Web Work Schedules

Create a Work Schedule from Home

One of the most convenient features of Web Work Schedules is that you can create an employee work schedule from any computer. Because this program is web-based, you can access it from home, while on vacation or when traveling. Now you don’t have to rush to complete the next schedule before you go on vacation. You can work on it from home to make sure it's error-free. You can also monitor the public message board and make any changes without having to go to your office and waste time while on vacation.

For many, creating a schedule is only one of many job functions. If you prefer working on employee schedules in an atmosphere that's peaceful and filled with fewer distractions, being able to access all the information needed to create a work schedule from home is a dream come true for you. Since Web Work Schedules can help reduce the amount of paperwork by creating an interactive environment for you and employees, you won't have to worry about forgetting to bring time off requests and other information home with you.

If you need to ask employees or managers a question, verify time off requests or make an announcement, you can send private messages to employees and managers. You can also make public announcements on the message board.

Even though working from home full-time may not be an option, you may be able to leave the office early a few afternoons each month in order to create work schedules. Reduce stress, stay organized and give yourself the opportunity to create work schedules without having any outside distractions by investing in Web Work Schedules. This program is great for small, medium and large businesses. Regardless of whether you have part-time, full-time, interns or seasonal employees, you will be able to create error-free work schedules anywhere you want at any time. 

Posted at 12:16PM Mar 21, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Generating Holiday Schedules

Depending on the number of employees you need during the holiday season, creating a special work schedule for the weeks before, during, and after the holidays may be necessary to ensure that you business operates smoothly. This may mean having to hire seasonal employees, asking full-time employees if they can work extra shifts, and allowing part-time employees to work addition hours as well.

Creating holiday schedules can be more frustrating than creating regular schedules because of increased time-off requests, making sure seasonal employees receive enough hours, and ensuring that all shifts are covered – even the ones that are undesirable. While you want to be fair when it comes to giving employees time off during the holidays to spend with family and friends, the shifts still need to be covered in order the business to remain successful.

When you use Web Work Schedules, you will be able to create multiple schedules quickly and easily. You may choose to create separate holiday schedules for regular and seasonal employees, or add seasonal employees to your list and create one schedule. You can make changes when an employee doesn't show up, which will make verifying the number of hours worked by each employee much easier.

Before the holiday season begins, ask all employees who are eligible for time off to send you time-of requests by a certain date so you can log them and add them to the schedule. Creating a weekly holiday schedule may be easier depending on the number of employees you have. Employees will be able to view their schedules online, which will reduce the number of missed shifts. You can also send messages to employees when you need emergency coverage.

Software applications like Web Work Schedules are very useful when you have to schedule additional employees. When you need to review past schedules, you can pull them up easily online. This will reduce the amount of paperwork to sift through and will help you create a holiday schedule that is fair to all employees during the holiday season.

Posted at 02:17PM Mar 07, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Online vs desktop employee scheduling software Round 2

I posted previously about some differences between Online vs Desktop applications for employee scheduling. A recent conversation with a potential new customer made me think about it in a new light.  The customer had previously purchased a desktop application for creating schedules.  I don't know much detail about the particular software, but the end result left much to be desired. Poor customer support also factored into the overall problem of the software.

From a purely profit/loss perspective, once you purchase your copy of the desktop application, the seller does not really want to hear from you until they have an upgrade that they want to sell you.  Each technical support ticket they have to handle cuts into the profit. You have already paid them. Their goal is to maximize profit.

Contrast that with an online application.  Each and every month you have the option of taking your business to another vendor.  You are not locked into Web Work Schedules. We are well aware aware of that fact and strive to have excellent customer support.  We are constantly working on improving the application to fit your needs because  we want to make sure you are happy with the software each and every month.  Our goal is to have long term customers that love Web Work Schedules because it solves their scheduling problems.

Are you looking for software to create an employee schedule?  Try out our solution and see if we can turn you into happy long term customers.

Posted at 03:03AM Mar 04, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Shift Coverage when Employees Call Out

Even after you've created the perfect employee work schedule, you will have to make changes to it when employees call out or when they are a 'no show'. Most businesses amend their schedules as a back up for their payroll records to indicate when and why an employee missed their shift. When you use Web Work Schedules, you can make changes quickly and easily so employees who have been called in to cover the shift will remember to do so.

