The base line of any business is to achieve profitability. Employee scheduling has a major impact on company’s profitability. Scheduling staff to meet business requirements is a complex task. In previous times there were traditional office hours and shift work. Now It has become complicated especially because of extended or 24/7 working hours on one hand and on the other employees working shifts, flexible working hours, split-working, job share or part-time hours etc. Business managers who undertake this task of employee scheduling manually spend considerable time to deliver good schedules and in case the manager fails to deliver an optimal schedule the consequences of poor scheduling will be apparent in company’s operations, revenue generation, employee satisfaction, retention etc. Most important, it will also have impact on the brand image of the company.
Poor employee scheduling can lead to chaos in the company’s operations. This will be perceived as being arbitrary and will invite ad-hoc changes for reasons not connected with the business. This will lead to repeated corrections and amendments and appear as a rough guide of the work schedule. This leads to loss of credibility of the schedule in the opinion of employees and desire to get changes as per the employee’s preferences and it is difficult to encourage an ordered and responsible approach to staff deployment. In case of poor leave scheduling overall head count may be met but there may be poor skill mix leading to loss of proper work-flow and productivity. Furthermore in the absence of a definable work-flow, managers find it difficult to timely deliver consistent staff schedules associated with company goals saved supervision time
Consequences of poor employee scheduling is generally seen in the form of workplace stress, staff conflicts, poor productivity, increased absenteeism, and ultimately poor retention of trained workforce. Staff finds it difficult to manage when they are confronted with unplanned schedule changes at short notice, especially those with responsibilities.
The costs associated with poor employee scheduling are difficult to define. Misunderstood schedules can be very costly to any company. Controlling overtime costs is a benefit most companies understand, but much higher costs are involved in less obvious areas of activity as payments for work not performed, reduction or a temporary halt in production, possible reduction in the quality of work, vacation scheduling, negative effect on the morale of the employees, training expenses of replaced employee and administrative costs. Effective scheduling, which includes matching specific skills with specific needs in the most cost effective manner, is vital to achieving goal of the company as well as providing the best possible financial results.
Poor resource management leading to poor retention of employees influences employee relationship in a negative way and can also result in poor public relation. Reduction in the quality of products leaves a negative impact on the brand name. The Electronic Employee Record maintained in the soft wares available for these purposes provide a crucial link between the financial and productive side of the business.