Staff scheduling: ultimate guide to scheduling workers efficiently

Staff schedules are critically important to ensure operational efficiency, customer satisfaction and productivity across various industries and sectors. Work schedules enable you to plan, manage and monitor the services you are providing to your customers. These schedules also provide your employees with all the necessary information required to do their jobs effectively. With so many moving parts to manage, staff scheduling can often be a complex task which is why we have put together this complete guide. Take a look as we deep dive into all elements related to employee scheduling, its benefits, the advanced planning and scheduling tools you can use and more.

What is a work schedule?

In simple terms, a work schedule refers to the specific days and times that your employees are expected to complete the tasks or duties related to their position of employment. This schedule includes the specific shift details, like the days of the week and hours of the day they are expected to work. This schedule ensures that your employees and staff know when they need to work, how long they need to work, the work location, their duties and roles etc. It makes reference to the work planning and scheduling process.

What is the importance of a work schedule?

From the above, it is clear that work schedules are important, especially to ensure that you have the right employees at the right jobs at the correct times. But there are several other benefits that a business can experience when the work schedule process is managed effectively and correctly. These include:

• Reducing the amount of time you spend on the scheduling process, allowing you to focus on growing your business.
• Ensuring that your scheduling procedures comply with legal requirements and regulations outlined by the labour department.
• Enhancing consistency and customer experience, as your employees know well in advance the days and hours they will be working, reducing absenteeism and increasing productivity. 
• Efficiently determining and managing labour costs by scheduling employees so that they are not working overtime and that you do not have too many or too few employees working at the same location. 

Employee scheduling is a critical process that will enhance your overall business operations, productivity and profitability.

Different types of work schedules

Now that we understand the benefits of work schedules, let’s look at the different types of work schedules. You may be asking, “Why are there different types of work schedules? The simple answer is that different industries and businesses have different scheduling and rostering needs. As a work schedule example, security guards will not work the same amount of time as a marketing assistant. Different types of schedules are available to meet different businesses’ needs. The top 6 types of employee work schedules include:  

• Full-time work schedules – with this type of schedule, employees would work for the same days and hours per week, usually 40 core hours a week. 
• Part-time schedules – this schedule offers more flexibility as employees work less than full-time hours. The employees’ schedules may change from week to week. 
• Fixed schedules – a fixed work schedule lays out a predetermined set of days and hours that remain the same throughout an employee’s employment. These hours are usually defined before an employee begins work and can include both full-time and part-time schedules. 
• Flexible work schedules – a flexible schedule allows for a bit more freedom than fixed schedules, as employees need to work a certain number of hours a week, but they can do this within their own time frame and not during specific hours set out by the employer. 
• Rotating shift schedules – in this work schedule, employees will work a series of day and night shifts that the employer decides on. This is a popular work schedule for hourly workers. 
• Split shift work schedules – with this type of work schedule, an employee’s shift is split into two parts. They will clock in for one shift, clock out, leave and then clock in for the last shift. 

7 Tips for Employee Scheduling

Now we know what you are thinking, and yes, employee scheduling can sometimes be a complex task, especially when managing several employees across locations. Do not panic. We are here to help guide you along the way. No matter what kind of work schedule you put into place, these seven scheduling tips can help make the process that much easier.

1. Identifying Resources

Before getting stuck into the task of building out your schedule, make sure you have a good understanding of the financial and staffing resources at your disposal. Determine how many hours you can afford to pay your employees for each week, and outline your wages based on this. This way you will avoid any potential issues with overtime or costs that weren’t in your initial budget. 

2. List What Each Shift Needs

When creating a needs list for each shift, consider the following: 

• How will you manage requests for time-off?
• What sort of shift schedule best suits your business needs? 
• How flexible can you be with your scheduling? 

Are your teams made up of employees who have different roles? If so, consider the roles that need to be filled during a shift. For example, a retail store would need a manager and sales assistants for each shift. 

3. Collect Shift Preferences

Being considerate of your employees and their private lives is important. It shows that you care and respect them as humans and not just staff. That said, there is an extent to which this should be done, and accommodating their preferences shouldn’t lead to business compromises. 

We recommend putting out a staff survey to collect preferences. In addition, those who have worked for you the longest should get first preference.

