Wednesday, November 22, 2017

6 essential features you should have in your shift scheduling

No idea what best fits your shift scheduling or a smarter way of handling your employee scheduling? We have listed 6 essential features that a well designed scheduling solution can’t be without.
6 Essential features you should have in your shift scheduling
1. Time Clock
247Shift’s time clock eliminates your frustration of an outdated time clock with a time card punched into a time clock. Smart time clock data collected is updated in real-time. Employee can clock in/clock out from specific time clock locations at their work computers or on their mobile devices. Manger and HR can eliminate errors in data entry and reduce the number of inaccuracies. Companies are able to make better use of resources, resulting in cost savings.

2. Schedule Shift pattern
How much time do you spend on copying, printing and sharing the updated shift schedule every week? 247Shift makes your scheduling process a lot smarter. Our system provides shift templates that are suitable for your selected roles and functions. System will prompt any scheduling conflicts to prevent misallocation and reduce the complexity of scheduling across multiple locations and time slots. Scheduled templates will help you save a lot of time. Sharing the schedules with your employees does not require printouts, eliminating mistakes and resulting in cost savings.

3. Web-based solution
247Shift enables everyone access from computers, phones and tablets. You do not need any special software to be installed in your computer. This enables you and your employees to work anytime, anywhere. It also allows the flexibility of making changes to the schedule anywhere at any time! Your data is safe. It is encrypted using SSL and backed up daily.

4. Mobile
the best employee scheduling systems have taken this into account, making sure that your shift scheduling system is both online and mobile. With a mobile scheduling, you will be able to handle shift swaps, shift requests and communication from your phone anytime, anywhere you go. No more excuses for “not being able to check the shift".

5. Powerful reporting
Information is stored online. Real-time reports can be easily generated and the data analyzed. You do not need to consolidate the information manually to produce a report. The report is readily available on a click, so you can quickly see a breakdown in the visual reports. You can even export shift reports to Excel for meeting and discussion purposes easily.

6. Payroll
247Shift allows you to export shift related information to MS Excel format which are supported by popular payroll software packages. It helps to eliminate errors and free up resources for other tasks.

There are still more feature you can find in our 247Shift system. Click here to view more.

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Why using Excel is not a good idea for employee scheduling

Excel is a very useful tool but not when it comes to employee scheduling. It is an inefficient and time-consuming tool to use for your employee scheduling.

In this article, let us look at why using excel is a not a good idea for employee scheduling.
It can’t handle shift changes
Managers have to manually update the schedule and call to inform employees when there are shift changes to the work schedule. The change of schedule template can take hours to tweak into the format you want and it leaves room for mistakes.

It can’t show employee availability
Spreadsheet is hard to get the complete view of all the work. You have to view the information between tabs. When the formula is wrong, it will affect the other formulas as well. 

It can’t handle employee time off
Employee that request for time off can do this via different channels, e.g. send in their request via email or fill in a paper form. You can only check the record manually when you are going to plan work scheduling. What's more, the requests may be missed or lost.

It is not easy to maintain
Create scheduling template may be easy using excel, but when it comes to scheduling for a big organization, it may pose a BIG headache! Imaging the number of rows of information, the amount of “copy and paste" that needs to be done when you have 10,000 employees in the organization. 

You can’t share your schedule
Excel confines changes to only one person. When you need to inform your employee about their work schedule change, you have to print and get them to your employee every time changes are made. You can send them an email, but you can’t be sure that your employees have received and seen the schedule. It is an inefficient way to share your schedule.

It doesn’t have a time clock
Excel doesn’t have a built-in time clock. You have to transfer time card records with excel spreadsheet schedules. Comparing time cards to excel spreadsheet is a tedious exercise and the inaccuracies may be costly for your payroll.

It can’t do payroll
You have to manually calculate every single employee’s pay per month on the spreadsheet records. The records required for payroll may be more than the basic hours of employee work schedule. It may also including overtime, time off and other ad-hoc payments. The risk of making mistakes is high and maybe costly to the organisation.

Why don’t you switch to the available 247Shift technology that would make the process simpler? With tools that provide you with real-time updates, your employees can easily access the schedule from the cloud storage system from different platforms wherever they go via mobile or tablet. Work schedules need not to be stressful for both, management and staff.

Automate your scheduling system with minimal effort and time required today and reap the rewards of increased productivity!


