Employee scheduling can take up to 27% of a retail manager’s week and that’s typically only managing a staff of 8-15 people. As those numbers grow and in different areas of management, that percentage of time taken also grows. That’s why employee scheduling software has become such an integral part of business.

It’s important to know where your priorities as a business leader, or store manager, lie. If you spend more time trying to schedule your employees’ shifts manually than you do actually running your business, you’re probably in need of a helping hand. Ask yourself this question: is scheduling out shifts for my employees becoming too much of a hassle?

Employee Scheduling Software Making a Difference

A small business can grow into a full-scale operation, complete with a full staff, quickly. Scheduling can become difficult to nearly impossible to manage. When a company starts out, it’s realistic to think that scheduling can be done easily; however, as the size of a business begins to grow, it becomes apparent that some type of employee scheduling software is needed to handle the amount of people employed.

Employee Scheduling Software for Big and Small Business

Especially in big businesses and corporations, employee scheduling software has become standard practice. Rarely do individuals ever have to enter their employees’ schedules manually. These occasions usually come in the form of employee requests for days off, or shift changes. There may even be a shift-swap between two associates that forces a manager to enter shift hours by hand. Exceptions like these are usually the only problems one would encounter when employing a good employee scheduling software.

For example, let’s say Billy and Jean wants to switch their shifts. Billy’s off Monday but he wants Friday off, and Jean works Friday, but needs Monday off. This scenario can easily be keyed into a scheduling program. It would be able to work out the rest of the equation, like: looking at the other employee’s shifts for cover for those days, or strategically determining what time in the day they should work.

Programs like these offer tremendous relief from hours of headaches and number crunching. In addition, they monitor your employee’s hours and can prevent employees from accruing non-budgeted overtime. The program can be manipulated to give someone a day or week off, and still have it covered by another staff member.

Thousands of companies make good use of scheduling software. There are various programs out there that basically do the same thing, which is save you time. To find some of the most popular programs in use by some of the most successful businesses, do a quick search online using any search engine. Search for the phrase “employee scheduling software,” and you’ll be able to review, and even try, some of the latest programs.