8 Signs That You Need To Re-Strategise Workforce Scheduling

Workforce scheduling is essential to running your business operations smoothly. Unless your team knows what they need to do and when they need to do it, you cannot expect them to contribute effectively. Scheduling keeps the employees aligned with jobs and shifts, besides ensuring a good workflow. It prevents the shortage and wastage of manpower and drives productivity and efficiency for the business. Not running on schedules, on the other hand, can land your business operations in trouble. Therefore, you need to be watchful about the red flags which indicate that employee scheduling is not optimized. Here are a few signs that you need to re-strategize workforce scheduling.

Your workforce is frustrated 

Workforce satisfaction is the key to business success. If your workers are frustrated, it is a clear signal that you need to rethink your strategy. A lack of flexibility in schedules can be killing. Similarly, you cannot expect people to be happy with variable schedules. Also, sudden and unexpected shift changes can cause frustration. Come up with a strategy – such as using this caregiver schedule app, for instance, to allocate shifts according to employee preferences and availability. Have a good communication system in place so that they are well-informed about schedules and shift changes.

You have increasing absenteeism

An increase in absenteeism is another indication of something being seriously wrong with your scheduling system. Talk to the managers and employees to find out the reason why your workers are being absent. Better scheduling can be a good way to manage leaves and time offs, which can reduce absenteeism in the long run. Having an automated attendance system helps you to track and manage it.

The employee turnover is rising

Besides increasing absenteeism, high employee turnover is also a cause of concern. It can be an indication of a major flaw in your scheduling system. Workers who are overworked and unhappy with their shifts are likely to leave their jobs. Even high wages cannot be motivating enough for them to stay with your organisation in the future. If you are experiencing rising employee turnover, it is time to come up with a better scheduling strategy.

You are using an outdated scheduling system

Manual employee scheduling is complicated, particularly for large organisations with big teams. Managing things on papers and spreadsheets is tedious and time-consuming. Multiple shifts, departments, and locations can make things difficult for managers. If you are still using an outdated system, you need to try the ultimate scheduling software today and get it automated. Automation reduces the workload of the managers and brings efficiency in scheduling.

There is excessive and unplanned overtime

If you are experiencing the need for overtime on a recurring basis, there is a problem with your scheduling strategy. Planned overtime is normal for any business. But if you need to ask workers to work beyond shifts unexpectedly, you are not planning properly. And if this happens often, your workforce will not be happy about it. You need to rework on your strategy and make it capable of forecasting more accurately.

You are frequently hiring temporary workers

Another sign that shows gaps in employee scheduling is the need for hiring temporary workers frequently. Under-staffing is the result of poor forecasting and has a negative impact on your regular schedules. Managers usually end up Onboarding temporary workers at the last moment. This is not good for your business because you may have to settle for resources that are not skilled and productive enough.

You are Missing Deadlines

Missed deadlines are never good for any organisation. They can make your customers unhappy and tarnish your reputation in the long run. This is another red flag that you must watch out for. If you are consistently missing deadlines, it means that you are not scheduling right. Not having the right people for the right jobs could be one reason. Conversely, the employees may not be productive enough. Whatever be the reason, you need to re-strategise to address the gaps.

You don’t have access to scheduling analytics

Preparing and managing employee schedules is just half the work done. Managers need to track and analyse how effective the scheduling strategy is. It is important to understand whether the strategy is driving the right level of productivity. If your current system does not give access to scheduling analytics, you need to think about adopting a new one. The best approach is to look for a software solution that provides reliable analytics.

If you see any of these indications, you should act sooner rather than later. Having a well-planned scheduling strategy keeps your business running like a well-oiled machine. So you must re-strategise and implement one that really works!