Scheduling apps are handy tools that can help you run your business efficiently. Managing employees is very important. It affects their work-life balance, and this reflects on how happy they are at your business.
Every business needs to have happy employees. After all, they are what drives your whole organization. There are tons of scheduling apps available, but this is as bad as it is good. Why?
It can be a challenge to find the app that will do the job right. To help you deal with these issues, we’ve decided to share the top five features to look for in your staff scheduling app.
Great User Experience
User experience refers to how natural and comfortable it feels to use a piece of software. It’s vital for employee scheduling apps. A lot of them take things too far. Simply put, they have tons of features and functionalities that you can use.
However, that just creates an even bigger mess than before. The purpose of a scheduling app is to make things simple and easy. That’s how the app should feel when using it. There shouldn’t be any complex installations, instruction manuals, or complex commands.
You should be able to assign tasks and schedule shifts in a matter of seconds. So before getting one, make sure to learn how it’s used.
Cloud-Based Solution
Cloud-based apps don’t need to be installed in most cases. In case they do, the installation is pretty short, and nothing crucial is stored on your device. Instead, all the data you have in your app is stored online on a cloud server.
You have to do all the scheduling and management online, which means that you need an internet connection to use the tool. However, this also brings many conveniences. First of all, you can access your tool from any place and any device.
You can do the scheduling while on the go, and you don’t have to worry about deleting data or losing the program – the provider stores everything.
Payroll Tracking Option
Everyone running a business that’s paid by the hour not only has to schedule employees’ work hours but also calculate their pay. Doing this manually can be a challenging and time-consuming process. At the same time, it’s easy to make mistakes. That’s why you should for an app that offers payroll tracking or start using a payroll software.
A payroll tracking option automatically calculates the gross pay for each employee when they finish their shift. Many apps let you see how much someone has earned per week, and some even offer daily analytics.
All this data can be copied into another software where you can calculate pay. However, some tools offer third-party integration with payroll calculators so that you can streamline the whole process.
Reports and Analytics
Some platforms don’t store any data or let you do anything with it. Simply put, they let you manage schedules how you’re used to. Even though this is good, there is so much more an employee scheduling app can give you with the right features.
Reports and analytics are a vital part of any business process, and this also includes scheduling. Various software solutions can gather data and analyze it. You can see how often your employees work, how much income they have, and how much free time they have.
Through this data, you can get valuable insights and reports that can help you improve your business. You can create better schedules, see which employees are most productive, and present this data to your shareholders or partners.
Managing Absence
When you have all the tools you need to track absence, you can manage schedules efficiently without your business suffering. You can recognize any gaps or lack of workforce within the schedule and manage the payroll process better.
Furthermore, it helps you track when employees are on sick leave or have a paid time off. You have to consider these things to effectively organize your company. Many tools let employees request time off so that the program can instantly add it to the schedule.
Conclusion
These are essential features to look for in your employee scheduling app. Of course, you should also make sure that the app is mobile optimized and works flawlessly on mobile devices. You want the ability to organize things while on the go hassle-free. We hope this post helps.