to show empathy.In the workplace, active listeners play a vital role in hearing out instructions from the manager and interpreting them to perform practical actions. For example, suppose the boss says that the company will undergo an economic recession. In that case, active listeners won’t just hear the report but think of creative solutions that will help the company.Remember that the first step in finding a solution is identifying the main problem, but you can’t if you don’t know how to actively listen. 3. Emotional Intelligence If you are the type of person who can manage and understand emotions very well, you can be regarded as emotionally intelligent.People that can work on their emotions are linked to good leadership skills. The more you know, the more you can create solutions that will dissipate the stress in the workplace.Hiring managers are looking for emotionally intelligent individuals because they can manage stress on their own. Stress can negatively impact work ethics, but emotionally intelligent individuals can remain intact to their work. 4. Conflict Resolution Conflict resolution is perhaps one of the most important interpersonal skills because it allows you to solve problems in the office in your own way. Conflict is an inevitable incident in the workplace that may cause internal affairs. Hence, conflict solvers are highly demanded during the hiring process. Conflict may affect productivity in the office using unsolicited information-sharing like gossips and scandals. 5. Writing Communication Social skills involve all types of skills involving interaction with others. Writing communication involves business writing, client persuasion, and report making.If you are good at conveying messages through writing, then this is another add-on to your resume. Hiring managers like people who can effectively write, given that this pandemic has only allowed virtual interaction. Virtual Work Skills That Must Be Added to Your Resume The pandemic has caused companies to shift into a skeletal work operation. Some people who are not in the office are either tasked to do virtual works or nothing at all. Hence if you are applying for a job that does not require you to attend the physical office, here are some of the skills that you might add to your resume: Self-Motivation. Working in a virtual office has a lot of distractions. Assuming that you have no personal office area in your house, the distraction of social media, the internet, movies, and sleeping are always on the side. Often, the focus is compromised since the things and people around you keep battling on your professional mindset. Hence, having a solid motivation could help you fight these disturbances. Adaptability. When your internet was suddenly lost, you will find a way to connect to your laptop with your mobile data; that is adaptability. During virtual set-up, all the free things offered in the offices should be facilitated by yourself. Hence, you need to be adaptable to deliver your work without hassle. If you believe that you can adapt to this working scenario, add this to your resume Digital Competency. Don’t know how to enter a video conference? You should be agile in learning how to utilize virtual applications to perform your work effectively. Take time to watch tutorials online in navigating these applications. Hiring managers would love to hire someone keen on learning new tools. What Teamwork Skills Are Essential? To be able to play well in a team is a skill developed through constant interaction. A strong team leads to a successful goal. Hiring managers would want to recruit applicants who are team players. Here are the skills that you must have so the HR manager believes you have what it takes: 1. Reliability Reliability is perhaps the most essential teamwork skill. Being reliable roots from the trust and companionship formed when

What Does Employee Engagement Have To Do With Productivity?

