Worker Predictive Scheduling Made Easy

Predictive scheduling provides workers with advanced notice of their work schedule. This process improves workforce management for the business and gives workers some control over their lives. In many US states, it’s regulated, so it’s the law.

In this article, we provide information on the regulatory process for predictive scheduling and how its use is benefiting businesses and workers alike.

Law

In many US states, a policy for predictive scheduling legislation is being considered.  So far, some dozen states have proposed regulations, including San Franciso, where employers are required to give workers at least two weeks’ notice of their schedule with no changes to it accepted a week out. Plus, on-call workers are guaranteed at least two hours of pay for being scheduled, even if they’re not required to work the shift.

Seattle has a similar law to that of San Francisco, whereas New York is less strict on what the business needs to do for compliance. Employers are required to give just 72 hours’ notice of a work schedule, but they also need all retail employees to be paid a minimum of 20 hours over a two-week schedule.

So far, as many as 12 states either have a regulated policy or are working on it. In addition to these 12 states, more states are following this lead as employers feel pressured to do more to improve conditions for their staff.

In states with legislation in place, failure to comply may result in the business receiving hefty financial penalties.

Benefits of Predictive Scheduling Software

Employers

With predictive scheduling now legal in many states, companies must comply and give adequate prior notice of work schedules. Manually managing the process is time-consuming and costly.

Software providers have seen the opportunity to develop and sell as a service intuitive worker scheduling software. Businesses can make light work of creating and sharing work schedules with their staff.

The industries that benefit the most from scheduling technology have a lot of staff. Think manufacturing, retail, and technology. Businesses in these sectors employ many staff, many shiftworkers, and freelancers, i.e., paid by the hour.

Using software, i.e., a tool that helps schedule employees and other types of staff like freelancers, enables companies with a lot of staff to change schedules at a moment’s notice when the need arises. The main reason for altering worker timetables is to cover for illness and holiday leave.

Time

There are only 24 hours in the day, and for most companies, there are fewer hours of work, so everything they do is to improve output, and that takes time.

With predictive scheduling not going away any time soon and likely to be regulated everywhere in the US and globally, it can be done manually or with technology. This is where all businesses weigh the pros and cons of using software to reduce the time taken to organize and automate work schedules versus manually doing it.

Staff

Employers have more data available on their staffing requirements. Labor costs for a product business can be as high as 35% of gross sales.

For a services business, labor costs as much as 50% of gross sales. These are significant numbers, so you can see why companies need to manage workflow requirements efficiently.

Any enterprise aims to manage staffing levels so they’re always at an optimum level. Data from the predictive scheduling software informs management of historical productivity activity every hour so the company can prevent overstaffing or understaffing.

Labor can be directly attributed to output, so with knowledge of staffing levels and output management, peaks and troughs in staffing levels can be avoided.

Software

The SaaS model is a volume game with a high volume of clients, i.e., low-cost to use. It’s the model of external software providers. The low cost of SaaS is attractive to startups, micro and small businesses, and larger enterprises.

Less staff is required when Apps that handle business tasks like accounting, inventory, workflow, and staff scheduling are deployed. Therefore, with less staff needed for the non-productive activity, more cash flow and investment are available to grow the business.

Employees

Knowing your work schedule in advance empowers you to make better use of your time when you’re an employee.

We all need downtime to rejuvenate our energy levels and work productivity.

Therefore, with advanced notice of the work schedule, holidays and personal meetings with family and friends can be organized.

There’s time to book health check-ups and time to exercise. We all need work-life balance, and as the saying goes, A happy employee is a happy employer.