Ultimate Kronos Group: Kylene Zenk

IndustrialSage

Kylene Zenk of the Ultimate Kronos Group (formerly Kronos) joins us to discuss Covid’s effect on industrial workplaces.

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Danny:

Hello, welcome to today’s episode on IndustrialSage. I am joined by Kylene Zenk who is the manufacturing marketing director at Kronos [which, since filming, has become Ultimate Kronos Group]. Kylene, thank you so much for joining me today on this episode. How are you doing?

Kylene:

Yeah, I’m doing great. Thanks for having me, Danny. It’s nice to be here.

Danny:

Well, I’m excited to jump in today’s conversation. We’re going to be talking a little bit about workforce development, which– challenges in the workforce right now, which, I don’t think there are too many. That’s a stupid joke. There’s a few going on. So, but for those who are not familiar with Kronos, if can you tell me a little bit about your organization, what you guys do, and what your role is?

Kylene:

Yes, so as you mentioned, I am the director of the manufacturing marketing practice at Kronos. So my role is really around developing and executing the go-to-market strategy to help educate and build awareness for how technology can help manufacturers and drive employee engagement and improve organizational performance.

Danny:

Great, well, there’s a lot going on right now, obviously, relative to COVID-19. Everyone knows, unless you’ve been living under a rock. And even then, I think it’d be difficult to not understand what’s going on. But relative to a lot of the changes that have been happening in the space, how have you seen industries shift this year relative to COVID-19?

Kylene:

Yeah, I think there’s been an interesting dynamic in manufacturing because the reality is, many organizations in manufacturing are essential businesses. So while they have had to shift and adapt to increased risk and concerns about health and safety, they’ve also had to maintain that business continuity in order to develop products that we need to support the global community, whether that’s food and pharmaceuticals or medical devices and different aspects. So I think the emphasis has been on maintaining business continuity, adjusting to supply chain disruption and other types of disruption, but most importantly, emphasizing the focus on health and safety of the workforce and creating an environment where employees feel safe coming to work who have to go to work.

Danny:

Yeah, exactly. It was interesting, and it’s funny. I still feel, you’re mentioning with the supply chain, we are still, there’s still a lot of effects that have continued to happen. Obviously, they are not as severe as they were initially back in March and April when– obviously, the great toilet paper run of 2020, which has yet to be discovered why– obviously, causing a huge chain. And you’re seeing that across several different products. I think I heard, I was listening recently, was it pickles and pepperoni, for example, was something that was on the list, right now, of– and it’s a revolving list– as these companies are trying to really adapt to what is going on. So when it comes to optimizing potential in the wake of this pandemic, what areas are manufacturers really struggling the most, and how can technology help to solve that, some of those challenges?

Kylene:

According to a recent study I read by Odin Technologies, 94% of manufacturers have experienced some change in demand, whether that’s, they’ve seen an increase for their products or a decrease because of people not making certain buying decisions at this time. So, regardless of how, whether it’s going up or down, manufacturers are having to figure out how to align labor to demand and really optimize their production schedules and processes while, at the same time, maintaining social distancing guidelines and so many other things. So I think that is incredibly challenging for manufacturers to think about. Scheduling the workforce is already really challenging in manufacturing. You have employees that have certain skills requirements or certifications that are needed to run equipment and things like that. There’s union policies and other regulatory requirements that you have to keep in mind around overtime.

And now you’re saying you have to make sure they’re six feet apart on a production line, and not all production lines are designed in a way that can be reconfigured as such, so you have to put up barriers and all these other things. So I think technology has been able to help a lot of organizations, particularly a lot of the clients we work with because they’re able to, now, think about how do they adapt their scheduling processes to align with those shifts. So, for instance, a lot of organizations are creating new shift patterns so that they can have smaller groups of employees working together. So you’re limiting the number of people that you’re interacting with at any given time. And we can help with, technology can help automate that process and make sure you’re taking all those considerations into play. Another factor a lot of organizations are doing is, there’s an increased pressure to have sanitization and different activities happen between shifts.