Workforce engagement creates a work environment that is sure to drive any business toward consistent success. When your employees and co-workers engage and commit to their work, you’ll notice that your business grows stronger. Your business will experience an increase in sales volume, which will lead to higher customer satisfaction rates. Sounds pretty good, right? Engaged employees are even less likely to leave their jobs, which results in less turnover and associated costs. However, the most significant advantage of employee engagement is consistently high productivity levels. So, do you want to know more about how employee engagement affects productivity? Well, in today’s guide, we’ll discuss just that! We’ll also discuss the strategies for productivity you should know about, with a particular focus on increasing employee productivity. What Is Employee Engagement? We’ll start by discussing what employee engagement is not. Employee engagement isn’t the same as employee happiness. A happy employee may enjoy the nature or perks of a job, but that doesn’t mean they will commit to a productive work ethic. Like employee happiness, employee satisfaction is not the same as employee engagement. When your employees are content with their pay and work schedule, that is merely job satisfaction. Employee engagement goes far beyond satisfaction. So, what is employee engagement? Employee engagement refers to the emotional commitment an employee has to your business, its values, and its goals. In other words, your employees actively care about the work they produce and the company they produce it for. Source: Reveal by Hiring Indicators Engaged employees don’t just work for their wages, incentives, or potential promotions. They work for the success of the business. What Effect Does Employee Engagement Have on Productivity? Now, let’s get down to business: what effect does employee engagement have on staff productivity? Below, we’ve explored how employee engagement affects an employee’s performance in such a way that increases productivity. Improved Customer Experiences 🙋 Because engaged employees are more productive at work, they are able to meet and exceed the expectations you place on them. And, of course, every business expects their employees to strive to create better experiences for their customers. As a result, your employees will commit to facilitating exceptional customer experiences consistently. Why? Because engaged employees want to contribute to the success and expansion of the business. Source: ConantLeadership What’s more, because engaged employees aim to improve the customer’s experience, they inspire customer loyalty. In fact, studies show that companies that provide employee engagement programs experience 233% greater customer loyalty. Reduced Absenteeism 🤢 Engaged employees care about how their work affects business outcomes. For that reason, employees with high engagement will actively avoid absenteeism as much as possible. After all, your employees can’t be productive if they aren’t actually at work. Source: Forbes According to Forbes, disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism than engaged employees. Higher Employee Retention 🧑‍💼 When experienced employees leave the business, your team loses valuable expertise and skill sets. This is a gap that every employer has to fill with new recruits. The downside is that training new hires is that it’s a substantial investment of time, energy, and resources. Luckily, engaged and satisfied employees are less likely to leave their jobs because of their commitment to their objectives. In fact, engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave their organizations. Thus, employee engagement will lead to higher employee retention rates. Increased Profitability 📈 Engaged employees tend to outperform co-workers who don’t share their enthusiasm. Source: Wellable Engaged employees offer more innovative, creative solutions when it comes to optimized business operations. What’s more, they are more efficient and possess essential soft skills like time management and effective communication. As a result, highly engaged workforces are 21% more profitable than those comprised of disengaged employees. Increased Productivity ⬆️ To summarize the benefits mentioned above, the effect that employee engagement has on productivity is incredibly positive. Engaged employees will strive to deliver high-quality work on time consistently and go the extra mile where they can. A report from Gallup shows that organizations with engaged workforces celebrate 17% higher productivity levels than organizations with disengaged workforces. Ways to Boost Employee Engagement To access the advantages above, you’ll need to improve employee engagement. This means that you need to work toward creating better employee experiences. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to ensure your employees have the best experiences working for your business. So, you need to come up with an action plan that ensures your team members feel appreciated, valued, and happy. This is how you’ll inspire them to go the extra mile. Not sure how to go about that? Don’t worry – we’ve explored some of the best employee engagement strategies below. Offer Flexibility 😌 Offering flexible work schedules enables your employees to achieve a better work-life balance. When your employees can achieve this balance, it’s easier to accomplish employee satisfaction. What’s more, 55% of employees find that flexible work schedules are effective at reducing stress levels. As a result, when you offer your employees flexibility, they will feel less stressed, allowing them to engage more with their work. Recognize & Reward 🎁 When you reward employees who go above and beyond to meet their targets, you’ll incentivize them to exceed their goals consistently. Source: Loyola eCommons You can reward your employees through cash bonuses or something as simple as gift cards. By rewarding your employees, you will demonstrate your appreciation for them. As a result, you’ll encourage your employees to remain engaged throughout their careers. As for recognition, you can reach out to them personally to let them know that you’ve noticed and valued their hard work. You can reach out to your employees through social media or via messaging software. However, you reach out, recognizing your employees’ commitment to the business is a great way to keep them engaged. Provide Growth Opportunities ↗️ You should implement training programs and career advancement opportunities for your employees. By enabling your employees to grow and develop as professionals, you’ll increase their engagement and

