Why is the Zero Hour Contract a Challenge?

The challenge for companies in the Retail, Hospitality, Stadia and Events Management and Care Working sectors is to find a balance between the rapidly fluctuating staffing demands on their organisation and treating their staff and casual staff fairly. One of the current solutions here in the U.K is the Zero Hour Contract.

Companies and organisations feel that there are clear benefits of using this practice

Ability to match staff numbers with unpredictable demand
No underemployed full-time staff
Fewer overtime payments
Ability to keep hold of a greater pool of staff
Ability to spot better staff and convert them to full-time employees

In the press over the last two years there have been plenty of articles about

Just in time scheduling or rota management
Irregular work practices and
On-call scheduling

From an employee´s perspective these types of scheduling can lead to employees feeling undue pressure to accept inconvenient shifts as their organisation struggles to fill open shifts with their pool of casual or part-time staff. Staff can also feel undervalued and stressed by an uncertain work schedule.

Zero hour contracts can also make it very hard for employees to balance the demands of their work with personal commitments and responsibilities such as other work or jobs, child care, caring for a poor relative or studying.

SUMMARY

In a nutshell, the challenge is to meet both the needs of these types of organisation and at the same time by adding structure, visibility, transparency and a level of engagement for the employees make it fairer and super easy to use. Operationally, the other challenge is that every business has its own business processes and each of their employees has their very own unique set of needs. A tough ask indeed!

How Our Staff Management Software Helps Companies Such as Yours Solve the Challenge

The challenges arise due to rising demands in the following industries

Retail Staffing
Hospitality Staffing
Care Work Staffing
Stadia and Event Staffing

PARiM is used to transforming the way organisations

schedule staff
allocate shifts and
communicate work and shift information

within each of these sectors and the system also addresses the concerns from an employee’s point of view.

Using PARiM employees can

Apply for shifts/ work wherever they are whenever they need to
Apply for absences from their remaining allocation
See what holiday they have accrued
See their schedule monthly in advance
See and search their timesheet for any period
See and manage their personal information, amending as applicable
See what leave or absences they have taken and what they have remaining
Set themselves unavailable for days/ hours within a day

Management can

See the order in which shifts were applied for
Quickly and easily approve shift applications
Automate all notifications and communication relating to shifts, schedules and rotas
Record information and communication between management and staff
Promote visibility and transparency
Move shifts easily between staff whilst keeping a record of all shift swaps/ changes

Unusual or Curve Ball Scheduling or Rota Creation

And finally let’s say your immediate need is to create an Event Position Template or Event Shift Template well PARiM does that so you can copy it across the whole season!

A Smart Solution to the Challenge of the Zero Hour Contract