Your employees are your greatest asset. But are you doing everything you can to ensure their happiness and success?
If employers don’t make their staff a priority, they risk turnover, or worse, a bad reputation.
Good business owners know the secret to success is to put the employee first. Staff scheduling software can easily meet some of your team’s most pressing needs, such as saving time, reducing stress and empowering your employees, while also ensuring your business runs smoothly. Here are the top six ways an employee scheduling software can make life easier for your staff.
1. Creates a flexible working schedule
Your employees are the heart of your business. And you need to make sure you’re adapting to their needs. The reality is that your staff may work multiple jobs, care for young children, or still be in school.
A few hours here, a few hours there. Shift workers are now able to build their own schedule — and demand freedom to do so.
So you need a system that can adapt to their schedules.
“Our employee scheduling system is good for casual work, because I have uni and other jobs,” says one employee who works front of house and on the bar at The Newsagency, a music venue and bar in Sydney, Australia. “I can pick up shifts that are open when I want them.”
And how does flexible scheduling software help managers?
You can create templates so you can drag and drop shifts at ease instead of creating schedules from scratch. Have open shifts you need to fill? You can send a message to your staff and allow them to pick up the extra hours — with your approval — so you always have the most suitable employees on the clock.
2. Enables an intuitive, hygienic way to clock in
Whether you’re managing a corner pub, a medical practice, or a grocery store, your staff are interacting with each other and with your customers. And it’s your job to create a safe environment for everyone.
Why have your staff touch extra surfaces if they don’t have to? Use facial recognition software to allow your staff to clock in onsite with a hands-free app. Or if you're scheduling staff who operate on remote sites, like your security team or cleaning attendants, use a mobile app with geolocation.
Not only will that empower your staff to clock in quickly and safely, you’ll have the added benefit as a manager to ensure an accurate timesheet.
3. Enhances communication and team morale
Providing an instant, mobile way for managers to communicate with their teams — and vice versa — ensures nothing is left to question.
From new safety protocols like clock in questions to video tutorials, use your staff scheduling app to seamlessly communicate to a single person, small group, location, or entire business.
Bonus: Use notifications via email or push notification and read receipts to make sure your staff always receive updates.
4. Provides clarity about specific tasks for each shift
Time is money, and when your employees are on the clock, you need them to get their work finished. But if your team is confused about what needs to be completed, or unsure about when their deadlines are, there’s going to be trouble.
Perhaps they didn’t realize the store was running low on croissants, or an order of blouses was ready to be shipped. Now what?
Use a tasking feature so you can keep track of business processes and procedures, all from your mobile device. Either you or your employees can create and assign tasks to complete within a timeframe — and instantly get notified when they’re done.
5. Receives accurate payroll every time
Too often, employees receive their checks, only to see that it’s incorrect. Maybe the extra hours they worked that week weren’t recorded or schedules weren’t updated properly. Perhaps worse, they may have worked less than they were paid for, and therefore have to take a pay cut on the next check. Most of the time, this is due to improper clocking in/out or manager oversight.
Managers can use shift planning software that directly integrates with payroll, so all hours worked are instantly and accurately recorded, and no employee is left confused (or disappointed) about the amount on their check.
After employees clock in and out, your software can create timesheets for you to review, approve then, and instantly export them to your payroll provider so your employee gets paid quickly and accurately.
6. Provides compliance safeguards
If you haven’t already built compliancy into your staff management process, now is the time to get going. Many industries are requiring businesses to provide an advance, transparent record of employees’ schedules.
You can use employee scheduling software to create scheduling guardrails to help enforce legal requirements, such as minimum rest between shifts or maximum work hours per week. That way, your staff always has access to their hours and are ensured they’re being scheduled fairly.
Put employees first
While there are many ways to ensure your employees are cared for, making it easy to clock in and out, manage their own schedules, and communicate with their team members is one of the easiest methods.
Deputy offers workforce management software that meets the demands of your tech-savvy, busy employees, all while making life easier for you as a business owner. Unsure if Deputy is right for you? Get a free 30 day trial of Deputy now to see how much our software can benefit your business.
