How important workforce strategic scheduling can be for your business?

The current labour market is putting major pressure on the business environment for optimal workforce structures to meet customers’ increasingly demanding needs.

There is a discrepancy between the number of professionals required by the market and the speed at which companies can attract them. Most of the time, companies try to do a lot of things at once, by allocating less time and minor investments. Caught up in this dynamic, companies often end up planning their existing workforce structures with the inertia of their habits or custom that no longer keeps pace with the dynamic of modern life.

Not infrequently, we have heard the phrase „we schedule the timesheet” lately because workforce scheduling has become a repetitive, dry, purely operational process. What happens is that the strategy is led by the current state and not by the real need.

Strategic workforce scheduling is really about analyzing historical data and making the best decision for now and for the future. It helps you to have visibility of what’s next and to conclude whether what you have now is enough or too much for tomorrow’s needs.

If you do your workforce scheduling without starting from an analysis of optimal capacity given by business needs, there are high chances that you will find that all staff costs will have a major negative impact on the profitability of the business you manage.

Strategic workforce scheduling

A simple definition of strategic scheduling would be: the right person is scheduled at the right time and does the right job.

Unlike operational scheduling, which is always short-term, inefficient, and requires spontaneous decisions, made in critical situations and at a high cost, strategic workforce scheduling provides companies with a long-term vision and a structured, cost-effective plan based on mathematical calculations.

Strategic workforce scheduling helps you match customer behavior and needs with staff capacity. With this, in relation to your company’s staffing structure, you will know:

• whether it has too many or too few staff, relative to the need given by the business prediction;
• whether the workforce’s skills structure is in line with what customers require;
• whether staffing levels are optimal, both to support the business need and to create a work-life balance framework for the staff;
• whether flextime scheduling could be a way to optimize the distribution of paid hours and increase workforce engagement and satisfaction.

To start a strategic approach to workforce scheduling for your company, you will need to consider the following actions:

• Bring the impacted and affected stakeholders around the topic: HR, operational managers, planners, payroll, etc;
• Define a scheduling strategy tailored to your business;
• Find out what the current workforce scheduling process is;
• Analyze the structure of your company’s human resources capital;
• Analyze customer behavior and identify business objectives relevant to workforce scheduling;
• Access an workforce scheduling software tool to help you digitize, automate and audit your scheduling processes for maximum efficiency;
• Have a change management process in mind once you have decided on a new approach to the scheduling process.

If you are aiming for continuity and growth in your business, keep in mind that performance is a consequence of good planning and not an accidental event.

Without addressing strategic planning:

• You will have challenges in achieving company goals;
• You will face unpleasant situations of turnover, absenteeism, or burnout;
• Costs from overtime will increase;
• Productivity and satisfaction levels of the workforce working under pressure will decrease;
• You will suffer from poor customer service or wastage of goods or merchandise.

How can we help you?

We can help you:
• A team with business and HR expertise to accompany you through the stages of defining your human capital scheduling framework and strategy, as well as change management.
• software tool – shiftin – built around the same needs you are aware of, to help you digitize and automate your workforce scheduling process to support your business performance.

About the author:

Alina Raicu-Vitan

Product Owner shiftin

Expertise in Human Resource and Operations Excellence, Change Management and Scheduling Strategy

Why are employees happy with employee management software?

Regardless of the size of the company, the ability to plan out employee schedules is critical. Usually, in small enterprises, a manager or supervisor is responsible for creating a work schedule. In large corporations, there are also specialized managers in charge of employees’ work scheduling. The efficient running of a firm requires a well-planned timetable. Here is where shiftin, modular applications specially designed to be easily integrated with employee management software, comes in.

An employee’s morale can suffer if he or she shows up to work one day and has no idea what to do because there is no set routine in place to meet their requirements and abilities. Overall, it may have an impact on their professional development. Organizations, on the other hand, will not be able to get the most out of their staff unless they have the right employee management software. 

Real-time notifications

First and foremost, the employee management software ensures a smooth and effective operation. In order to be successful, any firm must be able to run its everyday operations without hiccups. When all employees are aware of their work schedules, responsibilities, and workplaces, and they are constantly updated directly from the staff scheduling software, they perform at their highest level. 

Absence and leave management is made easier with employee management software

Secondly, shiftin aids employees and employers with the efficient management of staff absences. Employee attendance is a major challenge for many firms. Planning ahead of time helps managers stay on top of things. Tracking an employee’s tardiness and absences will allow management of any challenges that might appear. And, because everything is integrated, employees can update their status on the go, at any time.

