Schedule Multiple Shifts Automatically

Schedule Multiple Shifts Automatically

The Shift Schedules S2-10-50 Excel spreadsheet automatically assigns up to 50 people to up to 10 shifts per day in response to your scheduling needs and your employee’s preferences and qualifications. The program automatically assigns days off and creates schedules for up to a month. The spreadsheet produces individual and group schedules and comes in sizes for 6, 10 and 20 shifts for up to 500 employees. It also creates a vCalendar file to transfer schedules to your PDA, Smart Phone and Outlook Calendar. Microsoft Excel or compatible spreadsheet program is required.The Shift Schedules S2-10-50 Excel spreadsheet automatically assigns up to 50 people to up to 10 shifts per day in response to your scheduling needs and your employee’s preferences and qualifications. The program automatically assigns days off and creates schedules for up to a month. The spreadsheet produces individual and group schedules and comes in sizes for 6, 10 and 20 shifts for up to 500 employees. It also creates a vCalendar file to transfer schedules to your PDA, Smart Phone and Outlook Calendar. Microsoft Excel or compatible spreadsheet program is required. During the free trial period restrictions apply with respect to the number of schedules displayed. The companion S2-Shift Maker can convert your sales, or other time-dependant employee needs, into schedule shifts for a one week period. It also schedules employee breaks during periods of slack activities.

Excel spreadsheet automatically assigns up to 50 people to up to 10 shifts per day in response to your scheduling needs and your employee’s preferences and qualifications. The program automatically assigns days off, creates schedules for up to a month and comes in sizes for up to 20 shifts and 500 employees. It also creates a vCalendar file to transfer schedules to your PDA, Smart Phone and Outlook Calendar.

This template was designed to be easy to customize. Every business does thing a little different. Below are some of the things you can do with this shift schedule template:

When managing a shift-based workforce, one of the most fundamental processes a business has to go through is the process of scheduling their workforce. Your business productivity depends on workers showing up to the right shifts, however data shows that managers spend up to 20% of their time on scheduling alone. This is because the blue-collar industry is known to have high no-show rates when it comes to shift attendance, caused by several different factors.

Many HR and Operations managers utilize excel spreadsheets to organize their workers into shifts. This is the quickest way to create a schedule template that can then be shared with your workforce once they have been assigned.

Scheduling employees in a restaurant — or any business, for that matter — is a monumental task. There are many variables to take into consideration, and you need to make sure your business continues running like a well-oiled machine.

So what’s a busy manager to do? Well, there are many ways to crack this nut. It might be fun to have blindfolded monkeys throw darts with employee names written on them at a blank schedule, but that probably wouldn’t produce the best results.

Of course, there are more effective ways to create a work schedule. Using pen and paper, for instance, is a time-tested technique. There are also several varieties of free employee scheduling software.

While most of these scheduling tools aren’t specifically designed for scheduling, one system is — Sling. We’ll explain more about Sling a bit later.

This article will start by discussing the pros and cons of both pen-and-paper scheduling and software scheduling. We’ll also tell you why software is the hands-down winner. Then we’ll go over exactly what qualities you should be looking for in a free employee scheduling software.

Finally, this post will share 14 free employee scheduling software tools and how they work in a business setting.

Despite decades of technological advancements and the advent of software for just about every conceivable demand, some managers still prefer using pen and paper to make their work schedules.

Fair enough. That’s how things were done for a very long time, so it certainly serves its purpose. And the good, old-fashioned pen-and-paper method does have its advantages.

For starters, it doesn’t require anything more than, well, a pen and a sheet of paper. As long as you know your employees’ and your business’s needs well, this simple system still works. On top of that, it doesn’t require familiarity with any computer programs or software.

However, the pen-and-paper process is not without its drawbacks.

For one thing, it’s not very conducive to rapid mass distribution. This method relies on either posting the schedule and making sure everyone sees it or producing a copy for each employee and then making sure you get it in everyone’s hand.

Another disadvantage is that pen and paper schedules aren’t the easiest to adjust after they’ve been passed around. Any changes to the schedule require another round of printing and distribution.

What about free employee scheduling software? Let’s start with the downside.

As with any computer program, there’s sure to be a learning curve. It takes a little time to learn the ins-and-outs of any new system or process, and free employee scheduling software is no exception.

Until you become acquainted with the software, it might feel a bit cumbersome. Using free employee scheduling software also assumes that all of your employees have access to the internet and a device they can use to get online.

This might seem like an issue, but a recent study from Pew Research Center shows that 77 percent of Americans own a smartphone.

Those numbers are even higher for younger people: a full 92 percent of Americans aged 18-29 own a smartphone, and the figure drops only slightly to 88 percent for Americans aged 30-49. So it’s not unfair to assume that virtually all of your employees will be able to get online easily.

Now for the advantages of free employee scheduling software. Here’s a list of the amazing things employee scheduling software does:

Even the most basic software can provide all of these benefits. And advanced, industry-specific software can actually do much, much more.

That makes it pretty clear that software trumps pen and paper because software offers all the advantages of the pen-and-paper method, and then some. Sure, there’s a learning curve, but using free employee scheduling software will save you time and money in the long run.

Let’s talk more about what you should look for in your scheduling software.

• Automatically saves your schedule every time you create one. So you can use a previous week’s schedule as a template and then make any necessary changes, like time-off requests, before sending out the new schedule.
• Instantaneously distributes the schedule when you send it out electronically. There’s no need to track employees down to make sure they’ve seen the new schedule. With software, the schedule is received the moment you send it.
• Allows you to make necessary adjustments quickly and easily. The updated schedule can be instantly sent out once again after the changes have been made.
• Cuts back on the amount of paper your business uses. This reduces costs and helps reduce paper waste, which is better for the environment.
• The varying needs of your business for every shift. Perhaps you only need four servers on the floor for a weeknight shift, but you may need 10 servers for a Friday or Saturday night.
• Employee availability. Some folks may only be able to work at night, while others are only free during the day. You will also need to consider whether each employee is part-time or full-time and see to it that everyone is receiving the appropriate number of shifts.
• The positions that each individual is qualified to work. You probably have employees that can fill different posts — as either a host or busser, for example. But you don’t want to schedule someone for a position they haven’t been trained to do. Make sure you don’t put a busser behind the bar.
• Time-off requests. This one can really throw a wrench into your schedule. If several of your strongest employees have all asked for the same time off, making the work schedule becomes even more difficult.
• Special events that may affect the amount of staff you’ll need for a particular shift. Everything from holidays to local festivals to graduation weekends to national sporting events needs to be considered.

• Organize work assignments for an entire week.
• Shade and merge cells to identify shifts, or use task codes to plan a rotating schedule for each work day.
• Add any number of rows depending on the number of employees.
• Add columns to create a 24-hour schedule.
• Customize the key with your own list of tasks.