5 Benefits of Improved Workforce Management

Workforce management (WFM) is the process of optimizing employees’ productivity. Put differently, workforce management solutions consist of workforce management software and services that allow business to optimize their operations. An effective workforce management system will allow employers to allocate resources, forecast workloads, and avoid compliance risks effectively. The WFM system also involves tracking the employees’ schedules and performances. You should always strive to enhance your workforce management. Why? Because the benefits of using WFM software will see your business’s operations run much more smoothly. Are you ready to learn more about how workforce management works to improve your organization? Let’s take a closer look! The Three-Legged Stool of Workforce Management To elevate and align the Workforce Management at your organization, you should apply the PPT framework. The PPT framework refers to the People, Process, and Technology framework. This framework puts forth the idea that employees, processes, and technologies must work in harmony with each other. When harmonized, the PPT framework will allow for successful business operations that celebrate efficiency and effectiveness. The three-legged stool visual captures the notion of the PPT framework perfectly. If one leg is taller, shorter, or simply non-existent, the entire stool will destabilize. So, how does the PPT framework affect workforce management? Well, simply, you can’t have successful workforce management with the PPT framework. If your employees lack proper training and process expertise, your business operations will fail altogether. If your business’s processes/workflows become inconsistent, managing productivity and expenses will prove extremely challenging. Lastly, if you lack the proper technologies 💻, you and your team can’t conduct secure business operations at all. The PPT framework will serve as your guide when improving your workforce management techniques. The Benefits of Workforce Management In the United States, especially, workforce management has become an incredibly popular tool. According to Gitnux’s 2024 Market Data Report, 37% of US businesses use time and attendance solutions. Time and attendance solutions are crucial to workforce management systems. Source: Gitnux What’s more, about 64% of US organizations use human resource software. Again, this is also an integral part of workforce management. So, as you can see, WFM software is becoming a must-have for many businesses and organizations. Let’s explore this further. Below, you’ll find some of the most impactful advantages of using WFM techniques. 1. Real-Time Performance Analysis 🎭 Because of WFM tools, you don’t need to wait a long time to evaluate your employees’ performance. You’ll have real-time reporting about your employees’ performances, and you can monitor your KPIs too. With the data you are getting, you’ll know what is going well and what needs improvement. In other words, WFM tools will help you identify trends in your employees’ performances. As a result, you’ll find it easier to inform training programs and improve productivity altogether. What’s more, by identifying areas of improvement, you will reduce wasted time and better allocate your resources. 2. Reduced Labor Costs 💰 WFM allows you to schedule your employees’ shifts in such a way that reduces labor costs significantly. ‘How’, you may ask. WFM tools enable employers to minimize overtime, handle understaffing, and manage absences. Ultimately, WFM will ensure that you maintain staff coverage. Thus, you’ll always offer excellent customer service while keeping labor costs down ⬇️. Just think – when your business is understaffed, your existing employees have to work overtime, which results in costly wages. If you use WFM software that helps you distribute workloads optimally, costly wages aren’t an issue anymore. What’s more, when your employees feel overworked, they are much more likely to request time off. Managing these absences can prove a time-consuming task without workforce software. And, as you know, time is money. WFM tools can streamline this process through automation, resulting in fewer errors as an added bonus. 3. Optimized Productivity ↗️ Most of WFM involves scheduling. By aligning your employees’ schedules with your business’s needs, you can enhance the quality and efficiency of your services. Source: Federal Reserve Board WFM can help you create this alignment. WFM will forecast labor demands via historical data and match an employee’s skill sets with upcoming tasks. After having done that, your WFM software will adjust your employees’ schedules accordingly. As a result, you and your business will experience an increase in productivity and customer satisfaction. Best of all, if you incorporate your employees’ preferences into the scheduling process, you’ll find that your employees feel more actively involved and engaged in the workforce planning process. 4. Simplified Time & Attendance Tracking ⌛ Time and attendance tracking is incredibly important for any business owner. Simply put, you can’t have accurate payroll, employee benefits, or access to attendance patterns without it. Workforce management tools will enable you to accurately log your employees’ work hours, all while fostering a seamless integration with payroll systems. What’s more, workforce management software won’t just help you monitor your employees’ work hours. WFM will also simplify overtime, break regulations, and even paid absences. Furthermore, workforce management tools will ensure precise compensation and compliance with your business’s policies. Overall, with the right WFM tools, you can monitor attendance records and address any issues or trends you notice. As a result, you can better support your employees while you ensure your business runs efficiently. 5. Mitigated Risks ❌ Sharing sensitive information that relates to your employees isn’t something you should approach lightly. For that reason, workforce software must safeguard large quantities of data. Source: Tada WFM solutions offer integrity and protection of your workforce and payroll data. How? By investing in infrastructure with measurable uptime and service level agreements, WFM ensures your employee’s safety. In other words, workforce management will help give you peace of mind that all your information and data are safe and secure. Workforce Management: Final Thoughts By improving your workforce management processes and techniques, you’ll maintain and enhance the financial health of your business. You’ll also increase your employees’ engagement and productivity, which will then positively impact your customer’s experience with your business. Ultimately, the benefits of workforce management

Reasons Why Touchless Technology and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Bring a Better Workplace

