Imagine a paradigm shift in your organization’s scheduling dynamics: from reactive to proactive, powered by automated scheduling. Picture harnessing a wealth of real-time data—ranging from employee details and labor demand to sophisticated forecasting and historical analytics—all centralized and effortlessly accessible.
Now envision leveraging this invaluable resource precisely at the point of scheduling, enabling informed decisions on critical matters like overtime allocation and absence management. With the right automated scheduling solution, you gain access to these invaluable insights, saving both time and costs.
Embracing such technology not only streamlines your scheduling process but also empowers you to anticipate and address potential issues before they arise, fostering a culture of proactive problem-solving and operational excellence. Prepare to revolutionize your organization’s approach to workforce management. Let’s delve into how automated scheduling can transform your operations.
1. Staff Properly with Real-Time Labor Information
Deadline-driven environments like public safety, transportation, and manufacturing rely on staffing the right people, in the right place, at the right time to complete an assignment or hit production goals.
But how many times have you scheduled too many employees to work a shift—creating unnecessary paychecks? On the flip side, how many times have you had to bill more overtime hours than anticipated because too few people were onsite to get the job done—putting the facility over budget?
With access to real-time employee and labor demand data, you can ensure that you are only staffed to match what you need. Managers can forecast future staffing requirements and generate reports based on trends (peak and off-peak times, for example) and adjust shifts accordingly to meet those unique production needs.
2. Encourage Employees to Fix Scheduling Gaps
The majority, 55%, of hourly workers surveyed by Software Advice stated that they would use a mobile scheduling app if it were offered by their employer. When asked which scheduling features they would prioritize, 39% picked the ability to trade shifts while picking up shifts, indicated by 38%, trailed close behind.
Your shift employees want to be a part of their scheduling process, so why not let them? It will certainly take some aspects off the manager and scheduler’s plate so they can focus on forecasting and other initiatives that drive the business forward.
With mobile workforce capabilities, your employees have the power to check schedules, request leaves, and volunteer for shifts. Mobile capabilities benefit organizations two-fold, improving both process efficiencies and employee satisfaction.
You can digitize the job bidding process to fill long-term vacancies—think maternity leave, illness, or a post that HR can’t seem to fill externally. Employees pick different options for what their ideal base schedules (job function, hours, etc.) would look like. In turn, you’ll get a centralized audit log of what each employee is interested in. This helps HR make better job replacement decisions when the time comes—and helps keep the operation running smoothly because only qualified people will have the opportunity to bid for that vacancy.
Another way employees can be proactive in the scheduling process is through shift swapping. Through a mobile app, the requestor can simply put their undesired shift up for grabs. The jobs is only shown to other qualified, available employees based on your pre-set rules—it’s like a job board that only the most relevant people can see. Employees will see the swap whether they have their own undesired shift or not, and those who choose to can request to finalize the swap with the requestor. The system can either automatically approve the swap and have it reflected on the schedule or, if you prefer a bit more oversight, a notification can be sent to you for approval (which you can give at the click of a button).
Your employees can take care of filling long-term and short-term vacancies for you. And they’ve already expressed an interest in having the freedom to do so!
3. Automate Vacancy Filling and Stop Fighting Fires
Absences are inevitable in any workplace. When faced with the sudden absence of an employee due to illness or a no-show, the urgency to find a replacement can be daunting. Traditional methods of filling vacancies, such as manual phone calls or mass emails, are not only time-consuming but also inefficient, especially when urgency is paramount.
Imagine the frustration of dialing phone numbers one after another, uncertain if anyone will respond promptly. Moreover, relying on mass emails or text messages risks being overlooked by employees, particularly when they are not on duty.
Enter automated scheduling—a game-changer in addressing scheduling vacancies swiftly and seamlessly. With automated scheduling, the cumbersome task of contacting potential replacements is transformed into a streamlined process. By leveraging automation, you can effortlessly initiate calls or texts to individuals on a pre-configured call-out list, either sequentially or all at once.
Imagine the convenience of initiating this automated reach-out with just a few clicks, eliminating the need for manual dialing or sending mass communications. With automated scheduling, you can ensure prompt and efficient filling of vacancies, enabling your organization to maintain productivity and operational continuity, even in the face of unexpected absences.
Transform Your Organization With Indeavor
Indeavor is our workforce management SaaS solution which offers clients an end-to-end, cloud-based employee scheduling, time & attendance, and absence management system. Indeavor integrates with your human capital management and enterprise resource planning systems to create a robust platform that provides you with real-time employee data.
Want to stop fighting fires and start setting your organization up for more success instead? Indeavor can help you achieve all of the above.
Click here to request a demo.
