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The Most Common Scheduling Problems for Employers and how to Address Them

The Most Common Scheduling Problems for Employers and how to Address Them, Over and Under Staffing, Wrong Predictive Analysis, Balance Shifts

Published

4 years ago

March 6, 2021

TwinzTech

The Most Common Scheduling Problems for Employers and how to Address Them

Scheduling of employees is one of the most crucial factors determining the success of any business. If employers get it wrong from the start, they might live struggling to meet their targets until they do proper scheduling.

Improper scheduling does not only affect the employees but the employers as well. It could easily cause an unnecessary rise in labour costs and significant losses to the business. Therefore employers must be ready to invest in a scheduling system.

A good example is an online schedule maker, which helps avoid some of the most common scheduling problems. Here are some of the common issues employers encounter and how to solve them.

Table of Contents

1. Over and Under Staffing

Over and Under Staffing

When a business makes the mistake of overstaffing, it mostly affects its labour cost. Too many unnecessary staff means you pay employees for services they have not rendered.

When that happens, the company will not manage to meet its price in the long run because it’s wasting money on people it does not need.

Under-staffing has an impact on both employees and the employer. When there are fewer employees than required in a shift, the current employees get overworked.

The company is also forced to pay overtime, which is an extra and expensive cost. When the employees get overworked, they lose their morale and may not manage to attend to customers entirely, leading to customer loss.

To avoid both understaffing and overstaffing, employers should invest in a sound scheduling system. A system that can match shifts evenly and inform managers when there’s a need to reduce or increase employees’ number.

2. Wrong Predictive Analysis

When it comes to running any business, employers or managers should observe trends to make better decisions for their companies. If employers fail to keep track of when their businesses experience an increase in activities, they are likely to get understaffed.

The same happens when the business experiences a low season in terms of its activities. If the employers do not keep track of these seasons and reduce the number of employees in advance, they are likely to be overstaffed. Therefore, employers need to be keen on their scheduling system by aligning them with their businesses’ seasons.

3. Failure to Balance Shifts with Availability

Failure to Balance Shifts with Availability

Some employees prefer to work full-time, some part-time and others on weekends only. When employees choose part-time and weekend shifts, they probably have other things to do to meet their daily needs.

When managers do not consider employees’ opinions and preferences when scheduling, they are likely to experience absenteeism and increased turnover. Employees require to work in an ecosystem they feel appreciated and valued.

Therefore, employers should consider designing a scheduling system that allows employees to contribute their opinions and preferences concerning scheduling. Doing so ensures both the employee and the employer are satisfied.

4. Failure to Schedule Some Time Off with Employees

Schedules do not just revolve around the office or business area only. Creating breaks for the employees gives them time to relax, unwind and re-energize, which is crucial for their performance.

A demotivated employee is a liability to the employer because they transfer that energy to the customers, leading to customer service dissatisfaction.

That, in turn, sends away potential or regular customers, reducing profits for the employer.

To counter that, employers should include some time out with the employees. For instance, they can plan to close work early once a month and watch a movie together.

They can also organize some team-building activities every once a month. When employers do this, employees can unwind, relax, and even feel part of a family, motivating them to perform better to afford more.

5. Lack of a Good Structure

You cannot achieve the set goals without a good plan to run the system. Some employers hire employees and leave them to organize themselves, so long as employers can see results.

Apart from that being wrong, there is no responsibility for any losses. Others do not care to match employees’ skills with the right job posts and imagine workers will learn on the go.

To prevent such a problem, a sound scheduling system is necessary to give structure in the business, keeping a record of every employee with the responsibilities assigned and the set goals per individual. It is time employers ditched the pen and paper culture.

Conclusion

As easy and basic as scheduling may sound or appear to many people, it is an essential success tool. If a business has a goal of growing and expanding for the long term, employers need to invest wisely in scheduling.

Before starting on the process, a little knowledge of other employers’ problems when scheduling helps you avoid repeating the same. If you remain an employer and are staring into scheduling, this guide shows you some of the common scheduling issues and how to overcome them.

