10 Best Practices to Build Schedules Like a Pro With Evolia

Let’s cut to the chase: Creating great schedules can feel overwhelming.

From managing last-minute replacements, staff time tracking sheets, to creating recurring schedules, it may feel like a never-ending puzzle.

Even learning and adapting to a new employee scheduling tool takes minutes (we promise, It’s still lightning fast!) away from your day that you feel you can’t afford.

Sound familiar?

We’ve all been there, which is why we want to help!

To help you make the most of your smart scheduling scheduling systems, here are 8 best practices to manage schedules like a pro:

#1 Keep a Global Team

Evolia’s true power lies in its ability to segment employees into subgroups so you never get lost in scheduling your entire company at once. 

However, there are times where you want to communicate and relay information to the entire team (such as scheduling the annual Christmas party.)

In these instances, we recommend keeping at least one team that’s managed by an administrator that includes all of your employees. 

You can also add a global position, like “Employee” within this team for similar purposes.

#2 But Be Sure Your Company Is Organized in Sub-Groups 

One of the biggest time wasters is to try to do it all at once.  

We all know multitasking only leads down a road of mistakes.

Which is why using filters when scheduling, to work on one department or position at a time, is so powerful. 

You can keep it all organized by grouping employees and shifts by position or location.

It may seem like additional work, but you will quickly gain back time on your side in the long run.

#3 Engage Employees in the Process

Evolia was created with a mission to engage employees in the scheduling process.

We get it: letting employees create their entire schedules sounds like dangerous territory.

Yet the significant level of engagement and the positive impact that comes from it makes it all worthwhile.

Once you start letting go of the “scheduling wheel”, you’ll notice creating a few open shifts from day one removes the burden of assigning the few remaining shifts you are struggling with the most.

Additionally, you’ll start to pick up on which employees want more shifts, which will keep them coming back to the app more often. 

As a result, they’ll remain actively engaged in their schedule building.

#4 Focus on What Matters Most

Ever hear of the Pareto rule? 

In a nutshell, the 80-20 rule suggests that 80% of your attention should be focused on only 20% of the available information.

Therefore, it’s important to understand where to focus your precious attention.

Luckily, Evolia outlines all “red flags” on your timesheets such as unexpected absences or late arrivals.

That way, you can adjust them as needed without wasting time validating all entries corresponding to your planned schedules.

No need to approve entries, which are exactly as expected!

#5 Adjust Your Punch Tolerance Settings 

Everyone has their own punch policy. It’s important to ensure your settings reflect them.

Use Punch Tolerance if: 

✅You pay up to a few more minutes if an employee arrives early.

 Adding tolerance will let them punch in at the exact minute they step into work. 

Don’t use Punch Tolerance if:

❌ You want to pay by the hour/ half-hour and want to avoid adjusting timesheets to round up all entries.

 Removing tolerance will keep things uniform and allow the employee who punches a minute early log in at the exact time their shift starts.

Heads up: Late arrivals are never rounded to ensure you notice any potential issues.

#6 Create Multi-Employee Shifts

Even if Evolia remembers the settings from your last shift, creating individual shifts for each employee can take some time.

For example, if you have several employees working similar shifts (such as cashiers),  instead of going one by one, you can easily create them in bulk all at once.

If there are minor differences between each, you can create a global shift, then simply slide it in your schedule and adjust accordingly.

 That way, employees can (for example) arrive at a 15-minute interval.

#7 Don’t Reschedule Shifts, Copy Them!

Not a fan of creating recurring shifts? 

Use the shift copy function across employees, weeks or locations to create schedules in seconds. 

To do so, simply hold CTRL and drag your shift to another employee or date to copy it.

#8 Think Long Term With Recurring Shifts

Are your schedules consistent and relatively steady? 

Better yet, do you need to rotate employees on steady shifts? 

Whether it’s daily, weekly or even monthly shifts rotations, easily save tons of time building recurring schedules months in advance!

Afterwards, simply assign employees on their shifts, then Evolia.

#9 Set Budget Thresholds to Ensure Profitability

Are your schedules built to ensure profitability in the long run? We hope so!

While offering the maximum amount of working hours to each employee is one way to prevent overtime and ensure profitability takes place, there’s a more efficient way: weekly budgets.

Evolia lets you easily set weekly budgets that apply to your entire team, location and position.

That way, you’ll “be in the know” during your resource planning and not afterwards.

Simply head over to your “Settings” to enable budgets and create a few thresholds from there! 

#10 Create Shift Templates

Do you always work with the same shifts, but never know on which day they’ll occur or to which employee you’ll need to assign them to? 

Easily create and set shift templates as drafts then assign them to a “Template” employee (which isn’t a real employee).

Afterwards, you can simply copy or move these shifts to an actual employee’s schedule. 

Once the shift is needed, you easily can move them to “Open Shifts”.

Recommended Reading: Tips for Successful Shift Swaps

Conclusion

With all those tips on hand, you’re well on your way to making the most of your scheduling experience with Evolia.

Need help with recruiting, scheduling and managing your workforce? Start a free trial of Evolia today.