How Effective Scheduling Delivers Return on Investment

HOW EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING DELIVERS RETURN ON INVESTMENT

FROM A LEADER IN WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS

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HOW EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING DELIVERS RETURN ON INVESTMENT

INTRODUCTION Effective scheduling solutions improve manager productivity and enable managers to make more informed scheduling decisions. Organizations should look to these solutions as a way to reduce costs, deploy their workforces more effectively, and improve morale.

INEFFECTIVE SCHEDULING: EXPENSIVE, MANUAL, AND DISTRACTING The vast majority of managers who perform scheduling do so manually or use ineffective solutions that lack integration and visibility. In scheduling employees, many factors must be considered, including the individual availability of a large number of workers, their skills, preferred work, and eligibility for overtime.

With any additional complexity, such as a collective bargaining agreement, scheduling can quickly become a daunting task that requires several days of work by managers who have been

“Effective scheduling solutions improve manager productivity and enable managers to make more informed scheduling decisions.”

hired to perform other tasks.

The more time managers spend on scheduling, the less time they spend on value added tasks such as improving the process, improving quality control, or working directly with employees or clients.

The quality of scheduling in this situation can have a direct financial impact. Ineffective scheduling wastes payroll and/or diminishes the quality of service.

Managers who feel they have insufficient information for scheduling decisions tend to use the same employees in

“The more time managers spend on scheduling, the less time they spend on value added tasks.”

an effort to prevent understaffing, which increases payroll overtime costs.

Scheduling also has a meaningful impact on a company’s ability to avoid fines. Proper scheduling allows for compliance with various bodies of rules such as federal, state, and local laws, as well as rules arising from union agreements. These

THE BOTTOM LINE IMPACT OF SCHEDULING

rules are relatively complex, frequently unintuitive, and not

Consider any manager. When scheduling, a manager needs to

rules engines that automatically incorporate these bodies of

consider a handful of relatively complex variables, including

regulations into the scheduling process, thereby automating

holidays, vacations, demands, and the various skills and

and improving compliance.

always readily known by managers. Scheduling solutions have

availabilities of potential workers.

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HOW EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING DELIVERS RETURN ON INVESTMENT

THE MORALE BENEFIT While effective scheduling can cut costs, it can also accommodate worker preferences as a way to improve morale and reduce turnover. Certain scheduling features such as employee self- service, give employees more control or flexibility and can improve morale. The resulting reduction in turnover is an important indirect benefit, since the cost of a new hire can be substantial. Replacing an employee who has gone to an organization that can better accommodate their work-life balance generates costs in the areas of recruitment, interviewing, training, and new worker inefficiency.

SCHEDULING: THE BASICS Effective scheduling solutions incorporate data on the operating environment with statistics regarding the available workforce and its members. It uses this information to generate optimal schedules based on a manager’s inputs regarding the anticipated demands. The foundation of a scheduling solution

“Effective scheduling solutions incorporate data on the operating environment with statistics regarding the available workforce and its members.”

is a database, into which a user programs all of the conditions that impact scheduling, such as union rules, minor laws, federal regulations, Family and Medical Leave Act rules, and any other relevant body of rules. Scheduling deployments also require employee-related data, such as employees’ skill sets, proficiencies, age, work preferences, costs, and eligibility for overtime.

The primary features of a scheduling solution are the following: • Database that contains employee training, work history, status, licenses, skills, preferences etc.

• Output in the form of a schedule that recommends placement of employees in a way that minimizes costs, maximizes efficiency, and maximizes service, while accommodating the relevant rules in order to avoid fines.

•

Publication functions that distribute

schedules to employees via the Web, email or employee self-service stations.

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INTEGRATION Users of scheduling solutions get increased return on investment from the integration of time and attendance, payroll, human resources and billing.

Self-service allows employees to view schedules for themselves and for their location, to check open positions and to submit leave applications, with little or no intervention by managers.

Employees’ performance statistics can be incorporated into a scheduling solution. If the scheduling solution is integrated into a time and attendance solution, it can compile performance statistics for each employee. These statistics include tracking frequent offenders, whether due to late arrivals, early departures,

“Advanced scheduling solutions go beyond basic time and attendance capabilities by providing advanced features and functionality.”

unauthorized attendance or overlapping shifts. Integration allows the scheduling solution to seamlessly incorporate the performance of every employee into its selection of employees for tasks, thus further optimizing the efficiency of the overall operation.

BENEFITS Users of scheduling solutions receive a number of benefits from their deployments:

Reduced time spent on scheduling. With effective scheduling,

managers

spend

less

time

manually

juggling scheduling complexities, and more time in their area of competency. With scale, the reduction in time spent on scheduling can reduce the number of full time management employees required in

“Integration allows the scheduling solution to seamlessly incorporate the performance of every employee into its selection of employees for tasks.”

an organization.

