You know your team is not running as smoothly as it should be. You also know there are software tools out there that will eliminate much of what you consider to be a daily struggle. You know a new software will make it much more feasible to control your labor budget, keep your scheduling manager happy, stop your team members from getting burnt out, and increase productivity across the company. You even know you want the software to be as easy to use as possible.
But, what makes a software easy to use? How can you tell it will be an easy employee scheduling software before you sign a contract and implement it? That's where your knowledge ends.
4 Things That Make an Easy Employee Scheduling Software
The best software in the world won't help your department if it's overly complicated and is never used properly. In order for the team to implement it and actually make use of the functionality and features, the software must be easily understood and applied to your process. Otherwise, you aren't solving anything; you're simply adding another confusing step to your already-convoluted scheduling process.
Be sure to look for these four features as you consider a new software platform:
Conflict-Free Scheduling
A common quagmire occurs when an employee works for two different departments or two different managers. Perhaps Larry works for you at the fitness center as well as another manager at the bookstore. Your schedule - as the manager of the fitness center - doesn't take the bookstore into account, and he's double-booked. We call this a scheduling conflict, and it's something that can and should be solved with your new software.
Forgetting someone had requested time off and double-bookings are obvious sources of conflict. Conflict-free scheduling ensures your employees are never double-booked, even if they work for five different managers.
SubItUp gives you and your employees insight, visibility, and guardrails to make the best decision for who should be working and when. We guarantee this through the use of several features included in our employee scheduling software, including availability collection, certification management, and max hours settings. Then, your software creates schedules and manages changes to ensure conflict doesn't exist.
Automated Scheduling
You're constantly creating, distributing, and maintaining your schedule. Some managers tell us that they spend eight to 10 hours creating work schedules each week, equaling almost 25 percent of their at-work time. Think of the value to be gained by having those hours back!
Automated scheduling puts artificial intelligence to work for you. You set up the initial rules, input minimal data, and AI does the rest to create your optimal schedule. Availability collection is a key need here. If the software knows when people can work, it can create the ideal schedule for you. Shifts are assigned intelligently; they aren't random. Employee prioritization puts your rock stars on the schedule first. When you have your best team working the right shifts, both individual and collective productivity improves.
With automated shift scheduling, you'll get the perfect schedule in a single click. What could be any easier than that?
Social SchedulingTM
The perfect schedule never stays perfect for long. Let's say you do have visibility into Larry's bookstore schedule and create shifts based on his availability. Everything is going to run smoothly this week, right? Sure, right up until he decides he really needs to study for finals rather than work his shift for you. Now what?
If you're creating your schedule manually or using a software that doesn't meet your needs, Larry's time to study becomes your problem. If you're using an easy employee scheduling software, however, it does not. This is thanks to our Social SchedulingTM feature. It gives your team the ability to self-manage adds, drops, and swaps amongst themselves.
Social SchedulingTM allows Larry to see which of his peers are available to work during the time he needs coverage. He can then directly swap with another employee, and has fail-safes that restrict him from dropping the shift before he finds coverage. With the right software in place, this is his shift that he needs to find coverage for — not an emergency for you, the manager.
Social SchedulingTM empowers employees to solve the problem instead of passing it on to managers. This results in immediate time savings and efficiencies for the manager. It also makes your team members more engaged and in control of their schedule.
One Account For Multiple Jobs
Let's go back to the fact that Larry works for you and the campus bookstore. Did you know that with a scheduling software that was created by someone who didn't think holistically through all of the details, Larry would need a separate account email and password to view each of his schedules? What a pain for him!
If you're thinking that doesn't sound like an easy employee scheduling software, we agree. Employees have one account in SubItUp that contains every work-related detail across the positions they work. As long as the employee is using the same email address for their jobs, they will access everything they need from one account. Larry has one login to view all of his schedules, and his managers understand when he has other commitments or scheduled shifts, so he never has conflicts or overlapping shifts. He, and everyone like him, are much happier with the new software his managers put in place.
It's time for you to take a serious look at what a better software can do for you, as well as which software is the right choice for your organization. Not all workforce management tools are created equal! You're not looking for just anything; you want an easy employee scheduling software that will relieve your daily burdens and benefit your entire team. You're looking for SubItUp!
