Being on time for work and being at work, is not always easy, but it’s always important. You are part of a team, and other people on your team rely on you coming to work every day and on time.

Being on time shows commitment to the job and this is one type of attribute that is looked for when considering promotions. Below is a list of steps to help you be on time, every time.

1. Prevent illness.

One of the most common reasons for absences at work is sickness – especially during a pandemic. While it’s not completely preventable, there are things you can do to reduce your chances of getting sick.

Make sure you and your family wash your hands to prevent the spread of germs. While in public, maintain some physical space from strangers (social distancing). Drink plenty of water, exercise, eat well, and be sure to get your vaccinations.

2. Prepare in advance.

Prepare for work the night before. Get your clothes ready for your shift or for special meetings. Make your lunch and have it ready in a bag so that you just have to grab it out of the refrigerator as you leave in the morning. Fill your gas tank on the way home from work rather than in the morning so you won’t have to stop in the morning.

3. Sleep is critical.

Getting enough rest is a pledge to help you achieve your punctuality and attendance commitment.

If you have trouble falling asleep, incorporate new habits such as dimming the lights, developing a routine like walks before bed, reading or drinking a soothing cup of decaffeinated tea. Aim for seven to eight hours of sleep every night to keep you healthy and energetic for the morning. The snooze button on your alarm clock can be your worst enemy. If you’re prone to hit it a few times before finally dragging yourself out of bed, set your clock earlier to give you enough time for two or three snoozes or toss it and get a clock that doesn’t come with a snooze button.

4. Emotional wellness is key.

Practice healthy habits such as reducing the amount of caffeine you drink at night, eating balanced meals, and exercising on a regular basis. You’ll have more energy, maintain a more positive attitude and be ready for the beginning of your shift.

5. Maintain a work-life balance.

Make sure you spend sufficient time with your friends and family and include hobbies and entertainment in your regular schedule. A significant amount of absenteeism on the job can be due to stress and/or dissatisfaction outside of work. If you don’t have a balance in your personal life, you may be unconsciously sabotaging your efforts at work by finding seemingly credible excuses to take a breather from responsibility.

6. Finally, set goals for yourself.

Sometimes it’s easy to get in a rut and it’s tempting to take a day or two off of work for a change. Instead of missing work, consider other ways to change your mix things up like setting goals and incentives for yourself. For instance, after a month of perfect attendance, reward yourself by going out to dinner with friends or do something special just for you.

This quarter’s theme is doing business communications right. There are many ways to interrupt ‘right’ when it comes to communications, and we are going to explore a few.

The golden rule of treat others as you want to be treated doubly applies to communications. Being polite reduces miscommunication, especially in business emails.

Finally, proofread your emails and do not assume your reader is going to understand the bigger picture. Get in the habit of checking your emails for grammar, spelling and style errors before hitting send.

We have all hit send too soon and realized there are typos after the fact. I hate that feeling. So, take the time
to send proofread emails. Similarly, make sure your message, email, text, or request is going to get the response or answer you are looking for. There is nothing more frustrating than sending a request by email and getting an ambiguous response.

For example, if I send an email to a supervisor saying “I’d like my break at 11am or 1pm”, I could get a response saying “OK”. Well, which is it – 11 or 1? Take the guess work out of the message for the reader and write something like “Please let me know if I can take my break at 11am or 1pm because I need to make a phone call.”

Spring is an exciting season, it is a time of Spring will also be a busy time for ASP with crossing awakening, rebirth and growth which brings with guards ensuring children’s safety from ice, rain, slush and it a level of optimism in us all. I am sure you are as through identifying and reporting damage to curbs or excited as I am to see the warmth and sunny days we have cross walks which have occurred over the winter months been longing for, finally arrive after a long winter.

Spring is a time to celebrate many multi-cultural holidays such as Easter, Passover, St. Patrick’s Day, Holi Festival, Shunbun No Hi, Mother’s Day, etc. as well as other special observance days, including Employee Appreciation Day and International Women’s Day, just to name a few.

Spring is also a time for renewal which is evident as we begin to see green shoots pop up and flowers and leaves appear. This year spring also brings a renewal of our personal lives and our business as we enter the phase of “living with COVID”. The decline in COVID infections and the lifting of many COVID restrictions is a positive sign of recovery – we can now see light at the end of the tunnel. Although we have all experienced some form of “pandemic fatigue”, as we move toward recovery, I urge you to take a moment to stop, reflect, re-engage and take stock of what we have learned and achieved.

March break is also the busiest travel period which means our aviation teams will be bustling with passenger flow/queue management, crowd control and customer services activities, which will be amplified by passenger confusion with changing COVID rules/restrictions as well as potential weather issues. Additionally, the warmer weather will result in a significant increase in people moving through Union Station, shopping at St Lawrence Market, etc. where we provide security services.

Take the opportunity to develop a more positive outlook during this season where flowers bloom and join me in jumping with both feet into the exciting world of optimism.

During peak times of the day, you may be waiting on hold to speak with a Workforce Scheduler. We all have busy lives and this can be frustrating. If you require immediate attention, you can alternatively contact your direct Supervisor or Manager. We also encourage you to email your requests and inquiries to scheduling@security-asp.com This email inbox is monitored from 06:00-21:00 every day and you can expect a reply within 12-24 hours depending on volume. Your questions and requests are important to us and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

inTime Scheduling App and Preferences

Never miss an available posting again using the inTime App. The inTime App improves communication by putting your schedule on your smart phone.