If you don't want to indicate to all employees why a particular employee missed their shift, you can make a note of it in your personal message center or on a draft schedule that you save for these purposes. You can also alert managers and shift supervisors that they will be short an employee for the shift through personal email correspondence.

Finding employees to cover shifts when an employee calls out can be frustrating, especially if they call out a few hours or less before their shift begins. Before you start calling employees who are off for the day, check to see which ones are currently working. Contact the manager to see if anyone would be willing to work overtime. There will usually be someone willing to work. If not, check the schedule to see who isn't working and begin making phone calls.

While Web Work Schedules cannot fix all of your employee issues, it can help keep you organized so you can find employees to cover missed shifts. You can post a message on the community board asking if anyone wants extra hours, you can make changes to the schedule easily after someone agrees to cover the shift, and you can make additional changes if the employee has been terminated or is a 'no-show' for more than one shift.

Filling hours missed by an employee who is terminated or an employee who has to miss a few shifts due to illness or personal reasons can be quite a burden, especially when you have other job duties to tend to. But when you have an employee work schedule in front of you that is organized and easy to amend, this task will not seem as hopeless. Keeping a list of employee contact information handy will help make your job even easier.

Posted at 02:26PM Feb 29, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Rotating Schedules for Employees

In order to be fair to all employees, rotating their schedules so they can enjoy a weekend off or extra days off during the holidays is important and necessary if you want to avoid a pile of time-off requests or complaints. Depending on the number of employees you have, the number of hours you need to schedule each week, and how many seasonal employees you hire, rotating schedules can become more difficult during the holiday season.

Creating your schedule using Web Work Schedules can make this task easier in many ways. If you have to schedule a certain amount of hours each week, you can create schedule parameters that include the maximum hours needed to be scheduled, the minimum and maximum hours each employee can work, and shift lengths. If you make an error, you will be alerted of it immediately so changes can be made. When scheduling weekend and holiday shifts, these parameters can be very useful.

Because this application is available for use online, you can send completed schedules, or ask for time-off requests using the community message board that is accessible to all employees and managers. You can also log time-off requests to remind yourself to give employees those days off. If employees need to leave early for a doctor's appointment or other personal business, you can schedule them to work half a shift or work an extra day to make up their time. 

When you start creating a schedule, the easiest way to begin is by filling in the days that employees request off. Rotating employees on the weekend is the next step. The final step is to fill in the remaining spots to create a complete schedule. Using Web Work Schedules, you can easily fix any mistakes you make so the schedule always looks professional. After the work schedule is complete, you can send it to employees or post it on the community message board.

Posted at 10:54PM Feb 21, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Solving Scheduling Conflicts Easily

Scheduling conflicts can be difficult to deal with, especially when an employee needs to leave early before their shift is complete or when they need to take the day off. If you are unable to accommodate the shift change request, many employees will call out sick or they will just not show up which can lead to disciplinary action or termination depending on how often employees call out or fail to show up for work.

When dealing with a scheduling conflict, you will also have to find another employee to work the shift. Many employees can work this out together by finding someone to switch shifts with. If this happens, all you have to do is note the change on the schedule. Using an online software application like Web Work Schedules that allows you to make changes to daily or weekly employee work schedules can ensure that all employees, managers, and others are aware that a change has been made.

If the employee cannot find another person to take their shift, then it is up to you to find someone to cover it. This may mean calling people who are off, asking employees to work overtime, or alerting managers that they may have to work extra hours in order to provide enough coverage.

Employee work schedules that are posted online can make this task much easier. You will be able to look up employees who have the day off, or find those who would be willing to work extra hours. Start with employees who have volunteered to work extra shifts in the past as these employees will usually agree to work. You can find this information by looking at past work schedules.  

Posted at 02:30PM Feb 14, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Scheduling Full-time and Part Time Employees

When creating a schedule that includes both full-time and part-time employees, you have to pay particular attention to the number of hours you have available and the number of hours each employee receives so you don't give employees too little or too many hours. In addition to keeping track of employee hours, you also have to try to accommodate time-off requests; provide extra coverage on days that are busier than others, and rotate weekends in order to keep employees happy.