4. Review Past Employee Schedules 

Referring back to previous employee schedules is a great way to identify what works and what doesn’t. They’re typically a good guide for drawing up a new one. Once you’ve created your new schedule, compare it with a previous one to see who actually worked each shift. Make adjustments where necessary. 

5. Create a Plan for Replacements

Before sending out your new work schedule, make sure your teams know what the replacement policy is. For example, when someone is sick, do they need to call in sick and find someone to cover their shift if they’re unavailable? Do employees need to get management approval before switching shifts? Set up a written policy and communicate it clearly. 

6. Use an Employee Shift Scheduling Software

Are you still setting up your work schedules manually? It’s time to automate this process with a “schedule maker” or digital schedule system like EasyRoster. 

7. Ask for Employee Feedback & Input

Let your employees know that they can expect to receive their draft roster on a specific day. And that feedback is required by a set time on that day before the final schedule is communicated. Make it clear that any changes given after that time will not be considered. 

Best Practices For Employee Scheduling

If you still aren’t feeling confident about creating your staff schedules after reading our tips, then follow these best practices:

1. Align shift planning with your business and operational requirements

You need to have a clear view of your business and operational requirements when shift planning. This means knowing your clients, their requirements, your employees, their skill levels and availability. This will allow you to create optimal work schedules to ensure that you always have the correct number of employees working, ensuring labour costs are kept under control to drive profitability. If you are utilising an employee scheduling software to manage this process, you need to ensure that it can be integrated into your current systems to allow you to manage turnover and payroll efficiently. 

2. Monitor demand, historical data and utilise forecasting 

To produce efficient work schedules, you need to analyse historical data and monitor demand to forecast and plan your employee schedules ahead of time. This requires looking at elements related to your business’s busy times, quiet seasons, regular events you work at etc. You can utilise this to predict the number of employees you will need to ensure that you can work around your customer’s needs and requirements for your services. 

3. Know your staff, their availability and create open lines of communications

Get to know your staff and their availability to get your employee scheduling right the first time. Make sure you check their availability and communicate schedules long in advance. This allows your employees to alert you to any scheduling conflicts, issues or problems. This reduces employee absenteeism and also enables you to ensure that all shifts are covered. For this process to run smoothly, you will need to: 

• Provide your employees with notice about any shift schedule changes in advance
• Match the right shifts with the right employees who have the correct skills needed to complete the task
• Ensure that you allocate a fair amount of shifts per employee
• Clearly define employee roles and responsibilities
• Provide employees with an easy way to manage shift swaps

4. Utilise the right tools to enhance employee scheduling and planning 

When you have a business with many moving parts keeping track of employee shifts is often tricky, especially if you are still using spreadsheets. Many business owners are now turning to technology and shift planning software solutions, like EasyRoster, to automate this process, enhance scheduling, and keep up-to-date information on hand about their employees and customers. This type of software is revolutionising the scheduling process and is reducing the amount of time that you need to spend building templates and managing schedules, allowing you to focus on driving business success.

How to schedule workers efficiently?

From the above, it’s clear that an efficient staff scheduling program aims to get the right people at the right place, doing the right things, at the right thing. This sounds incredibly simple, but it’s often easier said than done. To help manage this process, we have listed four steps to help you get your staff scheduling done like a pro. Ready? Let’s go.

Step #1: Create a staff schedule template

The staff schedule template is an overview of how many staff are needed, for which location, and when.

The staff schedule template is a strategy, and when it’s done properly, has a positive impact on:

• Labour costs
• Turnover
• No-shows
• Employee satisfaction
• Compliance
• Productivity

Once you have a master template, you won’t need to duplicate your efforts every time you need to create a staff schedule.

[If you plan to use an Excel spreadsheet, download the free template we created].

