A good schedule is the cornerstone of a small business. Without them, everything from labor costs to customer service to staff relationships would fall apart, so you need to ensure airtightness.
But writing a schedule takes time, and there are other tasks to consider, not to mention your own work-life balance.
That’s why we’ve created this guide on how to create an employee schedule that fits your budget, respects your team’s preferences, and doesn’t take hours to create. Discover how a home base can help you every step of the process. Included:
- Business requirements to consider before you begin
- Tips for scheduling employees according to availability and preferences
- How to create a reusable schedule template
- Points to note when checking the schedule
- How to manage your schedule when last-minute changes occur
Step #1: Determine your schedule requirements
There are many things to consider before you start scheduling your employees. You have to balance:
- meet labor needs
- stick to the budget
- have the right mix of roles
- Compliance with Applicable Federal and State Laws
Process some items in that list using home-based scheduling predictive tool. Instead of spending hours on numbers, you can automatically calculate how many employees you need and how much revenue you can expect based on historical data. Homebase also includes sales-to-labor ratios, so you can quickly see if your workforce levels are below or above average (and if you’re understaffed or overstaffed). .
As you take your next steps, you can continue to check the forecast sidebar to see if you’re far from your goal.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cs09c8sd0cs98.png)
caption: Homebase’s forecasting tool displays all forecast data in a sidebar at the bottom of each forecast. employee schedule.
Now that we know how many employees we need, we can go into more detail. Identify roles, departments, and senior team members needed for each shift. For example, if you own a restaurant, what should be your chef-to-wait staff ratio? How many takeout orders does your delivery team receive on average? Do you have new hires in need?
As you build your roster, you’re likely going to make changes. If you’re using pen and paper or a spreadsheet and have to cross out items or copy and paste, your schedule will get messy and confusing very quickly. Use Homebase to create a list of shifts at the top. employee schedule Every day all the roles you need, along with shift times and related notes.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cds098cds0c9d8s.png)
caption: Create a color-coordinated shift list on top of your shift table home base schedule Know what role you need each day.
All that remains is to brush up on state and federal law.This allows you to keep them in mind when creating your schedule. Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulates:
- How many days a week can an employee work
- Number of breaks an hourly worker should have
- Vacation time to be given to each employee
- How many hours can minors work and the tasks they can perform
- How far in advance the schedule should be shared with employees
- Overtime pay that must be paid to employees who work more than 40 hours per week
If keeping track of everything seems tedious, consider using Homebase. Human Resources and Compliance tool. It notifies you about potential compliance issues, such as missed breaks, and alerts you to changes in labor laws.
Step #2: Consider Employee Availability
Once you know your schedule requirements, collect each employee’s free time. The importance of this step cannot be underestimated. Respecting your staff’s preferences shows that you care about their well-being and acknowledge that you value their lives outside of work.
From a practical standpoint, understanding employee shift preferences means fewer problems with tardiness, absenteeism, and constant shift swapping. And if you keep your team happy, you’re less likely to look for another job with a more convenient time.
Start by asking each team member to fill out a form with their availability and preferred shifts. Some staff may want to dictate the specific hours they would like to work. If this is not possible, please be forewarned that limited availability may affect the number of hours given.
But here is the tricky part. A team’s availability can fluctuate due to factors such as family responsibilities, school holidays, or side jobs. If you don’t have time to keep track of everyone, encourage staff to fill out forms at home base the moment things change. The platform will then notify you, approve your availability form, and block the employee’s unavailable days on your schedule.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/cd0s9c8ds90cd8s.png)
caption: With Homebase, you can easily collect each employee’s free time and get an overview of who is available on what shifts.
Another factor to consider is vacation. Not keeping track of vacation days properly can result in a large number of team members being absent at the same time. There is a danger that there will be a shortage of workers and that the employees who can work will burn out.
Please follow these steps to work around this issue:
- Create vacation policies. Calculate how many people can take time off at one time and set that number as your limit. During popular times of the year, use a fair system, such as deciding which employee is selected first in rotation.
- Request leave requests in advance: Let team members know in advance how many days they need to request time off so they have enough time to arrange cover. Employees can fill out and submit request forms using the Homebase app.
- Track your vacation with your schedule. Once you approve a staff request, Homebase automatically blocks schedule vacations so you never forget them.
