A well planned out employee schedule is requisite to running a successful business. When employees know what their weekly schedule looks like and what you expect them to achieve from this schedule, they will get into a routine and plan the other parts of their lives around it.
This will increase productivity. And as you already know the more productive your employees are the better your ROI will be.
Therefore, in this article, I am going to show you how to create an employee schedule that works and how to manage it efficiently…
Get rid of the outdated pen and paper method:
If you are still using the pen and paper method to manage employees, I recommend that you stop doing it. The problem with writing down everything on a piece of paper or book is that it can get lost or damaged very easily. Also, it provides the employees to cheat as they can easily clock in their friends.
A better alternative is to use an employee scheduling app that works on both desktops and mobile devices. The data you collect from here cannot be easily lost as it will be backed up in the cloud. Also, employees won’t be able to clock in their friends as modern software will only let employees clock themselves in through face or fingerprint recognition software.
Your employees will also not need to visit the place of work to see the schedule as they can view it on their mobile devices. The app will also notify them if the schedule is changed. It makes it easy for them to prepare in advance.
Related: Best Meeting Minutes Software Solutions for Your Company
Understand what each employee needs:
What makes your employees happy should be taken into account while creating your schedule as companies with happier employees outperform the competition by 20%.
So, interview each employee to see what type of schedule will make them happier. As work is a team effort it is also necessary that you interview the team members together. Some important questions you need to ask your employees are what shifts they prefer, who they prefer working with, how many breaks they want, etc.
It might be hard to remember what each employee wants. So, make sure you find an employee scheduling app that lets you add this information. You will be able to see what each employee wants while creating the schedule.
Release schedules in advance:
You should begin preparing the schedule 3 to 4 weeks in advance and release it at least 2 weeks before. Work might take up a good portion of your employees’ everyday lives. But they spend more than two thirds of it away from work. Hence, it will make it easy for them to plan the rest of their lives in properly. If they planned to take a day off or go on a vacation, they will also inform you in advance. This will give you plenty of time to make changes and/or find replacements.
If you release the schedule in the last minute, you risk making your employees unhappy. Many will get back to you for changes. Making these changes and finding temporary employees to cover leaves will be a chaotic process for you.
Make use of data:
You will probably not create the best employee schedule in your first attempt. But you shouldn’t worry about this because as time passes by your employee scheduling software will amass a ton of data.
You will know various things like the timings your employees really prefer, which employees you need to keep and which to let go, the replacements you need to hire (who will suit your schedule better) and many more important details.
So, keep your eyes peeled on your scheduling software’s analytics section. Some of the software even have AI which will automatically analyse your data, predict what will work for your company and suggest employee schedules.
Hire an expert:
There are several experts out there who know how to get the most out of employees and the data your scheduling software collects. You can hire one for a month or two to train your managers so that they can manage their employees schedules better.
Now use these tips to manage your employees’ schedules
These are my top tips to manage your employees’ schedules. Follow them and you will see an improvement in attendance, employee happiness, productivity and profits.
