5 Ways Employee Scheduling Software Makes Life Easier for Employees

We all know the secret to success is to put your employees first (Thanks, Richard Branson).

If you don’t make them feel valued, you risk a higher employee turnover at best and at worst, a bad reputation.

But how can you focus your energies on their well-being when you’re too busy managing your business and wasting time on all the grunt work that comes from keeping track of your staff’s schedules?

Whether you’re a small team of 10 or a large group of 5 000 or more, taking care of all the “admin” work that comes your way from your schedule management leaves little room to prioritize actual employees’ needs.

From shift changes to last-minute replacements to manually updating your paper schedules can be time-consuming and stressful in more ways than one.

Instead of wasting precious time managing schedules, why not let an employee scheduling platform take the load off your shoulders? 

If reducing stress and having time on your side sounds about great right now, here are 5 ways an employee scheduling software makes life easier for your entire team :

1. Empowers Employees with Flexible Schedules

If there’s one thing 2020 has shed light on is the importance of having schedule flexibility.

From picking up kids to dealing with urgent matters, flexibility is no longer an asset but a necessity to a healthy work/life balance and to preserve employee retention.

The proof is in the numbers. 

A study conducted by The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals how a flexible working schedule had a positive impact on several aspects of employee excellence, including:

Employee intent to stay (74%), employee productivity (67%) and quality of employees’ work (59%).

With a mobile employee scheduling software in place, you can choose the degree of flexibility you want to give and empower employees to create schedules and choose shifts that meet their needs.

By doing so, you can eliminate the back and forth in schedule building, increase employee engagement and vastly reduce absenteeism in the workplace by up to 35%.

Instead of having to constantly update your excel spreadsheet or create new schedules from scratch, you can easily create templates instead and drag and drop shifts directly on the platform. 

Need to fill an open shift? You automate invitations to your top employees and let them bid on the shift. 

With software that adapts to your scheduling needs, you’ll be making employee scheduling a two-way street.

Recommended Reading: How to Schedule Employees Effectively 

2. Improves Collaboration 

We all know employee engagement plays a major role in retention.

A big part of that includes keeping the lines of communication open.

With an employee scheduling software, you can forget about calls being ignored or emails being unread because it provides instant messaging directly on their mobile phones.

Whether it’s team-based or 1 on 1 chat, employees can message you and their colleagues directly when circumstances arrive such as having to swap shifts or check in later.

You can even take it a step further by letting your employees customize and adapt the way they what these communications to integrate their lifestyle by choosing if they want to be notified on mobile, on the web or through email.

That way, they can be in the know at all times when a new shift is available or when their requests get approved. 

You can rest assured the days of feeling “ghosted” are long over.

3. Lets Employees Clock in Safely and Hands-free

As a manager, it’s your job to ensure the safety of your employees.

While you can’t watch your employee’s sanitary habits like a hawk, you can prevent germs from spreading onto commonly touched surfaces by allowing your employees to clock in on-site hands-free.

For those who operate outdoors or on remote sites like ski instructors or maintenance staff, they can easily use a mobile app with a gps validation to clock in.

Additionally features like Evolia’s health check questionnaire require employees to screen and report any symptoms to ensure they clock-in to work healthy. 

Whether an employee has been in contact with someone exhibiting symptoms or experiencing it themselves, they can easily address it in the questionnaire and avoid coming into work to prevent spreading it to others.  

Recommended Reading: 3 Reasons to Make the Switch From Manual to Automated Scheduling

4. Reduces Payroll Errors 

One of the biggest headaches in the hourly workforce remains payroll errors.

From schedules not being updated properly, to hours not being rounded accordingly, payroll errors happen more often than we’d like. 

The last thing an employee needs is to remain on guard all the time to ensure their paychecks are error-free.

An efficient workforce management software can connect directly with your favourite payroll system.

That way, your staff’s timesheets are instantly and accurately recorded so employees can easily save a trip to HR and prevent wasted time from taking place on both ends.

After employees clock in and out, your software can create smart timesheets for you which flags any “inconsistencies” and spots unauthorized clock-ins with smart time and attendance software.

5. Streamlines the Scheduling Process

From swapping shifts to notifying employees about upcoming ones, there is a process for everything. 

With a workforce management platform, less confusion and ambiguity happens in the workplace when employees are instantly notified what shifts are available to them or if their requests have been approved.

If an open shift is available, you can customize your settings to automatically send the request to the most qualified employees in preference of seniority, hours accumulated and more.

Instant messaging and automatic replacement management enables employees to automatically notify you in case of emergency so a replacement can easily be found using smart scheduling tools.

Everything has a streamlined process so you can spend less time managing schedules and employees can have the clarity they need to succeed in the hourly workforce.

Conclusion

While there are many ways to make your employees feel valued, empowering them to create their own schedules, improving collaboration and reducing payroll errors, are some effective methods an employee scheduling software offers.

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