Technological advancements have significantly accelerated and facilitated business operations in countless industries. With burgeoning digital transformation in markets such as retail, hospitality, finance, public safety etc., businesses are slowly but steadily automating the majority of their mundane and mechanical tasks. In such a transitional period, sticking with your outdated workforce methods is an absolute no-no. Moreover, employees today are accustomed to using technology in almost every aspect of their lives, and hence expect an efficient advanced workforce management solution.

One of the most demanding and complex tasks in workforce management undoubtedly is employee scheduling. But, it is one of the most important cogs in the mechanics of running business operations smoothly. Relying on old-school methods such as paperwork and cumbersome spreadsheets can cause human-errors, which can result in overlapping shifts, absenteeism, unwanted overtime scheduling, increased labor-costs, payroll errors etc. These issues can have major consequences on the morale of your employees and your business overall.

A study claims that 62% of retail managers state that scheduling conflicts can lead to employees quitting. Therefore, by avoiding shift scheduling conflicts organizations can lay a foundation for an efficient and streamlined business model.

Let us have a look at some of the scheduling pitfalls your enterprise can avoid by replacing outdated methods with modern shift scheduling solutions.

• Eliminate Inaccurate Shift Scheduling

Manual employee shift scheduling utilizes a valuable chunk of managers work hours and can be rife with potential for errors. Furthermore, last-minute scheduling is an unwanted and bothersome task. These inefficiencies can be completely eliminated by deploying a modern scheduling solution.

A shift scheduling solution allows your management to surrender the task to your virtual scheduling assistant, taking the burden off their shoulders. It also ensures that shifts are covered with qualified employees, as swapping of shifts with an unqualified employee can have serious consequences. Some consequences could even be life-threatening in areas such as Healthcare and Public Safety.

This modernization enables organizations to save up a lot of time and money. It also allows management to focus on pro-actively managing and analyzing their teams.

• Provide Employee Flexibility & Self-Scheduling

To run a smooth business, it is important to make your workforce feel satisfied and valued. According to Gartner, 31% of CHROs state that employee experience will remain a top priority in 2021.

Improper and overlapping shift schedules can affect your employees’ work-life balance, making them irritable, frustrated and even causing burnout. This affects their performance which inevitably causes serious business repercussions.

With a shift scheduler your organization can enable employees to have maximized control over their schedules. This solution provides them with the flexibility to swap-shifts and bid on shifts with crystal-clear visibility of schedules. A survey suggests that 95% of hourly workers said the ability to swap shifts helped them with a proper work-life balance. 97% praised the system for assisting them to get more hours when they wanted them.

An employee shift scheduling solution also allows your employees and managers to collaboratively schedule shifts and accept or decline shift-swap requests in real-time. This empowers your employees by building loyalty and a sense of community in the workforce through better collaboration.

• Compliance to Fair Workweek Laws

Fair workweek laws assure that hourly workers who are stable have predictable work hours. While these laws are only put forward in specific industries and locations, their implementation signals to a future with a more widespread adoption.

Therefore, to have a compliant and sustainable business, deploying a rule-based and intelligent shift scheduler is imperative. The solution makes sure that your employees accept or request shift swaps 72-48 hours prior to the shift, eliminating any possibility of conflicts and inconvenience. The request is also run by managers for their insight and approval. This minimizes your chances of non-compliance and penalty. Moreover, this employee scheduling solution also makes sure that your workforce is not overworked and gets enough time-off to recover.

• Reduce Labor Costs & Turnaround Time

Improper workforce scheduling can result in inflated labor costs, which can significantly affect your profits. Manually scheduling a shift is an extremely time-consuming task and it also entails challenges in accurately calculating over-times. Such miscalculations can significantly impact business operations.

Modern advanced shift scheduling solutions overcome these challenges. They keep track of your employees’ schedules and overtime shifts, flag unwanted over-time schedules, manage payrolls and allow scheduling within the company’s budget.

Accurate shift scheduling and shift swapping makes sure that requisite number of employees and qualified shift coverage is available round the clock. This decreases the turnaround-time for scheduling, while increasing productivity, sales, and customer satisfaction.

By deploying an advanced shift scheduling solution, you can help your managers to handle complex needs for your enterprise while empowering them to address the most demanding scheduling tasks with ease and efficiency. In today’s fast-paced world an outdated scheduling practice will not provide you with a competitive edge. Hence, an advanced employee scheduling tool is your solution to strengthen your business for the long run.

If you’re considering solutions to improve your workforce management, JK Seva would be happy to help. We offer an expanded variety of custom designed solutions that are tailored to fit your exact expectations. We specialize in upgrades, implementations, training, custom solutions and software development. Our customer focused remote and flexible teams believe in the spirit of community when it comes to delivering comprehensive workforce management. Leverage our capabilities for true advantage. Reach out to us at JK Seva to find out more.