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How to audit your staff scheduling system – step by step

27th August, 2024

Effective staff scheduling and open communication between managers and staff are key to maintaining a happy workforce and high operational efficiency.

Problems often arise when legacy software systems or spreadsheet tools like Excel can't keep up with the demands of a modern workforce. Employees and attractions need up-to-the-minute information on how many staff are needed, exactly where and when.

Issues can often go unnoticed until they cause significant disruption to day-to-day operations and working schedules. To avoid this, it’s important to commit to regular reviews of your current staff scheduling processes. Here's a step-by-step guide to support your next audit.

Step 1: Review your current processes

Start by taking a comprehensive look at your existing staff scheduling processes. Evaluate how schedules are created, communicated, and adjusted. Identify any pain points or inefficiencies.

Are there frequent scheduling conflicts? Is there a high rate of absenteeism? Are last-minute changes causing chaos? Document these issues as the first step in your audit. The results may surprise you.

Step 2: Start tracking data

If you're not already tracking KPIs related to staff scheduling, now is the time to start. Important KPIs might include labour costs, overtime hours, shift coverage rates, and employee satisfaction.

Establish benchmarks to compare your performance over time. Accurate data tracking allows you to identify trends, measure the effectiveness of your scheduling system and make data-driven decisions. Tracking data can be simplified by using staff scheduling software that offers built-in analytics and reporting features. These tools can automatically generate reports on various metrics, making it easier to analyse data and act on notable trends.

Step 3: Get feedback

Gather feedback from all stakeholders, including staff, managers and even customers. Employees can provide insights into how the current scheduling system affects their work-life balance and job satisfaction.

Managers can highlight operational challenges and areas where the scheduling system may be falling short. Customer feedback can reveal how staffing levels impact the guest experience. Use surveys, interviews or suggestion boxes to collect this priceless information. Modern scheduling systems include direct messaging between managers and staff so that feedback can easily flow both ways and keep everyone on the same page.

Step 4: Research your options

Explore different scheduling system providers to see what options are available. Look for software options that cover your core criteria and offer features tailored to the specific needs of attractions, like automated scheduling, real-time updates and easy shift swaps.

Evaluate how these systems can address the pain points identified in your earlier reviews and make sure the new option is user-friendly for both managers and staff and can integrate with other systems you use. Regular audits are still important, but you’ll find yourself with less pain paints once you have a more reliable system designed to last for the long haul.

Step 5: Trial and roll-out

Once you've identified potential improvements, start by trying new initiatives on a small scale. This could involve testing new scheduling software or implementing new processes for shift swaps and coverage.

Monitor the results closely and gather feedback from your team. If the trial is successful, gradually roll out the new system or processes across your organisation. Ensure continuous monitoring and be ready to make adjustments as needed. There will likely be a few hiccups along the way, but the long-term benefits are worth any small teething problems.

Time to upgrade your approach to scheduling?

Wherever you are in your business journey, it’s worth finding out whether your staff scheduling system is performing poorly in certain areas.

If your audit uncovered issues with communication, coordination, or ease of use, a system like Shiftie may be a good way forward. It makes scheduling shifts and updating job roles easy, and staff can communicate their needs and swap shifts from their phones.