This week’s guest on the Innovation In Compliance show is Krista Hardwick, General Counsel at Deputy. Deputy brings an innovative solution to managing compliance and legal risk around scheduling. Krista chats with Tom Fox about how her company’s software helps business owners stay compliant with fair wage and hour laws, as well as increase profitability.

Analyzing Shift Work
Deputy recently released a free ebook entitled The United States of Shift Work, based on their study of 1million shift hours over the course of a year. They were able to conclude that there are many similarities among the different generations of shift workers with regard to the hours they worked vs hours they were scheduled. On average, workers were rostered to work just a few hours more than they actually worked. Krista says that this shows that managers and business owners are complying with the fair workweek laws which state that workers should not be required to work more than they are scheduled. It also implies that business leaders do not want workers to work overtime, which would trigger overtime compliance regulations. Tom comments that this relates directly to the key issues of fairness in the workplace and sustainability. 
How Deputy Helps Businesses Be Compliant
Krista advises business owners to love their employees. Keeping your employees happy will help your business be more successful in the long run. She discusses the fair workweek laws that are being implemented across the country, which require businesses to post schedule weeks in advance and not change them once posted. Deputy’s tool, she says, help owners stay compliant with these laws, so they can focus on growing their business. Business owners should also be focusing on creating an optimal schedule that minimizes payroll costs for the company, Krista points out. Deputy partners with Widget Brain to do customized labor forecasting for their clients: they help you create an optimal schedule based on your forecasted profits for each hour of the day. This shows that effective compliance can create greater business efficiency, leading to greater profitability, Tom comments. Krista adds that it also minimizes the chance of a wage and hour audit. 
Corporations Need To Respond To People
The number of shift workers is increasing and will continue to increase, Krista says. Due to the amendment to the Department of Labor rules, many workers who are now considered salaried employees will be converted to shift workers and paid an hourly rate come January 2020. Krista says that another issue companies should consider is that Gen-Z’ers are working fewer hours than previous generations. Their work preferences are different, added to which, they have choices about where they want to work and the kind of work they want to do. These issues are important when doing scheduling and workforce management. Tom says that this speaks to how corporations need to respond to people, instead of people responding to corporations.
Resources
Deputy.com
The United States of Shift Work
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