07 Jul 2023
In almost all industries like manufacturing, wholesale, retail, building & construction, F&B, and contract & service, it is crucial for businesses to pay attention to manpower scheduling. To maintain a rational and fair personnel schedule that can satisfy everyone, managers normally have to face complicated problems every day. Here are some common workforce scheduling problems and practical solutions that you may find useful for your business.
COMMON PROBLEMS OF MANPOWER SCHEDULING
For developing companies with growing the number of staff, managers are drowning in stacks of spreadsheets, employee leave requests, time-off requests, calendars, timetables and sticky notes from time to time. It can be a real headache for managers to administer employee scheduling to make sure their business run smoothly.
Let us list down 4 most common challenges of the everyday personnel scheduling process.
1. Employee Turnover
With the high employee turnover, normally it causes negative effects on the business in terms of productivity and costs. The primary reason is that when new employees are hired and trained, they need some time to adapt to the new position before they could effectively perform. A new employee may take up to one year or longer to be as productive as the previous employee. Employee turnover can be also very expensive for an organisation as the replacement costs include the recruitment service, interview, selection, induction, work-related and educational training. The higher employee turnover the higher the human capital investment of the replacement. Thus, struggling with employee turnover can be a huge constraint in manpower scheduling planning.
2. Last Minute Shift Changes
Unexpected absence including sick or emergency leave is another kind of common scheduling challenge whereby employees might not be able to turn up for work. As the schedule is usually planned ahead, it might be really tough to go through pages of spreadsheets and employees’ information to immediately find the right person with the right set of skills to take over the shift.
3. Shortage of Employees
For Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises, lack of employees is also a big constraint for scheduling managers. With a limited budget, they are unable to hire enough employees for backing up in case of employee unavailability. For instance, many employees prefer to take annual leaves and other paid leaves for their summer vacations or holidays. The scenario of too many employees going on leave at the same time can be a scheduling nightmare for managers.
4. Too Much Overtime
Working overtime helps companies deliver products or services to customers at the right time and hence, satisfying customers’ requirements. However, with overwhelming overtime, the harms would surely far outweigh the benefits. Too much overtime can be expensive and also leads to a productivity decrease in employees. Therefore, overtime should be concerned and closely monitored to protect the bottom line.
IMPLEMENTING AN ASSISTANT SOFTWARE AS A SOLUTION FOR AN EFFECTIVE MANPOWER SCHEDULING
We understand that even the best managers will still struggle while manually scheduling their manpower. Hence, implementing a scheduling software allows the elimination of Excel spreadsheets and allows the person in charge to move away from piles of timetables, availability calendar and schedules, and employees’ requests.
Scheduling software allows users to automatically collect data from employees’ requests, and so to help managers make scheduling easily and effectively. Furthermore, software solutions also ensure the scheduling compliant with multiple rules, specific regulations of the organization or the preference of employees to meet everyone’s satisfaction.
Understanding that the effective scheduling brings out many benefits to employees, customers and also the company’s revenue, Synergix has researched and developed an ERP system scheduling management dashboard to save you from your scheduling nightmare. Managers need not have to worry about manpower scheduling errors and will have more time for other tasks which matter more for the business now!
SYNERGIX ERP SYSTEM
With over 33 years in providing the service and satisfying more than 600 happy customers, Synergix Technologies is proud to be the leading ERP software provider in Singapore. Synergix ERP Software is a fully integrated cloud-based ERP system with continuous innovation which can streamline your business operations from Manufacturing, Project Management, Customer Relationship Management, Human Resource to Finance and Accounting, etc. As a Pre-Approved Vendor selected by IMDA, we also work closely with government agencies to assist businesses in applying for Singapore Government Grant.
Contact us today to get a free consultation on ERP system!
