5 Common Scheduling Issues and How to Avoid Them

Creating a reliable and effective work schedule is crucial to growing your business. A great timetable will make your employees happy, which will attract more customers.

On the flipside, a poorly-constructed schedule could have serious consequences.

Employee fatigue has been the cause of many disasters, like the Chernobyl nuclear explosion and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. As a manager, you’ve got to be aware of your employees’ feelings, mentally and physically.

Failing to notice these problems could hurt your company, causing financial loss. Read on to learn about 5 common scheduling issues, and how you can make work schedules work for you.

1. Overworked Workers

As a member of the retail or service industry, you’re no doubt familiar with the dreaded “clopening.” A closing shift (ending at 10 or 11 PM) followed immediately by an opener (beginning 7 or 8 AM) is a lot to put on one person.

Driving and taking care of essential needs can take 2 or more hours. This schedule for work leaves your employee with 6 hours or less to sleep. S/he will come in the next morning exhausted, and you’ll suffer lost time, productivity, or both.

Avoid employee fatigue with software that looks for consecutive shifts and corrects them. Combat it with breaks and regular shift check-ins.

2. Imbalances

The US ranks in the bottom 20% for work-life balance. Americans have less time to take care of themselves, even though they need an average of 9.58 hours a day to address personal needs.

Making schedules for employees requires careful planning. As a leader, understanding your workers’ needs will make you more productive.

They’ll thank you for it by being more productive.

3. Sudden No-Shows

Studies show that 38% of employees have called out of work despite feeling fine.

Last-minute absences can cause severe scheduling issues. Doctor’s appointments, children, and car problems are just a few reasons someone may fail to come into work.

Making a work schedule that fits everyone’s needs is genuinely an art. Smart software can help alleviate the panic of trying to cover a shift. Allowing employee swaps or having separate teams of workers can help.

Hubworks rolled out their staff scheduling app in order to combat many scheduling issues. Check out their helpful guide to discover the benefits of smart work schedules.

4. Worker Turnover

A long-suffering employee can spell disaster for your company. Losing a few employees won’t be a major downfall. However, high employee turnover can hurt your profit and image.

Hiring someone means investing time, money, and resources to training and onboarding them. If you continue to lose people, it’s time to reassess scheduling issues and management style.

Above all, happy employees mean happy customers.

5. Too Few or Too Many

Too many workers on a shift can be just as bad as too few.

Your budget will shrink fast, and you’ll have to send people home. This means less time and money in both of your pockets.

Only schedule the people you need for that shift. You should alternate workers so that no one works multiple shifts in a row. Employees notice fairness – or lack thereof.

The Art of Combating Scheduling Issues

Figuring out how to schedule employees can be the difference between an okay-manager and a great one. It takes finesse, intelligence, and a dedicated team of individuals to overcome scheduling issues.

To get the best results you’ll need an innovative support system and advanced AI. Check out these great employee management programs to simplify your life.