Nowadays,
when most of us have at least one smartphone, some use tablets and everyone is
online using their mobiles or computers, we realize that shift scheduling can
take advantage of this trend and move from our desk to the online world. Before
we take a look at some of the benefits of online scheduling, a short overview.
While some people still use pen and paper or even moved to working with a
spreadsheet to create their shift schedules and spend days and nights producing
it, most of us are turning to the help of a software, or at least thinking
about it, to build our schedule. Shift scheduling software fall into two
categories, offline and online. While the offline software, which are locally
installed on a computer tend to have better user interface (UI) and can perform
deeper calculations using the local host CPU they lack some of the features
online schedule has to offer, like communication with your employees,
transparency, and the ability to have life updates publish immediately. There
is another form of scheduling software which combines the best of two worlds:
hybrid schedule, a software installed on the manager’s computer that
communicates live with the server to create an online schedule with 24/7 access
to the employees.
Let’s
see some of the benefits of an online scheduling software. First, just by the
name of it, online schedule offer 24/7 access for our employees where they can
see the schedule and their shifts from any browser, whether it’s mobile or
sitting on their desk. Having this kind of access makes the schedule more
dynamic, so every change you make, as a manager, can be immediately viewed by
your staff. Using the online schedule site the staff can submit their
availability to be read by the schedule and save the manager the process of
collecting and inputting it. An online schedule is transparent, everyone can
see the entire schedule and this transparency generates trust and peace of mind
with the employee. Transparency also generates a fair schedule, a manager would
want the employees to know and see that no one is favored over the rest. A fair
schedule is easily maintained when your software can automatically generate a
schedule based on the rules you create. An online schedule has advantages not
only with the schedule itself but with tools supporting it, an internal
communication system is one of them. When the schedule has contact sheet,
internal mail and SMS systems communication between the manager and employees
and between the employees themselves turn easy and fast. Another optional tool
is holidays and sick leave management system where your staff can request days
off and you can approve or deny them based on their absence history.
Since
we are convinced in the advantages of an online schedule, no we will see how to
choose the best one. Make sure the schedule has all the features you need,
whether it is communication systems, trading shifts modules or submitting availability,
or more advanced additions like holiday management system. Since we know that a
locally installed schedule software has its benefits as well, you might consider
looking at hybrid systems, where you can enjoy a stronger rule engine with a
better UI while not missing on any of the online scheduling software’s advantages.
There
are many options out there, it is important to understand your needs first and
know what each one has to offer before you commit. If you get a software that
does half the things you are looking for, you might end up working hard to compensate
the other half.