When developing the employee schedules for Feet’s retail stores, there are parameters and such that should be taken into consideration. First of all, when looking for ways to successfully schedule employees, a company should ensure the schedules are made and are accurate and can be generated quickly, sometimes adjustments would need to be made and in this case, alterations should be able to be made fast to ensure there is no conflicts between other employee scheduled hours. Schedulers should be able to take employee constraints into consideration and should have an ability to notify employees not only of the schedule but also any changes that may take place.
Schedules must be made with employee seniority in mind as well as their availability and preferences to ensure the schedule meets all shift requirements. This will ensure that all shifts are covered with the amount of employees needed to cover all responsible areas of the business without creating over or under staffed shifts. Being able to connect forecasting with scheduling is key to be able to schedule hours based on what is forecasted as far as what would be expected to be sold or how busy the company expected the specific days to be ensuring they were covered for the busier shifts and days.
Being able to generate a schedule that employees could access via the internet or even through a website on mobile devices would make not only scheduling easier to get to, but would also be available to employees who are on the go. The employees would be able to check their schedules on their smartphones which would give them unlimited access.
The size of the company or business definitely plays a role in the scheduling needs, the bigger the company, most likely the more people would need scheduled daily. Even though it would be a bit more difficult scheduling more people, the company could input different things into a calendar system, including specific meeting dates or company events that could show up in a report while scheduling to let the scheduler know if more employees are needed on a specific date.
Allowing employees to trade shifts with others at their own discretion based on a similar qualified system would not only benefit the employees and the company by saving time but would also give the employees a bit of morale as they are trusted to cover themselves for shifts instead of going to a manager and asking permission then waiting for them to find someone to cover the shift and waiting for a confirmation.
There are several systems companies can use to assist in their own specific scheduling needs, some of which include “When I work” which is basically a mobile schedule and time clock that businesses use to communicate with their employees through a free app on their iPhone or android smartphone. “Resource Guru” is another system used by companies to quickly and simply their employees as well as the equipment, and other resources online. The guru gives the company the ease of team visibility on one clever calendar, allowing them to add, edit, move & delete bookings in seconds which also provides a unique "availability bar" to help with capacity planning.
There are many systems companies can use to help in scheduling needs, some of which are basic and can create schedules by entering employees into a database and selecting any requested days off, or shift preferences, the schedule is then generated by random. Some systems are a bit more detailed and require a bit more information. While other systems not only serve as a scheduling tool, but also give the company control to manage their customers. It allows the company to not only schedule but also look at estimates and invoice payments as well as accounts receivable and payable. QuickBooks synchronization eliminates double entries and saves time. Mobile access which is beginning to be a big key into the decision making when it comes to the different types of software available, gives your team information anywhere, anytime creating a constant line of communication.
In closing, it is important for companies to treat scheduling needs as an important factor in the everyday business, to ensure the shift is covered to an acceptable amount. Making schedules comparable to the expected forecast is important to ensure over and under staffing is not an issue. Using a mobile account for the scheduling or calendar events is a benefit for employees as it gives them access to the things they may need pretty much anytime and anywhere. Using a system that is simply, accurate and fast can prove to be beneficial to a company by saving them time on scheduling as well as allowing updates to the schedule to happen quickly and without incident that may occur when schedules coincide.