Employee rosters change often, particularly for businesses that experience seasonal rushes. COVID-19 has also changed the makeup of business hours, employee schedules, and more. Having attendance software and procedures in place can help reduce the confusion, boost productivity, and improve profits. Businesses should consider the following to improve scheduling at the employee, management, and business level:
- Maintain an updated list of employees. If company leadership doesn’t know who’s working for them, it can result in understaffing or overstaffing—both of which cost businesses money. Businesses should keep up-to-date records on all employees including their department, any cross-training they’ve received, their skills, and job status (e.g. contractor, temporary hire, part-time, full-time, etc.). These details allow managers to schedule relevant workers without leaving labor gaps or over-saturating a particular department.
- Have a plan B. Even the most reliable of employees can experience a last-minute emergency. This is where having a comprehensive employee roster is invaluable. Managers can use the list to identify other employees who have the skills and availability to take over the shift.
- Manage talent. Scheduling employees for shift positions that don’t align with their skillsets can erode morale and slow productivity to a crawl. Understaffed workplaces often encounter this issue as they have no choice but to schedule employees even if they aren’t the best fit for the job. Reviewing employee skills and training can provide guidance for more effective employee scheduling.
- Look at historical data. Businesses can analyze their attendance data to notice trends like increased demand for holiday scheduling, slow seasons, and absenteeism. This information can guide scheduling practices to ensure employees aren’t over-worked, bored, or ill-suited to the work.
- Keep communication simple. Employees have lives outside of the workplace that can place demands on their time and require them to take leave. They need a simple way to submit leave requests to avoid scheduling gaps and reduce staffing confusion.
Actec understands that tracking employee attendance and scheduling restraints can be challenging. That’s why we created an absence tracking mobile app to simplify attendance in the workplace. Employees have several channels for submitting leave requests including telephonic, chat/text, or through the app itself. All requests route to the same centralized location, eliminating communication errors between management, various departments, and HR. Contact us to learn more about effective absence management.