Every business owner knows the struggles and time it takes to put together a schedule. It requires careful planning, consideration, and often, you find yourself calling and chasing your employees to ensure they can work certain shifts (often at the last minute).
If you’re still using pen and paper, then you are used to crossing out names, using whiteout in the hope of creating the perfect schedule. Even with Excel, you have to go back and update your spreadsheets until your team is satisfied. And even after all that you can’t guarantee all your staff will be happy.
Therefore, managers are looking for new ways to schedule. They look for a tool that not only makes sense but is affordable. We’ve gone into businesses like yours to find out why scheduling software would be a good tool for you.
1) Prone to Mistakes
When your employee needs to make changes to their schedule, it means they have to call. And when you aren’t yet digitized, you leave a lot of room for error. In addition, altering the schedule can be time-consuming when using Excel or pen and paper. A solution needs to be a system whereby employees and managers alike can adapt without relying solely on traditional methods such as texting and phone calls.
2) Choose the Right Scheduling Software
When you are looking for the right tool to replace your outdated scheduling methods, it’s time to look for an employee scheduling app. You can save money, time and wave goodbye to scheduling errors, just by getting some digital help.
Apps such as Connecteam make scheduling much smarter and easier. You can schedule your employees’ shifts from your mobile device or desktop, meaning you are able to send, update and assign schedules even while on the go! You can even add checklists, detailed notes, videos, and more onto each individual employee shift description.
By using scheduling software, you can save all those scheduling headaches, such as staff complaints, unavailability and even save yourself time by chasing people and constantly redediting the planned schedule.
With scheduling software such as Connecteam, you can approve sick and vacation time right from the app itself. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about last-minute changes and employees waiting around for your updates and shift assignments. You can even leave open shifts for staff to claim for themselves based on their availability without you even needing to be involved (much less, play phone tag). In addition, you can build a schedule via drag and drop, or even copy and paste, so you can create schedules in mere minutes instead of hours. Scheduling has never been easier!
3) No Printing Involved
When your business is run manually (perhaps via platforms like Excel), any adjustments need to be quickly distributed to all employees. That might mean you need to print out the schedule with every update, and in this day and age, that’s going to waste a lot of printing ink and paper!
Using scheduling software means you can send any updates to your employees’ smartphones. The reminders include their latest schedule along with any alterations. You can also make changes in real-time, instead of having to find a computer (or worse, pen and paper) and then redistributing all the schedules manually, or via email. A pro tip: check that the scheduling software you opt for is user-friendly so that your employees can use it with ease.
4) Better Communication
Communication done right makes all the difference to the way a business is run. It’s the difference between a team that is productive and one that isn’t. Scheduling correctly can make all the difference to employee engagement, meaning keeping employees looped in, and even taking ownership over their schedules (especially declaring their availability). As soon as a change is made, employees will receive a push notification to update them, streamlining everyone involved.
5) Happier Employees
If you are choosing a software, think about how your employees will feel using it, and if it will give them the feeling of ownership they’re looking for. This could be by offering them chances to claim shifts, or by being able to set themselves as unavailable at certain times. It reduces stress and the fear of the unknown, as your employees know what to expect and feel involved in the process.
The Bottom Line on Employee Scheduling Software
Running a business is a lot more complicated than just providing your customers a product or service. It’s all about keeping your team happy and it can be challenging to get the right balance. However, when you step into your employees’ shoes and you show that their scheduling needs are important to you, they’ll feel valued. Therefore, if you are still manually running your business, it’s time to think again!
Taking on a scheduling software can do a lot more than just provide employees with their schedules. It shows your employees that they’re appreciated and thought of as people, not just employees to be told where to be and when. Scheduling effectively means that projects can be completed on time, and everyone knows what is expected of them. You also cut down time, errors, and scheduling is no longer a thing to dread!