Here’s a checklist of how to create your master:

Resources

✅	Go over previous staff scheduling to get a feel for what you may need
✅	Determine shift locations and shift lengths
✅	Arrange your list in an Excel spreadsheet or a workforce management digital tool
✅	Identify previous trends or mistakes, such as under or over staffing
✅	Enter any special days, like public holidays and other special days
✅	Consider specific special requirements for every shift

People

✅	Add upcoming events that may impact staff amounts
✅	→ If yes to the above, factor in location, skills and availability of staff
✅	Create a small pool of skilled workers who act as a standby solution and are available to jump on board at short notice (source your own standby team, or use an agency)

Rules, policies, procedures & regulations

✅	Industry or governmental regulations may impact your schedule, so factor those in
✅	Bear in mind any business processes and procedures that will impact the schedule
✅	Skill, certifications, seniority, overtime status etc. may impact rules

Step #2: Assign shifts

If your template was built correctly, then times and locations will already have been determined, and so in this step, all you have to do is focus on selecting the right people for each shift.

Now, this can prove a very time-consuming activity, especially if there’s scheduling method complexity. The more automated the business is, the easier this step. If you haven’t already, it is highly recommended that you implement workforce scheduling software, which automates the most time-consuming tasks. 

Follow this checklist for assigning shifts like a boss:

✅	Pair new staff members with experience so they can show them the ropes. Always include at least one person who can mentor the others. To determine who should get this position, check employee performance
✅	Calculate cost of shifts against forecasted income to keep a healthy balance sheet of debt to income
✅	Review your first draft and tweak where necessary
✅	After creating the schedule, and reviewing for mistakes, publish it
✅	Distribute the schedule to your team. Remember to communicate regularly about how to access schedules and the process for making requests

Consider the following in your shift scheduling selection:

Qualifications
Use the pre-defined skills and certifications criteria to ensure all employees are assigned to shifts they meet the requirements for. Ensure all credentials have not expired, as this could cause legal issues.

Scheduling rules
Rigorously apply all defined scheduling rules, such as seniority, overtime, or other customised rules pertaining to your organisation.

Employee availability & preferences
Identify which staff are available for that shift, taking into account employee requests, leave dates, issues, any staff who are on sick leave, and so on. Making a change is usually due to unavailability. This is time-consuming, especially when the schedule is done manually instead of with a scheduling tool. You should also consider employee preferences, as this will reduce change requests, but to ensure as smooth a process as possible, make sure to compile policies around this so that everyone knows how to submit preferences and by when and in what format. Considering preferences increases staff satisfaction. 

Keep employee profiles updated
Be sure to take the time to keep employee profiles updated so that when using scheduling system software, it’s easy to check their information such as role, job level, seniority, pay rates and availability preferences. 

Automation of shift assignment
Assigning shifts is typically the most time-consuming portion of the scheduling process. The more complex, the more time-consuming, with managers sometimes spending days doing it. Staff scheduling applications significantly cut down the time it would usually take, as the software removes the manual process of matching people with positions. Many tools include advanced features such as shift swapping and automated standby filling, which are very helpful.

Step #3: Manage changes

It’s a given that changes will need to be managed, from the first day the shift schedule is published, to the very last day it’s active. This is why it’s important to develop change request policies and stick to them.

In the policy you create for change requests, make sure it states clearly how far in advance the request must be made, how it must be made, and the consequences for not adhering to it. Don’t forget to include policy compliance as a KPI, as this will motivate staff to follow the process.

Common reasons for schedule changes include:

Demand 

It’s often the case that your staffing requirements may increase or decrease throughout the scheduling period. The answer to this problem is to have small, skilled standby pools of people you can call up to work on short notice. Things become a little more complex when needs decrease, but the solution is to put in surge staff for the last 10-15% of normal schedule needs, creating a buffer for both increases and decreases in demand.

Employee availability

Many companies require their employees to identify a suitable replacement if their availability changes once the schedule is published, creating mixed results. It’s a good idea if the business has scheduling software that allows for shift swapping, as employees can post and accept open shifts in real-time, and management can configure this workflow in the system to either be automated or require permissions.

No-shows

The human factor means there will be no-shows. A standby pool of skilled and flexible employees who will jump in at short notice is essential. Make up a standby pool of part-time staff, contingent workers, and full-time employees hungry for overtime opportunities or use an agency.

Step #4: Review lessons learned & make continual improvements 

Once all’s said and done, it’s time to build the next staff schedule…

But before you do, what did you learn from the last session? Can the process be simplified due to the lessons learned?

