The Most Common Scheduling Problems for Employers and how to Address Them

Scheduling of employees is one of the most crucial factors determining the success of any business. If employers get it wrong from the start, they might live struggling to meet their targets until they do proper scheduling.

Improper scheduling does not only affect the employees but the employers as well. It could easily cause an unnecessary rise in labour costs and significant losses to the business. Therefore employers must be ready to invest in a scheduling system.

A good example is an online schedule maker, which helps avoid some of the most common scheduling problems. Here are some of the common issues employers encounter and how to solve them.

1. Over and Under Staffing

When a business makes the mistake of overstaffing, it mostly affects its labour cost. Too many unnecessary staff means you pay employees for services they have not rendered.

When that happens, the company will not manage to meet its price in the long run because it’s wasting money on people it does not need.

Under-staffing has an impact on both employees and the employer. When there are fewer employees than required in a shift, the current employees get overworked.

The company is also forced to pay overtime, which is an extra and expensive cost. When the employees get overworked, they lose their morale and may not manage to attend to customers entirely, leading to customer loss.

To avoid both understaffing and overstaffing, employers should invest in a sound scheduling system. A system that can match shifts evenly and inform managers when there’s a need to reduce or increase employees’ number.

2. Wrong Predictive Analysis

When it comes to running any business, employers or managers should observe trends to make better decisions for their companies. If employers fail to keep track of when their businesses experience an increase in activities, they are likely to get understaffed.

The same happens when the business experiences a low season in terms of its activities. If the employers do not keep track of these seasons and reduce the number of employees in advance, they are likely to be overstaffed. Therefore, employers need to be keen on their scheduling system by aligning them with their businesses’ seasons.

3. Failure to Balance Shifts with Availability

Some employees prefer to work full-time, some part-time and others on weekends only. When employees choose part-time and weekend shifts, they probably have other things to do to meet their daily needs.

When managers do not consider employees’ opinions and preferences when scheduling, they are likely to experience absenteeism and increased turnover. Employees require to work in an ecosystem they feel appreciated and valued.

Therefore, employers should consider designing a scheduling system that allows employees to contribute their opinions and preferences concerning scheduling. Doing so ensures both the employee and the employer are satisfied.

4. Failure to Schedule Some Time Off with Employees

Schedules do not just revolve around the office or business area only. Creating breaks for the employees gives them time to relax, unwind and re-energize, which is crucial for their performance.

A demotivated employee is a liability to the employer because they transfer that energy to the customers, leading to customer service dissatisfaction.

That, in turn, sends away potential or regular customers, reducing profits for the employer.

To counter that, employers should include some time out with the employees. For instance, they can plan to close work early once a month and watch a movie together.

They can also organize some team-building activities every once a month. When employers do this, employees can unwind, relax, and even feel part of a family, motivating them to perform better to afford more.

5. Lack of a Good Structure

You cannot achieve the set goals without a good plan to run the system. Some employers hire employees and leave them to organize themselves, so long as employers can see results.

Apart from that being wrong, there is no responsibility for any losses. Others do not care to match employees’ skills with the right job posts and imagine workers will learn on the go.

To prevent such a problem, a sound scheduling system is necessary to give structure in the business, keeping a record of every employee with the responsibilities assigned and the set goals per individual. It is time employers ditched the pen and paper culture.

Conclusion

As easy and basic as scheduling may sound or appear to many people, it is an essential success tool. If a business has a goal of growing and expanding for the long term, employers need to invest wisely in scheduling.

Before starting on the process, a little knowledge of other employers’ problems when scheduling helps you avoid repeating the same. If you remain an employer and are staring into scheduling, this guide shows you some of the common scheduling issues and how to overcome them.