Automated timesheet to Payroll

Time is a scarce commodity in the professional services industry, and it must be managed efficiently and honestly. Timesheet automation is a method of logging work hours from any device and from any place in the employee management software. By automating the process of capturing hours worked, employees can speed up timesheet completion and management. The timesheet automation features of the application shiftin ensure that the correct data reaches the right people at the right time, allowing managers to keep tabs on what’s going on in the team and finance departments to keep track of client billing and payments. 

A fair policy is always in place. Reports and scheduling performance analysis

When it comes to paid time off, employee management software guarantees that all employees are treated equally. The schedule reports can be used by management to allocate time off. First-come, first-served, or seniority-based leave can all be configured in the system. 

Reporting is easy with shiftin, indifferently of the size of the company or the industry it activates in. The solution can be easily deployed and adapted to your business needs.

Effectively managing the hours worked outside the normal schedule 

With employee management software it’s easy for employees and employers to track overtime hours. In shiftin, employees can add extra hours immediately and securely. 

Created by specialists in automation, shiftin, the scheduling app that can rapidly be integrated with any employee management software, will change the way in which staff scheduling is done. Book a demo, today, and make your employees happy!

Can staff shortages be managed from a shift planning app?

One of the hottest topics among human resources specialists is the subject of staff shortage and if they can do something to better deal with it, especially now, in the context of the post-pandemic “Great Resignation“. 

The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that appeared in the past 2 years and refers to employees’ wish to change or quit their jobs and seek new opportunities. People are choosing to change their workplaces for a variety of reasons. The epidemic modified some workers’ priorities, motivating them to pursue a “dream job” or transfer to being stay-at-home parents. Many others, on the other hand, made the decision to leave because of how their employer handled them during the pandemic. Can a shift planning app help companies deal with staff shortages?

How can shiftin, the shift planning app, fight against the staff shortages?

The people behind the shiftin application took the staff shortage challenge and thought of a well-rounded product that would fit any industry and company-size, and solve this issue efficiently. 

First of all, the shift planning app from HTSS was created with the help and real input from employees, HR specialists, managers, shift managers, CEOs, and other key roles in a company. All these people responded to the following questions: 

  • `What do you really need from the scheduling point of view?`;
  • `What is missing?`; 
  • `Where do you struggle the most?`;
  • `What do you expect from a staff planning app?`. 

Most employees said that what they want the most is to be heard and that companies need to be flexible in regard to their working schedules. Companies, on the other hand, showed a willingness to adapt to the new conditions in the working environment while pursuing and satisfying the business needs and objectives. With a shift planning app, companies can solve these requests. 

Moreover, a crucial necessity emerged from the discussions – the need to change the unidirectional, traditional way of communicating (from the company to employee) to two-way communication. This happens when organizations enable their employees to join the company conversations and freely share their thoughts, opinions, and concerns. 

Through shiftin, we do just that. We allow employees to manage their own schedule and we help companies in “democratizing the working environment“, as nowadays’ employees know which are the team goals and they can decide for themselves how and when to work. Also, managers want to move away from strict and authoritarian management.

The 3 characteristics needed in a staff planning app, such as shiftin by htss

The shiftin application embodies the most sought characteristics in a shift planning application. It’s dynamic, flexible, and solves unpredictable issues. Moreover, shiftin respects 100% the working legislation of a country. 

Because shiftin is dynamic, employees can manage their own working schedule according to their business objectives and personal needs. The employees know what they have to do. shiftin lets them decide when and how to accomplish their task. 

The shift planning app is agile and can be easily adapted to any working environment. The members of a team can insert their tasks and the others can see who and what each employee filled in. shiftin will send notifications so that all the members can see. 

Furthermore, with shiftin, the shift planning app by HTSS, employees can establish their working hours and preferences which, results in better human resources management, as managers can see beforehand the changes that appear and fix/deal with any unpredictable situations that may occur. With shiftin, it’s easy to assure and maintain your level of productivity and attendance in the company. Also, with this shift planning app, it’s easy to identify where a free resource is and assign new tasks to that person.

Due to these three functionalities, we move from company-level human resources management to team self-coordination based on competencies. In this way, shiftin deals with staff shortages and covers the inefficient distribution of human resources in a company. Book a demo today and start a trial in your company to see how shiftin works!

What can employee time tracking software do for my business?

Without an employee time tracking software, your company struggles with:

  • A lack of transparency in employee punch-ins and punch-outs during the course of the workday (i.e. having a co-worker do it for them, or punching in outside of work).

