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 draw up their schedules on paper or using Excel spreadsheets, which is far from easy. It's essential to choose a tool that takes into account the reality on the ground and the organization of day-to-day work, in order to optimize resource management and task allocation.
Fortunately, a number of tools are available on the market to help you create schedules easily, and share them with your colleagues. However, it's important to choose a tool that's adapted to your teams' needs. Numerous free planning software programs exist, often offering free versions with limited functionality. Different versions, both free and paid, can be adapted to the needs of organizations of all sizes and in all sectors, to meet the specific requirements of each field of activity. 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. The management of resources and activities is facilitated by an adapted management tool, enabling the optimization of organization within each sector and structure.
High-performance scheduling software makes it possible to centralize time management, work time management and scheduling, thus improving the efficiency and profitability of your business. Time management makes it easy to track employee working hours and optimize task planning.
The real-time view provided by interactive dashboards guarantees optimum visibility of project progress and the quality of information shared with the team. These dashboards facilitate decision-making and activity management.
In terms of productivity, team collaboration is enhanced by the tool's fast learning curve, intuitive ergonomics and centralized HR databases. Each employee and each team can consult their planning and schedules, request absences or payroll, and track the progress of their activities.
The integration of payroll modules simplifies payroll management and automates payroll-related processes, while ensuring regulatory compliance. Compatibility with different sectors and structures is ensured thanks to a range of plans adapted to every need, from individual workstations to multi-site organizations.
It's essential to choose a project management tool that is recognized as a benchmark, with positive customer reviews and expert support to guarantee the quality and performance of the solution. A comparison of available solutions will enable you to make the best choice, taking into account regular updates and evolving functionalities.
Appointment management is also facilitated, offering great flexibility for different workstations and professions, particularly in the medical, wellness and training sectors.
What is scheduling software? It's a digital tool designed to organize, plan and track activities, resources and working time. Whether used for project management or HR management, scheduling software can transform time and activity management, and become an indispensable resource for any company.
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 7 hours a week to define the best combination to assign to 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's also worth noting that this particularly time-consuming task is often carried out, at best, on Excel, and at worst, on paper. Both make updating complex (witness phrases like "what's the latest version of next week's schedule?"). With the right software, time and attendance management can be optimized by automating the scheduling and monitoring of working hours, thus improving the organization's efficiency and profitability. These problems are solved, which means 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 use of dashboards provides real-time visibility of employee activity and workstation distribution. In this way, each employee can consult his or her schedule and track his or her activity, while managers have an overall view to optimize human resources management.
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 friction points are greatly reduced, while at the same time improving communication, information sharing and thus productivity** at all levels of the company. What's more, team collaboration is strengthened thanks to a management tool whose intuitive handling facilitates rapid adoption. The centralization of HR databases provides simplified access to essential resources, while guaranteeing optimum quality of user experience.
The management tool also contributes to customer satisfaction, as evidenced by the many positive user reviews. Expert support during software implementation optimizes scheduling and ensures personalized follow-up.
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
Before choosing a tool, it is essential to compare the different versions and plans available, in order to identify the range of management software best suited to the company's structure, sector and organization. Today's project management and project management solutions offer a high degree of flexibility, enabling projects of any size to be managed efficiently and adapted to a wide variety of organizations, whatever the sector concerned.
We're going to focus on three essential aspects: data centralization, the analytical aspect, and the assignment of personnel according to business constraints.
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.
Reliable databases, a centralized resource for the organization, and regular updates are also essential to guarantee the reliability and security of information.
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, particularly for limiting the risk of Musculoskeletal Disorders on your lines, but also for promoting and improving the versatility of your employees.
Thanks to a dedicated dashboard, you can monitor the activities of your employees in real time. The use of dashboards allows you to centralize and visualize all activities, providing a clear, structured overview to optimize resource management and steering.
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.
Thus, a staff assignment and planning tool must also integrate human resources management, schedule management, time management and working time management functionalities, in order to optimize the assignment to each workstation and the distribution of work. It must 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, while facilitating work management, time management and the organization of work within teams.
Criterion 4: Data security and confidentiality
Today, data security and confidentiality are major issues for any company using scheduling software. Indeed, scheduling software centralizes sensitive information on employees, staff schedules, vacations, absences and many other strategic data. It is therefore vital to ensure that this information is protected against unauthorized access or potential leaks.
To meet these needs, the best planning software incorporates advanced security features such as data encryption, high-performance firewalls and intrusion detection systems. These measures ensure that your company and employee data remains confidential and safe from cyber threats.
Compliance with security and confidentiality standards, such as the RGPD, is also an essential criterion when choosing scheduling software. Compliant software ensures that the management of your employees' schedules, leave and personal information complies with current legislation, reinforcing the trust of all concerned.
Another key feature is automatic data backup. This feature protects your company against loss of information in the event of a breakdown or technical incident. What's more, good scheduling software must enable precise management of access rights, so that only authorized people can view or modify schedules and sensitive data.
Renowned solutions such as Combo, Skello and other leading scheduling software offer robust security and confidentiality features, tailored to the needs of companies of all sizes. Before making your choice, we recommend that you carefully compare the options available, taking into account the specific needs of your organization and the expectations of your teams.
In short, data security and confidentiality should never be overlooked when choosing scheduling software. Opting for a reliable, compliant solution guarantees the protection of your employees' information and the peace of mind of your day-to-day organization.
Planning with Mercateam
Mercateam takes into account the above-mentioned constraints, thus making it possible to automate job assignment. High-performance management software like Mercateam goes far beyond simple staff scheduling: it integrates employee management, payroll and payroll preparation, and appointment management to optimize company organization.
Mercateam fits the bill perfectly: it lets you plan, organize and manage employee tasks and resources, while making it easy to synchronize data and automate HR processes. For simpler needs, there are also free scheduling software alternatives, suitable for smaller teams or less complex personnel scheduling.
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!
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