We pay more attention than ever before to the surfaces around us, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. Doorknobs. Countertops. The tools on our desks or in our conference rooms. You name it, we are way more cautious about it nowadays. In the modern era, a positive work environment doesn’t just mean preventing workplace injuries or protecting our team member’s mental health 🧠. It also means making it so that technology in the workplace doesn’t contribute to the spread of diseases. That’s where touchless technology and the bring your own device (BYOD) program enters the picture. In today’s guide, we’ll discuss the benefits of touchless technology and BYOD so that you can create a safer office environment. What Is Touchless Technology? 📱 While we don’t need to tell you what touchless technology is, it’s good to know how you can implement it in your office spaces. Source: McKinsey & Company Let’s take a look at some of the most common forms of touchless technology. Gesture Recognition 👋: You simply just need to make a gesture to control or interact with devices. It’s completely touch-free and a classic example is in the bathroom. Think touchless hand dryers. Touchless Sensing 🚪: This is when a sensor detects the presence or motion of a person. And you’ve definitely encountered it if you’ve ever you’ve walked through an automatic door. Voice Recognition 🗣️: All you need to do here is speak to a device to interact with it. Just think of all of the times Siri has said “Sorry I didn’t understand that” when you haven’t actually been talking to it. Facial Recognition 🙋: Even more convenient than voice recognition, facial recognition just needs to clearly see your face. Think of the newer iPhone models that support Face ID these days. Personal Devices 🖥️: Yes, this method is more a not-so-touchless form of technology. But believe it or not, it still counts. Anything that works by responding to the commands of your personal devices still helps you avoid touching public surfaces. So, essentially, you’re touching your own tech to avoid touching public tech. The impact of this technology completely removes the need for physical touch when you interact with a workplace device. The result – better hygienic practices for you and your employees! What Is BYOD? 🧑‍💻 Let’s shift focus to BYOD. The bring-your-own-device policy allows you and your employees to bring personal devices to work. So, if you’d like to bring your own computers, tablets, smartphones, or USB drives to work, this policy is a game-changer. Source: Security Brief Australia In a lot of cases, the BYOD program has led to massive increases in productivity and morale. According to a study from Cybersecurity Insider, organizations that implemented the BYOD program experienced a 68% increase in employee productivity. But that’s not to say that the BYOD policy doesn’t have drawbacks. It does, and you need about them before you introduce the policy into your workspace. When left unaddressed, a personal device’s access to an organization’s network can leave said organization wide open to all sorts of nasty security risks. Don’t worry – there are ways around this. You need a BYOD security policy in place that informs and educates every team member on how to use the BYOD program without compromising the business’s data or networks. There are some elements you should always add to your BYOD security policies, including the following: The types of devices approved for use. Security and data ownership policies. The degree of IT support you’ll grant to the approved personal devices. When IT leaders decide how much support they can offer personal devices, they must make sure there is a balance between the organization’s security and your employees’ personal privacy. Treat it like a work-life balance but just for security protocols. Workplace Improvement: The Benefits of Touchless Tech & BYOD So, you know about the surface-level benefits of touchless tech and BYOD in that it’s great for preventing the spread of germs and diseases. But, did you know that there are other benefits too, like providing more opportunities for cost saving? Below, we’ve looked at some of the most useful advantages to touchless tech and BYOD in the workplace. BYOD Saves Money 💲 If you work with a large group of people, the cost of providing devices for everyone can add up quickly. Also, not everyone on staff may be familiar with the tools you give, which can necessitate additional training resources and associated costs. Source: Training Magazine But if you implement a bring your own device policy, you can save money on: Investing in or leasing personal technology for each worker. Assistance in learning how to use novel tools. Employing hardware and computer technicians. Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group estimates that implementing a comprehensive BYOD program amounts to an annual savings of $3,150 per worker. Up-To-Date Technology 💻 Employees may neglect to update company-issued gadgets routinely. The worst part? Ignoring security upgrades may accidentally put everyone’s sensitive information at risk. Yet they are more likely to update their personal computers and other gadgets whenever new versions become available. Source: Okta It’s also financially impractical for a corporation to keep buying new equipment to accommodate the latest technological advancements. But you know how it is – when we want the latest iPhone or Samsung model for personal use, we are pretty quick to grab our credit cards. Just imagine the amount of money the company can save by letting their employees take care of their belongings under the BYOD program. Contactless Check-Ins Improve Everyone’s Health 🥼 Touchless check-in won’t just help your employees avoid the spread of germs; it will also help your visitors. Why? Because it reduces the likelihood that visitors will come into contact with germs by touching surfaces like door knobs and elevator buttons. All in all, touchless tech and BYOD make safe, hygienic visitor management much easier to put in place. Brand Establishment ↗️ As an expanding business, your brand’s identity means everything. What’s more,

Preparing to Work Again in the Amidst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