  • An Inefficient Payroll Process: For every pay period, manually reviewing, verifying, entering, and analysing employee timesheets is a difficult task. As a result, calculating labour costs using aggregates and spreadsheets takes a long time.

There are several apps for employees’ time tracking that solve those problems. Their real-time reporting helps you keep track of attendance, vacations, and overtime in the workplace. Everyone is held to account by them. An employee time tracking software helps you save money by ensuring that your payroll is accurate and on time, and all of this is accomplished in an approachable and intuitive manner.

With an employee time tracking software, you and your team will be able to better organise and manage your time. With so many apps for time tracking out there, it’s hard to know which one is best. GPS tracking, invoicing, and productivity monitoring are just a few of the many options available. Thus, what matters is which tool works best for your team. The answer is that it is dependent on a variety of factors.

Shiftin, a reliable and accurate employee time tracking software

Project management and time tracking are both made easy with Shiftin’s online platform. Teams can quickly get up and running with the software thanks to its simple interface. As soon as you begin working on a task, an automatic timer begins tracking your billable time. Using Shiftin, as an employee time tracking software, you can also manually enter your time. For invoicing purposes, you can use the timesheets to store the data.

Using Shiftin’s time reports, you can keep tabs on individual output. Additional features include online proofing, file sharing, group chat, custom workflows, and specific dashboards. Your employees will be able to accomplish more by making a time management plan. Stressing less while doing more is a smart incentive that results in higher engagement and productivity.

What are some of the advantages of using our employee time tracking software?

There are numerous advantages to using employee time tracking software and tracking HR-focused apps over standard software solutions. These are some of the benefits you can expect to see:

Access

As long as you have internet access and a mobile phone, tablet, or laptop, you can log in to your account from anywhere in the world.

Efficiency

Allowing employees to update their personal information at their convenience, directly in the employee time tracking software, will save your company money and increase productivity.

Support

We’re here to help with any questions or concerns you may have. With us, you’ll be able to speak to a real person instead of an automated system.

Which companies can use Shiftin by HTSS?

Employee time tracking software is used by a wide range of businesses. In order to meet the needs of companies of all sizes, Shiftin has developed a new module, called Time & Attendance, to streamline administrative processes, bringing HR into the modern era. Book a demo today and put our technology to the test!

Why is a work scheduling app essential for your company’s productivity?

Scheduling employees for tasks, shifts, timetables, and projects can be tricky. Work scheduling apps have come a long way since they were first introduced, and they’ve made the process much easier. It’s a win-win situation for both employers and employees when employees have more say in their work schedules. We saw from our experience that, when it comes to updating availability and logging work hours on the go, an employee scheduling app makes it simple for people to do so. Additionally, managers and business owners can expect to gain up to 80% more time each week as a result of implementing a work scheduling app.

A work scheduling app, like shiftin, allows employees to clock in and out more efficiently with their phones, preventing managers from scheduling employees for the same shift more than once, and assisting managers in allocating the right number of employees to each position.

What can shiftin as a work scheduling app do for your business?

Having an effective app for the HR department is now considered essential for all types of organisations – whether they are charities, small businesses, or large conglomerates. It’s no surprise that paper-based HR methods are being replaced by new, innovative, tech-focused solutions. In addition to saving you time, a work scheduling app helps you stay on top of things. 

What are the benefits of utilising our employee scheduling app?

For businesses, shiftin helps them with shift scheduling and keep track of their personal and business data. A work scheduling app makes it simple for employees to communicate while on the go about everything from vacation requests to expenses to sick days.

This is what you can look forward to in a work scheduling app:

  • Company Directory: Everyone in your organisation’s contact information will be readily available at the push of a button.
  • Management of Profiles: You can manage your own profile, making sure your information is accurate and up-to-date.
  • Schedule Management: You can book and track the activities of your teams and employees without risking any overlapping, in the HR planner.
  • Holidays and Time Off: Employees can easily book vacations from their smartphones, and requests are immediately sent to their line managers for their approval. Sick leave can also be added to an employee’s personal planner.
  • Live Notifications: Employees are kept up to date on the latest company news, which can help foster a positive work environment.

If you haven’t already identified the best shift planner app for your company, now is the time to do so. You and your employees benefit from less stress and more time and money when you use the right work scheduling app. Request a demo today from shiftin!

Streamline your shift scheduling with a HR payroll software

You have a dedicated HR team, yet you’re plagued by people admin? The absence of precise data about your personnel is making you irritated? How do you keep tabs on your spending, time spent on various tasks and the results you’re getting as a consequence? Is your capacity to manage, engage, and pay your people affected? These are just a few of the issues that HR professionals deal with on a daily basis, especially if they do not have a HR payroll software put in place. 

