There are various benefits to use employee scheduling software such as creating a new schedule in a few clicks and reducing scheduling issues.
For example, scheduling software lets you view all the information you need in one convenient place and allows quick communication with your employees through direct messages.
With a simple and user-friendly software, scheduling becomes a breeze.
We’ll take a look at these 13 key benefits of employee scheduling software:
- A better work-life balance
- Improved communication
- Centralized information
- Seamless time tracking
- Reduced lateness and absenteeism
- No scheduling conflicts
- Increased employee satisfaction
- An easier time finding replacements
- No oversights
- Reduced labor costs
- Time savings
- A more equitable distribution of work hours
- Cost savings
What Is Employee Scheduling Software?
Employee scheduling software refers to a solution that centralizes workforce scheduling processes such as creating employee schedules, time tracking, and communicating with employees.
Simplifying employee scheduling processes will help you run your business smoothly.
Most Common Staff Scheduling Issues
If you currently have a manual scheduling system in place, then you have likely ran into one or more of these problems. Below are just a few of the most common staff scheduling issues that an employee scheduling solution will help mitigate.
- Shortage of workers makes it difficult to cover all shifts.
- Overscheduling takes a toll on employee job satisfaction and performance.
- Employee no-shows & last-minute absences can have dire consequences.
- Employee turnover has an effect on customer satisfaction and brand reputation.
- Illness is an unavoidable scheduling issue that requires quick planning.
- Overtime can increase labor costs and reduce employee morale.
- Unequal shift distribution can damage employee morale.
While the odd scheduling issue is unavoidable, a lot of these common problems can be drastically reduced by introducing using employee job scheduling software to manage shifts.
13 Benefits of Employee Scheduling Software
Without further ado, let’s jump into the top benefits of scheduling software for your team and business.
1. A Better Work-Life Balance
Using an employee scheduling software lets you offer much more flexibility to your employees, like by offering rotating schedules for instance. Staff can use the software to change their preferences based on the number of hours they wish to work.
For instance, students may change their own availability based on their needs; these changes then appear in the scheduler upon approval, thus reducing the risk of errors or conflicts when assigning work shifts. You can also allow your employees to trade or swap shifts using such software as well.
Employee scheduling tools can also help you separate work life from personal life, as it removes the necessity to communicate via Facebook Messenger or other personal methods.
2. Improved Communication
Most employee scheduling software let you chat privately with employees (like with Facebook Messenger). Gone are the days of contacting employees via text messages, calls, emails, or Facebook messages. Communication can now wholly happen in a professional setting.
Certain employee scheduling solution also let you post messages for your team, allowing you to relay vital information quickly and ensure that everyone has seen it by enabling read notification. ✅
3. Centralized Information
To create a proper employee schedule, there are many variables to consider: staff availability (which you can collect using an employee availability form), time-off requests, breaks, seniority, and so on.
It’s quite the puzzle.
It’s also where specialized staff scheduling tool really shine. They allow you to access all of this information in one convenient place.
4. Seamless Time Tracking
Many employee scheduling software also offer a punch clock system, allowing you to monitor your employees’ work time.
How does it work? Employees punch in online, and the software keeps track of all clocks in and clocks out.
With the punch clock system being connected with the work planner, any gap between scheduled shifts and worked hours will be plain to see, expediting anomaly identification and timesheet approval. You’ll also be able to spot no-shows from your dashboard.
5. Reduced Lateness and Absenteeism
No employee should get their schedule the day prior, but this is still the case in many businesses. Notifying your team of their schedules at the last minute can cause many problems within an organization, among them lateness, absenteeism, and staff dissatisfaction.
With the right employee scheduling software, employees are notified instantly of any changes to their schedules. Never again will you have to make sure they’ve seen the latest version you sent them.
What’s more, by linking their schedule planner with a punch clock system, certain software even let you send alerts to employees who forget to check in at the start of their shifts.
6. No Scheduling Conflicts
The best employee scheduling software alert you of scheduling conflicts as they come up during your planning, ensuring employees are never scheduled when they’re on leave, for example.
If you manage a sizable team and/or several locations at once, employee scheduling software will make you save on aspirin. 😅
For instance, you’ll be sent a notification if an employee has overlapping shifts or is scheduled to work at two different locations at once, enabling you to reassign one of the shifts in time.
7. Increased Employee Satisfaction
Employer flexibility, good communication, and modern tools are great ways to improve staff satisfaction.
Respecting constraints, however, is on of the main things with employee job satisfaction: availability, minimum and maximum work hours, time-off requests, and so on. Recurring mistakes on the manager’s part will often lead to frustration, and rightly so.
Employee scheduling software address this problem by centralizing all relevant information.
By addressing your employees’ needs appropriately, you can also minimize staff turnover.
8. An Easier Time Finding Replacements
Whenever an employee can’t make it, you have to find a replacement. How do you go about it? Chances are you’ll fall back on the old method: the phone. You’ll call any employee who might be available, one after the next, hoping somebody will extend a helping hand.
But isn’t it a pain?
With an employee scheduling software, you can simply notify all available qualified employees, and assign the shift to whoever first volunteers with the right experience / position—or whoever you choose. It’s simple and efficient.
