Let’s say the local supermarket has long checkout lines because they don’t have enough cashiers on the floor. That’s an example of inefficient workforce scheduling. If it happens frequently, it could hurt their customer loyalty and long-term sales.
However, staff scheduling can get complicated. Some people may consider it more of an art than a science. Filling and trading shifts? Juggling vacation schedules? Communicating the constantly changing data to the workforce? It’s enough to crash your Excel spreadsheet.
Scheduling software solutions
One answer may be scheduling software. These integrated, Web-based systems can help you forecast staffing needs based on historical data, such as number of customer contacts, sales figures, checkout transactions per hour per day, or product orders for various time periods. The program can then predict optimal staffing requirements built around customer traffic loads, employee availability, holidays, work/life balances, financial limitations, worker skills, and many other factors.
Scheduling software allows you to control customer service and employee productivity in multiple remote locations. You can deploy resources based on customer demand, skills needed, locations, and service commitments, helping you meet anticipated workloads with better capacity planning and resource allocation. Imagine being able to respond in real time to scheduling changes due to meeting cancellations or highway traffic congestion. Cloud-based software solutions give you that flexibility.
Efficient workforce management scheduling can enable you to:
- Serve more customers during high traffic periods to boost sales
- Ship more products faster and smarter to meet demand
- Provide better customer service to improve loyalty
- Operate more efficiently leading to increased profits.