Friday, May 19, 2017

Shift Scheduling for your Manufacturing industry


Managing employee scheduling for the manufacturing industry requires constant attention to details for each department. Managers and Supervisors have to manage employees in different departments such as, shipping, production, inventory, etc. Each department has their unique schedules, procedures and may be at different locations.

Most manufacturing production factory operate around the clock (24/7), having many job positions to schedule and multiple shifts to manage. Without proper scheduling, your business can experience increased cost of operation, high employee turnover rates, decreased output and other grievances.

Shift scheduling can help you with this automation process, decreasing the amount of time and effort you spend on scheduling.

Some of the features of 247Shift include:

1. Web-based accessibility
2. Multiple location and departments
3. Multiple job type (positions, skills, groups, crews, etc.)
4. Multiple templates for scheduling automation and complex rotations
5. Find best fit employees or substitutes

1. Web-based accessibility
Shift scheduling allows manager to oversee and control the shift, vacation in one single dashboard. Notification can be set at 30 minutes, 1 hour or 1 day before the shift is scheduled to begin. Dashboard allows everyone in the team to have the latest information in real-time.


2. Multiple location and departments
Employees can be scheduled to work in one or more location or departments on different shifts.
Schedule conflicts checking prevents misallocation of staff and reduces the complexity in planning.


3. Multiple job type (positions, skills, groups, crews, etc.)
Only staff on the shift are able to see the shift in the department and able to swap for it.


4. Multiple templates for scheduling automation and complex rotations
Shift template help manager design suitable shifts for selected roles and functions. Managers/Supervisors can add shift, apply shift pattern or even swap shift with other employee easily.


5. Find best fit employees or substitutes
Managers can see who is available to work for last minute needs, simply click swap shift in the system and employee will receive notification instantly via email.


Let 247Shift help you manage your schedules. Try out the features of 247Shift today!

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Hotel and hospitality shift scheduling


Hotels have a variety of job positions that require scheduling of employees with multiple shifts to cover for housekeeping staff, full-time and part-time workers when there are peak business days. Managers have to consider labor rules, time-off requests and personnel availabilities when managing work schedules.


A well planned shift roster is a very important key to employee satisfaction. Shift scheduling allows staff to get sufficient time to note their working schedule for the week or month. Employees (managers and staff) can save scheduling time, improve efficiency, and strike a work-life balance for everyone.


How will it help?


Always accessible for staff 24/7
Hotels never sleep because they have to meet demand of its guest every hour of everyday. Web-based scheduling allows manager and employee instant access to schedules, swap shifts as well as to apply/approve time-off request, anytime from website or mobile. Focus should be on providing a quality and memorable experience to guests instead of spending time and effort on manual scheduling.


One stop consolidated view
Dashboard provides a quick overview of all shift and leave activities. Schedule view by day, week and month will help the manager to view staff availability by location and time period.


Real time reports
Management team is able to generate reports in real time to monitor staff resource utilization. All reports are viewable on screen and exported to pdf, excel, and image (png format)



The data collected is updated in real-time, employee and the management team l can easily update and track their records online. Try our 247Shift scheduling service to see how well it meets your hospitality staff scheduling needs.




Thursday, March 23, 2017

Problem of manual shift scheduling


Whether you are in retail, construction, healthcare or the hospitality industry, there are few things that cause many "headaches" for managers when you use manual shift scheduling. To develop an efficient schedule, it can take days or sometimes weeks. Last minute change can be incredibly frustrating as managers are forced to do re-scheduling.


It is time to reconsider your current practice and start automating the process.

Here are some of the common scheduling problems where our scheduling tool, “247Shift” can help.

Using Paper and Pen /Manual spreadsheet
  • Spreadsheet formulas are unable to handle the amount of data
  • Depending on the complexities involved and the size of the organization, it may be difficult to manage the employee timetables efficiently.
The 247Shift Solution: Plan shifts across multiple locations, departments and functions.


Time involved in manual planning
  • Manual data entry and administration is required, which eats up time and resources.
  • Shift changes daily and managers will have to continuously edit them.
  • When staff grows and organization becomes more complex, matching employee availability to staffing requirements and controlling labour costs at the same time gets complicated.
The 247Shift Solution: Templates are available for repeated shift patterns.


Error prone
  • Human error which could lead to serious issues, such as over compensation under compensation, non compliance with labour regulations, and more.
  • The complexity of organization size can lead to a number of mistakes and complications in the process.
  • Manual data entry is subject to mistakes and loss of data.
The 247Shift Solution: Automatic scheduling conflict and optimum staff mix checking feature is available.


