Blog

March 6, 2023

Top 7 Benefits of Employee Scheduling Software

employee-scheduling-benefits-blog

Given the complexities of workforce management today, it’s critical to adopt technology that helps you work with more accuracy and efficiency. After all, there are only so many hours in the day, and you need the right tools to make every hour count—for you and your workforce.

Whether you want to improve your shift planning activities or have better control over overtime costs, employee scheduling software offers tools to help you manage your workforce more effectively.

7 Benefits of Employee Scheduling Software

Employee scheduling is one of the critical cornerstones of workforce management. How and when you schedule your employees to work not only impacts your bottom line, but also the employee experience and your organization’s overall productivity.

When you have the right software solution to streamline employee scheduling, your entire organization benefits. Here’s what you can expect:

Time savings
Using spreadsheets to create employee schedules requires creating a new schedule for every pay period. But with employee scheduling software, the process is fully automated. You can choose from pre-configured templates or quickly create a custom schedule you can use again and again. Instead of spending time building and populating schedules manually, you can rely on the software to help you ensure you have proper employee coverage for every shift.

Fewer scheduling conflicts
Last-minute changes in employee availability, whether in the form of a late arrival for a shift or an absence due to illness, can quickly throw your shift planning into chaos. If you have to fill in those scheduling gaps manually, you can find yourself poring over spreadsheets or on the phone trying to find a backup with little to no notice. But a software solution can automatically show you who can fill schedule gaps based on pre-loaded availability information. The software can also be configured to alert you when you have issues such as understaffed or overstaffed shifts and labor compliance concerns.

Labor cost savings
Employee scheduling software puts more information in your hands, so you can see how those schedules affect your labor costs. For example, you can run reports that track overtime and instances of employees working less or more than their scheduled hours. Additionally, with a solution like demand-driven scheduling, you can build schedules that conform more closely to your coverage needs, so you have more employees scheduled in busy times and fewer during off hours. This can help you have the right people in the right place at the right time.

Improved labor law compliance
A number of ever-changing federal, state, and local labor laws impact your employee scheduling process, including Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) overtime requirements, predictive scheduling laws, and break time requirements. Additionally, if your organization has labor unions, you also need to comply with collective bargaining agreement requirements for scheduling.

The cost of non-compliance can be steep. For example, violating FLSA wage and overtime laws can result in a fine of $2,374 per offense. Employee scheduling software can help you avoid such penalties by allowing you to create rules that reflect applicable regulatory and union contract requirements. As a result, you can apply overtime fairly, keep employees within contractual working hour limits, and calculate required break times accurately.

Anytime access to employee schedules
Unlike paper schedules posted in the employee break room or on a desktop application, cloud-based employee scheduling software is available to you and your employees 24/7. Whether you have retail employees who move between stores and departments, or public safety staff working out in the community, they can access their schedules and provide availability updates using an employee scheduling app on their iPhone or Android device. And managers can use it, too! They can use mobile scheduling tools to create schedules, fill empty shifts, and communicate with employees from any device.

Integrated time off management
Whether planned or unplanned, employee absences can disrupt your shift planning. Thankfully, employee scheduling technology can automatically integrate time off and leave requests into your shift schedule. Even if unforeseen circumstances prevent an employee from returning to work at the expected time, the software can immediately identify gaps in the schedule and help you fill them, so you have adequate coverage for every shift.

A better employee experience
Irregular schedules and long working hours can make employees feel overworked and burned out, resulting in absenteeism and high turnover. In a recent Limeade study, 40 percent of employees said burnout was the top reason they resigned from their job. Fortunately, workforce scheduling software helps you proactively combat burnout with tools for creating more predictable and consistent schedules. You can set parameters in the software, such as limits on working hours, overtime, and the number of shifts each employee works in a specific period.

Scheduling software also boosts the employee experience by empowering employees and enabling them to manage their working hours. It delivers the following to your employees:

  • Full transparency and access to their schedules
  • Timely notifications about schedule changes
  • Tools for trading shifts and picking up extra shifts, in line with your policies
  • The ability to submit time-off requests and receive timely manager responses

Streamline Employee Scheduling in Your Organization

Automating your employee scheduling and shift planning activities makes creating and adjusting schedules easier, whether your employees work traditional day shifts or around the clock. With tools for creating a more streamlined shift scheduling process, you can say goodbye to scheduling headaches and save time to focus on other priorities.

Regardless of your industry or the size of your workforce, TCP Software offers a range of scheduling solutions to help you build reliable, consistent schedules for your workforce. To learn more about our solutions from TimeClock Plus, Humanity, Aladtec, and ScheduleAnywhere, speak to one of our experts.