Whether you're an employee who's searching for a way to check your schedule online, or a manager looking for ways to simplify the circulation of your employee schedules, finding a suitable solution can be a tedious task indeed. There are literally hundreds of thousands of choices in the marketplace (go ahead; Google "employee scheduling"). But after a closer inspection, you'll quickly realize there are only a handful of truly web-based solutions available (even fewer enterprise-grade solutions).
These 7 tips will help prepare you to seek out a suitable vendor for your employee scheduling software.
Web-based software (I like to call it web-ware), requires no download and no installation, it is simply ready to use when you login to their website. Most web-ware is offered as a service; meaning you must subscribe to use it (monthly and yearly subscriptions are most common). Web-based software, or Software-as-a-service, is fast becoming the software delivery model of choice. Just look at Google or Facebook!
Ensure the service includes a rock-solid application data backup and restoration plan. Most web-ware solutions include this, but some offer it as an add-on service. Be sure there are no hidden fees associated with a restoration should there be a data-related issue in the future.
The internet allows for immediate delivery of software updates to user-communities. However, some web-ware vendors do not include free upgrades as part of their baseline subscription packages. Be sure to ask what the upgrade policy is before signing on the dotted line.
The chance of finding a solution that meets all of your scheduling requirements is highly unlikely. However, many leading vendors will provide customization services that allow you to bend and shape their offerings to better meet your unique needs.
In addition, most web-ware offerings can allow the importation of your schedule data into the other applications that you use to manage your business.
It is important to understand how you can use your scheduling data once it is being managed digitally.
Your employees want access to their schedules. In addition to providing access online, a solution that allows your employees to access their schedules wirelessly (on their cell or PDA) will greatly reduce the amount of time you'll spend communicating scheduling information to employees.
Enabling a shift-trade between two qualified employees, without any intervention from management (other than final approval) is an absolute must. We know all too well that employee availability can change extremely quickly, by allowing employee driven shift-trades you can empower employees, and ensure their responsible for finding a suitable replacement ahead of time.
The true power of scheduling software is the internal algorithms. It should take into consideration; employee availability, skill-level, AND preferences when deciding who to schedule for any particular shift. Ask questions about the auto-scheduling features and be sure to understand their limitations.
Kory Arsenault has over 13 years of experience in the software and scheduling fields. He is the founder of eSchedule Inc. (http://www.eSchedule.ca)
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