Web Work Schedules was created to help you design an error-free employee work schedule each and every time so you have the coverage you need to maintain a successful business. With the ability to create daily and weekly schedules, input schedule rules such as the maximum amount of hours needed for the week and hours required per shift, you will be able to eliminate many common scheduling errors such as giving employees too many hours or go over your weekly limit.

The software application also includes work schedule templates that can make creating basic schedules even easier. If you need have more specific needs, you can create your own templates as well. Web Work Schedules can be viewed on any computer that has Internet access. This means that once you post a schedule, employees will be able to view it as well from home. For part-time employees, this is a great feature as they may not be working at the time the new schedule is posted.

If a mistake has been made, employees can alert you quickly. Other features of this application include:

• Ability to black-out certain dates so employees cannot request time off
• Ability to contact managers separately from employees
• Community message board where you can post schedule changes or schedule policy changes

Changes to the work schedule should be made as soon as possible so employees know which days they're working. When using an online application, you can make changes during the workday, in the evening, or during the weekend. Alerting employees to important changes will reduce missed shifts and ensure that there is enough coverage for all shifts.

Posted at 01:54PM Feb 08, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Communicating Effectively with Employees

When creating employee work schedules, it's very important that you communicate effectively with employees. Depending on the number of people you have to make work schedules for, how many hours you need to cover, and the number of time off requests you receive, this can take a few hours each week. And if you have to schedule part-time and full-time employees, or create daily work schedules, it will take even longer.

In addition to creating the schedule you may need to rework it if there's an employee emergency, an employee misses their shift, or if you missed a time off request. This can take more time away from other job duties you have.

Work schedules created using pen and paper do not always appear professional. If you have messy handwriting, or you have to alter the schedule by switching employee shifts, the schedule may become difficult to read which can lead to confusion and missed shifts.

But what if you could create a schedule using work schedule software that allowed you to fill in the shifts that need to be covered, log time off requests, and allowed you to maintain an emergency contact list when you need immediate coverage if an employee is a 'no-show'? How many hours would you save each day? Each week?

Web Work Schedules can help you create schedules quickly and easily so you don't have to spend hours each week creating and amending them. You can print out completed schedules and post them or you can allow employees to view completed schedules from their home or office computers anytime they want to. This will reduce the number of missed shifts because employees will no longer have to write down their schedule or risk losing a print-out.

By using Web Work Schedules, you can effectively communicate with employees by giving them a professional looking document that's easy to read. If an error has been made, employees can simply tell you about them and you can make the necessary changes without having to rewrite or amend the existing schedule.

Posted at 11:30AM Feb 01, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Making Changes to Schedules

Making shift changes or moving employees around on a schedule that's already been written can be time consuming and usually involves rewriting the entire schedule. When you create a work schedule on paper, making these changes using arrows and crossing out employee names can be confusing and distracting to all employees. This usually results in missed shifts or employees showing up at the wrong times.

When you want to make changes to an employee work schedule created online through Web Work Schedules, all you have to do is find the most recent schedule and rearrange it by deleting entries and inserting new ones. If the schedule has already been passed out to employees, send them an alert or post a message in the break room stating that changes have been made to the schedule.

Because changes are inevitable when it comes to creating daily or weekly employee schedules, using an online application like Web Work Schedules can take some of the frustration out of making these changes. While this application cannot make employees more responsible for showing up at work when they're schedules to work or increase their productivity, it can make your job a little easier.

Creating a weekly or daily employee work schedule can take a lot time during the day. When you have to make changes, you may feel the time you spent creating the schedule in the first place was a waste of time. But when you use Web Work Schedules, you can create work schedules in less time and not feel as bad when changes have to be made. Employees will appreciate being able to review their work schedule anytime they want as well.

In addition to making changes easily to work schedules, you can also review past schedules to see how often employees are asking for changes. For example, if you notice an employee always requests a certain day off each week, you can make this day their permanent day off in future schedules. Being proactive and trying to accommodate employees as much as possible can help them become more productive at the workplace.

Posted at 12:02PM Jan 25, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Benefits of being an early adopter

For a lot of businesses, the option of having custom software developed to solve their problems are pretty slim.  There a several big obstacles including price (a big one),  finding a software company or developer to do the work, and actually getting what you want developed.  There are many horror stories out there of people paying large amounts of money to end up with software that does not solve their problems.

