As a manager working on a new project, one of your biggest challenges has to be meeting its deadline. This can be an uphill task, especially with a distributed team
From delegating work to setting up deadlines, the manual process can get tricky. There are higher chances of human errors, managerial stress, and worst of all, severely delayed handovers. So, how can you save yourself from these time-consuming hassles? One way to do so is by leveraging employee scheduling software.
Why You Need An Employee Scheduling Software
Employee scheduling is the practice of organizing, managing, and optimizing staff schedules, so you never miss a project deadline. To achieve these three milestones, you need employee scheduling software.
With this tool, you can:
- Allocate work to every team member as per your project’s timeline
- Adhere to your project’s compliances better
- Manage sudden leave requests
- Re-edit time tables
- Optimize project activity
- Increase employee productivity
But, that is not all. You can do much more with the help of employee scheduling software features.
7 Killer Features of Employee Scheduling That Make Everyone Use It
Here are the seven most used features of an employee scheduling software which make it incredibly popular with office managers.
1. Scheduling Shifts
Countless industries like hospitality, manufacturing, etc., run on a shift system, meaning different sets of employees work around the clock. Manually organizing shifts of several staff members often leads to overbooking or having employees show up at random. Fortunately, employee scheduling can help sort through this mess.
With the help of an employee scheduling tool, you can allot staff shifts based on their last shift time and skills. Doing this ensures that fewer employees are doing double shifts and the rotational system is in place.
What’s more, by logging into an employee scheduling app, staff can remind themselves of their shift timings and show up when they are supposed to. At least 53% of employees admit that effective communication about their shift timings and tasks creates a more productive environment.
2. Automatic Time Tracking
It’s never easy to get your employees to accurately report the time taken to complete tasks. Besides, asking staff to provide a minute-to-minute report of whether they are finishing things according to hard timelines can be annoying.
However, time sheeting is vital to your project’s success. Fortunately, employee scheduling software makes time tracking easier. How? Employees can turn on and off their work clocks on the software, which then automatically reports every employee’s actual work time. Managers can use this information to individually inform staff they feel are lagging or not dedicating the time required to finish the project.
3. Employee Notifications
No work roster is set in stone. Managers often edit schedules and alter deadlines. They place random meeting requests and indulge in ad-hoc activities.
While they often need to make these changes because of work demands, busy employees may find it hard to keep up. But not if they use an employee scheduling software.
This tool has a feature that notifies them of every change in the project timeline or any special requests the manager puts in.
The employee notification feature also informs employees of shift changes. Suppose an employee is unavailable for a particular shift. They can raise a query or through the same tool in advance. All of this improves internal communication, which ultimately optimizes work schedules.
4. Payroll Integration
A robust scheduling software can allow you to import your updated schedule into the payroll system. Integrating payroll with a scheduling software or vice versa will help you track timely salary payouts.
It will also help you update salaries and advances. So you can avoid mistakes while paying out your employees. Imagine the countless hours you’ll save by simply referring to your scheduling software when you need to access payroll information.
5. Advanced Analytics and Reporting
An employee scheduling software has a functional interface that allows you to allocate tasks, assign deadlines, and much more. But, that’s not all. This software also compiles a ton of employee-related data that helps build business intelligence.
For example, an employee scheduling tool can come with a comprehensive business intelligence dashboard. It allows you to:
- View your labor costs
- Analyze your labor costs
- View time off summaries
- View and modify employee headcount
- Create customized reports with all the work-related information at your fingertips
6. Schedule Management
Schedule management is undeniably the most crucial feature of an employee scheduling software. In fact, it includes a bunch of features that assist with schedule creation. Know that these features offer far more than assigning names to tasks on a calendar.
Here are some tasks you can perform through this tool:
- Automate employee scheduling for smaller projects
- Create individual job schedules
- Create seasonal employee schedules
- Perform multiple location scheduling
- Duplicate schedules
- Create instant time tables with drag and drop schedule interfaces
An employee scheduling software offers a centralized system to manage different schedules regardless of employee count, location, and time zones. With this level of assistance, you can stop guessing the best way to assign work and adopt a more educated and streamlined approach.
7. Absence Management
Managing sudden or planned employee absences is as important as assigning them jobs. An employee scheduling software features tools for absence management. These help you figure out which team members will be on leave and when to help reassign tasks for those days.
Furthermore, this software tool also offers employees a platform to send in their time-off requests, which the management can view and approve. With full information on vacation tracking, leave tracking, and pending time-off requests, you can ensure that you meet deadlines.
Conclusion
If you don’t have an employee scheduling tool, you must invest in one today. It will help you schedule, track and manage employees and tasks seamlessly.
Are you looking for one such scheduling tool? If so, then turn to WorkInSync’s one-stop solution for all your hybrid workplace needs. Our app offers a host of features, from hot-desking, commute management, and employee scheduling to meeting room booking.Â
Make your managerial life easier with WorkInSync employee scheduling software. Our scheduling feature includes real time shift coverage. We are committed to making workforce management easier. Book a free demo today!