Our mission at Quinyx is to create a smiling workforce and to empower people to enjoy work. This means (and rightly so) we put a lot of focus into looking after employees, fostering good levels of employee engagement and creating the kind of culture where employees can thrive.
We stand by all of this, but we know, every now and again, employees who work shifts have the ability to drive their managers mad, although it’s usually through no fault of their own. Typically, what sits behind the questions that frustrate their managers are systems that aren’t geared up to cope with employee expectations.
When rotas are still created in Excel (or, heaven forbid, with pen and paper) it’s easy to see why employees ask the same questions and managers become exasperated. From a manager’s point of view, they can quite easily lose hours of time every week answering the same questions over again. Time they’d much rather be spending working on the success of the business rather than unnecessary admin.
So what are the things employees say that drive their managers mad? Here’s some examples...
“What’s my rota for next week?”
“I want to work more hours.”
“I haven’t been paid the right amount.”
“I’ve swapped shifts with my friend.”
“I need to book time off.”
“I’m sick and can’t make it into work.”
“I didn’t get the message.”
“Why didn’t I get overtime?”
Whether it’s a restaurant with 50 waiting-on staff, a superstore with hundreds of employees, or an urgent care provider these questions always come thick and fast. And they’re a huge time drain.
Think of the time it takes to answer one question for one employee. Let’s say it’s 5 minutes. Now say 50 employees ask the question. That’s 250 minutes, or a little over 4 hours a week (or 16 hours a month) spent answering questions that don’t need to be asked.
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be like this. Thanks to cloud computing, mobile technology and big data, there’s now a whole range of workforce management systems out there designed to significantly reduce the amount of time it takes to perform basic admin functions.
Now, not only can your rotas be created automatically, your employees can get their rotas straight to their phones and see when they are working. What’s more, they can then be given the power to manage their work life through the same app.
For instance, if they can’t work a shift, they can flag this and it can be made available for other staff to claim. Equally, if they want to work more hours they can be notified when new shifts become available. And, with the issues of pay, the best workforce management software will integrate seamlessly with third-parties such as the system you use to run payroll. In fact, when global retailer Swarovski began using a new solution they immediately eliminated all their payroll errors.
Whether it’s managing leave and absences or providing a powerful communication tool, the future of workforce management has arrived. Ask your managers if they’d rather be fielding the same questions from their staff every week or, instead, focussing on providing the best possible service to your customers, and we can guarantee which one they’d rather be doing.
Want to learn more about the future of workforce management? You can download our free guide below.
