Labor Management and Staff Scheduling – Working with the New Minimum Wage

In: Finance

29 Jul 2009

If you are an operator in the retail, food-service, hospitality, or other service-oriented sector, the increase in federal minimum wage likely affects the profits of your business – the proverbial bottom line.

As a business, how are you combating the extra expense of staff with the increase in minimum wage? One way to deal with the increase is smarter human resources tools that save your business money – tools like TimeForge. TimeForge will save you 3-5% of your labor expenses by improving your employee retention, freeing up staff and management time, decreasing turnover, and enforcing the labor schedule – all of which are direct improvements to your bottom line.

Retention and Turnover Are Important Statistics at any Business

It can cost more than $3,500 to replace a single employee making $8.00 / hour, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). This cost accounts for recruitment, hiring, training, interviewing, reduced productivity, etc… If the annual turnover at your company is 80% – that means that 16 of every 20 employees you hire in any given year, are no longer with your company. What does that cost your business? 16 employees * $3,500 per employee = $56,000 in lost profit because 16 staff members left. That’s serious money out of any business!

Retention and Turnover Are Important Statistics at any Business

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it can cost more than $3,500 to replace a single staff member making $8.00 / hour (just over the minimum wage). This $3,500 cost accounts for recruitment, hiring, training, interviewing, reduced productivity of the exiting employee, etc… If the annual turnover at your company is 80% – that means that 16 of every 20 employees (or 8 out of 10 staff members) you hire in any given year, are no longer with your company. What does that cost your business, if you have 20 employees? 16 employees * $3,500 per employee / year = $56,000 in lost profit (every year!) because 16 employees left. That’s serious money for any business!

Manager Time is Expensive, Use Tools to Keep Costs Down

Staff members commonly clock in early and clock out late (commonly called “riding the clock”). Every few minutes of unnecessary payroll quickly adds up and reduces business profits. An employee earning the new minimum wage of $7.25 who clocks in early two times a week, and clocks out late twice per week, will burn through an additional $362.50 per year from the business. With 20 employees, that is more than $7,250 per year, and with an additional 20% in benefits, taxes, and other fees, the total is more than $8,700 in extra labor costs.

So, with only 20 employees, the business is likely losing: $56,000 in retention and turnover related expenses, $2,080 in schedule creation expenses, $8,700 in schedule enforcement expenses … a total of $66,780 in direct labor expenses.

What will TimeForge cost a business with 20 employees?

TimeForge Max will cost the business about $100 per month, or about $1,200 per year – complete with payroll integration, employee scheduling, attendance monitoring, and everything else needed to properly manage labor.

TimeForge Max will cost the business about $100 per month, or about $1,200 per year – complete with labor scheduling, payroll integration, attendance monitoring, and everything else needed to properly manage labor.

What happens with three stores? Forty? Two-hundred? Labor costs go up dramatically the more stores that a business operates.

Use TimeForge labor management software to put money back in the business and save thousands every year.

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