How Small Businesses Can Manage Staff Schedules More Efficiently

Whatever the size and type of your business, staff management can be a time consuming and complicated task. Having to deal with filling shifts, cope with peak periods and fluctuations in demand and juggle holiday schedules can be a real headache, especially if internal communication systems leave a lot to be desired.

Unique Challenges

If you own or manage a small business, you will probably have to face comparatively more constraints than larger organisations. The issue of employee scheduling in particular can pose specific challenges. Those who run small firms often have to work with a limited budget so they can't afford errors, especially as scheduling employees is often their largest expense.

Employing seasonal or part-time workers may be cost efficient but it often means managers have to deal with a high turnover rate and complicated scheduling. If you find yourself in this position,   archaic methods for keeping track of employee schedules, using spreadsheets or even a paper-based system, just won’t do.

Off The Shelf Solutions

Large companies often commission customised software specially designed to cope with their specific employee scheduling challenges. Sadly, this is not an option for small businesses.

However, there is a solution to the staff scheduling problems faced by managers of smaller organisations. Help is at hand in the form of off-the-shelf staff management software, which is readily available.

These software programmes were created with the specific requirements of small business employee scheduling in mind. Proprietary employee scheduling software provides managers of small businesses with powerful tools enabling them to streamline their staff schedules and keep track of holiday requests using its in-built availability and leave calendar.

Improved Efficiency

If you run a small company you shouldn’t have to waste your valuable time juggling staff schedules. Employee scheduling software will save you a lot of time, which can be reinvested into growing your business and increasing profits. 

Using software for employee management will also help you to eliminate absenteeism and optimise your workforce so you can spend more time on the tasks that matter most to your business.  Employee scheduling software offers other benefits too as it makes it easier for you to keep to a strict budget.

Better Communication

For a small business to succeed, it is vital to have an efficient system of communication between managers and employees to ensure that the business is properly staffed at all times. By making use of the powerful communication features the software packages offer, managers will find it easy to communicate with employees so work shifts can be quickly adapted to meet changing customer demand.