The traditional rostering processes, with their time-intensive nature and high susceptibility to errors, are increasingly being viewed as outdated. These legacy systems are often incompatible with the latest market technologies. This is where rostering software comes into play. With its multitude of features, it has the potential to revolutionise workforce management and significantly boost organisational efficiency.
In this article, we'll delve into the world of automated rostering systems, exploring the benefits they can unlock and addressing common challenges faced with traditional rostering systems. We will also demonstrate how an auto-rostering system can streamline these operations.
So, let us discover how you can transform your workforce management with the power of automation!
Reduction of manual admin work & related staff costs
By automating the process of creating schedules and managing shifts, rostering software streamlines operations and eliminates the need for manual handling of paperwork and spreadsheets. It enables managers to create schedules quickly and accurately, taking into account factors such as employee availability and labour regulations.
The best rare also equipped with employee self-service portals where employees can view and edit their schedules, request time off and swap shifts. This reduces the burden of administrative duties on managers.
Reduced absenteeism
Shifts are allocated based on accurate data and predetermined criteria, taking into account factors such as employee availability, skills, and workload. This eliminates the potential for human error in manually assigning shifts and helps ensure that each shift is properly staffed. By having the right number of employees scheduled for each shift, the likelihood of burnout and stress-related absenteeism decreases significantly.
Moreover, managers can easily track and monitor attendance patterns, enabling them to address absenteeism issues promptly. With features like automated notifications and reminders, employees are more likely to be aware of their scheduled shifts, reducing the possibility of unintentional absences.
Even redistribution of work during employee absence
When an employee is absent, whether due to illness, vacation, or any other reason, it can create imbalances in workload and potentially impact productivity. However, rostering systems enable managers to quickly identify the gaps created by the absence and redistribute the workload among the available staff members.
With features like real-time updates and automated notifications, managers can easily communicate changes in shifts and assignments, ensuring that the workload is evenly distributed and no one is overwhelmed with additional tasks. This not only helps maintain productivity but also promotes fairness and collaboration within the team.
Improved staff morale
By providing transparent and efficient scheduling processes, rostering software ensures that employees have clear visibility into their schedules, enabling them to plan their personal lives more effectively. This enhances work-life balance, reduce stress and boosts overall morale.
Additionally, rostering system enables fair and equitable shift allocation, preventing favouritism or unfair workload distribution. Employees feel valued and appreciated when they see that their preferences and availability are taken into consideration during scheduling.
Improved quality of employee output
Rostering systems play a crucial role in enhancing the quality of employee output by optimising scheduling and streamlining workforce management processes.
Managers can easily track, monitor and analyse performance metrics, this generates valuable insights into individual and team productivity. These insights can later be used to identify areas for improvement, provide timely feedback, and offer necessary training and support to enhance employee skills and performance.
Accurate schedule planning and real-time updates
Managers can efficiently create schedules by considering factors such as employee availability, skillsets, and labour regulations. This helps in optimising workforce allocation and minimising scheduling conflicts.
Additionally, employee rostering software provides real-time updates, allowing managers to quickly respond to changes in employee availability or unexpected events. By keeping everyone informed and up to date, it ensures that employees receive timely notifications about shift changes, ensuring smooth operations and reducing the risk of miscommunication. This ensures that the schedule remains accurate and up to date, enhancing efficiency, productivity, and overall operational success.
Improved management oversight
By centralising scheduling and providing a comprehensive view of employee shifts, rostering system allows managers to have better visibility and control over their workforce.
Rostering software equipped with predictive analytics enables management to make informed decisions based on historical and real-time data. By analysing past trends, patterns, and employee performance metrics, such software can provide valuable insights into future staffing needs, resource allocation, and operational efficiency.
Replicable roster templates
Managers can create and save roster templates that capture the desired scheduling patterns, shift allocations, and employee preferences. These templates can then be easily replicated and applied to future scheduling periods, saving a significant amount of time and effort.
By automating the roster replication process, managers can ensure consistency in scheduling, minimise errors, and maintain fairness in employee workloads. This feature is particularly useful in industries with repetitive scheduling requirements or organisations with multiple locations or teams that follow similar scheduling patterns.
Common issues with traditional rostering solutions
The business landscape today is tumultuous to say the least, technologies are rapidly changing and the need for agility and adaptability is at an all-time high. Businesses that are too rigid and fail to recognise the signs that they need to revamp their technologies and methodologies will struggle in the market. Some of the most common issues with these legacy rostering technologies are:
- Limited customisation: Manual or basic rostering solutions often lack the flexibility to make changes to permissions or set parameters based on specific working requirements. This limitation prevents organisations from fully customising their rostering processes and eliminating tedious tasks.
- Inflexible frameworks: An obstacle to effective rostering is the inability to react promptly to sudden changes. Outdated systems may enforce rigid shift patterns that cannot accommodate alterations in rotas, shift schedules, or rules. This lack of flexibility hampers the organisation's ability to adapt to evolving needs.
- Lack of insight: Manual processes generally lack the capability to generate comprehensive reports on work patterns and output. As a result, organisations often find themselves lacking valuable insights that could inform ongoing strategy and decision-making.
To overcome these challenges, it is crucial for organisations to adopt modern rostering solutions that offer enhanced customisation, flexible frameworks, and robust reporting capabilities. These features empower organisations to effectively manage shifts, respond swiftly to changes, and gain valuable insights to drive strategic decision-making.
How OneAdvanced auto-rostering solutions can help
Managing a business and ensuring the right people are available at the right time can be challenging without the right tools. At Advanced, we understand the importance of having a skilled workforce during shifts. That's why we introduced an Auto Rostering module as a part of our OneAdvanced Time & Attendance software. It is a smart scheduling application designed to streamline shift organisation across industries. With our automated rostering module, businesses can optimise employee allocation based on rostering rules, availability, and skillsets. This saves time, money, and resources while ensuring efficient workforce management.
1. Auto-suggesting optimally staffed schedules
Auto rostering provides a solution by simplifying the complexities of shift patterns and roster calculations. With just a click of a button, Auto Rostering suggests an optimised work schedule based on employee availability. This automation offers peace of mind, ensuring that workforce allocation requirements are efficiently managed.
2. Enabling and empowering employee trade boards
Auto rostering can offer you a unique framework to empower your people to take charge of their schedules. Our employee trade boards can be actioned by management within your organisation and provide a forum to exchange shifts at their own discretion. This is a powerful feature which not only incentivises employees to take control of their shifts but most importantly, it expedites the process of schedule swapping and takes the burden of the people management team.
3. Skills mapping
Finding the right cover for a shift involves more than just in another employee. Many industries require specific certifications or skillsets which must be taken into account. When an employee is unable to fulfil a shift, it is crucial to find a replacement with equivalent skillsets to maintain the necessary talent level. With Auto rostering, these complex calculations are taken care of for you through skills maps. You can set your own parameters, ensuring that you always find cover for your shifts with the appropriate certifications.
If you’d like to discover more about how our auto rostering and other people management solutions can help transform the way you work, get in touch with one of our friendly team members today.
