When it comes to owning a business, large or small, creating the perfect work schedule is something many managers strive to do. Of course, there will always be implications that come with balancing work-life and de-conflicting schedules. However, technology has increased the effectiveness of planning around these events with in-app communication and private messaging.
The best work schedules should have every shift with the appropriate number of people working in every available role. Be aware of peak hours and festivities that could potentially cause a spike in customer activity while planning. All your staff should be accounted for.
The three most common mistakes that employers make when making their schedules are:
1. Scheduling a worker twice, working in different positions
2. Scheduling an employee with a task they haven’t performed before or been trained to do so yet
3. Under-scheduling or over-scheduling certain employees
With businesses and teams learning to work more independently or at home, scheduling people for particular projects and different shifts can be confusing and even overwhelming.
Here are some of the things you should consider when deciding on a scheduling App
1. The app must be able to create both a fixed shift and varying shifts.
The ability to create fixed shifts from templates is very important. We define a fixed shift as having the same start and end time each day, such as an opening shift from 8 am to 2 pm on weekdays, and 10 am to 2 pm on weekends.
The best in class business will do so to optimise for manpower spend to match business demands. With a fixed shift, you control when your staff appear for work at specific start times and end times when you need them the most.
The ability to create varying shift is equally important. We define a varying shift as that opening shifts slots are often different. For instance, one Monday might be from 8 am to 1 pm, whilst other Mondays might be from 8 am to 3 pm. Many a time, this is due to circumstances than choice, due to the scarcity of manpower and reduction on overtime usage. With the varying shift, you can get your extra manpower for busy nights or seasonal fluctuations!
Which of these shift types does your business use? We bet both. Hence, a good scheduling app must allow you to do both!
2. Allow for colour coding
Imagine how it would be like you have more than five shifts of different categories without any differentiator in which shift belongs to which category. Colour coding helps us to quickly identify shifts in a glance which allow us to have a better overview of our schedule and enable us with a quicker visualization when we are allocating our schedule.
3. Able to make last-minute edits
Have you ever come across a situation where you need to redo your schedule midway during the week?
We understand that operations are fluid and there are many instances where we will need to edit last min shift changes. There will be situations where your staff might not be able to make it or would need to extend/shorten their shifts. If all of these are not done properly, the work at the end of the month will be painful when you need to go through countless of hours re-consolidating the time-sheet together with the schedule
The Best Work Scheduling App is…
StaffAny!
StaffAny is a scheduling app with a vision to create a productive workplace environment, anytime and anywhere. Made for businesses who want to scale, StaffAny is like a personal assistant that keeps track of your employee’s timesheets and work schedules.
Better manage your manpower budgets, track overtime hours, and see everyone’s schedules – all on one single screen. Schedules can be easily amended and sent to your staff with a single click. Instantly notify your team of any changes to your work schedule. Part of a productive workplace is a connected workforce – how StaffAny envisions the future of the hourly workforce.
We understand that it can be painful scheduling your staff and tracking their work hours with Excel sheets and pen-and-paper. Fortunately, automation has once again made the job easier, so businesses can be more productive. Schedule a call with us today to find out how we can help you save up to 60% of your time taken to create rosters and consolidate timesheets!