AI Tools

How to Learn New Technologies and Tools More Easily

If you apply these strategies consistently, and maintain a healthy, adaptive mindset, you should have no trouble learning the new technologies and tools that become relevant to you.

Published

2 months ago

August 2, 2024

TwinzTech

In your personal and professional lives, you’ll occasionally run into new technologies and tools that have the potential to make your life easier but can also be very hard to learn. Learning how to operate machines safely and effectively can be a challenge, so how do you make it easier for yourself?

1. The Value of Learning New Technologies and Tools

There are several reasons why you might be interested in learning new technologies and tools. For most people, the primary motivation is developing or improving a set of skills that will be valuable in their jobs or careers. For example, if you becomeaerial lift certified online, you’ll gain the knowledge and experience necessary to safely operate certain types of lifting machinery, like aerial lifts, scissor lifts, and cherry pickers. This can make you more valuable to employers, give you more responsibilities, and help you make more money.

You may also be obligated to learn new technologies for your job. For example, if your employer rolls out a new ERP software system, you’ll likely need to learn how to incorporate it into your job seamlessly, with or without direct internal training.

Of course, some people simply like the process of learning new things or feel pressure to continuously adapt to a society that’s rapidly advancing. If you’re like most older adults, even the latest iteration of smartphone technology can feel a bit intimidating when you first get your hands on it, and it’s fun to gradually gain mastery over it.

2. How to Learn New Technologies and Tools More Easily

These are some strategies that can help you learn new technologies and tools much more easily:

Analyze your current position.

Before you start the learning process formally, it’s a good idea to analyze your current position. How much do you know about the tool in question? How competent do you feel navigating other tools and technologies? Are there any similar tools or technologies that you’ve learned in the past? How prepared do you feel for the learning process? Take note of your strengths and weaknesses and devise a strategy unique to you to overcome your personal challenges.

Process your anxiety and apprehension.

Anxiety and apprehension arecommon when learning new things. Even if these feelings are relatively minor for you, it’s a good idea to proactively address them and try to process them. These are normal and nothing to be concerned about, so confront them proactively.

Allow yourself time.

You might be a slow learner, or you might be a fast learner. Either way, it’s a good idea to give yourself as much time as possible to learn something new. If you force yourself to learn in very small time intervals, or if you try to learn everything the night before you’re responsible for knowing it, you’ll add undue pressure and make the environment much more stressful for you. Err on the side of caution and schedule yourself more time than you think you’ll need.

How to Learn New Technologies and Tools More Easily

Identify and learn any important prerequisites.

Figure out if there are any prerequisites that are necessary or helpful for learning this technology or tool. For example, if you’re studying for a CDL license, it’s probably helpful to know the basics of driving first. This is another reason why it’s important to give yourself more time than you think you need; it might take you some time to learn baseline skills as building blocks for more advanced ones.

Look for educational resources.

For any tool or technology you can conceive of, there is probably an abundance of educational resources available to you. Formal training and certification programs, private coaching, video tutorials, and even educational podcasts can all play a role in shaping your knowledge and development.

Most people benefit from consulting multiple different educational resource types, so they can get information from multiple sources in multiple different ways. At the very least, you should identify one strong educational resource that can help you from start to finish.

Understand your own learning style.

Do you knowyour own learning style? For example, some people prefer learning visually, while others prefer a more hands-on approach. If you know your personal learning style, you’ll be able to chart a course for your own learning that caters to your natural strengths and inclinations.

Get help from someone experienced.

If you start struggling, try to get help from someone more experienced than you. Depending on the context of your learning, that could be a coworker, a mentor, a teacher, or even just a friend. Chances are, they’ll be more than likely to help you out.

Test your knowledge and practice.

At a certain point, you’ll have to stop learning and start doing. Be willing to test your knowledge and practice with the tool or technology you’re trying to learn.

Share with others.

You can reinforce the lessons you’ve already learned and engage with the material more strongly if you share your knowledge with others. It’s also a valuable opportunity to get more practice.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a slow learner. It doesn’t matter if you’re hesitant or even skeptical about new technologies. If you apply these strategies consistently, and maintain a healthy, adaptive mindset, you should have no trouble learning the new technologies and tools that become relevant to you.