Imagine starting your day at work only to be informed that your shift was changed, and you were not told. Such occurrences are time-consuming and can affect employee motivation and productivity. In such cases, is it increasing employee empowerment or decreasing productivity?
Proper shift scheduling is a crucial factor associated with productivity and also enhances the well-being of the employees. Organizations now can revolutionize their scheduling processes due to the advancements of modern shift scheduling tools. Is this the case in your organization or are you still using traditional methods at their full efficiency?
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Impact of Efficient Shift Scheduling You Can’t Ignore
Shift scheduling is not just about allocating employees to various time slots. It is about the optimum allocation of time slots that cater to the organizational needs and the choices of the employees.
Lack of proper scheduling results in inadequate staffing, overstating of employees, high costs in labor, and employee demotivation. Also, poor schedules can decrease efficiency and increase absenteeism and disengagement.
According to the Workforce Institute research, 38% of employees have reported to work even when they are sick because of poor shift scheduling. It is enough proof that there is a real link between shift scheduling and attendance. With factors like flexible working hours and multiple shifts common in India, the complexity of working on shift schedules is even higher than that in developed countries.
The advanced attendance systems have rendered the management of shift schedules easier by offering computerized features and timely reports. These tools include:
- Automated Scheduling: This is the use of algorithms capable of coming up with a schedule depending on the employees available, their type of skills, and labor legislation.
- Real-Time Tracking: Track the attendance of the employees in real-time so that issues like lateness and truancy can be detected early.
- Mobile Practice: Enabling people to check, request changes, and receive notifications about schedules through their mobile phones to improve interaction and convenience.
- Compliance Management: Fostering the implementation of the labor laws and standard policies used in the companies to lower cases of legal issues.
5 Best Attendance Solutions for Shift Scheduling in India
There are several sophisticated attendance tools available in the Indian market, though each of them can be customized for different purposes depending on the requirements of an organization. Here are some notable tools:
HROne
HROne is an HR and workforce management tool that helps businesses with attendance and shift management with the help of artificial intelligence and big data analysis. It is suitable for companies of any size and allows managers to track employees’ attendance, calculate leaves, and salary, and address compliance issues.
factoHR
factoHR is an organizational attendance management solution developed for small and medium-scale businesses. It includes features such as recording clock in and out times, payroll computation for overtime, leave application, and handling of shift options.
Workstatus
Workstatus is a tool that offers automatic attendance and shift scheduling software for organizations. Some of the free features include reporting shift status, automatic notification, tracking of employee attendance, and compatibility with other corresponding programs.
Quikchex
Quikchex can assist in the smooth running of the attendance system by scheduling the shifts, capturing the punches accurately, and processing the payroll. More than 5000 users are implementing this software as it offers numerous features such as flexible shift scheduling and punch-in data recording.
Keka
Keka is a cloud-based software for managing attendance tracking with features such as configurable policies, approval, and shift scheduling tools. Organizations use it to improve the current systems of work attendance management for both employees and employers.
Some of the factors when choosing an attendance tool include scheduling requirements, integration characteristics, and ease of use to avail the best features of the tool.
Before using these advanced attendance tools, some guidelines should help ensure the most effective use of these tools:
Assess Organisational Needs
Consider your current issues in scheduling – it could be absenteeism, shift changes, compliance, etc. Before selecting a tool, companies should also undertake regular checks on employees or HR audits to pinpoint any issues and check whether the tool will alleviate these deficits.
Ensure Seamless Integration
Select an attendance system that should easily synchronize with your current payroll, HRMS, and workforce management solutions. Cloud-based solutions can also be preferable with APIs to keep all critical data in sync. According to a McKinsey report, the use of AI-based workforce management solutions can help to decrease attendance loss and productivity gain by 25%.
Provide Employee Training
It is crucial to provide employees training to learn how to check the schedules, request a change of shift, and mark attendance. Incorporate how-to lessons or conduct orientation programs to avoid any difficulties.
Continuous Improvement
Ensure that the reports and analytics available in the attendance tools are used to track shift compliance, productivity patterns, and overtime expenses. Create a system to provide notifications on possible scheduling mismatches and make changes based on the generated reports.
Maintain Compliance with Labour Laws
The attendance tool should meet the existing and expected Indian labor laws about working hours, overtime remuneration, and rest breaks. There should be a consistent update in the policies that are stored in the system based on the changes in legal provisions.
AI-Powered Shift Scheduling: The Next Stage of Staff Management
With more companies in India doing more of their business online, there is no doubt that AI and machine learning are going to be the key drivers in shift scheduling. Advanced AI-driven attendance tools can:
Strong forecasting skills in terms of human resource demands based on historical data and business requirements.
According to a Kronos survey, 65% of managers complain about shift scheduling whereby the change of schedules at the last minute often impacts on productivity and employee satisfaction. Manage last-minute shift changes easily with changes done to both employees and managers.
Make working schedules more flexible and individual-oriented according to employees’ performance and habits.
Wrapping Up!
Most MNCs are currently implementing advanced workforce management tools based on artificial intelligence that enable them to manage schedules, foster proper attendance, and offer a proper work-life balance. As the encore to work advances, organizations that employ AI shift scheduling will have a competitive advantage in efficiency, compliance, and productivity.
Are you tired of traditional approaches to shift scheduling? The time to act is now.