Shift roster planning goes beyond ensuring you have enough workers at any given time — it’s also how you can keep staff. Don’t believe us? The retail industry has experienced high attrition rates — 60% — for a long time.
It’s common for retailers to replace more than half of their staff each year. The number one reason people are leaving? Not enough workplace flexibility.
And the thing is, shift-based industries can often offer more work flexibility because they operate on shifts. It just requires a little extra effort and care to put the shift puzzle together.
Learn how to make your business stand out from competitors and gain and retain the best talent with employee-centered shift planning.
Are “fair scheduling” laws fair enough to retain employees? Or should you go further?
Fair workweek laws have been a game-changer for shift workers. When in place, these laws require businesses to set out schedules with advanced notice so employees can appropriately plan their lives. They also require good faith estimations for working hours on hiring, having enough rest time between shifts, and paying employees for last-minute shift changes.
But are they enough?
According to The Shift Project, founded by Harvard professors, no, they’re not. Businesses that take the “high road,” meaning offering jobs with more stable and predictable schedules — beyond what’s required by law — have seen significant gains.
The Shift Project compared Costco, where 85% of employees receive schedules with two weeks' advance notice, and Dollar General, where only 27% of employees get advance notice. They found Costco employees were more satisfied with their jobs by a significant margin — 55% vs. 19%.
But we already knew that.Partners Coffee used Deputy to better manage schedules and stay compliant with fair workweek laws. They found that better schedule management played a huge role in staff retention.
“Deputy helps enable my work-life balance by providing me a really clear idea of what schedule is going to be for the next few weeks. It lets me make my plans ahead of time, and indulge in my hobbies while not feeling super tired.” —Brian Zhou
Learn more about scheduling requirements, fair workweek laws, and other employee availability laws with our Compliance Hub.
The hidden costs of only peripherally considering employee shift preferences
While employee-centered shift roster planning has many benefits, businesses have to implement this type of scheduling carefully. Done improperly, it can lead to a lot of scheduling challenges, which may eventually affect your bottom line, such as:
More hours dedicated to scheduling
Tension and burnout when you can’t satisfy with an employee’s shift preferences
Difficulty covering less desirable shifts, leading to the need for more staff or forcing staff to work shifts they don’t want
Incomplete attendance at important store meetings
Challenges creating full shift coverage during vacation or sick leave
Potential customer service costs due to understaffing
How employee-centered shift roster planning benefits your bottom line
We already talked a little bit about how employee-centered schedules benefit your business, but let’s break down the numbers:
Improved customer service: It’s shown that engaged employees lead to a 10% increase in customer loyalty.
Better employee health: One study found that unstable work schedules lead to psychological distress, poor sleep, and general unhappiness. As a result, businesses spend $4,000 and take 24 days to find a new hire.
Reduced turnover: Ace Hardware reduced turnover by 26% by getting schedules out faster.
More productivity:Happy employees are 13% more productive.
Less absenteeism:Unhappy employees have 37% more absenteeism than engaged workers.
Proper Cloth saved thousands of dollars a week, made employees happier, and stayed compliant using Deputy’s time and attendance tools.
“Some feedback we received by using Deputy and complying with Fair Workweek is people do a lot more with their free time because they're not stressed out about their schedule. They know when they're working, they know when they're done with work, and they can plan their lives. Deputy definitely helped us simplify compliance because we also have the attestation where somebody marks off that they have actually taken their breaks. From a liability standpoint, that puts us at ease.”
How to carry out employee-centered shift scheduling
Here’s how to create successful employee-centered schedules.
1. Ask about staff preferences
First, ask your staff for their availability, which should take precedence, and their shift preferences. You can do this by speaking to each employee individually or through a survey.
2. Set ground rules for scheduling
While asking for preferences, it’s important to establish clear rules and expectations about how the new schedule system will work. For example, explain that not all preferences will be met simply due to logistics, and sometimes unwanted shifts will happen. However, if you explain that preferences are being considered, most staff members will understand.
3. Use technology to your advantage
Once you’ve gathered the staff’s preferences, upload them to a scheduling platform like Deputy. Deputy’s AI scheduling will look at the availability and preferences of staff and generate schedules for you.
This can save you hours of work and frustration while still making employees happy. You can also use our labour forecasting system to predict when you will need more or less staff — making getting schedules out quickly no problem.
See how Harvest Health reduced scheduling time by 500% with Deputy!
FYI: Deputy’s platform lets employees put in leave requests and swap shifts easily, too.
4. Share the schedule with plenty of notice
Employees appreciate the ability to plan their lives in advance, so do your best to establish a shift-sharing pattern that gives them at least two weeks' notice about when they'll be expected to work. One way to accomplish this is to set scheduling requirements for your managers, such as sharing schedules by a certain day each week.
5. Rotate unwanted shifts
Early mornings, late nights, and overnights are the most universally disliked shifts — which means everyone should have one of these shifts (minus those who are unavailable). By rotating unwanted shifts amongst your entire crew, you are being fair to everyone and not picking favorites, preventing tensions.
6. Adapt as needed
As your business grows and changes, you’ll need to change your scheduling system. This may mean updating staff preferences, adding new employees, or increasing staff for certain shifts. As always, communicate these changes clearly and before the changes are in place, so employees feel well prepared.
Make your entire workforce happy with Deputy
As you can see, making employees happy is profitable for your business. Using the right technology makes employee-centered shift roster planning easy. Invest in your business and employees by investing in our scheduling platform and providing more employee-centered schedules.
Try Deputy for free!
