To help you lessen your management burden and assist you in managing your staff, here’s a compilation of five top management tips that can help managers and business owners increase their efficiency when it comes to scheduling employee shifts, appointments, and meetings, to ease the burden of entrepreneur overload.
1. Let flexibility rule
Technology sure brought us all a whole lot of convenience, didn’t it? Why not embrace the flexibility that comes with it, as well? It is not uncommon to see more and more companies hiring workers who work remotely from home, or even allow full-time staff to work away from the office. If you’re a manager in such situations, you may want to let your staff take the lead and set their own hours. Once you’ve determined how many hours each person has to put in, and when they need to be present in the office, you can efficiently and successfully schedule their tasks. Do note that you may want to restrict ranges of days and hours your employees will need to consider when setting their own schedules.
2. Be more open to employee requests
We all know the value of face-to-face communication when it comes to satisfying customers, but some of us may need to improve in this area where our employees are concerned. Employers who are approachable and genuinely caring will more often than not take employees’ requests and try their best to fulfill them. When this happens, employees will be more transparent in telling managers whenever they need time off, thus allowing you to create a schedule that is more efficient and functional, not only for the staff, but also for the entire company.
3. Be mindful of overtime
One sign that your scheduling may be off the mark is the regular presence of overtime. Not only will it cost the company extra money, it may also overwork your staff. Overworked individuals will never perform optimally the way other employees do if they possess reasonable schedules. To counter this, make sure everyone has and does their fair share of work, and stick to the schedule once it is drawn up.
4. Check employees’ availability and issues
Before you even identify the hours or days you want to make available for work, it’s best that you set aside a little time to note down your staff’s availability as well as possible issues surrounding their work. This prevents things from going out of control and having a monkey wrench thrown into your scheduling plans.
5. Encourage real-time scheduling
Real-time scheduling allows employees to accomplish tasks easily and efficiently. You can oversee changes and generally view the big picture so that your scheduling efforts can be maintained efficiently. This can be done using several apps and tools – I’ll discuss that in a follow-up post.
