Good time management is paramount for any business. You only have so many hours in each day and it's vital to make the most of them. Efficient employee scheduling is often one of the toughest problems to tackle, especially when you have to rethink it regularly or react quickly to unexpected changes.

When you manage your employee scheduling effectively, you can improve your overall management of your business's workload. But knowing how to schedule everyone in the best way, whether they are full-time, part-time or contracting staff, isn't always simple. You need the right approach and the right tools to get it right.

Use the Right Tools

All modern businesses need good tools to help them keep running. You can choose tools that meet a range of needs, including the need for efficient staff scheduling. Of course, you don't want to have multiple tools that each do one or two things and don't really work together. Instead, it's much better to have a single tool that performs a range of functions.

Choosing facilities management software is a smart idea for many businesses that want to take control of employee scheduling. It's ideal for sending your employees to the right jobs, such as maintenance tasks. Plus, it gives you greater control over your whole facility.

Get to Know Your Team

Your employee scheduling needs to work for both you and your staff. If you take the time to ensure it benefits your employees, you'll see greater satisfaction and higher employee retention. You can start by knowing their availability, but it's also necessary to go beyond that. It's also beneficial to understand what commitments they have outside of work, as well as what skills and work preferences they have. This enables you to create schedules that work best for everyone, even if you can't make them perfect.

Improve Communication

Communication is crucial when it comes to scheduling. People need to effectively communicate their availability, especially when something changes at short notice. Staff members also need to be able to check their schedules whenever they want. It's important to ensure good communication for shift changes too.

Everyone needs to be able to effectively communicate how their shifts went and deliver information anyone taking over from them would need to know. There are various methods that might be used for communication, from leaving notes on paper (which might work for a small team) to communicating through text or an internal messaging app.

Get Creative with Scheduling

Sometimes it pays to think outside of the box if you want to achieve effective scheduling. That could mean being more flexible with scheduled hours or changing shift patterns to help fill in gaps. Your employees might be interested in trying out different shift lengths or working different numbers of days in the week. You could find creative ways to ensure your schedule always works out for both the business and your employees.

Employee scheduling is a balancing act, but with the right techniques you can keep it all on the level.