Integrated Time Management | Shift Scheduling | 6 Aspects

In a world where time is a precious good, efficient planning plays a crucial role. People in the world of work are constantly looking for ways to make better use of their time in order to increase productivity and balance in their free time. Shift scheduling that takes into account not only business requirements, but also legal requirements and the wishes of employees, makes a decisive contribution to creating this balance. An important basis for such optimized shift scheduling is the correct connection and processing of all relevant data.

This is made possible by integrated time management, which takes into account and processes all key data such as working times, thus enabling comprehensive and flexible planning.

Integrated time management is an approach that combines time management with modern technologies and processes to enable holistic and flexible planning. The aim is to ensure transparent and effective use of available time.

 

Content

↓ What is time management?
↓ How can general requirements and individual wishes be combined?
↓ How do you achieve maximum flexibility in planning?
↓ What does a perfect unit look like? Time management, employee portal, planning

 

 

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What is time management?

Time management is an important part of human resources and deals with the calculation, evaluation and, if necessary, recording of time-related data in a company. The working hours and absences per employee are tracked for each working day. Not only the start and end of the hours worked, but also the duration and breaks are taken into account and processed.

For a smooth time management process, very complex requirements usually have to be met, which are almost impossible to map without digital support. Not only do legal and operational requirements have to be met, but our modern working culture and a wide variety of working time models can also pose a challenge. In order to meet these requirements, a modern time management solution should be used.

 

The 6 most important aspects:

1. time recording: This involves documenting the hours worked by employees, often using time recording systems such as timecards, electronic time recording or software solutions.
2. work scheduling: This includes the creation of work schedules or shift schedules to ensure that all necessary tasks are covered within the available working hours.
3. vacation and absence management: management of vacation requests, sick leave and other absences to ensure the smooth running of the company.
4. overtime and additional work: recording and administration of overtime as well as the regulation of compensatory time or financial compensation.
5. compliance with legal regulations: ensuring that working hours and rest breaks are in line with labor law regulations.
6. analysis and optimization: analysis of the collected data to optimize work processes and increase productivity.

 

The importance of time management in automatic planning optimization

In these times of “ever more individual”, “ever more flexible”, isn’t time management a relic from the traditional past with organized, controlled working hours? As provocative as this thesis sounds, it is not very valid. The topic of time management is still an integral part of modern workforce management solutions, because the increasing flexibility and individualization of working conditions and working hours must be supported by a solid, precise and, not least, high-performance set of time management rules.

 

 

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How can general requirements and individual wishes be combined?

Although some employment relationships in the public sector are less rigid than they used to be, there is no question of abandoning the strict rules of a collective agreement.

And in other sectors too, if we only take the agile retail sector or the contact center industry, time management will even become more important again. The move away from rigid shift schedules is not a new phenomenon. What is new, however, are increasingly powerful tools for automatic workforce management. The underlying methods and algorithms meet the needs of the individual employee without ignoring the operational requirements of the employer.

There is a growing realization that there is enormous potential not only in the management of staff, but also in the optimal scheduling of employees. But this requires certain rules of the game. And it is precisely these that can be implemented with a modern workforce management solution including advanced time management modeling.

 

 

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How do you achieve maximum flexibility in planning?

It is not enough to harmonize a few time-based account assignments that have always existed anyway. A modern solution must be able to take much deeper factors into account, which are also mapped in terms of time management, as this is the only way to ensure maximum flexibility.

To use an image: If, for example, collective agreements specify certain rules that apply to the entire company, a modern WFM solution must be able to provide the employee with a “backpack”.

This backpack contains very individual settings in the form of a set of rules that are automatically taken into account by the planning algorithm. With the complex, intelligent algorithm in the background, the planner can create a shift schedule with just a few settings that perfectly balances the general requirements with the individual needs and fair distribution between the employees – another advantage of integrated time management, which works reliably in both areas, but leaves the user the time and resources to concentrate on their often numerous other activities.

 

 

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What does a perfect unit look like? Time management, employee portal, planning

If employee satisfaction increases because personal interests are seemingly easily aligned with operational requirements in the best possible way, another goal has been achieved. A seamlessly connected employee portal, which can also be used in the form of an app on mobile devices, rounds off the interaction perfectly. It gives employees the opportunity to actively participate in shift scheduling, record times, view schedules or submit requests by swapping shifts, for example. The employee portal creates more transparency and personal responsibility and simplifies processes for employees and planners enormously – in combination with reliable time management and intelligent workforce management, it is the perfect solution.

You can find out more about integrating employees at: https://plano-wfm.com/en/myplano-employee-self-service-ess/

Conclusion:

As part of workforce management, integrated time management is a powerful tool for increasing efficiency and satisfaction in companies. It maps all planning and calculation bases, utilizes all relevant data and transfers it reliably to other HR systems. By combining technologies and proven methods of time management, companies with integrated time management can make optimum use of their resources, increase productivity through automated and improved processes and promote a healthy work-life balance.

Article by Matz Hölzlein, Head of Sales

 

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