A guide to staff scheduling

Staff scheduling is the process of workforce planning and the assigning of staff members new tasks and roles. It involves moving staff members from one department to work in another department, from one shift to another or by promotions and demotions. This article will provide a guide to staff scheduling.

Importance of staff scheduling

Staff scheduling is important because it reduces the company’s dependency syndrome on certain individuals in a department. It promotes the sharing of new ideas and interaction among employees. It reduces stress in other department due to staff shortage and promotes an even distribution of skills within the organisation. It increases productivity because work is evenly distributed amongst the employees. It reduces problems like gossiping and strikes as employees are rotated constantly from one shift to another or from one department to another. It is a good way of promoting communication at workplace and a tool to employee motivation. It is used to manage employee attendance and time.

How it is done

Workforce scheduling is done as a solution to the problem of uneven distribution of staff and skills within the organisation. It is done by assigning new tasks to staff members, moving them to another shift or to another department. Staff scheduling can be done through promotions and demotions, where hard-working and excelling employees are given new challenges, such as leadership roles while problematic and lazy workers are demoted to lower job levels. It is also done by using a staff roster.

Staff scheduling timing

It is ideal to do staff scheduling when another shift or department is short-staffed or over-staffed. It can be done when some specific skills are required by another department. Staff scheduling is done when managing staff’s holiday and annual leave requests. It is also done to manage attendance systems and to track costs. It is highly recommended to schedule staff after a conclusive analysis of the demands of other departments and shifts, capacity and skills available, employees’ commitment, people counting in each shift as well as job description analysis.

Problems as result of staff scheduling

Staff scheduling should be well-planned, otherwise it may result in sabotage, arson and inefficiency as some employees may be reluctant to move to another department. It should be done after a close scrutiny of employees’ skills and abilities which should match the department’s job demands or else it may promote inefficiency. It raises high expectations in terms of remunerations and benefits, especially to workers who have been promoted.