 There is one way to get semi custom software developed for you.  If you are an early adopter of a software package (say like software for online scheduling of employees) you stand a good chance of influencing the future of the software.  Since the software package is designed to solve your problem, there is a good chance it already does most of what you want.  Good software companies will listen to their customers.  They add the features requested by their customers and fix the bugs in the software that are affecting their users.  As the software gets more established (like say Microsoft Word) it is much more difficult to respond to request because the application is much more complex and they need to see if the request will benefit a large portion of their customers. They can not afford to make changes for just one or two customers.

 So by being an early adopter you will be able to influence the development of the software and have a much better chance of seeing features added that you want.  There are downsides to being an early adopter.  There is a greater likely chance that there will be some problems with the software.  But with new software, the chances are the company will be much more responsive because it is constantly trying to prove itself to its customers.  It wants to please the early adopters so that they will gush over the software and recommend it to friends and coworkers.

 If you are looking for a software package that lets you quickly create employee schedules take a look at Web Work Schedules.  Be an early adopter and get all the benefits I've described.  I look forward to responding to your requests and improving Web Work Schedules to meet your needs.   

Posted at 01:59PM Jan 18, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

Reduce Scheduling Errors

If one of your job duties is to create daily, weekly, or monthly employee work schedules, you will make mistakes from time to time. But if you continually make scheduling errors, employees will lose confidence in your ability over time. Reduce the amount of scheduling errors by investing in a computer scheduling application like Web Work Schedules. Not only will this application save time when creating employee work schedules, it will also help you reduce scheduling errors and ensure that all employees are satisfied.

Web Work Schedules is easy to use and can be viewed by your employees after you've completed an upcoming schedule. With the ability to communicate with you online, employees can send in time off requests, ask for shift changes and send you any other information you will need each time you create a schedule. This will result in fewer mistakes or miscommunication. Employees will feel more involved in the scheduling process and you will be able to schedule the time off they need when appropriate.

You can also send employees messages about time off requests in advance to let them know if you can honor their request or not. Communicating online maintains employee privacy and allows you to save all messages concerning time off in case a conflict arises or you need to clarify the dates of the time off request.

Another scheduling error that's common is failure to rotate employees for weekend and holiday shifts. Employees who have to work several weekends in a row may not be very pleased. But rotating weekends so each employee has at least one weekend off is usually enough to keep everyone happy. When using Web Work Schedules, you can easily retrieve old schedules to see which employees are due for a weekend off. This will help you evenly distribute shifts and maintain a positive working environment for all.

Reducing scheduling errors can make your job much more pleasant because you won't have to make too many changes once the schedule has been posted. If employees want to switch shifts with another employee, they can alert you to any changes and you can quickly update the schedule to reflect these changes. Spending less time creating and amending work schedules will give you more time to complete other job duties during the day.

Posted at 11:04AM Jan 17, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

How Web Work Schedules Can Make You a More Efficient Manager

Imagine being able to create a weekly or daily work schedule in an hour or less. Imagine being able to spend more time on the floor instead of trapped in your office.  Imagine employees missing fewer shifts and getting the time off they requested more often.  All this and more is possible when you use the Web Work Schedules online application to create employee schedules.

If you have to spend fewer hours each week creating work schedules, you will be able to dedicate more time and attention to other employee needs such as training, resolving conflict, and interviewing and hiring additional help. Even though Web Work Schedules can't solve all of your managerial issues, it can provide you with a safe workspace that's easy to use, easy to update, and can be viewed by employees at any time. This means you don't have to make photocopies of work schedules or worry about employees writing down the wrong shift times.

With additional access to their work schedules, employees can send you time off requests, send messages regarding errors, and ask to work extra shifts without having to write anything down on little pieces of paper that could become misplaced. By asking employees to communicate with you regarding scheduling matters online, you will also be able to create a record of correspondence that can be used when creating a new schedule or when a conflict arises concerning upcoming schedules.

Managing employees is a difficult job. Most conflicts arise due to scheduling issues. If you need to rotate employees when covering weekend and holiday shifts, you can easily look at past schedules as a reference. This will reduce the amount of papers you need to file. Staying organized can help you become a better manager.

When training new employees, you may want to create a separate schedule or pair trainees with experienced employees. You can do this easily when creating a work schedule using Web Work Schedules. Once the trainee has been trained, you can add them into your regular rotation. This allows you to have more control over who is being trained, when they're being trained, and how long they will be considered trainees until they’ve learned how to perform all job tasks.