Not dynamic
  • No notifications of problems, absence of leave, reminder of changes in shift schedule.
  • Employees are frequently unaware of last minute changes because there is no visibility in their schedule.
  • When unexpected events happen, such as someone calling in sick, there is a breakdown in transportation and it coincides with your busiest time, managing replacements can be a nightmare!
The 247Shift Solution: Manage staff leave/time-off request and timely, Personalized Reminder features are available.


Lack of Analytics
  • Inconsistent and poor record keeping does not allow for meaningful data analysis.
The 247Shift Solution: Real time Reports/Analytics are available.

Employee scheduling software is the most efficient way to create and manage employees in the organization. By improving the employee planning processes, you can reduce errors and inefficiencies. This in turn will help to reduce cost and improve the bottom line. An added bonus - happy staff!

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

The impact of trends in shift scheduling


Shift scheduling is widely used in organizations such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, customer service, and manufacturing. These organizations require longer operation hours and maintenance; and some even require 24 hour operations. The manager has to ensure that all staff work efficiently and cost effectively for business success.


Today, the ways in which organizations conduct their business is constantly changing and evolving. The trends are gradually shifting to mobile workforce for some sectors, an interesting change for innovative workplace concepts and trends. Let us take a look at the trends that impact today's workforce.

Mobile

Most people have a Smartphone today. Mobile becomes the platform for communication, flexibility, and speeds up communication between staff and the company. Shift scheduling Shift scheduling systems help to automate the assignment of shifts, track and monitor staff attendance. As the system is mobile friendly, it allows staff, supervisors and human resource to focus on their core duties.

On-demand-Economy

The on-demand economy becomes a serious competitor to shift scheduling today especially for the hourly shift staff. Shift staff has the flexibility to choose the work from multiple sites which we can see from many emerging food delivery services today. They can instantly match the flexibility of the platform provided.

Increased flexibility

With shift scheduling system, the manager can track staff schedule and attendance in multiple places. Staff who work from home or working while they commute to work can manage their shift scheduling online instantly with the system.


Cost saving
Scheduling tool does the calculation to ensure your payroll compensation is within budget with the integration of attendance records. Processing payroll can take some time, but with this integration, HR is able to make use of existing resources, resulting in cost savings.
Shift scheduling software is a great tool. It makes scheduling easier for you to plan and track your staff resources across multiple shift periods by department, location and staff roles. No expensive investment in hardware. It is hosted on the internet and accessible from any computer, smartphones or tablets. There’s no reason not to have scheduling software.

Not all shift scheduling trends are suitable for all business models. They each have their own benefits and strengths. Explore some of these trends with 247Shift and look for a way to streamline your business.



Monday, January 16, 2017

Go paperless with 247Shift Scheduling.


Technology today has slowly transformed overflowing files cabinets into an organized digital format.
Companies are going paperless as a savvy business decision to improve productivity, reduce cost, improve security and help the environment.

Here are some of the reasons why your business should go paperless. Let the transition help you improve and add value to your business.

Accuracy
Automation of shift scheduling means spending less time on data input and increasing your data accuracy levels by reducing human errors. Errors in paper form data entry can be due to errors in handwriting or misinterpretation. Automated workflow makes processes faster, easier to handle and more accurate.

 Improved Efficiency
Going Paperless improves the productivity and efficiency of an office. All important information and documents can be covered digitally. You can back up or store them online. You do not have to search through thousands of files to obtain the information. Simply press CTRL + F to find and information can be shared instantly.

Improves security
Storing and backing up documents on cloud hosting provider eliminates the need to carry sensitive documents out of the office. All access to the system is encrypted using SSL. Shift records are accessed base on the roles and organization hierarchy.

 Save money
A paperless office obviously buys less paper. Think about how much you spend each month on paper, ink, postage and other supplies that support a paper-heavy office.

Save space
Space that is used to store all the physical supplies and actual documents can be condensed into two gigabytes of neatly organized file on a hard drive.

Go green
Going paperless is an environmentally conscious decision. By transforming your organization into a paperless organization, you can save trees and forests while you save money on paper, ink, postage and other supplies at the same time. Do your part to save the environment!

#Did you know?
A tree can produce 17 reams of paper on average and takes about 100 years to grow. A ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees. 17 reams of paper release 110 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.