HCM @Work Blog | Inflection HR

Employee Scheduling - How to Improve the Process

Written by Jen Leigh | April, 08, 2022

Often times employers can experience a loss in productivity due to an inability to prevent late timecard submissions or simply suffer from poor absence management. Of course, hiring workers who are diligent and disciplined is the ultimate key to a productive workforce, employers can make a difference with their employee scheduling process.

Employee Scheduling Tips & Tricks

When it comes to improving the profitability of your business, every employer's first step should be to improve productivity. The simplest way to improve that is by improving your employee scheduling process. 

 

Determine Best-Fit Roles for Each Employee

It is important to know which employee is suitable for any specific work or role within your business. This knowledge can be key to creating an effective schedule for each employee.

In addition, it demonstrates to employees how well their employer values their skills and development. By assigning employees to a schedule that is most suited for their skills, their productivity can increase and there can be a lower chance of tardiness.

Lastly, by assigning employees to a schedule that supports their skills you'll be able to keep employees happier and more engaged. This not only leads to better productivity but can help employers manage employee absenteeism, improve their revenue, and create a great company culture.

 

Reward Employees for Good Attendance 

It can be valuable to reward the employees who do show diligence and report to their assignments on time. Rewarding employees for good attendance can also motivate other employees to follow their schedules and contribute to projects. It can be the greatest motivator for turning an unproductive employee into a top performer. Overall, it is a great way to prevent and manage absenteeism in the workplace.

Rewards you can offer your employees can include things such as:

  • Bonuses
  • Gift Cards
  • Parking Passes
  • Additional Vacation Time or PTO

 

Vary Shift Schedules

If employees have fluctuating schedules, then it prevents them from being too used to their time slots, something that often leads to added tardiness. Implementing a varied shift schedule allows for more flexibility in employee schedules, allows for more opportunities for employees to swap shifts, and generally improves employee experience.

Employers can also implement a system on a regular basis, such as quarterly for instance, where employees swap schedules after a period of three months. 

Creating varied work schedules can be tough manually, however, a cloud-based time and labor management solution can make this simple and practically hands-off. 

 

Post Employee Schedules Early

One of the biggest issues that can lead to employees not showing up for work is simply that they don't have enough time to find a cover or to swap a shift.

That is why it is important to let your workers know their schedules as early as possible so that they have as much time as possible to make adjustments. A time and labor management solution can help employees have better access to their schedules, and most time and labor management solutions even allow for mobile access to employee schedules. 

 

Final Thoughts on Employee Scheduling

There are many ways that employers can utilize a better employee scheduling process to improve the productivity and profitability of their business. The most complete way to do so is with a modern, cloud-based employee scheduling solution designed to automatically generate best-fit schedules for maximum productivity, all the while allowing employers to execute the above tips and tricks. 

If you are an employer struggling with the employee scheduling process, an HR and payroll company may be able to help. To learn more about how Inflection HR is already helping countless businesses with their employee scheduling, contact us today.