(Newswire.net — July 3, 2019) — Every manager strives for a perfect work schedule. However, getting it right the first time and streamlining the process is not as easy as it seems. Whether you use the pen and paper method, use tools such as Excel or rely on online scheduling apps, there are a few tips to keep in mind. Here are some tips on how to create an employee schedule.
How to Create an Employee Schedule
Don’t know how to create an employee schedule? Know your team, build shifts around your best employees, and much more.
1. Know Your Team
Knowing your team is one of the most fundamental parts of creating a work schedule. And that’s because knowing your team allows you to make choices to further the success of the business. Really knowing the member of your team gives you the flexibility and freedom to mix and match skills, weaknesses, strengths, and personality types to create the perfect shift for any situation.
2. Build Shifts Around Your Best Employees
It’s important to know who your best employees are. Consider traits such as experience, efficiency and how well they work with others. Once you’ve created a list of your best employees, build shifts around those suited for that particular time which will then help in tracking your employees attendance as well.
3. Establish A Team-Wide Communication Method
Establishing a team-wide communication method helps to ensure everyone’s on the same page. That means no more searching through texting apps, email, and instant messages to find the newest work schedule because everyone uses the same tool.
4. Get the Schedule Out Quickly
Getting the schedule out as quickly as possible allows employees to start planning and see whether there are any major conflicts. You need plenty of time to resolve conflicts and your employees need that time to adjust. Consider finalizing and distributing the schedule at least two weeks before the current schedule ends to make sure that everyone can plan accordingly, which will in turn improve employee attendance.
5. Honor Work Preferences
Honoring time-off requests and work preferences builds goodwill with employees. It helps you retain good workers and increases employee satisfaction. Consider using a cloud-based or online master document to create and distribute your schedule so that employees can add to the document and submit their preferences in one location.
6. Get Employees to Do Some of The Work Scheduling
One thing about scheduling is that managers don’t have to do all the heavy lifting. Provide your employees with an opportunity to do some of the scheduling as a great way to keep them engaged in their work and take some of the burden. You can create a common document online and give employees access to the schedule for a few days or make use of scheduling apps. Once you’re ready to finalize the schedule, close the document and make your changes before reopening it for viewing.
Bottom Line
With these tips on how to create an employee schedule, you can create one much faster and with relative ease. Do your research and take advantage of some tools that will help you to streamline the process. While there are plenty of tools and online applications you can use to create an employee schedule that’ll help you with time tracking and improving employee attendance, you want to ensure it’s the best fit for the job.