Writing schedules is about getting the right people working at the right times whilst minimising expenditure. Sounds simple, but everyone we talk to, who write schedules by hand, say it’s a nightmare. Writing a good rota is, in fact, a searching test of a manager to meet the challenge. Without software, the activity required to gather needed information and to communicate and implement the decisions can become overwhelming to a scheduler.

Firstly, the right people need to be employed and the right training provided. Once this is done, managing the staff schedule becomes the most important factor in controlling labour expenditure, ensuring service standards and keeping staff satisfied and ultimately at the company.

Required hours for the period need to be defined. Managers need to decide what their service standards are in order to determine how many workers with which skills are required. Known fluctuations should be taken into account such as seasonal variations. On Schedule uses a template system to help schedulers define the required hours for the week, deferring the actual staff selection to a later stage. Key to this is the use of roles in the system which categorise people into groups. For writing schedules people need categorising by what skills they provide.

One question is: do you use a centralised or decentralised scheduling system - do the staff or the managers decide who works when? In most cases a centralised approach is taken but there are companies where shifts are written on a sheet for staff to scramble to write their names next to the time slots. With a centralised system it is still important to satisfy employee requirements such as flexible workplace agreements, even shift distribution and part-timers. On Schedule allows staff to enter their availability online which is used by an automated scheduling system and manual graphical editing environment to distribute shifts to employees. This is a kind of decentralised approach but the scheduler is in full control. The system allows the scheduler to alter the decisions On Schedule makes, they can select staff to work when they have not specified availability for a particular time. Staff desire for involvement in schedule creation should not be underestimated.

It’s important to reduce overtime and the use of pool and agency staff. Staff salaries or wages are usually the largest cost to a company, so it’s important to get schedules right. Anything that can be done to minimize payroll expense represents a significant boost to the profitability of a business. On Schedule allows managers to rate staff in preference order, altering who is selected first by the automated scheduling system. This could be used to make the system select the best workers first, but it was mainly designed so that managers can make sure pool and agency staff are selected last.

Staff schedules should be compared to the payroll budgets. On schedule allows you to view which areas of the business are on budget or not. It also allows you to export hours to payroll, taking into account paid and unpaid leave, sickness and absence.

On a daily basis, adjusting and tracking the constant changes to the planned schedule can impose a heavy manual burden if these functions are not automated. Changes and the last minute call-ins must be tracked so that adequate staff is on hand.

Staff scheduling software should give everyone involved easy access to schedules. It should be easy to use. It should not just be a simple database for entering and reporting but should provide an automated system of creating schedules. It should be easy and quick to update and eliminate errors. It should highlight important factors enabling schedulers to make more informed decisions. Notifications should be sent to staff of shifts and important information. It should take into account the needs of the employees as well as management and corporate goals. Absence, sickness and leave needs to be taken into account. We believe On Schedule does all this and makes it look easy.