There are many disadvantages to manual shift scheduling for businesses. Fortunately, automated scheduling benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, and it’s easier than ever to upgrade to an automated system. Scheduling software is faster, much less error-prone, and more transparent for managers and employees. Here are some signs that it’s time to upgrade your business to advanced scheduling software.
Challenges of Manual Scheduling
One of the biggest and most obvious problems with manual scheduling is that it’s time-consuming. If you have complex staffing needs that involve non-traditional shifts, it reduces productivity even more when maintaining schedules.
Manual scheduling is also error-prone. Missed appointments, scheduling conflicts, and incorrect time slots are more likely when you do your scheduling manually.
A manual schedule also can’t be updated in real time. This can result in poor coordination and gaps in schedule coverage. If you’re experiencing any of these manual scheduling problems, it’s probably time for an upgrade.
Sign 1: Manual Week-to-Week Scheduling
Does your week-to-week scheduling drain a lot of productive time for the person tasked with doing it? Even if a company only has a handful of employees, this is likely to be true. No matter how efficient you might think your manual scheduling system is, it can be done better and faster with the right software solution. You are also much less likely to experience scheduling errors when using software.
Sign 2: Gaps in Shift Coverage
Everyone who has worked with a manual scheduling system has encountered this problem: It’s time for a new shift to start, but too many employees show up because of a scheduling error. Or worse, you find yourself without enough employees to cover the shift. Understaffing and overstaffing may not happen every week, but they happen often enough that they disrupt business operations on a semi-regular basis. Automated tools can predict and fill staffing gaps before they happen.
Sign 3: Coordinating Time Off Requests
Life happens for employees, so you need a dynamic scheduling system if you want to maintain a high level of job satisfaction. They need time off for weddings, funerals, school appointments with their children, jury duty, and other things that come up.
Imagine telling an employee that they can’t attend a funeral because there’s no one else to cover their shift. You’re likely to be looking for a new employee if that ever happens.
An automated scheduling system can seamlessly integrate time off requests into the scheduling process. You could also be violating labor laws if you don’t grant certain time off requests, such as for jury duty. Scheduling software keeps things fair and transparent for your employees and keeps you in compliance with labor laws.
Benefits of Automated Scheduling
If you want to improve employee scheduling, upgrading to an automated software system is the best way to do it. The benefits of switching to automated scheduling include:
- Improved accuracy in scheduling
- Better employee satisfaction
- Elimination of scheduling gaps
- Improved operational efficiency
- Transparent process for everyone
- Compliance with labor laws and time off requests
Implementing Automated Scheduling
Transitioning from a manual to an automated scheduling system is incredibly easy and requires only minimal training for key staff. We offer technical support and training for businesses that choose to adopt ASAP Payroll’s Time and Attendance Platform.
It offers accurate timekeeping and allows you to quickly build schedules on a platform that’s accessible from any computer or mobile device. It offers full transparency to your employees, so there’s never any question about who is supposed to be working which shift.
You can reduce labor costs, minimize errors, and eliminate time theft with our automated scheduling system, and it can be implemented very quickly. Best of all, the new scheduling efficiency that you gain from our automated system will pay for itself in a very short time!
Conclusion
If you have difficulty coordinating time off requests or your manual scheduling is error-prone and takes too much time, we invite you to explore our scheduling efficiency solutions.
Transform your scheduling process with our automated solutions. Learn more and request a demo from ASAP today!
