Get Your Scheduling Software Right to Improve the Employee Experience

Poor scheduling can demotivate and frustrate workers, causing them to disengage and provide poor service. Fortunately, scheduling software can improve the employee experience by giving staff members the autonomy they deserve, while also making sure that schedules are compliant and fully costed.

The Employee Experience Matters Now More Than Ever

Employee experience cannot be an afterthought. Workers’ relationship with their company and their role has a direct link with performance, efficiency levels, service quality, retention rates and the bottom line.

Yet employee experience is made up of many small, day-to-day interactions. From recruitment through to onboarding, shifts, payday processes, paperwork, communication with managers and coworkers, communications, promotions and exit interviews, every interaction an employee has with your company adds up to determine their morale and enthusiasm for their job.

A good employee experience will cause staff to feel satisfied, energised and valued. For frontline workers, this will enable them to provide better, friendlier service that positively represents your brand. Not only does employee engagement lead to better service, but it also affects your bottom line. Studies show that highly engaged teams are 21% more profitable than non-engaged teams. 

Engaged employees are also less likely to interview for other jobs. Your teams will be made of more experienced, loyal staff, who not only perform well but can also help other team members out and create a good workplace atmosphere.

Scheduling Is Key to Employee Experience

When looking to improve employee morale, many companies consider raising pay rates, organising team events and providing tokens of gratitude. While these can all have an impact, on a day-to-day level, the employee experience is primarily shaped by the shifts that your team members work – and this means that scheduling is an excellent opportunity to improve employee satisfaction levels and motivation.

Workers, particularly casual and shift-based workers, look for schedules that suit their availability and lifestyles. Both the number of hours they receive and how much flexibility they have matter to them. 

They want hours that they can rely on so that they have financial stability. However, they also look for enough flexibility that they can fit work around the other things that are important to them: their family, hobbies, studies and more. They want to be able to book time off to see their children’s school play or attend a friend’s wedding. In fact, a global 2020 study shows that workers value work-life balance over having a comfortable salary.

Not only do shift workers value a flexible schedule but they want the process of changing shifts to be as seamless as possible. If something comes up, such as a sick child at home or last minute appointment, employees want to have a straight-forward process that allows them to easily change shifts.

When workers have schedules that suit them, they turn up to their shifts happy, confident, resilient, and ready to represent the brand positively – no matter how difficult a customer or task might be. However, when schedules are inflexible or changing shifts is a hassle, employee engagement and experience tanks. 

If shifts come at the expense of what matters to employees, they will be unable to perform at their best. No matter how encouraging their manager is, workers will feel undervalued and unappreciated, and consequently, they will struggle to engage. The results will be visible: low productivity, increased errors and reduced enthusiasm and care in service. Front-line workers are the face of your brand, and when they are dissatisfied, so are your customers.

Given the importance of scheduling to employee experience, prioritising it is an obvious choice for companies. Yet nearly three out of every four workers want more flexibility than they currently have. 

Fortunately, technology can give organisations the power to offer shifts and schedules that their staff want and need – while remaining cost-effective and fully compliant.

Scheduling Software and Streamlined Communications: How to Improve the Employee Experience

The right scheduling software systems and processes will ensure that scheduling works for staff and companies alike. With Humanforce, workers can input their preferred availability and book time off via the mobile app. Our Rosters & Scheduling software will then create a fully costed and compliant schedule for you to approve – and there’s no risk of human error.

For shift workers, there are few things more frustrating than receiving schedules at the last minute and so being unable to make plans with friends and family. With our system, however, that won’t be an issue. As soon as the schedule has been signed off on by management, workers will receive it via email and the app. 

Your staff members will be able to access all the important information they need directly via the app: shift start and end times, location, role and more. You can even micro-schedule tasks within shifts so that workers know exactly what they need to do and when. Plus, the in-app message system will enable them to message their manager directly if they have any issues or queries. 

Scheduling is far more than a bureaucratic task on your to-do list; it is a tool to increase efficiency, ensure compliance and boost the employee experience. Improving the employee experience is of itself key to business success. Fortunately, modern tools like scheduling software can help you get scheduling right.

Download our ebook to learn more about improving employee experience and retention, or get in touch to book a demo and see how Smart Rostering can work in your organisation.