Kevin Gardner, Negosentro | Most managers strive for a perfect schedule. But sadly enough, only a few of them can achieve it. Whether meticulously put it together yourself, or use a program to do it for you, there are several things you should consider. Companies that have good schedules for their employees are much more likely to get returns simply because the employees are more effective and productive. As a boss, you can never go wrong by putting together a great schedule. In this article, you will get to learn some tips for creating the best working schedule for your employees so that you can quickly achieve success.
1. Know your team.
The most basic aspect of creating a work schedule is to know your team well. The problem with most managers is that they do not take time to learn and interact with their employees. Why is understanding your team so important? Knowing your team members gives you the ability to know the strengths and weakness of each employee. From that information, you can be able to assemble a perfect team that can work in any situation. You should come up with a list that includes the skills of your employees, whether someone is full or part-time, and the certification. When coming up with the schedule, you can place an employee where his or traits fit best. The more you learn about your employees, the more you should update your list.
2. Building shifts around your best employees.
As a manager, you know your best employees. Once you have composed a list as mentioned above, build shifts around the employees that can work best at a specific time. The good thing about building shifts is that each employee works when he or she is comfortable. When your business is busiest, you need to use your best employees since they can easily handle the pressure. For most businesses, the most active time usually is between midday to 2 PM. For your other employees, you can let them work when the demand reduces. Another advantage of building shifts is that a more experienced employee can improve a shift because the other less-experienced employees tend to watch and learn. To create a stable shift, mix your best employees with the average employees.
3. Release the schedule quickly.
The moment a new schedule is about to be released, employees are nervous. You need to give your employees time to adjust to the new changes that you will make. If you are a web development company, you can use a cloud-based app to distribute the schedule. Fix a schedule that will help your experienced employees teach the others about things like the best language for web development. You need to explain to your employees that all the websites they design have to meet certain visual standards that are appealing to the eye. Additionally, all your employees should have the ability to improve the SEO ranking of any website. Distributing the schedule using a cloud app ensures everyone has access at any time of the day. In case you make any changes, it will be updated, and all your employees will be able to see.
4. Respect work preference and consider all time-off requests.
Once employees know that you respect them and consider their request, you will be able to retain them and improve productivity. To be able to save time, you should keep all the work preference and time-off requests in one central place. You should set rules, make sure that employees can request for the privileges at a certain period alone. From there, you can be able to create a schedule that accommodates all your employees well. For example, if employee A has taken time-off, it means employee B has to be on the shift and vice versa. When you can achieve such order, you will have a functioning schedule and happy employees.
Conclusion
Coming up with a schedule is a task that can be challenging. If you want to come up with the best schedule for your employees, follow the four steps in this article and you will notice some positive changes in your company.