9. No Oversights
The human brain is far from infallible. It’s normal to forget employee requests from time to time. Maybe they asked you while you were busy, scribbled it on a (now lost) piece of paper, or requested shift swaps via (now buried) text.
Hence the importance of digitalizing and centralizing otherwise manual processes.
Some software also has features that limit oversights. For example, they might allow you to schedule reminders for your employees so they receive a notification a few hours or minutes before their shift begins. This is all the more useful in circumstances where schedules are prone to change.
10. Reduced Labor Costs
Scheduling software lets you generate all kinds of reports to monitor labor costs, absenteeism, and other relevant variables.
This lets you easily view how your schedules impact labor costs (in legal tender), which is all the more important to keep track of in industries where profit margins are slim.
11. Time Savings
Most software help you automate some schedule management and work hour monitoring tasks.
For example, Agendrix’s planner lets you schedule automatic breaks and create shift templates to help you create new schedules easily. You can also set up recurring work shifts to streamline schedule rotations.
Besides, using an online punch clock system allows you to closely monitor your team’s work time, saving you from having to do it manually ever again.
12. A More Equitable Distribution of Work Hours
Specialized software offer different views (e.g. weekly or monthly) to help you see at a glance how many hours everyone worked. This also allows you to generate reports indicating if the work is distributed well within your team.
You can choose whether to allocate uncovered shifts based on seniority or on a first come, first served basis.
13. Cost Savings
Employee scheduling software pay for themselves quickly. Think of all the time you’ll save, all the mistakes you’ll avoid, and all the employees you’ll keep happy. See the testimonials for yourself.
What’s more, using an online punch clock makes your employees’ work hours easier to monitor, sparing you a lot of tedious work.
Features of Employee Scheduling Software
Common features of employee scheduling software such as Agendrix includes:
- Online schedule creation, management, and sharing;
- Automated timesheets;
- Online, mobile, and geolocalized punch clock managed via a computer or landline connection;
- Tools for managing leaves, availability, shift swaps, drop shifts, and replacements;
- Additional HR features to help with employee onboarding, satisfaction surveys and employee recognition;
- A professional instant messaging system.
- A dashboard with all the information you need to take action now.
Need some more advice? Check out our guide to How to Choose the Best Online Employee Scheduling Software.
So Why Not Use Excel to Manage Schedules After All?
There are multiple reasons not to: Excel worksheets are difficult to share with your team, changes aren’t automatically applied across copies, mistakes are much more likely, and so on.
For more details, we encourage you to read the following article: 5 Reasons Not to Use Excel to Manage Your Schedules.
A final word
As we’ve seen, there are a ton of benefits to using scheduling software, both for you and your employees.
This kind of tool will be a precious ally to you as a manager. It will make you more efficient and let you focus on what’s most important. Not having to bend over backward over your schedules will leave you free to spend more time with your team and your clients.
Who Should Use an Employee Scheduling Software?
No matter your industry, the size of your team, or the diversity of your work shifts (days, nights, weekends), you will likely benefit from using an employee scheduling software, especially if you manage hourly workers. Employee scheduling in the cleaning services is a classic use case.
Are Employee Scheduling Software Easy to Use?
All modern scheduling software should be user-friendly so that all employees can use them fully, no matter how tech savvy they are.
How to Know What Scheduling Software Is Right for My Organization?
Most companies where hourly workers must be managed can benefit from using a scheduling software.
To pick the right software, begin by evaluating your needs and your budget. Once you have your priorities in order, you can start comparing your options.
Most employee scheduling software offer free trials. Take this opportunity to try some out.
If you’re still unsure, there are also free tools to help you with your scheduling.
Which Industries Use Staff Scheduling Software?
- Retailers
- Pharmacies
- Assisted living
- Restaurants
- Hospitality
- Tourism
- Events
- Cities
- Healthcare
- Field services
- Construction
- Call centers
- Home care
- Security
What Are the Benefits of Automated Scheduling?
Common benefits of automated scheduling include:
- Making the process of scheduling employees easier;
- Saving time;
- Getting rid of manual scheduling and digital spreadsheets;
- Simplifying the approval process for time-off requests;
- Filling open shifts automatically;
- Improving employee satisfaction;
- Monitoring labor costs.
What Does Scheduling Software Do?
Scheduling software make creating employee schedules easier by automating scheduling processes such as planning rotating shift schedules, time tracking, and communicating schedule updates.
Using a scheduling software normally improve employee satisfaction and help simplify business operations.
Why Is Workforce Scheduling Important?
Proper workforce scheduling is important because it is core to the activities of all businesses with employees. It allows a better management of scheduling policies by automating many traditionally manual processes and allowing employees to become more responsible of their own availability, preferences, and time-off requests.
An efficient workforce scheduling system can also help businesses achieve their operational goals more efficiently and reduce their employee turnover.
How Does the Schedule Impact Productivity?
Stable scheduling improves employee productivity, whereas too many schedule changes and errors can have the opposite effect.
Well-planned schedules are mandatory in order to avoid understaffing issues, save time, and offer the best service possible to your customers.
Employee scheduling itself is also a time-consuming task that can be simplified with the right tools. Employee scheduling software make creating schedules easier for managers, which allows them to focus on what matters rather than management formalities.
