Instead of chasing employees down to inform them of a new schedule, you can send all the important information to the whole team in an email or text. Not to mention it will transform the way you communicate with your team. It won’t cost you anything and will save you hours every week. But before you go and spend another hour tweaking the timetable, you should consider trying employee scheduling software for free. When that happens, you need to get back to your Excel sheet and start all over again. People get sick or need time off for unpredictable personal reasons. The worst thing about this grueling task is that, no matter how hard you try, something will always come up. So you can’t give too many hours to Jane, even though she needs the money and is your best worker.

And of course, there are state labor regulations you need to abide by. Kelly’s kid’s recital on Tuesday, John’s dentist appointment on Thursday, the fact that tips are better in the afternoon and Marcus asked for more of those shifts. When you sit down to make a schedule for the coming week, you need to take so many things into consideration.

Open source employee scheduling system