In industries like healthcare, hospitality, retail, and public services, effective rostering and staffing is crucial. Balancing various factors such as assigning the right staff, finding cover, managing holidays, monitoring absenteeism, and controlling costs can be a daunting task. Even the smallest mistake can have significant consequences for a company’s success.
That’s where employee rostering comes in.
When done correctly, rostering can revolutionize your business by improving efficiency, reducing absenteeism, enhancing customer experience, and ultimately saving costs. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll discover everything you need to know about effective rostering.
What is rota management?
Rota management, like rostering, involves planning shifts for your employees. It considers factors such as staff availability, holidays, cover and on-call shifts, skills, and costs to create a seamless rota that keeps your business running smoothly.
The downsides of traditional rostering
In the past, rostering was a manual process, involving spreadsheets and reliance on HR teams and department managers. However, this method is prone to errors due to the complexity of the task. These errors can lead to various costly issues.
Here are the most significant problems associated with traditional rostering.
1. Higher fatigue and stress among staff
Tracking employee working hours, absences, breaks, and cover is crucial for staff well-being. However, manual rostering makes this data difficult to manage, especially as the number of employees increases. This can result in excessive overtime, missed breaks, and ultimately widespread fatigue and stress among your staff.
2. Understaffing
Efficient business operation requires carefully planned and agile rosters. Whether it’s due to staff sickness or external circumstances like severe weather, rosters are subject to change. Automated rostering systems promptly identify resource and staffing issues. In contrast, manual rostering requires continuous monitoring and adjustments, leading to problems with understaffing or overstaffing. These issues not only damage your immediate profits but also negatively impact your clients’ experience.
Why should you consider auto-rostering?
Auto-rostering, also known as e-rostering, offers a solution by automating the shift planning process through dedicated software. These platforms make it effortless to configure rotas that meet your business’s shifting needs.
Here are the benefits of adopting auto-rostering for your business.
1. Save time and money
Automatic rostering streamlines time-consuming tasks, reducing administrative burden. This frees up resources for other critical areas of your business. Additionally, it minimizes the risk of under and overstaffing, providing real-time visibility to ensure you have the necessary resources. The cost savings are not the only advantage; properly staffed shifts improve client experience and increase their likelihood of recommending your business.
2. Reduce absenteeism
Implementing e-rostering is not only great for your business but also improves employee well-being. By having complete visibility over staff working patterns and automated issue flagging, you can ensure that everyone works appropriate hours with sufficient breaks. This reduces issues related to fatigue, burnout, and stress, resulting in fewer absences that require cover.
Discover industry-leading automatic rota management.
Rota management is undoubtedly complex. However, it doesn’t have to be. With Nextra’s rostering platform, you can swiftly and easily configure rotas. Our intelligent forecasting feature helps you meet projected demands. You can efficiently manage shift costs, track absences, and address problem areas while remaining compliant with working time regulations. Our rostering solution is dependable and trustworthy.
Don’t let rostering be a burden; let it be your business’s strength.