Scheduling employees shifts is incredibly time consuming especially when lots of your staff are part time. The amount of shifts to arrange to lots of different people can be a nightmare. However luckily personnel scheduling software automates the allocating of shifts.
There is a lot of ‘old’ personnel scheduling software on the market, however one way to see if the software is relatively recent is to check it is web based. This allows employees to access the scheduler from their home computer. It far more convenient to use this web based system rather than any manual method they had to use before.
Another great feature of most personnel scheduling software is that employees can indicate which shifts they would prefer when the next schedule is generated. If you give employees the shifts they want they are more likely to enjoy the job and this should reduce employee turnover.
The algorithm used to generate the shift schedule is quite advanced. It takes into consideration the minimum amount of hours each employee is contracted for each week, when each employee has indicated they are available to work and shifts are allocated based on the seniority of the employee.
Most personnel scheduling software will also allow you to manage the days off employee’s can take. The manager of system will have already allocated how many days of each employee can take. The employee can then request a day off and upon approval from their manager the system will automatically not assign them a shift on this day.
You also don’t need to worry that an employee will lose the shift schedule they are give. Since the system is web based they can access it from any internet connected computer. They no longer need to phone their manager during business hours.