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Staff scheduling is often a long and tedious task. It is estimated that managers spend 7 hours a week managing their teams' schedules.. Many companies produce their schedules on paper or using Excel spreadsheets, which is far from easy. Fortunately, a number of tools are available on the market to help you create schedules easily, and share them with your staff. However, you need to choose the right tool for your teams. Let's take a look at how to make the right choice.
Why invest in a staff planning and assignment tool?
Before getting to the heart of the matter, it's worth recalling the main benefits you can derive from such a tool.
Benefit no. 1: considerable time savings
One of the main advantages of a planning tool is the time it saves team leaders. They spend almost 7h by week to define the best combination for assigning their team members. The problem takes on a whole new dimension when last-minute changes have to be made. An unforeseen absence can be a real headache for the scheduler.
It should also be noted that this particularly time-consuming task is often carried out, at best, on Excel, and at worst, on paper (often forgotten at the coffee machine). These two media make updating complex (witness phrases like "what's the latest version of next week's schedule?"). With the right software, these problems can be solved, which is a real plus for your company. takes the mental load off time managers.
Benefit no. 2: a real-time view of available personnel
Direct consequence of the previous point: if the files are not up to date, it is difficult to know which employees are available at any given time. We then have to go round the teams to make sure the information is correct.
The advantage of scheduling tools is that they are generally integrated with your other personnel management software (which handles leave, sick leave, etc.). This makes it easier to determine which employees should be placed in which positions, according to their availability or skills (we'll go into more detail on this particular point in the second part of this article).
Benefit no. 3: improved productivity
Personnel scheduling software benefits all employees. They can access their updated schedules at any time. As for managers, they can concentrate on more interesting value-added tasks.
Administrative bottlenecks are greatly reduced, and at the same time, the company is able toimprove communication, information sharing and thus productivity at all levels of the company.
The use of staff scheduling and allocation software is an indispensable factor for any company aspiring to greater agility and versatility. Consequently, the choice of tool to implement in your company must be in line with your business needs. Let's take a look at the main criteria to consider before making your choice.
Criteria for choosing the best planning tool
We're going to focus on three essential aspects: data centralization, the analytical aspect, and the assignment of personnel according to business constraints.Â
Criterion no. 1: real-time information sharing
Your ideal planning tool should allow you to take into account data from various human resources tools. For example, vacation dates, which should be easy to take into account in planning to avoid errors.
Likewise, make sure you choose a solution that allows you to share schedules with your teams live. In this way, everyone can access their own schedules, which are always up to date.
Criterion no. 2: Activity analysis
The second criterion you should consider is the analytical aspect. We advise you to look for software that helps you access key data, such as number of hours spent by each employee on your workstations. These are invaluable indicators, in particular for limiting the risk of Musculoskeletal Disorders on your lines, but also for enhancing the value of your products and services. improve versatility of your employees.
Criterion no. 3: Automatic staff assignment
Finally, we would like to draw your attention to the fact that your staff assignment tool should above all help you to place the right employee in the right job, at the right time. This is only possible if you can take into account a certain number of business constraints when calculating assignments.
A staff assignment and planning tool to consider :
- the skills and qualifications of each employee
- the skills and authorizations required for each position
- HR data (absences, leave, RTT, sick leave, etc.)
This third criterion is essential for any company wishing to set up a sales plan. Gestion Prévisionnelle des Emplois et des Compétences (Job and Skills Planning).
In a nutshell:
Above all, your scheduling tool should help you place the right person in the right job. To do this, you need to integrate concepts such as skills, authorizations, absences and shifts.
Planning with Mercateam
Mercateam takes into account the above-mentioned constraints, thus making it possible to automate job assignment.
How does it work?
- Step 1: Operator skills mapping and referencing of all production workstations
- Step 2: Defining the skills and authorizations required for each production workstation
- Step 3: API integration of existing HRIS data (absences, leave, etc.)
- Step 4: Automate your shift planning to suit your constraints!
Want to see for yourself?
To find out more, book your demonstration on click here
