SCHEDULING SOFTWARE
An Introduction to
Staff Scheduling
Introduction
What is Scheduling Software?
How Does Scheduling Software Work? Advantages to Scheduling Software
Things to Be Aware of With Scheduling Software What Businesses Use Scheduling Software?
Look For These Key Requirements When Considering a Software Provider/ System
Michael Parry
Sales & Marketing Director
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Author
HR Software: An Introdution to Staff Scheduling
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Staff scheduling may sound simple, but is often one of the most difficult and complex tasks that can influence both organisational productivity as well as employee motivation.
We don’t live in an ideal world; many businesses are understaffed rather than overstaffed at any given point in time. It can become a struggle to create an easy schedule that works for everybody.
Staff scheduling software allows companies to use technology to make their workforce as effective and efficient as possible. Rather than have someone manually work out who needs to be where and how many people need to be on duty, it can all be done at the touch of a button using technology.
A schedule template needs to take into account the different personal requirements of employees not to mention capabilities and skills. Using staff scheduling software can simplify the task to a large degree because it helps save on both time and effort. It can help leverage the human resources of a company in the most effective manner possible.
HR Software: An Introdution to Staff Scheduling
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What is Scheduling
Software?
There are a whole range of software options to choose from, and they’ll all have a different sequence of buttons to press to produce the schedule, but underneath they work in the same kind of way; they schedule according to the parameters you set.
Staff scheduling, whether manual or electronic, normally has two main components: minimum staffing levels and productivity requirement staffing levels.
Minimum Staffing Level
Simply the minimum level required to open the doors in the morning. In a shop this could be a key holder and a member of staff, or in a factory with various departments it could be one supervisor and two members of staff per department. It’s the absolute minimum number possible, without which a business could not operate.
Productivity Staffing Levels
Governed by how busy you expect your business to be at any given time. For example in a shop you are likely to need more staff on a Saturday afternoon than a Monday morning. Productivity levels can be set by using metrics such as needing one member staff for every twenty people who walk through the doors or for every x amount of money taken. Previous company performance can be used to estimate expected productivity levels
Once this information has been input, a scheduling system compares what it needs to what it has available and rotas accordingly
How Does Scheduling
Software Work?
Employing this sort of technology can turn a job that used to take hours into one that takes minutes, so time saved is one of the obvious immediate advantages.
By scheduling against productivity metrics the system only rotas the number of people needed, at the times they are needed; reducing the number of underutilised employees.
Scheduling software enables a business to plan resource in the long term, as rotas can be run several months in advance. This gives a business an opportunity to highlight any potential staffing challenges ahead, for example students going back to college and no longer being available during the week.
A business scheduling employees in the most efficient manner possible is going to reduce wasted man power hours, having a positive effect on their bottom line
HR Software: An Introdution to Staff Scheduling
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Advantages of
A scheduling system is only as good as the information you enter into it. Tell it you need a supervisor on the rota at all times and it will rota one for you. What it can’t do is read your mind and know that while Mary is a great supervisor for quiet weekdays she isn’t strong enough to run a weekend shift. You have to find a way to build this type of differentiation into the system, for example using job titles ‘Supervisor Level 1’ and ‘Supervisor Level 2’.
It’s the same with staff, if you would never manually roster two new starters on the same shift you have to tell the system so it knows not to do it either.
Getting the parameters right is key to the success of the system, and is also one of the hardest things to do. However, it forces you to examine the way you run your business (from a staff point of view) in minute detail which can often be a very enlightening process and lead to longer term efficiencies.
Things to Be Aware
of With Scheduling
Software
In the right business, scheduling software has the power to transform employee scheduling and is an essential business tool.
However, before you start down this road you need to be sure that you are going to benefit from this type of installation. If you’re a small business with one shop and your rota only takes an hour a week you’re probably not going to see any benefits. However if you spends hours writing and re-writing rosters then software could help.
Sectors that commonly rely on scheduling software and can see huge efficiency savings include – hospitality (hotels, bars, and restaurants), retail and health care (residential homes, hospitals, and care agencies)
This above isn’t exclusive; scheduling software will assist in any business that has a need to make sure that the right people are in the right place, at the right time.
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What Businesses use
Scheduling Software?
Look For These Key
Requirements When
Considering a Software
Provider/ System:
Caters for a Complex Workforce
Scheduling software should meet all common industry pay structures and employment terms including multiple employments, sharing and borrowing staff between locations and have a quick re-employee feature. There should also be built in limitations for employees that are only allowed to work certain hours, like students or apprentices – again if you have this integrated with your HR system any HR criteria should be reflected in the scheduling software.
Works On Any Internet Browser
or Device
If the software is web-based, make sure that it can run on all internet browsers, choose a provider that uses the latest software platform that automatically configures to whatever format you want to work on, this will give you the flexibility to build your rosters on any device including tablets and mobiles.
Able to Manage Budgeting and
Control costs
Scheduling software should enable managers to control a budgeted wage environment. Budgets should be easily uploaded to ensure resource spend is fully monitored and managed. For example Previous Year Revenue, Wage Budgets and % can be compared against forecast revenue to accurately plan ahead. The software should be flexible enough for you to be able to add more resource for predicted busy periods, meaning you should never be caught out unexpectedly or suddenly exceed your budget. Also look for a feature that lets you add non rota costs.
Software that is Integral to
your HR and Payroll Solution
Look for an end-to-end solution that offers full HR functionality and feeds directly into scheduling that in turn feeds directly into your payroll system. Benefits are employee holiday, sickness and training information is also fed in from HR meaning that if an employee is on holiday or booked in on a training course they are indicated as not available on the roster.
If you choose a stand-alone option ensure that there is a way to interface directly with your HR and payroll solutions, otherwise you risk double entry and increased chance of error.
Employs intutitive Rota
Building Tool
Look for software that allows you to build your rotas in real time. There should be the function to select pre-defined shifts from a ‘shift bank’, enabling you to pre store regular and default shifts, removing the need to key anything in manually – this should also be able to accommodate single or split shifts as well as give you the option to manually change start and end times to suit your requirements.
Other calculated fields or metric options should also be available to suit your business, these could be metrics based on number of forecasted covers in a restaurant, number of rooms booked in a hotel or number of expected calls in a call center. The system should be able to indicate optimised staffing levels based on these criteria.
Incorporates a Robust Approval
Process
There should be a built-in approval workflow process allowing draft rosters to be submitted to senior managers for approval before going live on the system, the process should be completely configurable according to your organisational structure.
There should also be the added function of being able to add any notes to any stage of the process following the rota through its workflow cycle ensuring each member of the team is informed and in control.
Rota Sharing and Employee
Self-Service Availability
Communicating the rota to employees should be easy and efficient. The rota should be able to be printed or emailed as a PDF. Some solution providers offer an intuitive self-service portal that gives employees access to their rota from a PC, smart-phone or tablet. Employees can also request holidays, view their payslips or change any personal details like their address via self-service.
Industry Specific Additions
Look for features that relate to your business. For example; in a hospitality environment the software should enable you to make sure all employees re-ceive their own fair share of tips and service charges whilst at the same time ensuring compliance with HMRC regulations.
Detailed and Comprehensive
Reporting
Consider the level of reporting and analysis that you require. Scheduling software should allow for detailed analysis and should be able to accommodate all the factors that make up your labour costs.
It is vital that the inclusion of complex holiday accrual calculations, NI contributions, pension contributions are all taken into account giving you a true labour cost in real time. Rota costs, whether forecast, live or submitted should always equal actual payroll costs, resulting in no surprises at the end of the month when P&L reports are put together.
