Trying to schedule your staff in such a way that meets the needs of every shift and gives everyone plenty of hours without interfering with other responsibilities or employees’ day-to-day lives is not just tricky; it can be impossible. We live in a day and age when we do not have time to commit to the actions we want.
Not only that, but it’s a massive drain on time and resources and comes with a whole host of problems. So, you can see that this is a pretty big problem that requires your attention. Fortunately, some tools can make the process simpler and faster so that your business can focus on more important things, like making money. Also, using them is not as complex as it may seem.
By using these we can ease the stress that can start rising significantly when certain conditions are not met. A vast majority of these conditions address the lack of time to complete all the obligations we face every day. Employee scheduling software like the one from buddypunch.com is one of those tools and automates many logistical processes that otherwise take time.
In terms of worker shifts, an employee scheduling tool makes the entire shift creation process much more simplistic so that many of the incurred problems are avoided outright. Now, we would like to provide you with some of the commonest problems workers can face, and how can they be efficiently prevented.
Common Scheduling Problems
Here is a quick look at some of the more common scheduling problems and how they come about.
- Last-minute scheduling or being late releasing the schedule
- Scheduling the wrong employees for the inappropriate shifts
- Having employees pull back to back shifts
- Overscheduling staff or forcing overtime
- Unfair or uneven scheduling
- Making team transitions difficult due to poor scheduling
Making a schedule is about a lot more than just assigning a particular employee to a specific shift. When crafting a schedule, there are many things to consider, and the more time it takes, the more energy and resources are wasted. All of these difficulties we’ve named start small, but they can escalate relatively quickly if attended to properly.
Using this sort of software can provide you with enough control over tasks, and a possibility to overcome any holdups that eventually pop up. It needs to be said that some of them are unexpected. For that reason, the management needs to act appropriately when needed. We cannot think of a better way to do it than to use software that can provide appropriate answers to these questions.
Control Absenteeism with Better Scheduling
If you make your schedule at the last minute or make it without considering the workers involved in the schedule, this can lead to a higher than normal absenteeism rate. If the worker is not present at the workplace when needed, that can lead to a wide array of diverse hitches. The most obvious one is that keeping the level of discipline will simply not be as easy.
As we all know, any organization out there doesn’t worth much if there’s no discipline that creates the right sort of balance. Some would presume that working discipline is something that’s achieved immediately, but when you scratch the surface, you will see that it is not something that can be achieved easily, without investing a lot of effort into it.
Sometimes it’s not about whether an employee wants to make it to work; it’s about whether or not they can do so because their schedule was made without considering their needs and without being given to them in a timely fashion. This can make the entire team’s time tracking complicated and confusing for managers and employees alike and lead to lost profits and lowered productivity.
Employee scheduling software makes it much easier to accommodate employees by making scheduling faster and simpler. Not only does it make it easier to create schedules in the first place, but it makes it much easier to do adjustments if employees run into problems. Having a solution in front of you at any time makes any challenge much simpler than it may look at first.
Using an employee scheduling system enables staff to talk to their managers and iron out any details. If they need to be absent, they can discuss it rather than just blindly missing a shift. You will certainly agree that presenting the management with this sort of information upfront can prevent many headaches, both for the organization and a particular worker.
Avoid Unnecessary Overtime and Unfair Scheduling
Another significant issue that many companies run into is having certain employees get more hours than others or working well past the normal amount of scheduled hours. Every hard work needs to be rewarded from time to time. Sadly, we can see that a lot of organizations do not pay attention to this aspect. But those who do, know how beneficial this can be down the road.
Let’s face it, hours are precious to employees, and while it may be tempting to prioritize good workers, it is not fair to the rest of the employees and leads to a ton of unnecessary overtime. This alone can cost a business a ton of money; besides, it breeds resentment amongst employees and makes certain employees feel privileged while others feel undervalued.
It directly causes an imbalance that can lead to many more problems in the future. So, preventing it from happening should be a priority for all the organizations out there. We understand that it is not always easy to do that, but striving towards achieving a proper level is an absolute must if you ask us. Still, that doesn’t there are no reports or studies that can confirm this claim of ours. In fact, there are a plethora of them you can take a look at.
Employee scheduling software makes it so that managers can see who is being scheduled for what hours at a glance and makes balancing out the schedule much more straightforward. That way, everyone can be given a fair amount of hours, overtime can be cut down or eliminated, and employees will feel like they are treated relatively because certain employees can’t take all the hours out from under the rest of the employees.
Scheduling and time clock software can help your business overcome many problems that occur due to poor scheduling. With more and more time clocks and scheduling software are being created, there’s no doubt you can find a solution that meets your needs. You just need to know where to look, and how to use particular software to your benefit.
In Conclusion
As you can see, many problems can arise from not having a proper balance within your organization. In this article of ours, we’ve provided you with an answer to a majority of these questions. Paying attention to these finesses can help you a lot, you can be sure of that. We’re sure you will find this insight useful.
