Creating and scheduling store employees’ work hours is essential, but not everyone knows how to do it. That is exactly why software exists to build schedules automatically by entering a set of parameters.
Store managers are taught to build schedules based on foot traffic, sales, contracted hours, productivity and KPIs, and even then it tends to be complicated.
If a store’s sales and traffic are different on each day of the week, and each month, then we need to be clear that schedules cannot be the same every month.
You have to avoid fixed schedules, the rigid 40-hour contract, the same hours every day week after week, and so on.
Because every team knows they would rather be in the store when it’s busy than during the dead hours, since the hours go by very differently.
With a good mix of full-time and part-time staff, you can build productive teams, and with that come the best results.
These practices include stable shift structures, with fixed start and end times for each shift. They also include central scheduling, with employees getting the same shifts week after week.
How to schedule employees
Deciding how to schedule your employees requires being in tune with the way your business operates, such as knowing your busiest days and months and product sales trends.
Having a sense of your employees’ needs is important too. The best schedules are flexible, they neither overload nor underuse employees’ work, they maximize earnings and they are published well in advance.
Use scheduling software. It makes it easy to create work shifts for an unlimited number of employees. In addition, once you build your weekly schedule, it can be replicated every week, and the system handles all the time calculations to ensure overtime compliance while saving time and reducing errors.
1. Make a detailed list of employees
Start by making a detailed list that includes all of your current employees. This will serve as a reference sheet when you begin assigning work schedules.
We’ll enter as much information as possible that can help you create the best schedule. Data such as employee names, job titles and shift preferences.
Employee name: when we enter each employee’s name, we’ll make sure to include first and last name. Watch out for duplicates.
Scheduling an employee for a double shift because of confusion over their name could create conflicts and expensive overtime pay (along with higher taxes).
Employee position or role: we should document any official position or role that reflects the scope of your employees’ work. Later, when we build the schedule, we’ll need an easy way to match employees with the jobs you need staffed.
Depending on your business, some workers may hold several job titles. Including this information in your employee list ensures we’ll always know how to maximize your employees’ work time throughout each week.
Shift preference and availability: at the time of hiring, determine each employee’s shift preferences. Whether they prefer to work mornings, evenings, full-time or part-time. Including this on your reference sheet will make scheduling easier.
2. Use a calendar
Scheduling is an activity that requires us to look ahead. That’s easily done when you’re using a calendar.
Take notes on certain days or weeks to remember important considerations, such as upcoming time off for employees and high-volume sales weeks.
3. Consider the company’s scheduling needs
To create a successful employee schedule, you have to consider the needs of the business.
- Are some days busier than others?
- Are there weeks that always seem to be slower than others (such as during the holidays)?
- Are there certain products or services that sell more and require you to schedule more workers in a particular role?
We may feel we can use instinct to assess which trends to consider when scheduling, but we recommend referring to data or reports from your systems or software whenever possible.
It’s more objective and accurate. Review your company’s sales reports, year over year, if we have them. If we notice big jumps in business during certain months or weeks over the course of several years, we can more confidently increase the number of employees to schedule for that period of time.
4. Assign shifts
Once we’ve finished organizing and reviewing the information we need to schedule your employees for the upcoming period, you can start assigning shifts.
- Make sure to create a good mix of workers based on their skill level and performance.
- Add veterans so that newcomers get the chance to learn from more experienced colleagues.
- Know what your company’s typical staffing needs are on an average day.
- Use this as a reference every time we create an employee schedule; on high-volume sales days, increase the number, and vice versa on slower days.
- You should always begin the scheduling process knowing which roles and how many of them you need to cover each day.
Then move on to each person’s availability. We can easily start filling out a schedule based on the details you have in your employee reference list and calendar.
Another aspect to keep in mind is each employee’s proven performance level. Inevitably we’ll have some workers who are more productive than others. It’s a good idea to schedule at least one high-performing worker (or more, depending on the size of your business) on each shift.
5. Get feedback from employees
Once you finish the first draft of your schedule, it’s crucial to get feedback from employees. It’s inevitable that exceptional situations will come up. Meeting our workers’ needs improves their job satisfaction and reduces the chance of no-shows.
Once all the employee feedback has been received, we’ll need to review it to see whether any changes to the schedule are needed.
You can also empower your employees to find their own replacements in advance; they can include that detail with their feedback, so all you have to do is update the schedule.
6. Finalize and publish your schedule
After incorporating and/or responding to all schedule change requests, finalize and publish your schedule. If the draft is in Excel, consider publishing it as a PDF and sending it to your team.
They won’t be able to edit it, and it will prevent anyone from confusing the final version with the draft. If your team is more tech-savvy and/or spread out, Google Drive may work better.
You might think that once you’ve published your schedule, there won’t be any more changes. In a perfect world that would be the case, but realistically you’ll need to monitor it daily so you can make any necessary revisions right away.
Employees get sick, car troubles happen, and the list goes on. Your schedule should be as realistic as possible and should always reflect your current staffing plan; otherwise, employees can get confused and fail to show up for work when they should.
Employee scheduling with software
Although you can manually create and manage your employees’ work schedules, it isn’t the most efficient way to handle it.
There are many free or low-cost employee scheduling software options you can use, and most have special features that help you avoid overtime costs, find shift replacements quickly, make changes from anywhere using a mobile device, and more.
Unique situations
There are some unique circumstances that may require you to document additional information about your employees. For example, if you measure their productivity by client appointments versus consecutive hours on the job, or if your business is in an industry with an unpredictable work schedule, you’ll need to take this into account when preparing to schedule your employees.
There are other factors you might also need to consider when scheduling, such as the legality of employing minors and the certifications required for certain types of work. Weather can also play a role, especially if you run your business outdoors.
Legal considerations for employee scheduling
It’s essential to learn how to schedule employees in the way that works best for the company. There are numerous labor laws to keep in mind, but not all of them will apply to your business.
Under Spanish law 2001/1983 (Art. 40), you should know that overtime can be compensated in two ways:
- Making up the time worked with an equal number of paid rest hours.
- With a 75% surcharge on the value of the ordinary hourly wage.
To keep costs down, schedule hourly employees for a maximum of 40 hours each week. It’s important to keep copies of all employee scheduling records for at least two years.
It’s good practice for companies to notify employees of their schedules far enough in advance so they can plan their work hours. Giving your employees enough time before a work schedule is published gives structure to their schedules and helps them better manage their daily lives.
Bottom line
Figuring out how to schedule employees to maximize earnings (avoiding overtime, overstaffing and lost business due to understaffing) while keeping your employees happy is a balancing act.
It requires creating solid processes on the front end, gathering the most appropriate data to help you make the best scheduling decisions, and regularly evaluating the schedules you create.