One of the biggest perks to using scheduling software like Web Work Schedules is that you can work on creating a schedule on your own time. Work from home without having to risk losing time off requests or having to carry old schedules to and from your office.

Posted at 12:15PM Jan 10, 2008 by Chris in General  | 

New Demo Account for Online Employee Scheduling

We just updated the website and the application. The most obvious change is the ability to use a demo account to try out online employee scheduling using Web Work Schedules.  This allows perspective customers a chance to try out the application without having to enter any data into the system.  You still can (and are encouraged to) create a free trial account. The demo account gets reset after you log out, so any changes made are lost.  Every user gets their own account so two users cannot interfere with each other.

There were several other behind the scenes changes that improve the existing capabilities and few minor UI improvements in various spots through out the application.

As always if you have any questions or suggestions for improvements, please leave a comment  or email me directly at chris@webworkschedules.com.

Posted at 05:26PM Dec 21, 2007 by Chris in General  | 

Employee Requests Paperwork

One thing that has been a constant issue with employee scheduling is keeping track of the various requests made by the employees.  A misplaced request for any reason can cause a lot of problems.  The employee will be upset.  You may be able to change the schedule, spending yet more of your time working on the schedule.  If you are unable to change the schedule, you run the risk of the employee being "sick" that day and being short staffed.  The solution to this problem is to never lose any requests made by them.  This is actually easier than it sounds. Web Work Schedules keeps tracks of all employee requests. When the manager approves or denies the request, the employee will be able to monitor the status of his/her request.  They can make requests as far into the future as they desire and they will never get lost.  Processing requests is as easy as a single click of your mouse button to approve or deny the requests.  When it is time to do the schedule, you will see which employees have time off and see their hours of availability.  You don't have to look through your folder of requests or scan your excel list. They are already loaded into the schedule.  This eliminates any chances of accidentally scheduling one of your employees when they are on vacation.

Posted at 04:04PM Oct 03, 2007 by Chris in General  | 

Online vs desktop employee scheduling software

Why would you choose an online (web application) to do employee scheduling?  There are a number of different scheduling software packages available.  They fall into one of two different categories, online or desktop applications.  Online employee scheduling programs (like Web Work Schedules) have several benefits over desktop applications. 

If you choose a desktop application, you have to decide where you will install it.  Do you install it at your computer at work, your personal computer?  Can you install it on both, or do you need to buy two copies to use it on two computers?  If more than one person creates schedules, do they both have access to the same computer to create schedules.  If it is only installed on a computer at work, then you have to be at work to make any change, no matter how small it is.  How do your employees view the schedule? Do you print it out and post it at work?  Hopefully you would be able to email it out to your employees.  Access to the software is not an issue with Web Work Schedules. As long as you have an internet connection, you, and all of your employees, can access the software. 

How often do you backup your computer?  There are two kinds of people who use computers, those who have lost data and those who will lose data.  With a desktop solution, you are responsible for backing up your data. If your hard drive crashes, and you don't have a back up, you will lose all of your data.  With Web Work Schedules we back up your data every day so you will never lose any data.

With a desktop solution, you still have the same amount of paperwork to deal with.  You will still have a bulletin board full of time off requests, notes about changes to availability, etc.  You will have to take these requests and enter them into the desktop application.  This is avoided in Web Work Schedules by allowing your employees to make these requests directly in the application.  This saves you time by reducing the amount of work you have to do.

Desktop applications are typically updated once a year.  To get the bug fixes or new features, you have to buy the new version of the software.  One of the reasons for this is that a lot of testing should be done to ensure that it works on every possible combination of computers available.  Not all software companies test as well as they should and some software just will not work on your machine because of a conflict with some other program.  With Web Work Schedules we can publish our updates much faster. Our users will get immediate access to the new features and bug fixes as soon as they are finished.  Part of that is due to the nature of web applications.  The software is installed on our servers which we have full control over.  We don't have to worry about it conflicting with any other software since it is installed on our servers.  We have to make sure it works with your web browser, but this is a much smaller set of tests to perform compared to desktop applications.

Web Work Schedules is a better solution for your employee scheduling needs than a desktop application.  

Posted at 12:50PM Oct 02, 2007 by Chris in General  |