Simplify Employee Shift Scheduling

Is your organization still using spreadsheets to track employee shifts, or even less effective, paper schedules only to get frustrated every time a change occurs?

Managing employee schedules can be one of the most difficult and time-consuming aspects of running any company. Whether it’s retail, healthcare, construction, or hospitality, most managers in those industries will agree nothing causes them more headaches than shift scheduling. Trying to create a schedule that accommodates employee requests, while ensuring that the needs of the business are met can take days or longer.

But there is an easier way.

Shift scheduling software can save you time and money, as well as virtually eliminate all your headaches, streamlining the employee scheduling process so that you can handle whatever challenges may come along, including shift changes, shortened work weeks, and employee absences.

How to Choose the Best Shift Scheduling Software

With many employee scheduling software options available, it’s important to choose the right one for your organization. Here are our top four considerations:

Cloud-based or not?

When it comes to scheduling software you can choose between having a proprietary software solution designed specifically for your company and then maintaining it in-house, or you go look for a cloud-based solution that gives you all the same tools and benefits at a fraction of the cost. Learn more about Local Hosting vs. Cloud Hosting in our article – How to choose time and attendance software.

By choosing cloud-based shift scheduling software, on top of the cost savings, you’ll get more flexibility compared to hosting on a local server so that when the time comes and you need to upgrade, a cloud-based service can meet your needs instantly – without the hassle of a complicated and time-consuming update to your IT infrastructure.

Easy to Use

Investing in a software solution to automate shift scheduling is only a game changer if you choose software that your employees and managers can easily use and understand. That’s why it’s important to choose a shift scheduling tool that features a user-friendly interface and offers the familiar features they’re already using, like drag-and drop functionality.

An easy-to-use shift scheduler can give managers instant access to the information they need to determine whether or not to increase the number of employees on a particular shift or to determine whether employees are actually following their assigned shift schedules.

Furthermore, you should look for a solution that gives shift employees access to a user-friendly employee portal so they can easily login to see their own scheduled and worked hours, eliminating discrepancies over actual time worked and time paid.

Flexible and customizable

Not all companies with shift employees work the same way. You need to ensure your solution isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.  A robust shift scheduling solution will let you easily define the scheduling parameters specific to your business, such as tracking employee start and end times, combating unauthorized overtime and determining who qualifies for holiday pay.

Scalable

Another important criteria to consider when choosing employee scheduling software is scalability. While organizations of all sizes can benefit from a time and attendance solution, smaller organizations have different tracking requirements than larger companies or those companies that have multiple locations. The solution you choose should be available in different configurations addressing your specific requirements today and in the future. No need paying for functionality you don’t need until you actually need it.

YOUR TURN

What challenges does your organization face when it comes to shift scheduling? How have you addressed those challenges?

We encourage your thoughts on this topic in the comment section below, and if you found this article helpful feel free to share to your networks.

For more information on Midex Time Control, check out one of our online demos or sign up for a FREE, no-obligation, 30-day trial.