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Work scheduling regulations are being implemented across cities and states in America in a bid to protect and enhance employee rights. When it comes to predictive scheduling laws, it’s not just employees who benefit. These practices help employers get ahead of common scheduling issues and fall-outs, too.
Whether it’s mandatory or optional for your business, this complete guide to predictive scheduling covers everything you need to know.
Predictive scheduling is when you give employees advance notice of their work schedules. It includes providing employees with a good faith estimate of monthly work patterns, notice of scheduled shifts, adequate rest periods between shifts, and compensation for/the right to refuse any schedule change.
You might have heard of predictive scheduling regulations called fair workweek laws, scheduling ordinances, or employee rights ordinances.
Predictive scheduling is important because it overcomes the endless problems associated with on-call and just-in-time scheduling practices, including understaffed shifts, unhappy employees, and high staff turnover. It also significantly benefits employers and employees in many ways.
Predictive scheduling regulations affect businesses that allocate working hours using shifts, especially if those shifts change regularly.
This predominantly affects service sector workers, such as those working in retail shops, restaurants, fast-food establishments, hotels, and leisure facilities. However, any business with part-time, shift, seasonal, on-call, minimum wage, or hourly workers should implement and can benefit from advanced scheduling.
Please note: The California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) was enacted on January 1, 2020, and requires employers to classify some independent contractors as employees in California (although exceptions exist). This might affect your scheduling requirements, so read more about AB5 and follow state laws regarding employee classification.
Countless studies show that predictive scheduling increases employee productivity. A pilot program in San Francisco and Chicago found that a two-week advance work schedule increased median sales by 7% and productivity by 5%, leading Gap to extend the policy country-wide.
The healthier work-life balance and financial stability that a predictive scheduling law allows increases employee happiness, which feeds into their performance and engagement at work.
Predictive workforce planning also boosts business performance, not just through increased productivity. The planning of shifts enables you to efficiently and effectively prepare for busy periods and spend less time handling last-minute scheduling changes.
Predictive scheduling is also viewed as an employee perk, helping you to recruit and retain the best talent for your positions.
Please note: The California Assembly Bill 5 (AB5) went into effect January 1, 2020, and requires employers to classify some independent contractors as employees in the state of California (although there are exceptions). This might affect your scheduling requirements, so make sure to read more about AB5 and follow state laws regarding employee classification.
Predictive scheduling gives employees advance notice, stability, and information to plan their lives around their work schedule. This includes arranging childcare, leisure activities, and studies without worrying about being called into work or having shifts canceled at the last minute. Plus, adequate rest periods between shifts ensure employees have enough downtime to recuperate and re-energize.
Predictive scheduling helps employees to accurately predict their monthly income and decide whether secondary employment is needed to support themselves and their families. This is particularly important for those on minimum wage.
If an employee needs to take on a second job, predictive scheduling allows them to coordinate shifts accordingly, meaning you don’t have to lose a good employee just because you can’t offer the volume of work they need.
Your legal requirement to implement predictive scheduling depends on your business location, industry, and team size.
At the time of writing, predictive scheduling is a legal requirement in eight cities and states. While the details and requirements of each law differ, most of them mandate:
A good faith estimate of expected schedules upon hire.
A defined period of rest between shifts.
Advance notice of work schedules.
Extra pay for a schedule change or shifts during a rest period.
State-wide requirement with a mandate that local governments may not create or adopt employer requirements outside state or federal requirements. View the law.
State-wide requirement. View the law.
State-wide requirement. View the law.
State-wide requirement. View the law.
State-wide requirement. View the law.
Employers Affected: “Formula Retail Use” employers in San Francisco with at least 40 retail sales establishments worldwide. Includes bars, restaurants, liquor stores, sales and service providers (including banks and other financial institutions) and take-out food shops. More information on a Formula Retail Use employer can be found here.
Employers Affected: Retail employers with 56 or more employees globally or fast food companies with 56 or more employees globally and 20 or more employees in Emeryville.
Employers Affected: The city; employers primarily engaged in the building services, healthcare, hotel, manufacturing, retail, or warehouse services industries with 56 or more employees globally; employers primarily engaged in the restaurant industry with 10 or more employees in the city and 100 or more employees globally; franchisees primarily engaged in the retail or restaurant industries with 10 or more employees in the city and that are associated with a network of franchises with franchisees employing 100 or more employees globally; and not-for-profit corporations with 100 or more employees globally.
Employers Affected: Retail businesses that have at least 300 employees worldwide, including franchises. Employees must perform at least two hours of work in a workweek in Los Angeles to be covered.
Employers Affected: Businesses with 100 or more employees, nonprofits with more than 250 employees, restaurants with at least 30 locations and 250 employees globally. To be eligible, employees must earn less than or equal to $26.00 per hour or earn less than or equal to $50,000 per year as a salaried employee.
Employers Affected: Hospitality, retail, warehouse service, manufacturing, and building services that employ or exercise control over 100 or more employees; and food service restaurants with at least 30 locations and 200 employees globally. Franchisees under one of the covered industries with fewer than 100 employees that are associated with a franchisor with more than 30 locations globally are also covered.
Employers Affected: Fast-food employers with 30 or more such establishments nationally and retail employers with 20 or more employees engaged “primarily in the sale of consumer goods.”
Employers Affected: Employers in the retail, hospitality and food service industries that have at least 250 employees and 30 locations worldwide.
Employers Affected: Retail and food service establishments with 500 or more employees worldwide and restaurants with 500 or more employees and 40 or more locations worldwide.
The business benefits of providing employees with advance notice of shifts rely on predictive scheduling compliance. Otherwise, things can get costly. In particular, you should:
Seek expert advice on whether predictive scheduling law applies to your business or could benefit it.
Update policies and develop procedures to ensure ongoing compliance, including posting schedules, notifying schedule changes, offering additional hours, and estimating work schedules.
Use scheduling software to set up recurring shifts automatically based on business requirements and local scheduling laws. This is especially useful if you operate across different jurisdictions or have fluctuating staff requirements yearly.
You can do this in Hubstaff with one-time or recurring shift scheduling.
Hubstaff’s employee time tracking and scheduling software can help businesses comply with predictive scheduling laws by managing:
Online scheduling and attendance reporting
Team management with per-person customizable settings
Availability and time off requests in one place
Easy mobile, desktop, and web apps for clocking in and out
Scheduling back-to-back shifts might incur rest period penalties and premiums. Avoid scheduling employees on clopening shifts (closing and then opening the next day) whenever possible to give them an adequate break between shifts.
Speak to your current employees to confirm their available hours and seek feedback on their work schedule. The more you engage and involve employees, the more they’ll want to help you overcome staffing problems in the future.
Invest in a scheduling tool or app that makes it easy to share schedules with employees, offer additional shifts, make amendments, and store evidence of compliance.
Predictive scheduling might sound like a pain if you’ve continuously operated just-in-time or on-call scheduling.
However, once you have the proper procedures, tools, and attitude, advance notice of shifts can make your employees happier, your business more efficient, and your to-do list less stressful.
Set up recurring shifts, meet predictive scheduling requirements, and track attendance automatically.