For organizations with a large and diverse workforce, the single most effective strategy to boost productivity and immediately raise profits is through efficient scheduling procedures. It is only through proper employee management that a business can expect to get the best out of its workforce. Because of this, lots of thriving businesses have turned to new and improved resources, such as workforce scheduling software, to improve their management skills.
A schedule generator, also referred to as an online scheduler or employee scheduling software, is a popular example of a workforce scheduling solution most successful companies are using today to improve employee efficiency.
With web-based scheduling software, a business can maximize employee productivity through:
- Painless scheduling. Automated scheduling systems, such as online schedule generators, are fast and can be accessed from anywhere. These systems create complete schedules within seconds, and they can also send schedules to the entire workforce within minutes.
- Notifying employees when they need to work. Companies that use a schedule generator find employees are less likely to miss work. This web-based scheduler emails work schedules to employees as soon as they are posted and even can even send text message reminders to their mobile phones hours before their shifts start. This gives them enough time to comfortably prepare for their shifts. Employees also get to access their schedules 24/7 by logging onto the schedule generator. Some schedulers even allow employers to see when an employee was last notified of an upcoming shift, so they won’t be able to use the excuse that they didn’t know they were scheduled anymore!
- Balancing employee requests. An automated schedule generator provides a platform where employees can set their notification preferences, change their availability and request time off. An advanced schedule generator provides optimized schedules—never over- or under-staffed—while keeping the workforce happy and satisfied.
- Improving workforce satisfaction. There are many ways to boost staff satisfaction, but remembering their requests for time off, vacations, sick days and other schedule changes is an easy way to increase morale. With an automated schedule generator, forgetting employee requests or losing their paper-based request becomes a thing of the past. As soon as a request comes in, the schedule generator stores it safely for the manager to address when it is convenient.
- Monitoring labor costs. Reports are vital when it comes to managing any retail, hospitality or foodservice business. A schedule generator compiles various reports that enable businesses to monitor scheduling needs and labor costs, among other needs. Managers can then weigh theoretical costs against actual costs, identify the employees or departments that are gobbling up the largest portions of their labor costs and observe real-time profits through charts, graphs and much more.
- Easing communication. A schedule generator makes it possible for managers or management teams to send instant messages and notifications to an entire workforce with just one click. With this easy messaging option, the need to call employees reduces drastically, and so does the telephone bill.
- Reducing employee turnover. When managers or scheduling teams fail to adhere to employee requests, it can cause employees to become frustrated and can even result in high turnover. A schedule generator helps control employee turnover by recording all requests and availability changes and ensuring they’re taken care of.
- Wiping out scheduling conflicts. Since a scheduling generator sends all types of employee requests to whoever is making or adjusting a schedule, it’s unlikely for a scheduling conflict to take place. In the event that a conflict does occur, the software notifies management immediately. If, for example, an employee who had vacation time approved gets scheduled anyway on accident, the schedule builder will automatically notify the schedule-maker.
- Simplifying shift swapping. In most cases, switching shifts with someone can be time-consuming and inefficient. Without software, a single shift swap might call for four phone calls or more—between coworkers, to the manager, etc.—time that could have been spent better elsewhere. With a schedule generator, employees get to give up and pick up shifts easily with an app on their smartphones—no more frantic phone calls or endless emails.
- Age-based scheduling. With a schedule generator, businesses that hire minors no longer have to worry about scheduling minors to work hours forbidden by the law or scheduling them for too many hours per week. A good schedule generator will come with an age rule module that makes it possible for businesses to easily comply with age-related labor laws.
Old school scheduling processes are not only extremely time-consuming, but they are also repetitive and labor intensive. Retrieving or extracting important reports with such systems can also be a chore that slows down day to day operations of your business. Using a schedule generator makes it easier than ever to save on labor costs and optimize workforce.
This post is sponsored by Altametrics