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One of the biggest causes of job dissatisfaction — for managers and team members alike — is employee scheduling issues. In fact, this variable is consistently near the top of the list of reasons why employees quit their jobs.
In this article, the management experts at Sling identify the 10 most common employee scheduling problems and show you how to solve them easily with the right tools.
10 Employee Scheduling Issues And Their Solutions
1) Shift Swapping
Allowing your team members to manage their own schedules (to a certain degree) can take a huge weight off your shoulders, but it can also lead to chaos and confusion.
The best workforce management apps, like Sling, make it easy for your employees to swap shifts on a shared, cloud-based schedule that everyone can see. Sling will even send reminders about upcoming shifts so your team knows who works when.
2) Shortage Of Employees
When your business is understaffed, productivity declines. Ultimately, your customers suffer the most when there aren’t enough employees to go around.
And when your customers aren’t happy, your bottom line takes a hit.
The most obvious solution is to interview and hire new team members. That, however, is not always conducive to staying within your labor budget.
A better way to solve this scheduling issue is to close the staffing gaps by organizing your employees more effectively. Workforce optimization software, like Sling, can make this dream a reality.
3) Overscheduling
Overscheduling — such as the “clopen” shift (i.e., close and open) — can take a real toll on your employees.
The ideal is to give your team members at least 12 hours off between shifts, but that restriction can make creating an effective schedule much more difficult.
Instead of trying to keep track of when every employee has worked and how much time off they need, use scheduling software like Sling to manage all the numbers. Sling will notify you if you overschedule an employee so you can make changes before finalizing and publishing the timetable.
4) Disorganization
Staying organized is a challenge for everyone, but especially for busy managers.
What’s the solution? Employee management software. These apps make it much easier to keep your work life organized so you don’t find yourself in a state of disarray.
Sling, for example, has built-in task management tools so you can assign jobs, set deadlines, and monitor progress from the comfort of your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
5) No Call, No Show Employees
When an employee doesn’t report for a scheduled shift and doesn’t give you advanced warning (i.e., no call, no show), it can throw your entire workday — and the workday of your team — into disorder.
You can prevent no call, no shows from occurring and mitigate other scheduling problems by incorporating the right business software into your management routine.
Apps like Sling can even make it easier to contact your backup employees so you don’t waste hours trying to find someone to work for a team member who didn’t show.
6) Employee Turnover
It’s nearly impossible to eliminate employee turnover. You can work to keep your team engaged and prevent employees from becoming disgruntled, but you can never really stop someone from leaving.
Maintaining a consistent schedule that caters to everyone’s needs (as much as possible) goes a long way toward reducing employee turnover and improving work performance in your team.
7) Vacations And Time Off
Requested vacations and time off are a necessary part of preserving a healthy work/life balance. They can, however, make scheduling more difficult on you.
The best solution to this age-old scheduling issue is to let a computer do the work of monitoring vacation and time-off requests.
Apps like Sling will even notify you if you schedule an employee during their desired time away so you don’t create an emergency situation.
8) Lack Of Availability
Employee availability forms can help you see the big picture, but sometimes there’s no obvious solution to preventing conflicts within your schedule.
That’s where employee management software like Sling really shines. Sling can help you find just the right team member for any shift, even in a sea of unavailability.
9) Illness
Illness is inevitable and there’s no way to plan for it. But you can create a schedule to help prevent sick employees from having a negative impact on your business.
The ease of apps like Sling means that you can incorporate an emergency, or backup, list into your regular schedule so that finding a replacement is quick and easy.
10) Overtime
Overtime may be necessary now and then, but too much of it can affect employee morale and cut into your profits.
Keep overtime at a bare minimum by monitoring when and how much your employees work with a suite of scheduling tools such as Sling. Set limits on maximum work hours so no employee strays into overtime territory without your knowledge and permission.
This will keep your labor costs under control and your bottom line in the black.
Software Is The Key To Solving Scheduling Issues
Whether you’re struggling with excessive shift swapping, disorganization, or something else entirely, software like Sling is the key to solving these scheduling issues.
No matter the size of your business, Sling helps you build your team’s work schedules in minutes rather than hours.
With Sling’s powerful suite of tools, you can:
- Manage time off
- Coordinate availability
- Organize shift trade requests
- Stay on (or under) budget
- Reduce absenteeism
- Minimize late arrivals
- Allow your employees to sign up for available shifts
- Consolidate and streamline internal communication
- Control labor costs
- Simplify time tracking and payroll
- And much more…
The built-in artificial intelligence will even notify you of overlapping shifts, double bookings, and other mistakes in your schedule.
Sling truly is an all-in-one, turnkey solution for your employee scheduling issues. Right now, you can get everything you need to schedule employees and handle internal communication for teams of up to 50 users for free, and more with a premium or business subscription. You can create an account on our website.
And for more resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.
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This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for specific advice.
