When it comes to employee satisfaction in the workplace, the benefits are numerous: lower turnover rates, less absenteeism, reduced long-term HR costs, improved employee productivity and increased retention rates.

Keeping workplace culture top of mind and creating a positive work environment is an ongoing commitment, but the investment is well worth it. When employees feel more connected and empowered, they will be more likely to strive harder to achieve mutual goals. That’s why it’s so important to start building a solid foundation to enable employee satisfaction to thrive.

Did you know, scheduling practices can play a key role in employee satisfaction? The connection may not be immediately obvious, but managers will understand the intricacies of shift scheduling, and the impact a rota can have on staff happiness.

Common sense tells us that scheduling employees on at a time that works for them, and taking into consideration their personal preferences in terms of location and availability, will have a profound impact. With the right workforce management and rota software solution in place, businesses can increase employee satisfaction and reap the benefits of a happy team.

Scheduling for employee satisfaction best practice

There are a few ways you can help ensure best practice scheduling to motivate your workforce and help ensure employee satisfaction.

Respect staff preferences: Build rotas to respect staff preferences and consider whether shifts will suit individual team members. The best way to do this is by using rota software to keep track of any regular commitments staff may have, their availability, seniority and role.

Maintain scheduling consistency

You also need to ensure scheduling consistency from week to week to keep your team happy. Unfair advantages and favouritism in rota creation can be a breeding ground for tension in the workplace. Make sure you maintain some consistency when shift scheduling to keep staff happy.

Embrace flexibility

Many shift workers enjoy the flexibility their job provides, so you want to make sure their rotas accommodate this. For example, if an employee needs to change a shift, it’s important to have processes in place to fill it quickly and efficiently to maintain employee satisfaction.

Prepare for busier times

If the balance between the number of staff and the number of customers is off, employees will be unnecessarily over-worked, negatively impacting employee satisfaction. Alternatively, too many team members on a quiet day can mean there’s little work for your employees to do.

Boost happiness with AI

To truly optimise employee satisfaction, it’s important to choose rota software that can generate shifts and take into consideration modern award compliance, break rules, employee preferences, skills and labour costs. AI-powered rota software will help managers spend less time planning and publishing, and increase employee satisfaction with rotas that consider staff needs.

The challenges of scheduling for employee satisfaction

As much as managers will try to make everyone happy, scheduling for employee satisfaction poses many challenges. Nowadays, there are rota software solutions available to help intuitively automate much of the creation process, while taking into consideration factors that maximise employee satisfaction.

Communication issues

You need to be able to communicate rotas effectively across shift-based teams. Providing staff with an excel sheet or communal print-out calendar can result in missed shifts and staff frustration due to a lack of visibility over their working hours.

With rota software, you can communicate rotas via an employee self service app. Staff can check when and where they’re working and communicate availability anywhere, anytime.

Over- or under-scheduling

Scheduling too many employees on at the same time can not only be costly but can also lead to staff being bored out of their minds. Scheduling not enough staff on at busier times can make them feel overwhelmed with work, putting a strain on employee satisfaction.

Rota software allows you to create rota templates based on predicted demand, reducing the chances of over- or under-scheduling.

Incorrectly interpreted awards

Adhering to payroll compliance is an incredibly important part of maintaining high standards of employee satisfaction. After all, paying your staff correctly is one sure-fire way to keep them happy.

Roubler’s rota software incorporates built-in checks and measures to help you ensure you pay your staff in accordance with the latest updates in legislation.

Get in touch with one of Roubler’s workforce management experts to find out how we can help you transform your rota practices and make the most out of an online rota system.

Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest on news and tips to manage your workforce.