By creating a fair and transparent leave policy, employees can almost always get the leave they want. This goes a long way in boosting morale and building strong relationships with your team.
Step #3: Create a schedule template
By this stage, you should have all the information you need to write your article. employee scheduleSimply take the shifts created in step 1 and organize them based on the team availability collected in step 2.
Homebase can be used to automate that process by auto-populating schedules based on role and availability. But if you want to organize your schedule down to the smallest detail, just drag shifts from the top bar into the space on your timetable.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/c90ds8csd09c8ds0.png)
caption: Once you’ve decided which shifts you need to fill, you can drag them from the top bar and drop them into any empty space on your home base. schedule.
Labor needs and team availability often stay the same for weeks. So if you have a schedule that works for everyone, you can reuse it. Homebase lets you save your perfect schedule in a template library that’s easily accessible from a dropdown menu.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/c9s0d8c09s8cd09s.png)
caption: Create schedules for different times of the year. Then rename and add it to Homebase’s unlimited template library for easy access.
Schedule templates not only save you time, but they also help you maintain consistency. You can see the hours and roles your employees are accustomed to working in, so you don’t unnecessarily disrupt routines. For example, someone who is happy working late hours and quickly completing a closing checklist may react badly when suddenly switched to the morning shift without any explanation.
That goes without saying, not to mention the friendships we have forged with staff members and patrons during normal working hours. Keeping team members on the move for no reason can unintentionally affect morale and customer satisfaction.
Step #4: Review and Approve Your Schedule
Now that you’ve finished drafting your schedule, avoid the temptation to share it with your team right away to see if things are going well. Ask yourself:
- Does each employee have at least two consecutive days off per week?
- Is there enough rest time between the late finish time and the early start time?
- Do some employees have too many undesired shifts (for example, split shifts, night shifts, busy periods, etc.)?
- Do new hires have experienced staff to supervise them?
- Are there any scheduling conflicts you may have missed?
At first glance, you may not notice this kind of problem, but it’s important to fix it as soon as possible. If staff work too many challenging or undesirable shifts, it can lead to demoralization and burnout. Homebase helps you identify issues like scheduling conflicts and employees approaching overtime with built-in alerts.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/dcs90cs-0dc.png)
caption: Home Base immediately alerts you to issues such as scheduling conflicts.
To be even more accurate, ask your employees to check their working hours as well. They will allow you to pay more attention to your schedule than ever before. So when we publish the schedule on Homebase Mobile his app, we ask our staff to give us their feedback. You can then make the necessary adjustments and republish with just a few clicks.
Step #5: Share your schedule
Make your schedule visible to your employees as soon as you publish it. That way, I can plan my personal life ahead of time to fit my shift and not be overwhelmed by last minute arrangements. No one wants their staff to come to work feeling stressed by calling babysitters all day or looking for someone to drive them to work.
of Free home base app Publish the completed schedule and instantly notify all employees that it is ready.Then you can use message confirmation See if each team member has seen the latest shift.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/c0s98c90sdc80s-300x282.png)
caption: Send the completed schedule to the whole team using Free home-based mobile app.
Step #6: Make Last Minute Changes
No matter how hard you try, your employees’ schedules will never be perfect. Last minute changes always occur due to sickness, traffic jams or emergencies.
In those situations, the only thing you can do is contact the team to see who can take over the shift. is not an easy task. Homebase helps by filtering staff based on who is available and allowing them to send messages.
![](https://joinhomebase.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/0c98ds09c8ds09.png)
caption: Homebase notifies you of the no-show and automatically creates a cover message request to send to all available employees.
You can also list the absent person’s time as a free shift for team members to claim if they give you a few days’ warning that they won’t be able to work.
Sometimes the unexpected isn’t so serious, like an employee forgetting a friend’s birthday party or suddenly discovering your favorite band is coming to town. In such cases, a member of staff her home base app.
Scheduling made easy with Homebase
I know scheduling is important, but I don’t want to spend hours on it. So finding ways to create employee schedules that prioritize time-saving techniques is essential.
With Homebase, you can speed up scheduling without jeopardizing staff health, going over budget, or dealing with compliance issues.companies every week, our schedulingprediction, and communication tool. That’s time you can spend growing your business, checking in with your team, or just relaxing.