How to handle overtime requests

Extra hours bump up costs that the company can’t always incur but sometimes staying late really is essential – so how do you strike a balance?

A typical scenario. It’s approaching 5pm, the clock is ticking down slowly but surely. Anxious employees look furtively to it, then back to their computers. The boss walks by, fingers stealthily click ‘x’ on the browser where only a moment ago Facebook was open. “How goes it” asks the supervisor. “Ehh...not so good. I’m going to need to stay for another couple of hours to finish things up.” “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” “Sorry, but no. I really need to get this done today.”

Sound familiar? It should, because the next scene in the play is the employee walking into your office, the HR professional, asking for a chit that the supervisor can sign to authorize overtime pay. Exasperating isn’t it? The fact remains however, employees love getting overtime and managers hate signing off on it. Because it’s always a trade off with a human resources nightmare lurking just around the corner. Management can sign off on the overtime which keeps employees happy but hurts the company in terms of added operational costs (compounded when employees take advantage of the system). Or, management can refuse to authorize overtime which means a safer bottom line for the company but an angry employee. Darned if you do, darned if you don’t.

As HR professionals, most of this falls squarely on your shoulders because more often than not you’re stuck squarely in the middle between employee and management conflict. So how do you manage this situation and have each party walk away satisfied?  

AS HR manager you have to write clear OT policy to reduce abuse of overtime for your company, have the staff use HRMS like Weladee to request OT and the managers will accept/refuse from their mobile. You keep control of the allowed OT and enforce company's policy with HRMS solution.

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