Most religious institutions operate with awkward schedules. Rarely are your staff and volunteers only available from 9-5. That’s one of the reasons scheduling for a religious institution can be so complicated. Not only do you need to juggle staff and volunteers, but each member of your labor force also has his or her own skill set, availability, and preferences. You need to coordinate all of your volunteers and staff (most of which are probably part-time) to cover multiple events on different days of the week at different times. Somehow throwing together a streamlined and optimized labor schedule just doesn’t always seem to work out. However, an error-free, easy-to-communicate schedule is vital to any religious institution that wants to keep staff on hand.
Maintaining your staff’s satisfaction during a difficult economy can be extremely hard, and failures in communication can be the difference between having volunteers and not having volunteers. The most common complaint volunteers have, besides lack of appreciation, is arriving to volunteer only to find that there is nothing prepared for them to do.
Scheduling inefficiencies can also lead to minor but upsetting problems, like a rehearsal with no sound operator, youth programs without enough leaders because of schedule confusion, or study groups arriving to find doors locked. These events frustrate members, volunteers, and staff alike, and are completely avoidable and unnecessary. However, scheduling efficiently can be such a hassle. Well, TimeForge can reduce your scheduling from hours to minutes, and make the entire process pain-free without compromising efficiency.
TimeForge is easy to use. You won’t be left high and dry (and unable to schedule) if the tech-savvy volunteer moves away.
TimeForge is adaptable. When a staff member takes time off or a volunteer is ill or wants to take a break, you can easily redo the schedule and find people to fill in. If two people work spectacularly well together (or are best kept separate) you can easily do that, too.
Our software enables you to optimize the process without losing the human touch. It helps you track vacations, shift swap requests, and preferences so that you create schedules (in seconds) that make everyone happy. You can even test “what-if” scenarios to see how different staff and volunteer combinations work, without losing your original schedule.
With TimeForge, your staff/volunteers are automatically notified about the schedule through email, text message, or social networking account (like Facebook). TimeForge enables staff and volunteers to access their very own TimeForge account 24/7 securely from their home (or anywhere with internet or cell phone access) to view their schedule, review their attendance, request time off, change their work availability, swap shifts with other staff members or volunteers, and change their notification preferences. For example, TimeForge can send them daily schedule alerts via email or text message.
TimeForge can save you hours of tedious, complicated schedule building every week-time that can be used to further your organization’s mission. If you are still not convinced, read what some TimeForge users are saying, or sign up for a free 10-day trial today to discover for yourself how much easier building schedules can be.
Read more about TimeForge Scheduling, TimeForge Attendance, and TimeForge Daily Log.