Improved worker placement. Scheduling solutions enable managers to deploy the right worker to the right task at the right time, based on a large body of data regarding both the employees and the operating environment.

Increased revenue. Optimal placement of workers results in improved service. For example, when a location is properly

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HOW EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING DELIVERS RETURN ON INVESTMENT staffed, each task is more likely to receive the attention it deserves. As a result, services are improved across the numerous outlets of an organization, its reputation improves, and it attracts more customers.

Reduced payroll. In the absence of effective scheduling, managers may inadvertently make unwise financial decisions. By giving greater consideration to employee costs and demand, effective scheduling solutions tend to reduce payroll costs.

Reduced time spent on tactical tasks. Scheduling solutions

information on these labor sources but can also select the

enable managers to spend more time on value added

least costly resource when needs arise.

activities. People become managers not because of their scheduling skills, but rather because of their competencies as managers in their particular organization. With a scheduling solution, they are free to spend more time performing value-adding tasks, such as managing employees, motivating staff, overseeing projects, and ensuring quality and process.

Rapid selection of the least-cost resource. Potential workers for any given project are available from a number of sources, including the employee base, temporary worker sources, and partners. Additionally, all of these potential workers vary according to cost, benefits, and overtime eligibility. Scheduling solutions not only track and maintain

Improved employee retention. Employees know when the organization is understaffed, and can be aggressive when asked to change shifts if it is beneficial to them. In selecting employers, or deciding whether to stay at a job, many employees indicate work-life balance is a priority.

Additionally, many employees indicate that flexible work time is the most important way to balance work and personal lives, with other benefits trailing far behind.

Given these priorities, an end-to-end scheduling system that includes employee self-service functions is critical in streamlining the scheduling process, reducing turnover, and competing for good employees.

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ADVANCED SCHEDULING SOLUTIONS Advanced scheduling solutions go beyond basic time and attendance capabilities by providing advanced features and functionality such as:

Scheduling. These applications provide schedulingcritical information on employees, including their location, certifications, skill sets, shift preferences, and amount of rest time since their last shift, so that managers can rapidly fill shifts on both an automated and as-needed basis.

Notifying. Employees are notified of shift assignments through the website, text, or email reminders.

Interacting. Scheduling applications typically have portals for viewing schedules and submitting paid time off requests, tasks that would otherwise require face-to-face

conversations with fellow employees or managers.

Schedulers assigning shifts several weeks in advance and staffers

Employee Self-Service. Employees are able to view their

who adjust service levels on a day-to-day basis as conditions

schedule, the schedule for their location, and any open positions. Self-service minimizes interruptions for busy

achieving appropriate staffing levels cost effectively include:

managers from questions about schedules, and employees

can view the latest, most up-to-date information from their mobile device. The distribution of paper schedules, calendars, and manual emails are eliminated.

change may face some challenges. Some of the challenges to

Integrating. Scheduling applications that integrate with time and attendance, payroll, human resources and billing enable organizations to accelerate payroll workflows.

Although scheduling applications are not new to many organizations, they are becoming more important to organizations that have unique scheduling challenges.

Organizations need to maximize the quality of their service and find ways to minimize labor costs. Add to this the complexity of staffing requirements, and the people who have to manage this trade-off have a mandate that is high risk, labor intensive, and prone to errors.

Complexity. At any given time, proper staffing may be required for a large number of different departments and specialties. Associated with each of these departments are fluctuating needs for varying availability, skill levels, and certification.

Variability. Staffing demands can change unexpectedly as the result of local medical conditions such as the flu season, or due to emergencies or predictable events such as holidays.

Small changes that improve scheduling can have a significant impact. Having too many employees on hand means managers have to account for going over budget. Having too few employees on hand poses a risk to service levels and compliance. When scheduling is optimized, departments are neither overstaffed nor understaffed, and shifts are assigned to the least-cost employee with the required care-giving skill set.

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HOW EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING DELIVERS RETURN ON INVESTMENT

BENEFITS OF ADVANCED SCHEDULING SOLUTIONS The benefits that organizations can expect to achieve as the result of an advanced scheduling deployment include reduced labor costs, improved productivity, and improved levels of care.

REDUCED LABOR COSTS Advanced scheduling applications help managers minimize overtime costs. The employees available may be paid different rates, so assigning them shifts without sufficient knowledge of their cost or availability makes it difficult, if not impossible to utilize staff cost-effectively.

Managers who do not have an advanced scheduling application are far more likely to assign a shift to an

overtime-eligible

even

though

a

less

employee expensive

or

agency

on-staff

worker

employee

is available.

