Retaining your employees for a longer period of time is something that’s a lot more difficult than first thought. In fact, it’s a lot harder to retain employees than it is finding them in the first place.
With that being said, there are a variety of tools that have helped businesses better their efforts when it comes to workforce scheduling. This majorly automated software can help improve functionality in the workplace and to ensure a business is doing its best to help maintain employee satisfaction.
How does it help improve employee retention and why is employee retention so important nowadays? In this guide, you’ll understand what workforce scheduling is and the benefits that come from utilizing this scheduling software yourself.
What is workforce scheduling?
Workforce scheduling is considered to be one of the primary features found within workforce management. It’s the practice of calculating the workload, how many staff are required, along with several other functions.
For a manager or supervisor that’s responsible for this task, it’s all about sourcing the right amount of staff and into the right locations. For example, you may run a retail store that spans over three floors. Workforce scheduling will look at putting the correct number of staff on each floor and in various areas of the store, like the cash registers to the fitting rooms.
Workforce scheduling gets more challenging as the business grows and if you’re neglecting this area of business, you’ll probably find your employees become less enthused about their position.
A study done by Octanner found that 79% of people who quit their jobs cited a lack of appreciation as the reason for leaving. If you’re not paying attention to overworked staff or those that seem to be getting the less desirable tasks during the workday, then your employees will likely go elsewhere.
What is employee scheduling software?
Employee scheduling software is a tool that allows you to automatically input employee data, plan shifts, assign leave days, etc. There are some software options that provide additional features such as sick leave and payroll.
The more sophisticated your scheduling software is, the better it will be for your business. Many industries can benefit from this tool in place. For example, pharmacy employee scheduling software online can be useful to help manage rotating schedules that are often quite complex when it comes to working environments like this one.
This technology brings together all the relevant information regarding shift schedules and makes them accessible to anyone who needs it. Communication with your employees is another important part of running a successful business. In fact, 97% of employees believe communication impacts their task efficacy on a daily basis.
Why use this software in the first place?
Hiring new employees is costly and time-consuming. Any business will want to hold onto their talent for as long as possible because every recruitment drive is going to delay business progression. Workforce scheduling makes life a lot easier and helps prevent that from happening.
Not only is it an automated system that can run by itself, but it also helps minimize a lot of tasks that would otherwise take up the time of your employees.
How scheduling software benefits employee retention
An extra pair of hands or two is always going to be handy for your business to have. With this software, you’ll find that there are many benefits to using scheduling software. This is particularly in the case of employee retention.
Better communication between employees
You could have the best supervisors or managers in place for your business. However, if there’s a lack of communication between them and the rest of the workforce, this can lead to problems. Miscommunication and a lack of priority can make employees feel less valued in the workplace. As such they’re likely to look for greener pastures and an employer that is more responsive.
Just because the workplace might be ticking along, it doesn’t always mean that your employees are happy. With 63% of employees feeling more satisfied when their superiors treat them with respect, it’s important to always improve the communication between staff members.
Scheduling software for the workforce is created to provide a central hub that everyone can access. It also helps to reduce the number of mistakes or miscommunications that can sometimes happen. For example, a member of staff didn’t know they were meant to work and therefore failed to come in.
With the software in place, you can improve employee satisfaction and more importantly, their performance in the workplace.
Equal treatment of all employees
Without workforce scheduling software, it’s very easy to distribute shift patterns and various tasks in an unfair way. With software, there’s no favoritism bound to happen when humans are planning shifts.
It keeps everyone’s opportunities equal and each employee will have their own fair chance when it comes to changing shifts or increasing/decreasing the workload they take on.
For your management, it can be a great way to see how effective the planning in place is and how it can be improved. With equal treatment for all your staff, there will likely be an improvement in workplace satisfaction.
It also helps reduce the chances of certain staff members trying to take advantage of those who have to pick up the slack. Requests for holidays can also be managed more fairly, particularly in the case of those who are wanting to take time off at the same time.
Helps reduce admin tasks that take up time
Administrative tasks are something that most employees will have to deal with and for some, it can be a lot of time that’s taken out of their day to complete. Workforce scheduling software can help reduce a large amount of the tasks required by employees. Instead of humans taking minutes or hours to complete the tasks, the software can take seconds.
Computers are faster and more precise in their efforts, whereas humans are more prone to making errors.
By freeing up more time for your employees, it gives them chance to prioritize tasks that need their attention moreso. This will only benefit the business more when your employees are more productive in their working day.
Creates a collaborative environment for all employees
Feeling part of the process when it comes to the workplace is important for employees. Whilst not everyone will be fussed about being involved, the option to have an input in business operations can be essential to some.
Given more input, employees can help shape their working environment into something that benefits them and not just the organization. For workplace scheduling, you want to provide as much flexibility as possible for shift patterns and changes to shifts themselves. A self-service tool is helpful for employees to share their thoughts or request more/less work where needed.
A collaborative environment when it comes to the scheduling software can also enable employees to band together when shifts need covering. It also can be helpful to cut out the manager/supervisor from this process so it’s one less thing for them to do.
Tips for reducing employee turnover with scheduling software
Reducing employee turnover is something that takes time. Whilst it’s not always possible to eradicate it completely, you can certainly make an active effort to minimize staff turnover with scheduling software.
1. Onboard every employee to the scheduling software properly.
When it comes to implementing a scheduling software, make sure you’re onboarding all employees properly. Don’t rush the process because that’s where most problems can end up occurring. Instead, you want to plan onboarding/training sessions so that every staff member can understand how this scheduling software works.
2. Encourage employee feedback where required.
Employee feedback is going to help improve any issues that individuals may be having when using the software. This type of software for managing staff isn’t always going to be 100% effective the first time you use it. It’s going to take a little trial and error to help get it right and for everyone to use it successfully.
Feedback is great to have because sometimes, you may not have an idea of what your employees need or want.
3. Have the right person overseeing the software at all times.
Despite it being a useful tool for automation, you still need one or two people to oversee the software at all times. Make sure that you’ve got the right person in place that can dedicate the time to manage the platform and to fix any problems that might crop up at any point.
Use scheduling software to reduce employee turnovers in 2022
Employee retention is an important part of business success and with the right software and business processes in place, it can certainly help with workplace satisfaction. With that in mind, consider investing in scheduling software to better employee retention for 2022. After all, keeping your employees happy is critical, especially when holding onto your top talent.
Natalie Redman (LinkedIn) is a freelance writer for many clients across multiple industries. She has two years of copywriting experience for a wide range of experience copywriting for web pages for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a YouTube content creator.
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