It may be time-consuming, but this step is critical to making the staff scheduling processes better and easier. More importantly, this step is vital to saving costs, as it helps you predict staff demand in future. 

Reviewing the process, getting employee feedback, and perhaps customer feedback means taking action where necessary and using positive and negative feedback to ensure continual improvements.

It’s a good idea to solicit feedback from employees actively and if possible, and relevant, your customers. Feedback should come not only from staff who are scheduled to shifts but also from staff transition points, when Payroll and HR and any other department use the information from the workforce scheduling software, to fulfil their duties and obligations.

When reviewing after a period of staff scheduling, be sure to take into account these aspects:  

Accuracy of forecasting

Check that the forecast to actual staff demand was accurate, and if not, why not? What can be done better next time? Answering questions like this improve your predictive accuracy; one small improvement has the potential to make a significant impact on the business.

Employee evaluations

To optimise shifts, knowing the individuals in your workforce is essential. This can be tricky if you manage multiple locations, but not impossible. Always put someone in charge of each shift and get them to evaluate the employees that report to them. If it’s impossible to know every employee, then make sure you know those in charge. Give them the tools they need in terms of training, tools and tips, and then meet with them regularly for employee evaluations. Don’t forget to build employee performance into KPIs and target areas that can be improved.

Analytics and reporting

Gone are the days of scheduling with Excel spreadsheets. Instead, the right staff scheduling software automatically collects the data needed to reveal meaningful insights. With the proper understanding of data, the scheduling process can be fully optimised and provides the ability to save costs.

Pros and cons: manual vs digital staff scheduling

Staff scheduling may not be the most glamorous of jobs, but if the organisation sells man-hours, it’s undoubtedly the most important job. This is especially true considering that salaries are the highest expense in most companies.

In addition, for companies whose business is to handle employee time, employee stationing impacts brand reputation, customer satisfaction, productivity, performance of the business, customer contractual obligations, employee satisfaction, and most importantly, profitability. Finally…did you know that payroll errors are usually due to poor employee organising? The point is that creating accurate, efficient staff schedules is of utmost importance, mainly if your business revolves around man-hours.

Manual scheduling

Typically, a manual schedule utilises an excel spreadsheet to track and manage rostering. Now, this can work well when there are a small number of employees that need to be rostered, but when you have a large number of employees across multiple locations, the process becomes a lot more complex. Employee volume, scheduling complexity, unpredictability, or the need for workforce analytical insights, is when the manual scheduling process starts to fail. 

For example, for each pay period, it is necessary to consider how many resources are needed for each shift, what positions they should fill and what qualifications and skills are required. Next, you need to cross-check their availability. Once you get all that done, you need to look at how to control overtime, insert appropriate breaks, make sure everything is legally compliant, and that staff have more or less the same number of shifts. 

To accomplish all this is very time-consuming when done manually. Still, workforce management systems can actually take the data that is in the system and create shifts automatically, and then you simply need to run an eye over them to make sure everything is correct.

The whole process can take a few hours to a few days to complete, depending on its complexity.

In addition, there are human errors in manual scheduling, and in a B2B environment, the service level agreement can complicate the decision-making process even more. If you have more than 15 – 20 employees that work around shifts, manual scheduling is going to fail you.

Lastly, unless you have your own internal Excel guru who has the ability to set up complex spreadsheets that automate reporting as much as possible, it will be just about impossible to glean meaningful insights around employees and shifts, making reporting difficult at best. The result of this result would be increased expenses, missed opportunities and errors.

Digital Scheduling

Digital (aka automated) scheduling streamlines and makes the process efficient, increasing productivity, decreasing frustration, and improving employee satisfaction which in turn leads to lower staff turnover.

Good, automated scheduling systems integrate with the software that companies are already using and allows for the sharing of information between departments so that each can use the data stored in the system to carry out their own processes without needing paper or getting in touch with the shift scheduler. 

All information is also available in real-time. Once it’s been inputted, any relevant person from any department can access it immediately, from anywhere in the world, which also makes the scheduling process more flexible.  

Staff can access the schedule via their phone or other mobile device using an app, that cuts down a considerable amount of time in and of itself because the scheduler no longer needs to distribute the schedule or communicate it, and changes can be made quickly. Staff can view the changes as soon as they are made.