So if you’re bringing one group of employees out, you want to make sure you’re cleaning appropriately, so extending to time between shifts is something that a lot of people are doing. So, again, technology can help align those shifts and produce those breaks so that you make sure you have that appropriate time. And there’s also just concerns around the number of people that are lining up at the door to get in the facility or, in many cases in manufacturing, lining up to clock in. So how do you make sure that you have enough staggered time between shift start and end starts? You have all these employees that are coming in. That’s a major concern that everyone’s contending with. And as more and more regions continue to experience influxes and infections, it’s an ongoing cycle where you’re having to continuously figure out how to adapt to what the present day is bringing. So it’s definitely a bit of a challenge.

Danny:

That’s a very nice way of putting it, adapting it to what the present day is bringing you because everything is changing by the hour. Maybe it’s every two hours, now. It’s slowed down a little bit. But—

Kylene:

Just about.

Danny:

It totally depends. The reality of it is, what you’re talking about it from, the ability from being able to adapt it and having technology in place to be able to put these different things in place is one thing so that we can look at, from a health and safety standpoint. But you have this whole other pesky thing. Let’s talk about operational efficiency. Very early on, one of the first things that a lot of manufacturers were doing, was saying, like you mentioned, “Hey, we’re shifting schedules and shifts. We’re going to have a little bit of a delay.” Lunch was a big thing, breaks, times were being all staggered. And that’s great in certain areas except when you can’t do that or you’ve got, things are layered. And so, just from an output standpoint, you’re getting hammered even more, especially you’ve got a reduced workforce on top of trying to adhere and make a safe environment. But, yet, at the same time– so much to really consider. So I imagine having some sort of technology to be able to help optimize that and look at different areas and trends is pretty important.

Kylene:

Yeah, absolutely. I think your point is, a lot of companies are experiencing labor constraints right now. Employees are potentially sick. Many organizations have had to do layoffs or furloughs, and they’re working with a reduced headcount to begin with. So they’re trying to manage around all of that. So, really, it’s about optimizing your labor resources that you do have and aligning them to the work that needs to get done because, ultimately, you are trying to produce products in an efficient way. And in a way that’s high quality is always a major consideration as well. So I think technology can definitely play a role in optimizing the performance of your people and aligning your people to those production schedules and demand that you’re experiencing.

Danny:

Yeah, absolutely, 100% critical. So moving forward on that, in regards to creating those environments, managing a large, changing workforce, let’s talk a little bit about contact tracing. We hear about that a lot on the news in other industries, this is how we’re going to–when and if, essentially, you have an outbreak, how are you able to really isolate and basically, really mitigate the risks that you have associated with it? What has been your experience from Kronos’s perspective?

Kylene:

I think from Kronos’s perspective, we’ve actually introduced a contact tracing tool that’s part of our workforce management offering. But also, we’ve done some research and really fielded some research in this area as well, so I could talk a little bit about both those dynamics. We just completed a study in July. And our research found that 9 in 10 employees, actually, based in the US, we were focused on the US, believe that the employer has an obligation to let them know or notify them if they might have potentially come in contact with a coworker who has tested positive for COVID.

People are concerned about their health and their well-being, and they want to know. And at the same time, the employees recognize that, for an employer to know that information, there’s going to have to be some level of disclosure involved. And 86% of US employees, they’re also relatively comfortable with the idea of some type of employee-based, employer-based contact tracing. So providing that information is something they want and need. What’s a little bit disconcerting is that, according to another study by Mercer, who’s a consultancy in the benefits and labor space, they have said that only 54% of US companies are either planning or have already started to implement a contact-tracing program.

Danny:

Wow.

Kylene:

There’s a big discrepancy between what employees want and need to feel comfortable going to work and what a lot of organizations are actually planning to do. So I would say, from Kronos’s perspective, our philosophy is, in many cases, you’re already capturing information about your employees. We develop workforce management tools, so you capture where employees are through their schedules, what departments they’re working in, who else they’re working with. We capture time and attendance information. When are employees getting to work? When are they leaving? So you can have access to that information about where your employees are throughout the day and who they may have worked with so that in the event you are notified by one of your employees that they’re sick or potentially sick, you can let people know they should be starting to think about potential quarantines or testing and things like that. So the faster you can get the information out to your workforce, the more effective you’re going to be, as an employer, in reducing the risk of an infection which can have a detrimental impact on your entire business if you’re not able to control that quickly.

