When it comes to running a business, a lack of proper scheduling can lead to negative effects on your company, including inaccurate payroll and time sheet tracking, overscheduling, and more. One of the leading reasons for employee turnover is scheduling issues. If you’re experiencing an elevated employee turnover rate, poor scheduling practices may play a significant role. One way to correct this issue is to utilize shift scheduling software.

So, how can you avoid scheduling issues with your employees and boost their productivity? It’s all about developing an accurate scheduling plan that keeps your employees’ information secure. Before we start discussing the solutions to this problem, let's further flesh out some of the problems facing employee scheduling in the workplace today.

1. Lack of Employees

No one can accurately predict what the day will bring. For instance, in a construction project, a manager may receive a call from an employee who has a personal issue that needs to be resolved. Now, you have one less employee to complete the tasks on time. Or, perhaps a retail store manager is unsure exactly how many employees to schedule, seeing there may be an influx of customers due to a large, unannounced event in town. Regardless of the nature of your business, understaffing can lead to poor customer service and experience.

2. Overscheduling

On the other hand, scheduling your employees for too many hours could lead to payroll budget issues, stressed employees, and poor time management. You need to maximize your schedules so that everyone in the organization gets the hours they need while limiting unnecessary overtime and employee burnout.

3. Unfair Scheduling

While some countries have laws in place designed to minimize burnout, not every industry requires scheduled breaks or time off. This means it’s up to each business owner to analyze schedules and avoid the unwanted effects of unfair scheduling. The U.S. Department for Labor has all the resources you’ll need when it comes to complying with the law of the land.  

Construction companies will likely have different regulations than most health care organizations. However, finding the appropriate guidelines can be difficult. As state and city laws continue to evolve, implementing fair and consistent shifts can help you avoid inconsistent and harmful work schedules.

According to a Workforce, predictive scheduling laws are meant to provide stability to individuals so that they can attend to their child care, health, education, and second jobs, if necessary. 

The law may direct managers to offer extra hours to existing part-time employees before hiring help or guarantee employees the minimum hours promised during the hiring process. Some laws also require managers to pay employees extra for any last-minute changes.

Click here to view state minimum wage requirements.

4. Lack of a Formal Schedule

This may sound obvious; however, if you’ve been in business for some time now, you might be using the same system that you started with. For instance, if you own a cleaning company that you started back at home, you might have used a piece of paper and pen to create a schedule that you use today. However, using simple shift scheduling software will eliminate the messiness that paper schedules can create. 

5. Unexpected Absence and Sick Days

A common scheduling challenge is when an employee takes time off. For instance, an employee falls sick or has to pick up his or her child early from school during work hours. It’s not always planned when an employee has to take a day off. Such cases lead to changes in work shifts, and managers need to conveniently access their scheduling system to make accurate adjustments. 

6. Employee Turnover

As a manager, you’ll do your best to avoid employee turnover; however, people leave organizations -- it happens -- and some circumstances are beyond your control. Employee turnover will lead to scheduling issues, which will affect your business in the long run. Disgruntled employees are prone to leave negative reviews about your company and their experiences for the public to view. Although this may not be how you want your company’s perception to be, it’s important to provide the resources necessary to make your employees most productive and happy to avoid backlash. 

Preventing Employee Overscheduling

Now that you know the most common scheduling issues, here are some of the best ways to manage staff scheduling for a smooth workflow:

Invest in an easy-to-use scheduling app

Scheduling issues are common across all industries. Therefore, it’s important to have a solid system in place. The system you select should be easily accessible and digital to help you track and evaluate employees' time at work. Most of these time tracking shift scheduling apps are available in different versions with a variety of settings to suit your company’s needs. This means you can access them on your mobile phone, desktop, or tablet devices. 

Streamline vacation days

One common issue facing managers is seamlessly planning for vacation days. When employees want time off around holidays, it can be difficult to schedule properly. By investing in an employee scheduling app, you can approve, track, and/or deny employees' time off. Plus, employees can easily make plans in advance.

Hire enough employees

If you have scheduling issues due to a lack of manpower, you’ll need to consider hiring more people. Sometimes, it’s difficult to know how many employees are needed when starting a new business. If you're a small business, you don’t want extra expenses. The last thing you want to happen is to drive potential customers away because you're inadequately staffed. It’s important to look past the sales and traffic patterns to avoid hiring employees at the last minute. Seeking out a professional writer to help create a hiring guideline could be very beneficial.

Be clear about hours & hold employees accountable

Business managers should follow these guidelines to ensure their employees stay motivated and productive at work:

• Provide an estimate of the individual’s working hours when hiring;
• Make appropriate changes to shifts as soon as possible; and
• Provide a work schedule at least two weeks in advance.

Offer time between shifts

Nobody likes to be overworked. You need to ensure your employees have plenty of time between shifts. You also need to communicate this while hiring new employees. You need to let your employees know you value your company’s culture and that you are on the same team. For instance, if you're in retail and open every day of the week, you need to give employees some days off during the week. 

Offer incentives

When you have a scheduling system in place, you can easily identify employees who are not working. When you have to call them to cover any added shifts, consider offering incentives. Consider giving your employees some overtime pay or extra vacation days.

Prepare for staffing changes

Employees move from one job to another for different reasons; however, you can lessen the effects of turnover by implementing several employee retention tips, such as communicating last-minute changes in advance, being clear about expectations, and building trust between you and your staff.

Conclusion to Preventing Overscheduling 

Every industry and organization has employee scheduling issues; however, using the tips we’ve discussed here will help minimize employee turnover, solve communication problems, and plan for a seamless schedule year-round. Do you have any extra tips that you’d like to share with your fellow entrepreneurs?