Everything is made simpler with shiftin app. With our cloud-based shift scheduling app, you’ll have access to all of your centralised data in beautiful reports whenever you need it, no matter where you are. 

Why do organisations use HR payroll software, in general?

HR payroll software is used by millions of businesses around the world to simplify and manage employee remuneration.

  • Accuracy and timeliness. Paying employees can be difficult and time consuming, especially with mergers, acquisitions, and new hires. Payroll management software helps organisations ensure employees are paid correctly and on time, fostering employee trust and confidence.
  • Transparency. Personnel costs are the single largest expense for most businesses. HR payroll software connects with other business areas such as finance and accounting, allowing firms to stay on budget, produce timely reports, and plan for the future.
  • Adaptability and scalability. When a company’s needs change, payroll management software makes it simple to adjust. When a new office opens in a new location with new taxes and regulations, for example, the software automatically absorbs the new requirements, eliminating the need to manually enter data for each employee.
  • More time to devote to higher-level work. HR payroll software, as compared to manual and obsolete alternatives, can save businesses hours per month, time that could be better spent on other important business projects.

shiftin and HR payroll software – resemblance

A HR payroll software is simple to set up and use. You may manage your payroll from any location at any time after you’re up and running. All you need is access to the internet. Furthermore, our frequent software updates will keep you up to speed and in compliance with the most recent payroll legislation. 

shiftin, as a shift scheduling app, has also a module that works like a payroll management software, in the sense that the timesheet is automatically in synchronisation with the Time & Attendance module and is directly sent to the payroll department of a company.

shiftin – Time & Attendance Module

Other advantages of using shiftin, a scheduling app with time & attendance tracker may include:

  • With automatic attendance tracking, you get valuable data that can help you reduce the time spent on introducing it manually and reallocate this time to valuable business growth activities.
  • Good payroll management software reduces turnover and absenteeism. Employees want to stay and grow with the company.
  • Easy employee shift scheduling: HR payroll software makes it simple to automatically schedule work, manage attendance, and synchronise workflow.
  • Automation of workflows eliminates the need for a paper spreadsheet or a complicated template. 
  • Smooth leave and attendance management: keeping track of vacation days, sick leave, absences, holidays, etc.
  • Payroll management and accounting are made easier with HR payroll software.
  • No more buddy punching: easily track employee work hours.
  • Attendance tracking is about improving their efficiency, productivity, and time management.

Automated employee time attendance apps can help companies eliminate daily lost productivity and recapture more than hundreds of thousands Euros in annual wages. 

shiftin can help you with managing the shift scheduling and, due to its Time & Attendance module. Enter our website and book a free trial, right away!

What is a Human Resources Information System (HRIS) and how does it work?

A Human Resource Information System, also called HRIS is a huge step forward in managing the HR universe. HRIS integrates Human Resources specific activities with all the benefits that an Information System can bring.

HRIS is about employees personal data, professional progress, and performance integrated in a software structure that allows managers instant access to information and helpful statistical data related to company’s human resources.

Why are HRISs so important?

Today’s business environment encounters many challenges such as a huge amount of

data that needs to be safely kept, updated, and processed. It also implies real time access to any record regarding employee’s activity, training and progress. 

As many business structures involve multiple operational centers, a global view of the company’s human resources is almost impossible in absence of a system integrating all these data. That’s why HRISs are vital for any business. 

It’s not only a matter of wood saving, it’s a business necessity. 

Classical HR recordings meant a lot of paper. And a lot of time to manage it. Sometimes, searching for information, even for a basic one,  can take too long and too much effort from the HR staff.  

Instead of such a waste of paper, time and effort, any company could benefit from a Human Reasearch Information Software that can make any information accessible from everywhere at any time. A huge help for any manager that needs a strong data foundation for significant decisions. 

What kind of HRIS suits my business?

This is the first question you should ask yourself when choosing a Human Resource Information System solution. 

Depending on your business specificity you have many HRIS options on the market. 

A multifunctional software that can successfully fulfill your company HRIS needs is shiftin. This software can manage all essential information related to your HR processes. And it’s capabilities also include a very helpful tool: real time shift management. 

Shiftin is a collaborative software that allows you to plan your team shifts in seconds, together with your team. This is a big plus in motivating your employees. Besides this, shiftin is a easy to use HRIS allowing HR data management from employees personal info to timesheets and payroll recordings.

