The first domino of nine to five culture has fallen, and the results have been startling. Non-traditional work hours have been found to reduce stress, raise efficiency, and improve morale, but they can also keep your HR department working overtime. If your employee scheduling system doesn’t empower your staff to choose their most productive hours, you need an upgrade. There are other signs that you’re overdue for new software.
You Still Have a Standard HR to Staff Ratio
In the past, it was suggested that companies have an employee to HR staff ratio of one per 80 to 100 employees. Office managers used to spend an average of 2.4 hours a week making their staff schedules. Spreadsheet management ate up an extra three hours. If these statistics sound familiar to you, you need an exceptional scheduling app that can turn those numbers into something more reasonable—and profitable. Today’s human resources executive spends his time formulating scheduling strategies that enhance efficiency and revenue, not on rudimentary timesheet planning and management. In essence, if your HR team is not actively improving your profits, you need a new system.
You’re Creating Your Own Employee Scheduling Analytics (Or Aren’t Using Them At All)
Software loses 90% of its usefulness if it lacks comprehensive analytics, which let you nip and tuck your scheduling strategies until you see productivity soar. Excel makes a poor analytics program. Not only does it require you to create your own metrics, but weight them against manually created source data, too. The task is impossibly time-consuming. If you’re not able to view analytics with a single click, it’s time to upgrade your system. If your performance records aren’t up to date, you need an application to do it for you. Employee performance metrics should update your records systematically and generate visual data in seconds.
Your Productivity and Staff Morale are Sinking
Flexible hours empower staff to manage their time to amplify their results, shifting focus onto achievements instead of their hours. You need a new system if:
- You’ve yet to discover what remote work can do for your business.
- Your flexitime system doesn’t give staff access to co-workers’ schedules so that they can trade shifts themselves.
- Your staff spend too many hours doing too little work.
- Your scheduling strategy isn’t producing tangible results.
- You’re handling document sharing and workflow management manually.
Your Labour Costs are too High
The service sector tends to push labour costs beyond what they should be, with staff turnover and onboarding generating much of the expense. If you work in the manufacturing, healthcare, or restaurant industries, you’re coping with especially challenging conditions. Your software should automatically alert you to emerging workforce performance problems so that you can find solutions before your losses spin out of control.
Your Employee Schedules Are All Over the Map
A study of 200 retail staff recently found that 60% of their morning and night shifts changed every week. This not only impacts on employees’ sleep cycles, but on their health and morale, too. If your staff are often unable to plan their lives around their schedules and overtime, your bottom line is suffering. The healthcare and restaurant sectors tend to create just as much chaos. If your scheduling system isn’t delivering surveys of your staff’s desired hours and planning shifts a month in advance, your turnover might be higher than it should be.
Employee scheduling software isn’t a tool for lazy HR executives, but ambitious ones. It gives them the power to keep your business at optimal efficiency, delivering results your bank account will feel. 