Your employees are the beating heart of your business and one of the most important assets that you have. Your team are often the first interaction that your clients will have with your business, they represent your company, and without their hard work, you can be sure that your business would not be where it is today. As with any important asset, you need to ensure that you manage your employees as efficiently and effectively as possible if you want to continue your success moving forward.
There are many different strategies and tools that you can use to roster your team. While you can continue to rely on writing out staff schedules and posting them on your employee notice board or printing out schedules on spreadsheets for your team to take note of, these practices are quickly becoming outdated. Using scheduling software for your team rosters is quickly becoming the norm for business owners nowadays.
These tools allow you to access historical data for better planning, you can copy the same roster from another week and tweak it as required, and you can make changes to your roster with ease. What’s more, your employees can check their roster and receive and schedule updates directly to their devices via an easy-to-use app. They can also apply for time off, request schedule changes, and easily communicate about any other roster related issues with ease through the platform, making life much easier for both you and your team.
Let‘s take a look at six simple tips to help you improve your staff rostering so your business can continue to thrive.
Create The Schedule First
When you are creating your staff rosters, make sure that you always consider the needs of your business first. Before you add any names to the schedule, you need to allocate shifts based on the needs of your company. Once you have figured out how many people you will need to work with at particular times and what skills or experience will be required, you can start filling in your employees’ names to the schedule.
Involve Your Team In The Process
For managers and business owners, creating employee rosters can be challenging. You need to be sure that you don’t show any favouritism towards particular staff members and that your rosters are perceived as fair. The best way to do this is to involve your staff in the process and offer some flexibility by sharing scheduling options with your team, allowing them to request when they would like to work.
Utilise Your Most Experienced Staff
During the busiest times for your business, you will need your most experienced and skilled staff to be working. Choosing when to roster your most experienced staff is crucial to the success of your business moving forward. While you might want the strongest members of your team on every shift, you need to maintain balance. Keeping them for your busiest times and pairing them with less-experienced staff who can learn from them are typically the best approaches.
Keep Track Of Time-Off Requests
Whether you use an app, scheduling software or a diary where staff can write down their time-off requests, you need to have a straightforward system in place that will allow you to keep track of time-off requests with ease. Having this information at hand will make it much easier for you to manage your staff and create more effective rosters for your team.
Ensure You Give Enough Time Off
Overworking your staff can lead to burnout over time. When your team works too much, they can quickly become demotivated, which will cause staff morale to plummet along with productivity levels. To ensure your team feels appreciated and cared for, you need to give them enough time to enjoy life outside of the workplace.
Make Your Roster Easy To Check
There’s no point in creating perfect staff rosters if your team can’t check their work hours with ease. Staff scheduling software and apps make it easier than ever for you to share your rosters with your team. Using modern tools like these, you can send the roster directly to their device, which will notify them to let them know that the new roster is available. If you are taking an analogue approach, make sure that you display the roster in a prominent location in the workplace where your team will see it. You should also be consistent with publishing the day and time you publish your roster each week.
Improve Your Staff Rostering To Get The Most Out Of Your Team
Managing your team as efficiently as possible is key to the success of your business moving forward, and in many cases, this begins with creating a solid staff roster. Following the tips outlined above, you can ensure that you create effective staff rosters moving forward, allowing you to get the most out of your team so you can stay on track towards your goals.