What’s the best scheduling software for your company?
That’s a question more businesses are asking as they’re looking for ways to schedule employees that balance the needs of the company with the needs of the employees.
Employee scheduling is often cited as a key for employee retention. Employees want to work enough hours to pay the bills and feel like they have a say in how they’re scheduled.
For companies that deal with many employees, that can be a nightmare scenario. If employees had control of their schedules, there could be staffing gaps during the most critical times.
For employers, this is a constant chess match that takes time and energy away from important tasks.
That’s where scheduling software can help. Keep reading to learn what the best scheduling software can do for your company.
Benefits of Scheduling Software
Choosing the best scheduling software can mean that you save time. You might be surprised to learn that scheduling software can translate into higher productivity and employee retention.
Let’s take a closer look at how scheduling software can help your business.
Save Time
Have you put job applications online? You probably did that to save time.
You can do that with scheduling software. How much time is spent wading through employee time off requests, looking at the needs of the company, and trying to make it all fit? Never mind trying to fill a shift because an employee called in sick.
Anticipate Scheduling Needs
As a manager, you have to take care of business needs first. Scheduling software lets you plan ahead, so you can anticipate staffing needs during slow and busy times.
Increase Efficiency
Scheduling software increases efficiency because timesheets are correct the first time. That means that paychecks will be accurate, too.
Empower Employees
Employee empowerment is often misunderstood by employers. They often see empowerment as giving employees total control of a situation or task. If you see that as a bad thing, then you’re essentially telling your employees that you don’t trust them.
Employee empowerment increases trust, profitability, and higher customer satisfaction. That’s because when employees feel like they’re trusted to make decisions, they’re happier and more confident.
That leads to higher productivity and levels of service.
Easy Access to Information
The best scheduling software is web-based, so you and your employees can access information from anywhere on any device.
Employees can submit time off requests, and managers can easily approve them. Employees can also take responsibility for those days when something comes up and they can’t make it to work. Employees can use the software to make sure their shift is filled, taking the pressure off of you to fill it for them.
Hold Employees Accountable
You can’t watch your employee’s every move. Fortunately, scheduling software makes can help.
With a shiftplanner, employees can fill their shift themselves and it makes it easy to hold employees accountable when they clock in and out of their shift.
Not only that, you can track employees via GPS to make sure they’re at client sites.
Easy to Create a System and Scale
Perhaps one of the best things about scheduling software is the ability to scale. The best scheduling software will grow with your company.
It becomes easier to create procedures and systems to follow. It also makes it much easier to enforce those procedures, rather than just letting things slide.
Choosing the Best Scheduling Software
Now that you know how employee scheduling can help your business, here’s how you can be sure that you’re choosing the best software solution for your company.
Determine Your Needs
The first step in choosing scheduling software is to identify what problems you want it to solve. Ask yourself what the biggest issues are when it comes to scheduling.
- Do you find that there are communications issues between your teams?
- Is there high turnover at your company or are you onboarding many employees at once?
- Is it hard to get all shifts covered?
- Is payroll late or taking to much time because there are always timeclock adjustments that need to be made?
These questions will help you uncover what you want the scheduling software to do. Then, you can move forward and find a solution to meet your needs. You might find that you don’t need a full suite of software, just one simple tool that will solve your problems.
Systems Integration
Another big consideration in finding the best scheduling software is the ability to integrate with existing systems.
For instance, you want your scheduling software to integrate with point-of-sale, payroll, accounting, and reporting systems.
This type of integration will save time because you don’t have to enter information in one system and then re-enter the same information in another system.
You also want to verify the software’s integration to save you from investing in more software packages after the fact.
The best scheduling software for your company will integrate with your existing systems, be compatible with any operating system and mobile device.
Ease of Use
The final consideration is ease of use. You don’t want to spend too much time training employees to use the software. Plus, the easier it is to use, the more likely employees will enjoy using it.
The more they enjoy using it, the more likely they are to buy-in and fully adopt the software.
Keep in mind that people are resistant to change. Getting employees on board may be challenging. If you outline the many benefits to them and make the software easy to use, the more likely they are to make it a part of their daily routine.
Ready for the Next Step?
Are you ready to have more time to focus on your business and empower your employees? The best scheduling software can give you and your employees’ freedom and flexibility in scheduling shifts.
