It’s 2022 and employee scheduling software is taking over. The days of creating schedules on Excel documents or manually scripting out a rota are long gone. They take too long to create, often lead to miscommunications, staff no-shows and keep you from doing other, more important work.
With cloud-based software, you don’t need to do anything manually and the time you can save will wow you! How can it benefit you and your business you might ask? Well keep reading to find out.
I’ll be sharing the top reasons as to why you need employee scheduling software in your business – and where to go to find the best solution for your business.
Employee scheduling, what is it?
Employee scheduling is not just about creating a simple rota. A successful schedule must take into consideration labour demand, factor in employee time off requests and unavailability, ensure proficient shift coverage to provide good customer experiences and be cost effective too. Encompassing all these factors will not only optimise business efficiency but it will keep your employees happier with more organised and structured business processes as well as happy customers.
Managers who rely on the old methods of rota scheduling will waste time, suffer from high retention and unhappy employees, loss of profits and so on. Transforming into the digital side can be the difference between a business that thrives and makes themselves stand out from the competition.
That is why employee scheduling software is essential.
So, employee scheduling software, what is that?
Employee scheduling software is a workforce management solution that automates your entire operational process.The software makes it simple to create staff work schedules, effortlessly track employee hours, manage shift-swaps, control labour costs and more all to meet the demands of your business.
The software takes into account; availability and preferences of staff, demand and fairness so the business can thrive, providing consistent results and high productivity levels.
Benefits of employee scheduling software
Honestly, there are SO many benefits to implementing an employee scheduling software into your business and don’t forget, it has an impact on your customers experience too!
Here are the key advantages:
Reduce labour costs by up to 10%
Often you will find businesses that aren’t using an employee scheduling software are either overstaffed or understaffed. They just can’t seem to find the balance between customer demand and the amount of staff to be put on the shift. The outcome of that has an impact on the experience of the customer; for example; too little staff could mean a slow service; there is only so much patience a person has. If you are overstaffed, this could lead to unhappy employees, for example; too many staff and quieter periods will lead to boredom. Also, overstaffing unnecessarily adds to your labour costs.
By matching staff to the demand, automated shift scheduling software can save between 5-10% of your labour costs. The software is a huge return on investment, allowing businesses to not only reduce wasted costs but to use these savings to invest into other areas of the business that can further benefit valuable ROIs.
Save 80% of admin time
Employee scheduling software is proven to reduce admin work by up to 80%. Your managers will have more time to focus on training their teams, implementing more agile practices, getting other important work done and doing what they do best; greeting and serving their customers.
A manager could easily spend 10-15 hours per week creating rotas, especially if they are in charge of a large number of employees and a number of locations. However, with online scheduling software, that time can be reduced to a number of minutes. With the simple ability to drag and drop shifts, copy previous weeks schedules and have everything in the one place, the process can be streamlined.
Improve productivity and retention
Employee scheduling software boosts employee happiness and promotes a better work-life balance. By giving employees the responsibility to submit their own preferences and availability into a system that is easy to use, employees will feel more valued as they have more control over their hours.
In return, this will have a positive impact on productivity in the workplace, and will also reduce staff turnover which as you know, can be an expensive issue for many shift-based businesses.
Because technology now has integration into virtually every aspect of our lives, it is easier than ever to honour this basic human need. A study at the McKinsey Global Institute revealed productivity improves by more than 20% when employees feel connected through regular communication with coworkers and management. When managers fail to foster a workplace culture that values communication, they risk losing staff—62% of employees who leave a workplace do so because of a lack of communication.
Time and again, these employees name three shortfalls:
1. Lack of direction from management
2. Poor overall communication
3. Ineffective communication of key internal and external changes
Types of employee scheduling software:
Not all employee scheduling software is the same.
Time and Attendance
Time and attendance (T&A) software is solely concerned with the employees on shift. In other words, it collects data on who’s clocked in, the time they arrived, if their shift was approved and the time they finished their shift. This type of workforce management software helps managers to streamline payroll systems and ensures staff are paid the right wages and on time.
T&A software is typically cloud-based, meaning it’s mobile-friendly and has the best userface. Businesses will however need to combine time and attendance technology with a shift rota software app as schedule creation is generally not included.
Workforce management specialists
Workforce management specialists are a best-of-breed approach to modern-day smart scheduling. Rather than offering a one size fits all solution, this type of software works alongside HCM and payroll with a user-friendly and generally seamless interface for simple integration into a company’s current operations. The software is therefore extremely flexible and suited to organisations across a variety of industries including retail, hospitality, healthcare and many other industries.
But most importantly, specialist employee scheduling technology is designed with a desk less workforce in mind. It doesn’t rely on inaccessible methods of communication (such as email) and instead works seamlessly across multiple devices, making it suitable for managers to get work done when they are on the go.
Workforce management technology is therefore the best scheduling software for the majority of businesses. Leading global brands including Costa, Planet Organic and the Guinness Storehouse have each optimised their employee management whilst reaping the benefits, saving valuable staff time and millions in ROI.
Want to find out more about employee scheduling software and what it can do for your business? Book in here.
Want to learn more about scheduling? Download our FREE Bizimply e-book on; ‘The Ultimate Guide to Scheduling’
At Bizimply, we are experts in scheduling. Our winning employee management software is trusted by some of the top brands from Costa Coffee to KFC.
Reach out to one of our business solution advisors today to learn more about what our scheduling software can do for your business.
