Technology has changed the way many businesses operate. With streamlined processes and tools, business owners are able to create real and sustainable efficiencies in the workplace. The one area where technology and digital tools can change your new business is rostering. Rostering can be a tricky task at the best of times, so enhancing your process online can only offer benefits in both the short and long term. To better understand why your new business needs online rosters, consider these features.
Open access
If you have ever experienced an offline rostering system then you know how hard it is to capture, keep track of and create a roster based on staff availability. No matter how big your staff base is, manually recording each individual availability and preferences is time-consuming and fraught with errors. Online rosters with Deputy are a great way to avoid errors and create genuine accountability with your staff. Through online access to the rosters, the staff themselves can view and edit their availability from their own device. Not only does this create accountability for the staff to input their preferences, but it means you can avoid any input errors that may lead to upset staff.
Equal opportunity
As a manager, it’s very easy to always rely on the same people to fill shifts when someone is unavailable or calls in sick. You probably rely on the people who have volunteered to pick up a shift at late notice in the past. While understandable in principle, this approach might be limiting the other staff member’s chances to earn extra income or show initiative, which creates unequal opportunity in your workforce. It can also lead to burnout for those employees who are always having to pick up extra shifts. To avoid this burnout or perceived favouritism, online rosters make it possible to open the shift up to all employees. Once an employee isn’t able to make a shift, it can be offered to everyone on a ‘first in best dressed’ approach, helping to create equal opportunity in your new business.
Improves reliability
Online rosters are the best way to breed reliability across your new business, with tardiness an unfortunately common problem for all businesses. Online rosters and digital tools help limit this liability to your business through live tracking. Additional features like having to clock-in and out via an app, for example, mean employees will need to be accountable. With tracking making it possible for managers to see where the employees clocks-in and out from, it will help create an honest workplace as well. If someone clocks in on time but they do so from home, you will be able to flag this and take appropriate steps to curb that kind of behaviour in your workplace.
Futureproof
Online rosters are usually built with some form of machine learning, which means you can futureproof the rostering in your new business. As employees and managers interact with the software, it will learn preferences and use data points to make informed recommendations about future rosters. This kind of innovation makes completing rosters much easier and quicker in the future. Unless your workforce availability changes dramatically, you will be starting with a reliable roster recommendation every time.
Rostering is a very important task for any new business to get right. Without the benefit of big data, it can be tough to make the right decisions and create accountability for your workforce. Instead of trying to go it alone, try utilising online rostering tools and software to help start the journey off on the right foot.