From the App you can:

• Sign up for shifts and overtime
• Apply for Leaves
• Sort and filter available postings
• Punch in and out

Have you set your Preferences?

Using your portal or inTime App, you can tell Workforce Scheduling when you prefer to work. When an individual shift is open or a long-term assignment becomes available your preferences are reviewed to assist scheduling.

Without having preferences set on your portal you may be overlooked. For more information regarding the app or if you require assistance it, please contact Workforce Scheduling Department.

inTime App Video Did you know there is an instruction video on how to use the inTime App? If your having difficulties or curious of the various functions available follow this link for more information: https://fast.wistia.net/embed/ channel/6gne3j7rl

For security reasons, every 40 days your password for the inTime app will need to be reset. Please follow the below directions to reset your password.

Never miss an available posting again using the inTime App. The inTime App improves communication by putting your schedule on your smart phone.

From the App you can:

• View your schedule. No more logging on to your desktop to see what days you’re working and when you have vacations. Easily make plans around your work schedule.
• Sign up for shifts and overtime
• Apply for leaves
• Sort and filter available postings
• Receive mobile alerts and notifications. Was there a change to your shift start time? The app will send you an alert as soon as a change made.
• Punch in and out

Have you set your Preferences?

Using your portal or inTime App you can tell Resource Planning when you prefer to work. When an individual shift is open, or a long-term assignment becomes available your preferences are reviewed to assist scheduling. Without having preferences set on your portal you may be overlooked.

For more information regarding the App or if you require assistance, please contact the Resource Planning Department.

Did you know there is an instruction video on how to use the inTime App? If you’re having difficulties or curious of the various functions available, follow this link for more information.

https://fast.wistia.net/embed/channel/6gne3j7rlf

During peak times of the day, you may be waiting on hold to speak with a Resource Planner. We are all busy in our day-to-day lives and this may cause some frustration. If you require immediate attention, you can alternatively contact your direct Supervisor or Manager. We also encourage you to email your requests and inquiries to scheduling@security-asp.com. This address is monitored from 05:00-00:00 every day and you can expect a reply within 12-24 hours depending on volume. Your questions and requests are important to us and we will do our best to respond as soon as possible.

As we navigate through COVID-19 as a company we have seen changes to the contracts that we support. Hours are decreasing in some areas, and in other areas demands for our services are drastically increasing. COVID-19 has also brought us a tremendous amount of new work involving screening, respite shelters, arrivals testing and the list goes on. With all this change due to the pandemic, understandably so, all these new demands were pushed on us very abruptly, with little notice.

We want our ASP family to understand that each call we receive is very important to us. There is not a call that is more valuable than another. In fact, our team cannot see who is waiting in the queue to speak with us. Our calls are routed by first call initiated to scheduling. This includes if our CEO, Dean were to call our scheduling line. He would have to wait just like everyone else for the next available scheduler. We treat every call with the same importance and do not want anyone to feel like they are being ignored because of extended wait times.

To help alleviate the current hold times you might be experiencing, our Resource Planning team wanted to share a few tips that could help you save time when contacting us. We also wanted to provide you with more insight on the contracts that we support daily. We acknowledge the wait time to speak with scheduling has increased due ¬to the recent staffing spikes and are working diligently to shorten the wait times. To help alleviate and manage these wait times, we are asking you to be prepared when calling scheduling.

Start the conversation off by letting us know your first and last name and the area and/or contract you typically work for with ASP. This helps us to zero in on the location you are more than likely going to need assistance in regard to your schedule. Currently, our team of schedulers support the following areas within ASP:

• Sudbury Airport – Aviation Security Services
• Pearson Airport – Aviation, Customer Service, & K9 services
• Commercial – Respite, TTC, Union Station, K9 Services, and much more
• Residential – Condominiums across the GTA
• Crossing guards – Over 310 locations across the GTA per day
• Billy Bishop Airport – Aviation Customer Service
• Ottawa Airport – Aviation Customer Service
• Calgary, Alberta – Aviation Security Services

Follow up with your ASP employee ID. Your employee ID is 4 digits in length and is probably the most valuable information you could give us as it makes for a quick and exact search in our system. You would be surprised with the number of employees who have the exact same name.

Most of the contracts we schedule for have all our available shifts posted on the inTime portal. We encourage everyone to review the available posted shifts and sign up for the shifts that fit your availability. This saves time for you and our team if you come prepared to discuss picking up shifts you see available. These shifts will list the start and end times, location, and date. This could be a great tool for you to use if you would like to build a schedule, or even if you are looking to pick up additional shifts.

Here is a sample of what we are hoping you could help us with:

Scheduler: ASP Scheduling, how may I help you?

Front Line Employee: Hi, I’m a Respite protection guard. My name is Amy Jones, employee ID: 5987

Scheduler: One moment while I pull up your file….How may I help you?

Front Line Employee: I saw a few shifts on the portal that I signed up for. Could you let me know if I can have those shifts assigned to me please?

We value and appreciate how flexible our front-line employees have been with the changing demands from our clients. It is because of you that we are able to deliver on our staffing requirements on a daily basis. We will continue to need to work together in the spirit of our ASP family philosophy in order to be successful.

Help Us Help you! We look forward to hearing from you soon.

For security reasons, every 40 days your password for the inTime app will need to be reset. Please follow the below directions to reset your password.

“Every 40 days, your inTime app password will need to be reset.”