Page 12 - NSAA 2017 Fall Journal

Human Resources

When I Work has more than 100,000 users of its free said W2W President Mary Adzich. “Ski resorts in particular
services (offered to companies with less than 75 employees) have to be very nimble in their planning as schedules can
and more than 20,000 paying customers for its more change literally overnight with the latest weather report. Our
developed fee-based packages, both available at WhenIWork. W2W system lets resorts be in immediate contact with their
com, Martinez says. In the ski industry that number includes staff, letting them know about any changes or when they
some big names, like Park City and Solitude in Utah; Snow need to suddenly staff up for a busy day.”
Valley and Mt. Baldy in California; Killington in Vermont; W2W offers a free 30-day trial period, and a subscrip-
and Aspen Skiing Company in Colorado. In some cases those tion pricing model based on the number of employees in an
are resort-wide clients; in others, they are ancillary businesses organization, Adzich said. The company also works with
such as ski and snowboard rental shops, or individual resorts to create seasonal subscriptions that cover just the
departments like the lift ops team at Mt. Hood Meadows. months needed to access the system, and to save data at no
“We’ve made it very easy to adjust according to the extra cost during the off season.
needs of seasonal businesses like the ski industry, which Kelly Renoux, employee experience director at Copper
can have rapidly changing numbers of employees and a fre- Mountain, says the resort does not currently have a com-
quently changing workforce, and may also have wildly dif- pany-wide scheduling software solution but is evaluating
ferent staffing needs on a weekend compared to a weekday options—including enterprise solutions offered by ADP, a
even within that season,” Martinez said. global provider of a variety of business outsourcing services.
The software also has built in checks and balances Renoux says she has been paying close attention as the ski
designed to help ensure that the right people are able to fill patrol has found a workable solution.
in for each other. Say, for example, a lift operator wants to “We use several ADP enterprise product suites across
trade a shift, but whoever takes that shift must have the Copper Mountain and Powdr Corp. for our HR and time and
same level of certification to do the job. When I Work has attendance systems, and we’re in the process of shifting over
the capacity to reject as a replacement any employee who to their Vantage HR system, which includes some basic sched-
doesn’t have the credentials or qualifications that have been uling services and the ability for employees to access sched-
stipulated by the employer. ules from mobile devices. But we’re still in the planning stages,
“I think the combination of these elements has really talking with them and evaluating some other options,” Renoux
resonated for ski industry businesses,” he said. “The most said. “The Copper Mountain Ski Patrol has been using the
common response I get from our new clients is ‘I had no idea WhenToWork scheduling software, and has been really happy
this could be so much better.’ Because it’s not a question of with the functionality, so other departments have started using
going from one product to another better product. It’s going it and it’s something we’re taking a close look at for wider use.”
from no real system at all to a good system.” As with Mt. Hood Meadows, the appeal for Copper is in
simplifying the scheduling process and allowing managers to
t Copper Mountain in Colorado, the ski patrol depart- get out of the business of handling time-off and shift change
A ment has opted to go with a When I Work competi- requests, freeing them up to work on more important tasks,
tor named, confusingly enough, WhenToWork (for the sake Renoux continued. Still, it’s been a hard sell company-wide,
of simplicity, we’ll refer to it by the company’s own short- particularly now that there are multiple options on the table
hand, W2W). offering similar services. Renoux says her team’s challenge is
The W2W software, a subscription-based online sched- trying to keep things simple and straightforward.
uling service, allows managers to manually assign employee “We try to limit the number of different systems inter-
shifts on the schedule, or use an “auto-fill” feature that uses an faces we use, and we’re always looking for systems that are
algorithm to help prevent overtime and other schedule con- seamlessly integrated,” she said. “Ideally you want your
flicts. Managers can easily track schedules, change schedules, scheduling system to be integrated seamlessly with your time
and get confirmation receipts when an employee has viewed and attendance system, for example. But any time there are
and approved the schedule. Employees can use the system to opportunities to work on inefficiencies through these kinds
pick up open shifts, trade shifts using a feature called “trade- of technological advances—in this case through mobile
board,” and request time off. And employees can easily export access to scheduling and the ability for employees to swap
the schedules to their preferred mobile calendar apps. shifts without a manager having to orchestrate it—we love to
“We have many, many ski resorts and other seasonal have that flexibility. Labor is by far the biggest cost for any
organizations that use our WhenToWork system to easily company. How you manage that asset is important and it
handle their fluctuating schedule and employee availabilities,” touches a lot of people, so you have to do it right.”

10 | NSAA JOURNAL | FALL 2017