There are on the market great staff planning solutions that can help you get things done effectively. So why not use them? In case you are still not convinced of the power and usefulness of an employee scheduling solution, I prepared a list of benefits that might convince you to take the leap.
TIME TRACKING
The first and main benefit of an employee scheduling solution has to do with time tracking. You will be able to schedule and track every hour an employee spends on a specific task. This ability will help you in many ways. First, you will be able to measure employees’ productivity by knowing how many hours they spent on a task. Second, you can manage employee attendance issues effectively. If there a schedule in place, you will noticed quickly when an employee is often late, or absent. This way you will be able to take effective measures to fix the issue.
Being able to track employee time will also help you account for overtime. You can prevent issues related to American labor laws for instance. The American law about overtime has new rules. Therefore you will want to think thoroughly about your employee overtime policy and protect the company from any law violation. Some of the new rules such as having your employees’ approval, strict payment of extra hours…might not be in accordance with their contract, but they are simple to enforce using a time tracking software.
AUTOMATED STAFFING ADJUSTMENTS
The second benefit is what I would call the holy grail of employee scheduling, which is quick reaction to sudden changes. When I think about it, I don’t know how companies do it without an employee scheduling solution (they probably are geniuses). They spend a great amount of time scheduling on spreadsheets and at the end they get hit by a last minute event such as an employee absence or a broken machine, then the whole schedule has to be done all over again (really?!!). But, with an employee scheduling solution, this pain can just go away. You will be able to adapt quickly to sudden changes and notify everybody in a few clicks. If the staff scheduling tool you select is flexible enough, you won’t have to worry about making changes in your schedule because other alternatives will always be available.
MAXIMIZED RETURNS
As I said earlier, employees are your business’ most important resource but they also are your largest expense. A good employee scheduling solution will help you balance payroll costs and max out staff utilization. It is all about putting the right person on the right task, with the right equipment, at the right time. For instance, unnecessary overtime can be prevented with an employee scheduling solution. In a few clicks you can, indeed, find the right person with the right competency that will complete a task in less time than estimated. Time and money will therefore be saved.
Moreover, even your own time will be maximized. Instead of losing too much time scheduling on spreadsheets, you will do it quickly on your employee scheduling software. You can spend the time you have left on other tasks.
EMPLOYEE JOB SATISFACTION AND RETENTION
A lot of studies on employee motivation showed that being motivated at work does not only come from good money. If you want your employees to go that extra mile in their job, they need recognition from management. We all know that sloppy scheduling can have bad consequences on your employees and leaving the company can be one of them.
A great way to prove that you care about their condition at work would be to set up a “self-service” portal through the employee scheduling solution. An access to the employee scheduling solution will give them a sense of belonging to the company and also a sense of freedom. They will be able to schedule their own task, ask day offs and express any job-related demands. The most efficient solutions on the market will offer a built in self service portal and make it available on mobile, so employees can do all that from anywhere.
MANAGE COMPETENCY & APPRAISALS
Assigning an employee to a task is good, but scheduling the best employee for a task is better. An employee scheduling solution enables you to list and save all the competencies an employee has and to follow their evolution. You will be able to see at a glance, who’s the most fitted for the task or who needs training. Some employee scheduling solutions even offer the possibility to research an employee by competency which makes scheduling easier when a task requires a specific competency.
You can also create individual career plans to manage promotion offers. You’ll be able to give to your employees a sense of what they’re worth on the market. Likewise, annual appraisals are essential for both you and the employee and need to be scheduled effectively. An employee scheduling solution allows you to schedule annual appraisals in accordance to the employee schedule. You keep track of the previous appraisal in order to measure achievements.
GENERAL COMMUNICATION PLATFORM
Communication is the basis of any well functioning team. It has to go both ways between management and operations but also between employees too. An employee scheduling solution will make communication between all parties very simple and encourage collaboration. Most employees scheduling solutions offer dedicated forums, chat rooms, e-mails or text notifications features. They facilitate internal communication and collaboration. Communication with employees has never been that easy.
BETTER RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Whether your company goes through an important turnover or not, it is important for the well being of your company to have a planned and structured recruitment process. Recruiting a new employee is obviously an important investment, not only in terms of money but also of time (and since time is money, you can see why it’s important). Prepare, schedule your recruitment sessions and plan the on-boarding process for new hires with an employee scheduling solution for a better visibility of what you need and how you are going to get it.
ESSENTIAL METRICS TO RELY ON
As a manager, metrics & reports are essential to you. Lucky you, because rare are the employee scheduling solutions that come without a reporting feature. Thanks to those metrics you will be able to evaluate your employees’ productivity and performance, workloads, rate of attendance, costs… Based on all the information entered in the employee scheduling solution, the reporting features will help you make the right decisions when it comes to long-term forecasting of workloads and hires. As a result, you will be equipped to forecast your company’s next steps.
It is clear that an employee scheduling software is an essential tool to foster quick and healthy growth. Effective time management, maximized returns, better recruitment process and better decision making are benefits that you can’t afford to miss. So why not get yourself a centralized and powerful employee scheduling solution where you can put all your HR data without having to get lost into paperwork? Some employee scheduling solutions can also offer useful extra features such as mobility, payroll creation, integration with other solutions…All of which will help you do more than scheduling but also drive your entire workforce to the next level like a boss.
