Scheduling in Workforce Made Easy by FingerTec Time Attendance Solutions

Workforce scheduling is crucial to business operations because ultimately the objective of scheduling the workforce is to meet business demands at low cost and high productivity.  Workforce scheduling is a complex process of assigning working hours to the workforce. Different industries have different processes and the complexity varies. Depending on the nature of the business and its workload, workforce scheduling should be done right and fit the business perfectly for companies to benefit from it optimally.

This article presents 3 Types of Scheduling to suit different types of workforce and their working environment. One organization might use one type of schedule or a combination of a few.

1. Fixed Schedule: Schedule according to organization’s normal operating hours.
2. Flexible Schedule: Schedule according to total workweek hours but not fixed to the standard schedule’s rules. By default, the Flexible schedule is to record in-out pairs in use and calculate man-hours. There are 2 special options under this schedule:
   1. Job Cost – A feature in Flexible Schedule to calculate the man-hours involved for a specific job/task done by a specific employee
   2. Pay Class – A feature in Flexible Schedule to determine the rules and calculations for part-time workforce employed at one’s company.
3. Rotational Schedule: Schedule that covers a wide variety of work schedules and implies that shifts rotate according to the specific cycle. Some schedules require distribution of different shifts to the same employees in a day, which includes morning, swing and night shift. This schedule can cater up to 3 different shifts per day to rotate in a specific cycle.

FIXED SCHEDULE

Fixed Schedule requires an employee to work according to the normal working hours of an organization.

A standard schedule requires an employee to work according to the standard working hours or normal working hours of an organization, which amounts to a maximum of a 40-hour workweek, where weekdays are working days and weekends are off days.

This is the most basic schedule where working time is constant at 8 hours per day and with a 1-hour break.  Hence, Fixed Standard Schedule can be set for employees who are working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

This schedule is suitable for normal businesses, which applies fixed working hours to a majority of employees with the exception of a few, which might need some other scheduling types.

FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE

Flexible Schedule allows an employee to work at different hours from the normal working hours of an organization.

A flexible schedule allows an employee to work at different hours from the company’s standard operating time. This schedule is mostly applicable in environments that apply Standard Schedule. However, for those who are involved in Flexible Schedule, their start times and stop times are not fixed as long as the total work hours accumulate up to a 40-hour work week or more, or it could involve a compressed work week with the same total work hours or more. The objective of Flexible Schedule is for the employee to put in his time and accomplishing his goals in the time given without the restriction of a standard schedule.

This schedule is suitable for normal businesses, which have employees who need to accomplish a project without wasting time on commuting such as R&D personnel; employees who need to be on the go to accomplish his/her tasks such as field sales executives, dispatch; valuable employees who want to contribute to the company without sacrificing his/her life/work balance.

ENABLING JOB COST IN FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE

Job Cost is a tool to calculate the man-hours involved for a specific job/task done by a specific employee.

Job Cost is the process of controlling the labor and materials cost for each job in a systematic way and in workforce software, it involves the calculation of man-hours cost for a specific job/task. The objective of deploying Job Cost is to manage the labor cost associated with a certain task at hand to minimize the cost and maximize the income. Job cost also is an excellent tool for tracing specific costs to individual jobs and examining them to see if the costs can be managed better in later jobs. It is also a way to see if any excess costs incurred can be billed to a customer.

Job Cost is suitable for employees who are involved in projects where every hour of labor cost counts such as Designing A Software Program, Constructing A Building, Lawyers Attending to Cases in Court, and etc.

ENABLING PAY CLASS IN FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE

Pay Class Schedule is a scheduling tool determine the rules and calculations for part-time workforce employed at one’s company.

Pay Class Schedule is a scheduling tool determine the rules and calculations for part-time workforce employed at one’s company. Part time employees are hired to work less than a full-time employee, and there’s no minimum hour to be fulfilled as a part time worker. They are generally not eligible for company’s benefits but they can earn more money through overtime and incentive payments for working at odd shifts.

Pay Class Schedule is suitable for work environment that employs part time workers like as construction workers, wholesale and retail trade, restaurant chains and etc.

ROTATIONAL SCHEDULE

Rotational Schedule is a schedule that covers a wide variety of work schedules and implies that shifts rotate according to the specific cycle.

A Rotational Schedule is a schedule that changes in a specific cycle, it covers a wide variety of work schedules and implies that shifts rotate or change according to a set schedule. The goal of Rotational Schedule is to distribute the stress of the least desirable swing and night shifts across a workforce. These rotations vary where some workplaces favor a fixed shift schedule where people work the same shift on a consistent schedule, while others may rotate shifts so that no one is stuck with the least desirable ones all the time.

An example of a rotating shift schedule, a staff might take 5 working days and 3 days off, then followed by 4 days Day Shift or known as Swing Shift (afternoon till midnight shift) and take 3 days off, spend 4 days on Night Shift and take 4 days off and repeat the schedule.

Rotating schedules are advantageous in facilities that require 24-hour employee coverage, such as factories, power plants, and hospitals. The schedules can be structured in a number of different ways depending on a need of a facility employee preferences, and health concerns.

INCLUDE MORE WORKING SHIFTS PER DAY FOR CYCLE ROTATION
Employers can include more than one shift (max 3 shifts) to build a schedule that requires distribution of different shifts to the same employees in a day, which includes morning, swing and night shift.
This rotational schedule has multiple shifts a day. This is a schedule that requires distribution of different shifts to employees in a day, which includes morning, swing and night shift. In this schedule, an employee must prioritize his/her assigned shift before he/she could take up another shift as extra work hours. The objective of having this schedule is for employers to utilize the same workforce for more workload and for the employee to earn more pay.

For example, in a factory environment, which offers 3 shifts, morning, swing and night; an employee who works morning shift can be assigned to the night shift of the same day or he/she can take up the swing shift to add extra income.

Workforce scheduling is important for various industries to manage the cost of labor effectively. However, many companies undermine the power of scheduling in the business’s race for profit and productivity. There are numerous advantages of using scheduling in one’s organization. Amongst the benefits of scheduling include, helping to manage distribution and cost of labor effectively by carefully planning the resources to match the business demand, and creating a conducive workplace by providing better work-life balance for employees.

To simplify the complex scheduling process of assigning working hours to the workforce, FingerTec offers Scheduling system through its main software, TimeTec cloud-based attendance system, Ingress Door Access and Time Attendance Software and TCMS V2 Time Management Software. The three software have been designed with complex scheduling made easy for the benefits of our clients’ businesses.  The software covers all the important schedules required for most working organizations the world over.

For more information on determining appropriate Scheduling System for your Business Workforce, please contact Hutaib InfoTech Solutions atinfo@hutaibinfotech.com / www.securitysolutionsdubai.com.