As with all things, there are also disadvantages to using workforce scheduling software; it’s more expensive than using paper and pencil or an Excel spreadsheet. If you choose the wrong tool, your expenses will rise, and there won’t be many benefits.

It’s important to understand that many workforce scheduling tools are developed by programmers who don’t much understand the various field service processes, so be sure to look for software that is geared towards your particular industry, like EasyRoster, which caters specifically to the security, cleaning, facilities and labour broking industries.

Another thing to look out for is whether the tool allows for multiple location scheduling – because if your business sells man-hours to a few different locations, the system will need to cater for that, another benefit of EasyRoster.

One of the negatives of going digital is that you first have to do your homework; in fact, it is vital to put in the hours it takes to understand which tool will be best for your business. 

Cons of manual staff scheduling

Employee volume, scheduling complexity, unpredictability, or the need for workforce analytical insights, is when the manual scheduling process starts to fail.

For example, for each pay period, it is necessary to consider how many resources are needed for each shift, what positions they should fill and what qualifications and skills are needed. Next, you need to cross check their availability. Once you get all that done, then you need to look at how to control overtime, insert appropriate breaks, make sure everything is legally compliant, and that staff have more or less the same amount of shifts.

To accomplish all this is very time consuming when done manually, but workforce management systems can actually take the data that is in the system, and create shifts automatically, and then you simply need to run an eye over them to make sure everything is good.

The whole process can take a few hours to a few days to complete, depending on complexity.

In addition, there are human errors in manual scheduling, and in a B2B environment, the service level agreement can complicate the decision-making process even more. If you have more than 15 – 20 employees that work around shifts, manual scheduling is going to fail you.

Lastly, unless you have your own internal Excel guru who has the ability to set up complex spreadsheets that automate reporting as much as possible, it will be just about impossible to glean meaningful insights around employees and shifts, making reporting difficult at best.

Pros of digital staff scheduling

If some companies were to use a manual approach to scheduling, the result would be increased expenses, missed opportunities and errors.

Digital (aka automated) scheduling streamlines and makes the process efficient, increasing productivity, decreasing frustration, and improving employee satisfaction which in turn leads to lower staff turnover.

Good automated scheduling systems integrate with the software that companies are already using, and allows the sharing of information between departments, so that each can use the information stored in the system, to carry out their own processes without the need for paper or getting in touch with the shift scheduler.

To boot, all information is in real time, and once it’s been inputted, any relevant person from any department can access it immediately, from anywhere in the world, which also makes the scheduling process more flexible.

Staff can access the schedule via their phone or other mobile device using an app, so that cuts down a huge amount of time in and of itself because the scheduler no longer needs to distribute the schedule, or communicate it, and changes can be made easily. Staff can view the changes as soon as they are made.

Customised Demo

Book a customised demo of the EasyRoster Software and see how it can work for your unique business. It’s never been this easy or convenient to test drive software.

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Cons of digital staff scheduling

As with all things, there are also disadvantages to using workforce scheduling software; it’s more expensive than using paper and pencil or an Excel spreadsheet, and if you choose the wrong tool, your expenses will rise and there won’t be much benefit of going digital.

[Find out which features are essential when deciding on the best shift scheduling software].

It’s important to understand that many workforce scheduling tools are developed by programmers who don’t much understand the various field service processes, so be sure to look for software that is geared towards your particular industry, like EasyRoster who caters specifically to the security, cleaning, facilities and labour broking industries.

Another thing to look for, is whether the tool allows for multiple location scheduling – because if your business sells man-hours to a few different locations, the system will need to cater for that (another benefit of EasyRoster).

One of the negatives of going digital is that you first have to do your homework; in fact, it is vital to put in the hours it takes to understand which tool is going to be best for your business.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that staff scheduling plays a critical role in the success of a business, especially where cost savings, increased profitability and customer experience are concerned. Getting the employee schedule right is central to this. This guide has highlighted all the necessary steps to ensure that you are getting staff management right. Still, this process can be made that much simpler by using a workforce management/employee scheduling tool like EasyRoster.

For more on how our staff scheduling tool works and how it can benefit your business book a demo today.