Danny:

Absolutely.

Kylene:

So contact tracing is critical to that development.

Danny:

Yeah, no, 100%. Good word, detrimental, really, to the operations there, if you’re not able to isolate very quickly and figure out so that, otherwise, if that takes over– We’re hearing stories, early on, where huge manufacturing facilities were getting, department of health was coming in and saying, “No, you’re shut down,” and hearing about tons of people calling out because they were sick. One thing that I’m curious about relative to the contact tracing piece, and this is something that, I’m curious about your perspective on this, and that actually is around HIPAA and privacy. Now, if it’s a little bit more generally accepted that, okay, if I suspect that I’ve got the coronavirus, I should go get tested and all that good stuff. But as it relates to notifying your employer, there’s a whole privacy component to that. Do you have any insights you can share with that from Kronos?

Kylene:

Sure. I don’t know if this is, necessarily, Kronos’s philosophy, but I can say from what I’ve learned in talking to some of our clients, what they’re doing is, in order to protect the individual privacy of any individual, they set up very specific protocols in terms of if you need to report a potential illness or illness, there’s usually some type of a generic hotline or number. So it’s not that you as an individual are talking to someone you know. And then, that information gets passed through the appropriate channels, the safety and compliance group particularly, or potentially HR because you’re right. Protecting people’s privacy is really important. So the contact tracing is not about identifying that Jim Smith might be sick. It’s about identifying someone that you worked with last shift could be ill, and we wanted to make you aware of that. So it’s certainly something that organizations are aware of, and you need to be thoughtful about.

Danny:

Yeah, great thought and consideration in terms of, for those organizations that haven’t set something. You mentioned, there was a pretty big stat of manufacturers who have not set these things in place to the extent that employees are hoping and expecting for. So that’s a great thought there. So, obviously, 2020, everyone would like to hit the reset button. Everyone wants to hit redo a little bit. There was a lot of initiatives and things in plants. A lot of manufacturers, in regards to workforce, I’m sure, were looking at implementing, and because of the disruptions, said, “Okay, we’re going to table this.” But what are some of those things that manufacturers need to be looking at that, it might not necessarily be an on-fire, immediate, urgent matter quite yet, but it’s probably, could be a little bit of a ticking time bomb, on a back burner. Are you seeing anything like that right now?

Kylene:

Yeah, one of the things I’ve been following for the past several years is the skilled labor shortage that is occurring in manufacturing.

Danny:

Yes, yes.

Kylene:

So pre-pandemic, organizations were struggling to find employees with the appropriate skillsets that are needed to do certain types of jobs. And we’ve done our own research in this area, and a number of organizations have said that either attracting or retaining talent was a problem. Well, that is going to get a lot more difficult in the next few years because a large percentage of the existing manufacturing workforce is going to retire. 25% of the manufacturing workforce is over the age of 55 and thinking about retirement in the next 5 to 10 years. And unfortunately, younger, the next generation of employees aren’t necessarily looking to manufacturing as the most viable career options. Manufacturing has a bit of a reputation challenge in terms of not being seen as an exciting or high-tech place to work. And for those of us that work in manufacturing, we know that’s not true. Technology’s all around us in the amount of digitization that’s happening on the plant floor and automation.

So manufacturers absolutely need to be thinking about, even with all the distractions of what’s happening today which are extremely important, how to build a talent strategy for the future. How do you think about, what are you doing as an individual organization to educate students in your local communities and build that talent pipeline? What can you do in that regard? Or how do you think about upskilling and retraining some of your current workforce to support roles that are going to be opening up in the future? So I think that talent management and talent supply chain idea is something that needs a lot of attention. And we can’t forget about it just because we have a lot going on otherwise. I think if we wait, it’s going to be too late. So just keeping that front-of-mind and recognizing that that challenge hasn’t gone away. It’s still going to be there when this all unfolds.

