Creating Rosters & Shift Schedules - Top 5 Tips
Content
↓ Why shift schedules?
↓ What Can Good Shift Scheduling Achieve?
↓ What to Look for in Modern Shift Planning Software
↓ Flexible Shift Scheduling with Plano WFM
Why Shift Schedules?
A shift schedule is necessary whenever work in companies needs to be organized in multiple shifts, and employees need to be assigned to these respective shifts. While shift planning can be relatively straightforward in very small companies, it becomes nearly impossible as the number of employees increases. Keeping track of when employees have unplanned absences, order volumes fluctuate significantly, or shifts need to be swapped at short notice becomes unmanageable with a manual solution like Excel templates. Such a rigid solution can’t adapt to rapidly changing factors. In many industries, however, this flexibility is crucial for ensuring a smooth workflow. Think of the fast-paced daily operations in retail or hospitals that have to adapt to fluctuating patient numbers daily.
What Can Good Shift Scheduling Achieve?
Account for shift systems, requirements, and staffing level
Effective shift scheduling enables the quick, efficient, and simple creation of a shift schedule that presents employees clearly and is flexible to necessary changes. The shift schedule is tailored to the specifics of each industry and considers all relevant factors. It’s not just about depicting different shifts (e.g., rotating shifts or alternating shifts), it also needs to include legal work time regulations as well as collective agreements and company-specific provisions. Additionally, industry-specific demand drivers need to be considered to forecast staff requirements.
Reflecting individual employee shift patterns
A good shift planner should also take into account the individual patterns of employees. Often, employees have the same shift duties in a certain rhythm, such as a week of day shifts followed by a week of late shifts. A good digital solution uses so-called shift pattern sets that allow the scheduler to avoid scheduling each shift individually, significantly reducing planning effort.
How AI technology can support shift scheduling
Modern shift planning programs prove their worth, especially when complexity increases. They are clear, flexible, and always current. Particularly with the use of AI-based technology, the shift planning process is significantly simplified and quality substantially improves. If the tool is fed with all relevant data and shift models, shift schedules can be generated at the touch of a button. Simultaneously, considering employee preferences and needs ensures absolute fairness. Legal and collective agreement conditions are also taken into account automatically.
What to Look for in Modern Shift Planning Software
Suitable shift planning software facilitates personnel scheduling and significantly enhances the efficiency of personnel processes. Especially in the face of labor market changes and increasing digitalization, good shift planning is indispensable for most companies. The software should fit the company’s needs and simplify shift scheduling through its features. Additionally, the tool should meet the following criteria:
- User-friendly interface
- Support of various shift models
- Functions for automation and optimization
- Customizability
- Consideration of employee preferences
- Compliance with labor law and regulations
- Scalability
- Integration into the company’s system landscape
Flexible Shift Scheduling with plano WFM
From classic early shifts, late shifts, and night shifts to multi-shifts—with plano WFM, we offer clear, automated shift planning based on AI-supported technology. With minimal effort, you can efficiently plan shifts in your company based on demand and automatically create fair shift schedules.
To minimize planning effort in shift scheduling, plano allows you to create schedule templates that can be used in shift planning. These shift patterns can be simple or complex, enabling fast and demand-oriented shift planning, with different shifts represented and adjustable manually or automatically if needed.
Benefits of automatic shift scheduling with plano
Our solutions are modular and seamlessly connected. Time-management evaluations, surcharges, work time evaluations, and absences are automatically available during scheduling.
Through standardized and individually customizable interfaces, shift scheduling with plano can be easily integrated into a company’s existing system landscape. This can include integration with:
- Human resource systems (SAP, Peoplesoft, etc)
- Telephone systems (ACD system)
- Time recording hardware (Kaba, datafox, Interflex, etc.)
- Reporting tools or data warehouse systems
- Wage and salary systems (LOGA, Paisy, SAP, Datev)
Interested in shift scheduling? Get in touch! Our experts are happy to advise you and show you how shift planning can be made easier in your company in the future.
Want to Learn More?
Additional information on our staffing software and its areas of application can be found here:
Archive
Fairness Accounts
Forecasting in the Call Center
What is staff deployment?
Capacity Planning of Employees
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