How to Improve the Efficiency and Accuracy of Staff Scheduling

The more employees you have, the more scheduling them will probably feel like a headache. But, text messaging may be the answer that makes your job easier and keeps all of your employees clear on when they are working. You can use text messaging to improve communication and streamline the process.

Fill Spots Easier

If you have a last-minute need to fill an empty spot when an employee calls in, use text messaging to find a replacement faster. A mass SMS blast can quickly go out to all employees qualified to fill the spot and is more likely to find a quicker replacement than calling individuals one at a time. The text can include all of the information for the shift that needs to be filled as well as instructions for available employees to simply reply via a text back. A second text can quickly be sent out to let your team know when the slot has been filled.

Track and Manage Automatically

An SMS scheduling software can take the texts from employees and create schedules accordingly – taking the entire process right out of your hands. You can manually make changes after the initial schedule is set and adjust the criteria to ensure your employees are getting the right shifts in a sensible way. Once you are happy with the schedule, you can send out texts to inform employees of their hours for the week or month. This automated process will make your job far easier and allowing you to spend more time supervising staff directly.

Send Out Reminders

Have something unusual coming up, like holiday hours or a staffing switch? Send out automated texts to alert your team and keep them clear on expectations. Effective employee communication is a big part of building a happy and productive team. Text messages are quick, easy and likely to be read by your employees. By contrast, an email is likely to get missed in the shuffle and a phone call will take too long for the person who has to call multiple employees.

Streamline the Requests

Keep employees happy with a schedule that takes their needs into account. If employees want more hours or need time off, they can simply text their requests in when a text messaging scheduling service is in place. This helps you stay on top of what staff need and keeps all of their requests in one place. When you are utilizing the scheduling software, you can simply add any unusual staff requests to the parameters for setting the schedule.

Keep Track of Contact

If a problem does arise, it is far easier to know who is responsible when a communication log exists. If a staff member says they weren’t notified of a schedule change, you can simply look back through text records to see when the change was made and how many notifications or reminders were sent to that employee. A digital “paper” trail is helpful for finding potential issues in your company and fixing them for a smoother process moving forwards.

 

Text messaging is a smart way to reach your employees quickly and effectively. Don’t let them forget about scheduling demands or feel confused about when they should be on the clock. A text messaging service can make your job easier while making your company run smoothly.

 

Author Biography

Ken Rhie is the CEO of Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases. Mr. Rhie holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He has over 30 years of experience in the software, internet, and mobile communications industries.

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About Dequiana Jackson

Dequiana Jackson, Founder of Inspired Marketing, Inc., helps overachieving women entrepreneurs conquer limiting beliefs and create marketing plans that grow their businesses. This includes one-on-one marketing plan development, digital product creation, web design and content marketing. Dequiana is the author of Know Your Business: How to Attract Ideal Clients & Sell More and runs the award-winning blog, Entrepreneur-Resources.net.

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One comment

  1. Great piece of information for all business owners. Business schedule is most important for everyone to expand their business and aware people about their products via doing more work on their project. And all this can be possible by using and schedule or management software.

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