Reduction in operating and labor costs can be effectively accomplished today with the implementation of a workforce management solution. Manage costs effectively with accurate calculations of employee work hours according to your business, union and HR rules that literally take one-third of the time it tacks to complete manually. Create electronic timesheets that can be easily sent to payroll reducing if not eliminating countless payroll processing errors inherent in manual run systems. Manage and reduce overtime costs with automatically generated employee lists that are based on skill sets to ensure that the right people are covering the right positions at the right time.

The benefits associated with smart scheduling practices are limitless as even the employee will view an automated scheduling solution as a tangible and viable benefit in the workplace. With an automated workforce scheduling system, employees are empowered to manage their own schedules, request time off, view overtime opportunities, participate in shift bidding and many other activities using a smartphone, tablet, kiosk or any Windows application. Proactive scheduling contributes to a happier and more productive workforce.

Continue reading to discover additional ways in which a workforce management solution can work in conjunction with businesses to cut extraneous costs, which often drain profits.

Ditch Primitive Excel Spreadsheets | Reduce Scheduling Time

To effectively streamline the scheduling process, it's best that companies ditch primitive Excel spreadsheets in favor of automating employee scheduling. With an automated scheduling system, managers can post and adjust schedules to interact with employees in real time via the click of a mouse or finger tap. Employees can contact their colleagues to request shift coverage and obtain manager approval via web, e-mail or text. It's clear, a majority of the issues associated with scheduling for profitability and meeting employee needs can be avoided with smart planning.

Intelligent scheduling practices lead to an increase in employee productivity, which typically influences employee satisfaction and helps to reduce absenteeism. Managers spend less time on scheduling the workforce and processing time sheets. HR can expect a reduction in manual processes by implementing self-service capabilities for both employees and managers. Offering this level of autonomy to the workforce reduces the administrative burden on the HR staff.

Simplify Administration

Basic HR and payroll related tasks can be easily automated with a time-keeping system, thus saving considerable administrative resources. Automating time/labor, absence, and scheduling functionality will lead to substantial improvements in productivity included but not limited to:

• Fewer data-entry errors with self-service time reporting systems and automated time-capture systems

• Automate the tracking and monitoring of absences against planned schedules to allow managers to gauge productivity lapses on a real-time basis

• Automate the calculation of gross pay based on rules

• Automate the calculation of absence accruals, eligibility, and pay based on rules.

• Encourage employee "self-service" including submitting leave requests to managers, approving time cards and recording performance-related data

Reduce Labor Costs

• Lessen the administrative costs of manually scheduling employees

• Align employees with business demands

• Reduce the impact of productivity loss due to unplanned absences

• Monitor worker adherence to schedules in real time.

Avoiding Compliance Fines

Proper scheduling practices using an automated workforce management solution provides compliance measures with varying federal, state and local laws as well as rules arising from union agreements. These rules are relatively complicated, frequently unintuitive, and not always readily understood by managers. Automated scheduling software solutions incorporates rules engines within the software that automatically include these bodies of regulations into the scheduling process, thereby improving compliance.

VCS Software | Scheduling Software Systems

Traditional time & attendance systems - which are still widely in use today– clock the hours that employees are on the job after they have worked as the hours are counted after the shift has taken place. This reactive approach breeds overspending and inefficiencies for most organizations. VCS’ software systems compute data prior to shift work, so that planned hours and staffing are properly configured. Proactive scheduling promotes a productive, compliant, and fiscally responsible workforce. For additional information on VCS products and services, visit www.vcssoftware.com or contact us directly at 888-864-4144.