Advanced scheduling applications provide every employee’s up-to-date information about how many hours they have worked, their pay rate, and how many hours they’ll work during the remainder of the pay period. This enables organizations to reduce costs by identifying the lowest-cost qualified employee for a given shift.

“We reduced our overtime costs by 80 percent over the first two years after the scheduling deployment.”

“In scheduling, you get a lot of up-to-date information about each employee; how much they’ve worked so far in the period, and how much time they have scheduled. When you’re filling a shift, MITC queries the database and picks a qualified employee who won’t incur overtime.”

“The benefits that organizations can expect to achieve as the result of an advanced scheduling deployment include reduced labor costs, improved productivity, and improved levels of care.”

IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY Advanced scheduling solutions improve productivity by eliminating manual or partially automated workflows and making it easier for employees and managers to exchange the information needed for scheduling decisions. Managers who use scheduling become more productive because a

“The scheduling application makes it easier to avoid overtime.

broad variety of information about employees — including

Managers filling shifts are better able to avoid incurring

certifications, length of rest time between shifts, location, and

overtime. This tool is a big part of our mandate to reduce

shift preferences — is all in one place. As a result, it is easier

overtime.”

to make scheduling decisions rapidly and inform employees about them.

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Productivity improvements are readily achieved when an organization deploys an advanced scheduling solution.

“Each manager is saving between a half hour and full hour a day because they are no longer making changes to multiple documents and applications.”

“The person’s certifications, preferences, availability, and contact information is all in one screen in the scheduling application. We didn’t have this before, so we’re able to do the tactical parts of scheduling a lot faster.”

Productivity benefits are typically even higher when scheduling and time and attendance applications are purchased from the same vendor, because standard integration supports streamlined workflows.

“Doing scheduling in MITC is a lot better than in our old system. Instead of making changes in two places, you do it once in MITC.”

“Before with another scheduling system, I had to tab between three applications to compare timesheets to schedules to approve someone’s reported attendance. Now that it’s all in MITC, everything is on one screen and I don’t have to do nearly as much.”

“Doing scheduling in MITC is a lot better than in our old system. Instead of making changes in two places, you do it once in MITC.”

in terms of the number of people on our payroll, which means

One organization improved manager productivity by an hour a day when it migrated from a separate scheduling solution to one provided by its time and attendance vendor.

REDUCED STAFFING COSTS Call-offs or bad weather often causes inadequate staffing. With improved visibility into their employee base, managers who use advanced scheduling applications are more likely to select less expensive solutions to manage crisis-like situations such as catastrophic weather or accidents. Scheduling solutions also reduce costly employee turnover by making day-today operations more predictable and enabling employees to participate in managing their work-life balance. When

“Because we use the people we have so effectively, we’re leaner lower benefits costs.”

“We have a major retention initiative underway, and scheduling where people can pick up extra shifts or increase their part-time schedule is something that our people really like.”

IMPROVED QUALITY OF SERVICE By reducing turnover and reliance on overtime or unskilled staff, advanced scheduling applications make it easier to control and improve the quality of service. Outside factors such as local health conditions or disasters may still force overtime, but the visibility that scheduling solutions provide can dramatically reduce this type of problem.

scheduling is part of a broader initiative aimed at retention, organizations can reduce costs related to higher turnover and headcount.

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HOW EFFECTIVE SCHEDULING DELIVERS RETURN ON INVESTMENT

CONCLUSION Organizations looking to reduce costs should consider purchasing an advanced scheduling application that goes beyond the basic functionality that may be included in their time and attendance application. Advanced scheduling gives both staffers and schedulers the visible information they need to reduce overtime and agency costs, and become more productive.

Effective scheduling delivers significant value. These solutions optimize employee scheduling in order to maximize service, improve managers’ tactical focus, raise morale, retain employees, and improve compliance.

It is important to note that the seemingly indirect benefit of improved service can be substantial. When service improves as a result of the optimal deployment, service levels increase, complaints are reduced, and reputation improves. Similarly, the indirect benefit of improved morale will have increasing importance.

“Effective scheduling delivers significant value. These solutions optimize employee scheduling in order to maximize service, improve managers’ tactical focus, raise morale, retain employees, and improve compliance.”

ABOUT MITC MITC provides modular workforce management solutions and services to support all the needs of service organizations — time and attendance, advanced employee scheduling, payroll rules and reporting engine, workforce analytics, payroll and billing integration, and more. For 25 years, MITC has grown to serve over 1,500 organizations (with anywhere form 5 to 10,000 employees) in the USA, the UK , Africa, Australia, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. They have selected MITC to help control costs, save time, improve productivity and ensure compliance.

Visit www.mitcsoftware.com to learn more.

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