Danny:

Yeah, absolutely. That’s something that I do feel, personally, a little passionate about, or a lot passionate about because, like you mentioned, it’s almost like the manufacturing space has gotten a bad rep, and “I want the cool Silicon Valley.” “I want the cool marketing–” Well, I guess we are in marketing. But different; “I want to be in the B2C space,” and “I want to work in a technology software company.” I guess you guys are a software company here. But the reality of it is, is that there is amazing ingenuity going on right underneath our noses. And when people realize, when you look at the last 100 to 130 years of, let’s look at the US history from an engineering and ingenuity and innovation standpoint, it is amazing what we have accomplished, and that was largely due, in part, through R&D and innovation and engineering and manufacturing, right there.

Kylene:

100%, yeah, absolutely.

Danny:

So I get excited about it. And I think that, yes, it has gotten a bad rep. And I’m excited to see that challenge be solved. We’re starting to see it a little bit more, maybe pre-COVID. It’s still definitely going to be there. But it’s definitely a big thing. I agree 100% with you that it needs to be solved. But I think it can be, so that’s great. Alright, my last question: Is there any best practices or anything that we haven’t covered that you think that a manufacturing company or organization should be focused on right now?

Kylene:

Yeah, it’s tied a little bit to the last conversation we had around attracting that next generation and how to make manufacturing exciting, because it is exciting, but how to make people aware of that. I think the other thing that we need to be thinking about in manufacturing is how to create a better employee experience for the workforce. So I think traditionally, manufacturing management, there’s a lot of legacy, old-school mentality about manufacturing and shift work, and the reality is that the world of work is changing so much. Technology is impacting every aspect of our personal lives, and it’s starting to influence how we work and where we work and our ability to adapt. So that really influences the whole employee experience. Your employees are going to come into the plant or the facility and expect to have access to information. They’re able to look at their cell phones every, single day and get any bit of information they need, so they need the same access to information at work. So how do you empower them with information, is something that I think is really important, and also flexibility.

And this is an area a lot of manufacturers think, “Oh, we can’t provide flexibility to our hourly employees. They can’t work from home. They need to be there.” But if you create an environment where you have flexibility in terms of giving people input into which shifts they work or what jobs they work or just give them flexibility to make changes, if anything, we’ve learned during this COVID situation is, our lives have all changed dramatically. Outside of work, we’re all balancing family obligations and obligations with children. And so, you have to, as a manufacturing leader, think like a human being and recognize that your employees have this completely different experience happening outside. So how can you support them in that? Give them flexibility. If they need to request time off because they’ve got to take care of their kid or deal with homeschooling for the day, give them the opportunity to do that. Provide those easy avenues to make last-minute changes and adapt. Your employees will appreciate it a lot and know that you recognize the challenges they’re facing outside of work. So I think just thinking about a holistic employee experience and not just what they’re doing when they’re on the job, but how do you facilitate and create that work-life balance that many other employers and other industries are able to do. So if manufacturing can’t do it, it’s going to be challenging to attract talent when they can get it somewhere else.

Danny:

100%, absolutely, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, Kylene, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I really enjoyed our conversation. I learned a lot, especially how, one notable thing was how a lot of manufacturers have not put some of these practices into place. Obviously, rehashing and looking at the workforce attracting and retaining talent challenge. If an organization who is watching this say, “Hey, listen, we might need to talk to these guys,” what’s the best way? Should they go to your website? What’s the URL so they can find out more about you guys?

Kylene:

Yeah, easy enough, it’s kronos.com, K-R-O-N-O-S dot com.

Danny:

Perfect, alright, so we’ll make sure we put this in the show notes that companies can have access to that if that’s something they would like to learn more about. I’m sure you have lots of resources there. And yeah, thank you again, so much, for your time today.

Kylene:

Oh, thank you for having me. It’s been my pleasure, Danny.

Danny:

It’s been great. Alright, so that concludes today’s IndustrialSage episode. I am tired. It’s been a long day. But thank you for listening or watching. Listen, if you have not subscribed, you need to go to IndustrialSage.com right now, and you need to subscribe. Why? Because you’re missing out on all kinds of great content like this episode that we just had with Kylene, and so you can be a better manufacturer. You can be a better leader in the organization. We have news. We have insights. We have data, webinars, all kinds of things that you’re missing out. So go subscribe today. That’s all I got for you. Thanks for watching or listening. I’ll be back next week with another episode on IndustrialSage.

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