Shiftin could be your perfect choice in respect of Human Research Information Software since it is GDPR Compliant and has a broad library of rules, scalable to any type of business. 

The advantages of choosing shiftin as your HRIS solution

Starting with the wide accessibility (you can access shiftin from a computer, tablet, or smartphone) that allows you to have all the data anytime you need at your hand, continuing with the traceability and legal rules and regulations compliance, shiftin allows you to benefit from many advantages. A special mention to the very satisfactory value for money balance. 

shiftin is a trustworthy HRIS solution developed by HTSS, an innovative IT&C Company with 10 years of experience in designing custom solutions.  

You can ask right now a demo of shiftin application in order to find out if it is the HRIS solution that fits your needs.  

Learn more!

What are employee management systems?

Employee management systems are useful tools for managers, HR people or project managers to better handle employee records, workflow, schedule and all related data.  

Depending on specific needs, these systems should integrate various features and adapt to different business cultures in order to fulfill all beneficiary requirements. 

While HR people will appreciate more employee management systems providing adaptable tools for best employee performance management, project managers will be looking for solutions that perfectly fit specific project needs like employee time & task tracking, mobility features or shift work planning.  

Different challenges generate specific solutions

Many employee management softwares are designed to meet remote working requests, others come up with solutions for mobile teams. 

Very popular within team leaders that have to plan employees shift working schedule are shift management softwares providing smart tools for a more efficient resource management. These systems allow managers to better plan their team activity, to cover all unforeseen absences and to keep an even operational flow. 

Why are employee management systems so popular?

Human resource management is one of the most important and challenging chapters in business administration. A good tool, adapted to your business specificity and needs can help your team perform at its best. That’s why choosing the most appropriate employee management software for your organization is a big step for the success of your business.

How to choose the perfect employee management system for your organization?

First of all, set a list of criteria mandatory for your employee management system. Make a priority rank of these criteria. Then start researching. 

Today’s solutions include a pool of employee management software that could match, at different grades, your list.  

While researching, take into account all these factors that can help you make the best choice:   friendly user interface, ability to adapt to the particularities of your business, ability to manage various data and to generate reports, ability to collect feedback from your team. 

You can complete the list with your own particular requests, based on your business specificity.  Of course, the price is a strong criteria to take into consideration.  

Prior to choosing the best employee management system for your company may be useful to test the solutions and find out which one fits you the most. 

Many employee management software are available with a free demo or a free trial period. Take advantage of these in order to make a founded decision.  

Is it possible to please both managers and employees?

Yes, it is! While business requires predictability and precision, employees’ needs are rather about flexibility and personal preferences. 

A good employee management system should be able to keep a good balance between both sides of the equation. These will allow business flow to go smoothly while keeping employees motivated. 

A good example of this is shiftin, an employee management software developed by HTSS Company that helps managers to better plan their team activity organizing shift work in moments. 

Why is shiftin a good choice for your team planning? 

As an employee management system, shiftin provides you with all the features you need to plan your team automatically in seconds. It is perfectly adaptable for your business specificity and requirements.

shiftin allows you scheduling your team shifts, managing in real time all the unforeseen situations and allowing you to permanently have the big picture of your people resource. This is a very valuable feature especially in these pandemic times.

Is shiftin a strong tool for keeping your team connected?

Yes, shiftin is a fully collaborative and traceable tool helping you to better plan your team and to get the most from your human resource. 

By allowing team members to communicate and make their options known, this employee management software helps you keep them motivated.   

Access your employee management software from anywhere!

You can acces shiftin from desktop or mobile devices, which offers you complete freedom to be connected with your team and to find real time solutions for every issue that may occur, even if it’s about people missing, shift changes or other situations.

Once you finish the shift planning, the timesheet goes automatically to payroll allowing you to save time and efforts. This is how a good employee management system can work full-time for you, maximizing your team’s efficiency. 

A shift management software compliant with business and legislative rules

As being a solution fully connected to your team needs, shiftin is also able to assimilate all the rules and regulations that your business should comply with. 

It is a complete solution in terms of employee management, a system providing you with a 360 degrees image of your business and helping you to better plan your resources. 

10 years of experience as a guarantee 

shiftin is a employee management software developed by HTSS, a company having 10 years of experience in developing IT&C solutions for business. 

HTSS spreads its expertise all over the world

Almost 1000 companies in 15 countries benefit from HTSS IT&C business solutions, including employee management systems and other business solutions, developed by a team of 400 top specialists. 

shiftin is now available and ready to help you to get the most from your business resources. Ask for a demo and start enjoying planning your team shifts in seconds!