We can all agree that adapting to change isn’t always easy. The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the biggest changes the modern world has ever faced. Not only did the global population’s physical and mental health suffer, but so did our once-safe work environments. In other words, protecting workers and maintaining our employees’ well-being has never been more important than in the 2020s. On the bright side, returning to work amidst the pandemic taught many organizations how to implement workplace safety measures. In today’s guide, we want to re-emphasize those workplace safety tips. By the time you’ve finished reading this article, you’ll know how to help your business maintain its post-pandemic work strategies. Why You Should Maintain Your Workplace Safety Measures Although the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted for some time now, COVID-19 is still dangerous. Michelle Williams, Dean of the Faculty at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, sums it up perfectly: “Of course, the virus is not done with us, and what we really need to do is make sure that policymakers understand that we’re continuing to see new variants.” So, what you should take away from this statement is that safety in the workplace is just as important as it was when we first returned to the workplace. Making your work area safe won’t just prevent injuries and illnesses either. By creating a safe workplace, you will improve your employees’ engagement. Source: Engage for Success After all, how can your employees engage with their work if they don’t feel like you value their safety? What’s more, employee engagement has its own perks. Just look at this quote from Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report: “Employees who are engaged are more likely to stay with their organization, reducing overall turnover and the costs associated with it.” What this means is that employee engagement is crucial for employee retention. Ultimately, fostering a workplace safety culture is of monumental importance, pandemic or not. Tips To Help You Protect Your Employees’ Wellbeing At Work The return to the office represented the return to safety and normalcy (whatever that is). We want you and your employees to enjoy that safety indefinitely. For that reason, we’ve provided you with some tips to help you create a happier, healthier, and – above – all safer workplace. Install Hand Sanitizer Dispensers 🧼 Hand sanitizer is an effective way to stop a disease in its tracks. You should place dispensers for hand sanitizer around the office. You should also place them in common areas like the kitchen, outside the elevator, inside the doors, and so on. Put up signs to let people know where to find the dispensers and encourage everyone to use them. Provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) ⛑️ PPE is the equipment that will protect your employees from health and safety risks at work. During the pandemic, we all had to get familiar with PPE, such as face masks and clean gloves. And while you should still provide such equipment, PPE covers more than just COVID-related protective measures. For instance, goggles, high-visibility clothing, and safety helmets are all forms of PPE. Of course, depending on the nature of your business operations and services, you won’t need certain forms of PPE. Needless to say, you won’t need to provide helmets to your employees if they work in an office all day. But, regardless of which PPE you provide your employees with, it’s important that you do it to prevent any workplace injuries or illnesses. You should also provide adequate training that shows your employees how to use the PPE provided. Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) After all, PPE is there to protect your employees, so they should know how to use it confidently, right? Offer Health & Safety Training 🧑‍⚕️ As an employer, you’re no stranger to providing your employees with valuable resources. And health and safety training is one resource that you should always provide. Source: National Institutes of Health (NIH) Here is a list of some courses that you should offer and encourage your employees to participate in: First aid training ➕. Mental health first aid training. Electrical safety training ⚡. Computer security training. Asbestos awareness training. Manual handling training. Fire safety training 🔥. Risk assessment training. You should also take part in these courses. You know what they say, lead by example. When you and your employees have the appropriate training, you’ll inspire confidence. Not only will everyone feel safer at work, but in the case of a crisis, you’ll all have the knowledge to handle it effectively. You never know; you could save one of your employees’ lives with this training. Promote Positive Mental Health 🧠 Look at this quote from an article written by the Mayo Clinic: “Worldwide surveys done in 2020 and 2021 found higher than typical levels of stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression.” It’s no secret that our mental health suffered on a global scale as a result of the pandemic. And since the pandemic, a lot of us have been working remotely more than ever before. Source: Owl Labs So, how does this relate to your employees’ mental health? Well, if your employees have remote or even hybrid work schedules, they can face the negative impacts of social isolation. Social isolation can lead to an increased risk of mental health problems like anxiety and depression. So, what can you do as an employer? You can invest in some modern messaging software that will help your employees stay connected to one another 📳. You can provide resources that support open, honest conversations about mental health. You can schedule regular meetings with your employees to discuss any issues they might be facing. You can increase mental health awareness through training and campaigns. You can educate the workforce on the significance of mental health. You can appoint workplace mental health champions 💪to challenge stigma and encourage positive mental health. Send Sick Workers Home 🏠 There’s nothing worse than managing a huge stack of work when you’re

Scheduling

Attendance

Communications

Retail

Hospitality

Healthcare

Small Business

Mid-sized Companies

Creating a Work-Life Balance in an “Always On” Workplace