Irregular work shifts, if not supervised well in time, can lead to work disorders of a disastrous degree.
You may experience a rise in employee burnout, poor performance, shift disruptions, schedule inequality, or employee dissatisfaction. Since inconsistent or on-call work schedules are unstructured by nature, they can affect sleep cycles and increase your employees’ health risks.
Besides, disorderly work rarely translates to desired productivity. All of this combined can harm your bottom line. Big Time.
Did you know around 16% of the full-time employees and wage workers in the U.S. work non-daytime shifts? Yes, as revealed by the Bureau of Labour Statistics.
In a utopian business world, everyone would have to work only a fixed 9 – to – 5. But in the hybrid world with a mobile workforce, irregular shifts are unavoidable, and schedules will need to run on a 24-hour format for some industries. Like healthcare, retail, hospitality, warehouse, and foodservices.
But surely, there is a better way to manage the shifts? Well, an employee scheduling system may have the answer.
A sophisticated employee scheduling system can resolve common shift work challenges in a straightforward manner. After all, the benefits of schedule optimization, cost reduction, and work efficiency you achieve through the system are second to none.
Here is a closer look at how an employee scheduling system can fix inefficient shift work.
Spend Less Time Building Schedules
Managers can spend up to 12 odd hours every week on schedule building, revealed a report by QuickBooks. That is half a day spent on a single task. Yet, there is no way of knowing if the schedule matches the worker with the skillset required for the job. Or if it is flexible enough to work in case of no-shows or time offs. But most of these inaccuracies and inefficiencies are eliminated automatically with the employee scheduling system.
An employee scheduling system can streamline the scheduling process. It can create schedules while keeping in mind availability, time offs, delays, and qualification updates to match the need of the hour.
Since an employee scheduling system has centralized management, it can automatically point out schedule gaps, resource shortages, or overtime. And offer 360-degree visibility into the shifts of multiple workers to maximize productivity and ensure schedule equality.
Manage Schedule Changes Better
With the ever-evolving nature of shift work, last-minute schedule changes are inevitable. But the task becomes more challenging if you have offices at different locations. However, with an employee scheduling system, you can address such on-demand needs swiftly.
Employee scheduling systems give you the freedom to edit schedules on the fly. And at the same time, keep the employees in the loop regarding the changes made.
Here are some situations where an employee scheduling system can come in handy.
- To manage schedules better, you need to ensure the communication stays on point. An employee scheduling system lets your employees access the software via multiple devices. So, they can update you about impromptu changes quickly.
- If you pay your staff by the hours, an employee scheduling system is a must-have. It can accurately track employee hours and give you estimates whenever needed. This helps speed up the invoicing and billing process compared to manual tracking.
- An employee scheduling system ensures you are never shorthanded or overstaffed. How? Since it maps worker schedules to your business requirements, all the shifts are assigned based on work demands and employee availability.
- No-shows are a common concern with irregular shift work arrangements. But not if all your employees have access to schedule updates in real-time, the chances of missed shifts can come down favorably. An employee scheduling system makes this happen.
- If you rely on one too many tools for schedule management, you can integrate all of them with an employee scheduling system. This way, you can create a one-stop system for all your scheduling needs and save time on app-switching.
Optimize Schedules to Boost Profits
Time may be the new currency, but the time saved is not always money saved. Yes, an employee scheduling system can reduce the scheduling time to a large extent and ensure scheduling effectiveness. But it can do a lot more.
Rather than spending hours on day-to-day scheduling, you can find more meaningful ways to cut costs and boost profits. Especially if you oversee a diverse pool of full-time, part-time, or freelance workers.
First and foremost, an employee scheduling system can help you predict staffing needs for a specific shift. It can analyze past schedules, demand patterns, and employee performance to develop a schedule that works against all constraints.
Whether you are operating from a single site or multiple ones, such demand predictions are a win for all. They ensure your employees are never overworked or underutilized for their bandwidth. With shift-based work, the idea is to enable and empower the workers to work efficiently. After all, happy employees mean happy customers.
Besides, with the employee scheduling system’s rich data insights, you can identify various ways to maximize output at a minimal cost. That way, not only can you save money but also improve the efficiency of the overall process. This means you get a lot more done with the same amount of resources and time.
Bottom Line
As you can see, an employee scheduling system works for the office manager above anyone else. It can help you track employee data, understand work patterns, and manage shift workers on the go.
So, understand your shift work needs and employee expectations deeply. Then choose an employee scheduling system to meet and exceed those needs. And in no time, irregular shift management will become a breezy affair.
WorkInSync is a leading employee scheduling system that allows your employees to schedule themselves and visit the office. Do you want to learn more about employee scheduling software? Get a free demo today.
