Boost Workplace Morale With Employee Scheduling Software

September 3, 2019

Employee morale is a big deal in the workplace. It is one of the most significant factors in hiring and retaining a skilled and competent workforce. Nobody wants to go to work every day only to feel overworked and under-appreciated. This is especially true in the medical field. Overtime shifts are often mandatory, breaks can be few and far between, and patients (and their families) can be difficult to work with. Burnout is a common result.

One of the keys to avoiding this is by boosting employee morale. There are some aspects of the job that just can’t be avoided. Shifts must be filled; breaks can’t always be taken at exact times, and there’s no way of controlling or predicting patient behavior. But, there is a way to give your staff a little bit of control over their day and help improve employee morale in the process. When people are happy, it shows. They work harder, have more patience, and are easier to work with.

What’s the key to boosting employee morale? Employee Scheduling Software.

How Can Employee Scheduling Software Improve Workplace Morale and Employee Retention?

Empower Staff

Picking up extra shifts in the medical field is a given for most nurses, techs, and similar positions. With scheduling software, your staff has the power to self-schedule or pick up those extra shifts by simply looking at the online schedule. This accessibility gives them the chance to choose open shifts that fit best with their personal schedules. This will minimize forced pick-ups that cause frustration and stress for both schedulers and staff.

Employee Access to Shift-Swap

When employees need time off due to vacation, illness, or family emergencies, finding a replacement to fill those shifts can be difficult. With easy access to online scheduling, employees can find available staff who meet necessary requirements to fill a particular shift. They can have direct communication one-on-one with other employees to determine who can swap shifts with them. The scheduling tool can be configured to reflect the same rules you follow in your manual decision-making process. By doing so, these swaps can go through without oversight or can be set up to require a quick review prior to approval. This makes getting a needed day off easier for workers and it saves some of the stress that schedulers often find themselves under.

Improved Communication

Staff and scheduler communications can be challenging because the needs and personal schedules of every staff member can be difficult for one single scheduler to keep track of. Streamlined, direct communication between employees and the scheduler can help improve communication in the workplace and minimize unintentional oversights or impossible shift schedules. And with the timestamp messaging feature, schedulers can see who has opened the message and who hasn’t. When workers understand what the scheduler needs, and the scheduler understands what the workers need, everybody is much happier.

Easy Mobile Access to Schedules

This is extremely important, as people are busier than ever these days. Having quick and easy access to shift schedules, work calendars, and direct messaging via a phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer means that everybody knows who’s working, when they’re working, and who’s available to fill in where necessary, day or night. This helps to improve employee accountability and makes sure that everybody is pulling their fair share of the work.

Accountability and Transparency

Does it seem like the same people are always working more overtime than everybody else? Are some staff members grumbling because they get chosen for less-than-ideal shifts, while others always get the most popular shifts? Are some people always finding replacements for their shifts and not working the number of weekly hours they were hired for? Online scheduling helps to eliminate these common scheduling problems by showing the scheduler exactly who is working and how much they’re working each week. This can help minimize workplace burnout of workers who are always getting scheduled for extra shifts and ensures that everyone is pulling their fair share of the work around the department.

Improved Work/Life Balance

When communication is clear, and personal needs are met, workers are shown to be far more satisfied with their jobs. When schedulers can easily access personal schedules and availability, and schedule shifts to accommodate those requests when possible, workers are more likely to enjoy coming to work. People have lives outside of work; families, a secondary job, schooling, hobbies, etc. If a scheduler is able to accommodate for some of those needs when making a schedule, everybody wins. Workers get the time off they need, and schedulers get workers who are available and excited to work. That’s a winning combination.

Employee satisfaction is one of the most significant factors in staying or leaving a job. Workers want to feel appreciated and heard. However, schedulers need to be able to effectively communicate workplace needs regarding shift scheduling. A department can’t operate effectively without people there to do the work. Online scheduling helps workers and schedulers overcome many of these barriers and streamlines the scheduling process.

Schedule360 can help teams like yours boost workplace morale and improve the scheduling process with online employee scheduling. Our solutions will help make employee scheduling a quick and easy team process that everyone can get behind. Contact us today to learn how.