Scheduling your employees’ shifts can become a complicated nightmare if you’re new to the process. Between juggling numerous employees, different shift hours, scheduling changes, and balancing out part-time and full-time workers, you can easily find yourself in a jumble of numbers and confusion. But there’s no reason to fret – as a manager, you can learn to handle the scheduling of shifts like a pro, ensuring that you meet all your employees’ needs as well as those of the company.
Step 1
Prepare yourself to handle the scheduling by using software that will make the process that much more organized and simple. With programs that automate some of the work for you, employees can be automatically updated of all changes, request preferred shifts, and even check their shifts and hours online or on their mobile. You won’t be receiving any more calls in the middle of the night from employees wondering what time their shift starts.
Step 2
Ensure that each employee provides his/her personal scheduling preferences and needs. If you are using a shift scheduling software, this can easily be done through the program. Otherwise, make sure that you compile a spreadsheet and keep track of everyone’s required work hours and requests.
Step 3
Decide what your policy will be for schedule change requests. How long will acceptable advance notice be and will the employee be responsible for finding a co-worker to cover their shift? Make sure you keep track of all changes that are made to tally up work hours at the end of the month.
Step 4
Start planning out the schedule. First, figure out how many employees you need per shift. Consider whether this changes depending on the day of the week and time of the day. For example, if the schedule is for a bar, you will likely require more waitresses at night than in the morning. Approach each shift thoughtfully and taking into consideration the business’ needs.
Then, start assigning employees to specific shifts according to their personal preferences and availabilities. Be considerate of not showing any ‘preferential treatment’ that could end in resentment, like giving the better shifts to only one employee. Once you fill in employees by their personal requests, fill in gaps that are not the ‘preferred’ time slots but in which particular employees are available.
Step 5
Post the schedule so everyone can see it at least a week before the first shift starts. It gives time to make any necessary changes or fulfill additional requests. If you have the software available, it will send a notice to all employees and they will then have the ability to mark their requested changes or switch shifts with other coworkers.
