- Communication between staff members is the key to a good schedule. Shift swaps, staffing minimums, requests for days off, changes in availability, upcoming business requirements (private parties, birthdays, etc…) will all demand more from the staff than any one person will know. Coordination is key to ensuring a smooth workday.
- Ensure that staff members have any necessary certifications, and that the certifications are current. An employee working without the right certifications can cost your business thousands in fines by various policing authorities, and in some locales, can land the manager on-duty in jail.
- Copying a schedule from the previous week is a quick way to make a schedule for the upcoming week. But this method of employee schedule creation assumes that the previous schedule was “good“. How would you know? Use various metrics to identify whether the schedule worked for your business – actual vs. theoretical, how many shifts changed, were employees satisfied, how many no-shows occurred, was the actual payroll within an acceptable margin of the actual sales (or customer throughput)?
- Cross training is an excellent management technique to ensure that when the unexpected happens, your business is prepared. Employees who have been cross trained are able to perform more than one job duty. When staff members fail to show up to work, or an emergency happens at the business, the workforce is prepared to handle the situation.
- Early clockins and late clockouts can drain the profits from your business. Every employee that clocks in early, or clocks out late is using up precious profits that could be going to fund expansion, provide raises, and pay bills. Watch out for employees who ride the clock by monitoring the employee schedules, and comparing clock in and clock out times to scheduled work times.
- Managers spend hours messing with and creating the work schedule every week. Keep staff members happy and use TimeForge to make the employee schedules. Employees stay happy because employee’s know what is going on, and managers are content because they can build a rotating employee schedule in seconds.
TimeForge labor management software is used by owners and operators of restaurants, retail stores, bars, grills, and other service-oriented businesses to increase profits, reduce turnover, and improve retention.
