One of the most challenging aspects of starting a new business is managing everybody’s schedules. There are many reasons for this. In the beginning, a new business has to establish itself. It can take months before a business is able to provide reliable full-time employment to a group of workers.
In the meantime, employees will have to rely on other areas of their life from which to earn their living and invest the bulk of their time. It takes businesses awhile to reach “cruising altitude”, at which point a group of employees have careers that they can depend on.
There are a variety of ways to deal with the growing pains of employee scheduling. Here are five:
1. Pick Up the Slack Yourself.
As the boss, it’s likely that you will have to cover a lot of hours on your own. This is to be expected. While you don’t want to be working 80 hours a week for the rest of the time you run this business, you may have to take on some extra shifts if the schedule isn’t reliable for your stable of employees.
2. Find People Who Are Flexible.
While you may find a lot of workers who want a steady schedule week in and week out, there is a breed of employee who enjoys a varied schedule. When hiring, use this as a perk of the job. This can be a great job feature who live near the workplace. You may even be able to offer a job schedule that is adaptable by your employees. This will be much appreciated by a certain kind of job applicant.
3. Communicate Schedules Clearly.
If your schedule is in a developing phase, you must make sure to communicate it clearly. Nothing is more frustrating than having workers miss shifts because they have misunderstood when they were supposed to work. Overcome this challenge by putting out the schedule at a predictable time each week. Send out text and email reminders if necessary. Have people reply that they’ve seen the schedule. Whatever it takes, make sure that the schedule is expressed and understood.
4. Use Software Solutions to Manage Schedules.
SkyChildCare, a daycare management solution, is an example of one way that modern cloud software can make business owners’ lives a whole lot easier. While existing within the modern daycare industry, SkyChildCare shows how putting a weekly (or monthly, or whatever) schedule in one place, accessible to all, simplifies the process immensely. It’s amazing how clear communication cuts down on absenteeism in no time.
5. Be Consistent.
While consistency has already been addressed in earlier points, your schedule will work better if you are consistent in all manners in which you run your business. Employees take cues from their bosses, and if they see that you hold yourself to a high standard, they will be much more likely to rise to the level of work behavior that you demonstrate. The opposite is also true.
In conclusion, it can be a challenge to grow a business and maintain a reliable staff schedule. But as your business becomes more established, and as you run it better and better, your schedule is likely to work extremely well using the tools and tips above.
