It doesn’t matter where you’re located, what you do, how many people you employ, and how profitable you are – if you’re not managing your employees properly, your company will never reach its full potential.
However, doing this has never been easy, but it’s particularly hard in the middle of a global pandemic.
This is why creating a schedule that works for everyone involved and maximizes everyone’s time in the best way possible is a must.
Creating such a schedule is hard and challenging, but it’s doable if you know how to set your priorities and stick to them.
So, if you’re looking for ways to optimize your employees’ scheduling as well, here are a few tips that might help you do that more effectively.
Talk to your staff
This might sound like the most generic tip in the world, but you’d be surprised to learn two facts about it.
On the one hand, the majority of employers don’t care what their staff has to say about their work schedule – they just have to oblige it and keep bringing their A-game to the office every single day no matter what.
But, on the other hand, if they just took their time and talked to the people they employ, they’d learn how important the things their staff has to say are, and they wouldn’t have a problem considering them any more.
That’s why talking to your employees about their work schedules should be the first thing on your mind.
After all, these are the people who are running your company, and taking their ideas into account will surely result in a better schedule. Talking to them comes with several benefits, and what’s most important is that you’ll make them more motivated and productive than ever.
They’ll appreciate the attention you’re showing and won’t have a problem meeting you halfway when it comes to the schedule.
Adjust to changes
The global COVID-19 pandemic has affected every aspect of our reality, and it will continue to change our everyday lives as well.
Among the consequences of that are the modifications that business owners around the world had to introduce into their companies, including the need to create a different schedule.
Since you’ll have to ensure everyone maintains social distance, you’ll have to optimize the number of people occupying the same area in your company at the same time.
In other words, you’ll need to come up with a schedule that protects your employees and their health and keeps your business out of trouble. Work out the number of people who can work together and create more shifts than you’ve had before.
In the end, everyone will work for the same amount of time as they used to, but they’ll keep six feet away from each other at all times.
Come up with different scenarios
Unfortunately, the biggest problem with COVID-19 is that we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Our lives may return to normal, but there’s no way to be sure of that.
Due to that, you need to come up with different scenarios and ideas that will prove to be sustainable and effective no matter what happens. This will challenge your optimization and organizational skills even more, but there are a few ways to make this process easier.
First, think about turning to professionals and their software solutions that can do these things for you.
Doing everything on your own is quite all right, but if you turn to a staff scheduling software that can eliminate all potential mistakes in this process, you’ll realize how great this idea is.
Also, you need to keep encouraging your employees to share their ideas and thoughts with you. They might come up with a better schedule than you can simply because they’re the ones who need to work together and adapt to the changes more than you.
Keep evaluating
Every time you come up with a new schedule, give your employees some time to experience it, and then take your time to evaluate it.
Try to identify all the negative aspects that aren’t working for your staff and don’t be afraid to listen to their side of the story as well.
Evaluation is a crucial step in this process and only if you look back at a certain schedule can you be sure it’s going to work in the future too.
Once you go through several setups and have all your staff work different shifts, organize a meeting with them, and talk to everyone individually.
Try to adjust your schedule to them and not the other way around, and make sure you’ve tried out different work schedules before making your final decision.
Optimizing the employee shift schedule won’t be easy, but if you consider these tips and use them, you and your staff will come up with a schedule that suits everyone!
