Employee Scheduling: Dated Mindsets and How to Challenge Them

HR managers overwhelmed by employee scheduling turn to WorkForce Software to increase efficiency, improve productivity, and modernize their workforce.

Determining which employees will work which shift is often a challenging task for managers. Employee scheduling requires managers to understand the organization’s workforce, specifically the employees’ skill sets and certifications, to match the right worker with the right task.

Different types of workers have different needs. A one-size-fits-all employee scheduling approach, while tempting for simplicity’s sake, essentially ignores the needs of the workforce.

WorkForce Software solutions help managers respond quickly to disruptions in the workforce, featuring fair and predictive employee scheduling tools that gather valuable data on workers’ skills and hours worked. Managers can make use of this data to meet their employees’ needs adequately while helping to create an appropriate work/life balance.

Our scheduling tools also retain the necessary focus on compliance, which can be a constantly moving target. It can be difficult to keep track of every detail to ensure operations are meeting regulatory requirements. The right employee scheduling programs can help navigate these challenges, keep the organization compliant, and maintain worker satisfaction.

WorkForce Software helps managers take a modern approach to employee scheduling to fully support the different teams in your workforce. This reduces discrepancies between worker types, eliminates unnecessary competition for hours, and decreases the chaotic and unproductive nature of manual employee scheduling. The software can also assist with ensuring a productive mix of employees to encourage collaboration and address both the needs of the business and its workers.

WorkForce Software can help modernize the employee scheduling of deskless shift workers in a variety of verticals, including manufacturing, retail, education, the public sector, healthcare, hospitality, and business services.

Employee Scheduling By Skill-Level

One way that our solutions modernize employee scheduling is by factoring in employee skill-level. Managers can be strategic and intentional by including workers with more experience in the same shifts with workers who are newer, scheduling employees who have the strengths and weaknesses to complement each other. This strategy creates a balanced environment where co-workers learn from and with one another.

Additionally, managers can factor in other aspects to ensure they schedule the right workers for each shift. With digital scheduling capabilities, managers can also look at qualifications, updated certifications, and availability to configure dynamic employee scheduling. Using these competency criteria will help ensure only workers who are a fit for the job are scheduled.

With WorkForce Software, employers have access to a complete worker profile allowing them to log in and update their own employee data. The employee profile tracks shift history and other performance indicators. This employee-generated information also helps the system to identify workers best suited for each project.

Employee Scheduling By Multiple Groups

Another benefit of WorkForce Software’s solution is its ability to assist with employee scheduling for different groups of workers. Not all labor is alike, and organizations may have a combination of full-time and part-time deskless shift workers. Each employee type has different requirements in minimum and maximum hours according to labor laws. Workforce management programs enable managers to ensure consistency and compliance.

Let’s consider several scenarios to showcase how these tools can assist with scheduling:

Scenario 1: A retail store staffed with part-time and full-time workers and two managers:

WorkForce Software calculates the number of part-time workers to schedule for each shift based on the tasks required and the hours needed. A project that requires twenty-five hours could be completed in one day by five part-time workers, each working five hours.

For full-time workers, the manager could schedule three full-time workers to work eight-hour shifts. The goal of employee scheduling with WorkForce Software is to meet the demands of both the organization and the employee.

Scenario 2: A manufacturing project that requires workers with at least three years of experience and specific ASQ certifications:

WorkForce Software can identify qualified workers to include in shifts and eliminate workers who do not meet the minimum requirements, acting as a safety net to ensure compliance with all processes and procedures necessary to avoid legal risks and fines.

The software also helps enable more flexibility with different types of workers and documenting their shifts. Employees can enter their own time into the system including blocking off their availability and noting hours worked. Managers can verify the data and use it to plan for future employee scheduling. This is especially important for seasonal workers.

Scenario 3: Partnering more experienced workers with new hires:

Employee scheduling can be modified to realize this balance of experienced and inexperienced staff. If the objective is to increase sales and productivity, employee scheduling can be created around high-performing and reliable deskless shift workers.

If the goal is to optimize labor spend and reduce office space even further, the organization may choose employee scheduling based on a combination of their availability and business needs.

Productivity, Efficiency, and Optimization

Some key considerations for managers when creating employee scheduling strategies for deskless shift workers involves being flexible, predictable, and accessible. These workers need employee scheduling tools that help them plan their work/life balance and have access to their employee data.

Employees need to know that their availability and requests for time-off will be acknowledged and factored into the employee scheduling process each week. When employees feel employers are responsive to their needs, they are likely to be more engaged, productive, and loyal to your organization.

WorkForce Software’s scheduling capabilities deliver the flexibility employees expect with the coverage employers want including:

• Gives employees visual access to their schedules, clearly displaying when they are expected to work. It can show weekly, biweekly, and even monthly schedules. Once employee scheduling has been entered, managers can use previous shift information to create future shifts. Knowing when they will work helps employees plan their lives around their work schedules, which is crucial for a healthy work/life balance.
• Accessibility from a desktop, phone, or any devices with an internet connection. Employees can review their schedules, note changes, updates, and even claim available schedules. They can review previous shifts and confirm any information already entered.
• Provides managers the means and technology to intelligently manage the often overwhelming process of employee scheduling. The software helps with managing shifts and planning for time-off requests in an precise and efficient way.

Support Different Teams and Strengthen Employee Experience

With all of these benefits, WorkForce Software offers the tools managers need to provide flexibility in employee scheduling while helping to meet employee and employer needs. Built for managers that want to easily and quickly create, adapt, and monitor employee schedules while giving workers more flexibility and control.

Powerful data gathering functions, ease of communication, compliance cognizant, and employee satisfaction focused — learn what it can do for your organization today.