How far in advance should you give employees notice of their work schedule?
If you are running a team of workers, you would know how tough the scheduling of tasks for your employees can be. Trying to manage employees’ schedules can be a very daunting and time-consuming task. Setting work shifts, creating a schedule, called a rota, and then sending it to the employees is no easy job. Similarly, there will be multiple questions that come to your mind, one of which can be how much in advance should you, as the employer, give the notice of their work schedule.
Multiple things matter when it comes to answering questions about providing the schedule to their employees.
What is a work rota?
Rota is a documented system that sets the boundaries of how work is to be done. Practically speaking, it talks more about the organizational pattern of the regular tasks that take place in the workplace. Based on where your business is or where you take a start form, the rota may be a physical or digital document format.
What should a work rota/schedule be like?
In the very basic form, we can define work rota as follows:
· It should include the name of the employees.
· The shifts they are scheduled to work in a certain week. (The times and the dates)
· The location of where they will complete the shifts. (If it is relevant).
You can also choose to list the responsibilities of the employees during the shifts. It’s better to have all the information of the employees in a single place, so they would not have to go out looking. In an informative work, rota will ensure that everything falls in place. To keep your employees satisfied, it is better to have a device, so they can access it anytime.
Why you need to have employee scheduling, the benefits.
There are multiple benefits that employee scheduling can bring to your employees as it helps to develop your company to the maximum potential. Here are some main benefits that employee scheduling can offer.
1. Ensuring the efficient and smooth operation
All businesses need to operate smoothly and steadily to ensure the success of every operation at the workplace. When all employees in the workplace are aware of their working hours, their workplace, and their responsibilities, they will be able to work to the best of their potential. That is because everyone knows their tasks clearly, and there is no confusion about how and when the task is to be done.
2. It ensures effective management of employee attendance issues
Amongst the main issues faced by organizations is employee attendance. When there is any proper schedule set, the management can deal with the entire system effectively. Let us say one employee comes to work late regularly or is taking a lot of leave. The management will be able to deal with and track the issue with the employee in a better manner and then take the necessary action suitably.
3. Efficient and easy management of shifts, better for 24/7 businesses
Without proper scheduling, there are chances of conflicts about which employees should be coming in a particular shift. A proper schedule ensures that the right employees are set for the shift at hand. With easy and efficient management of shifts, a work rota can help perfect management of the workplace where there are no conflicts associated with shift management of employees.
4. Maintain a fair policy.
Employee scheduling says that every employee is treated fairly regarding leave. Management looks at the schedule reports and accordingly allocates and assigns leave to the employees.
How late in advance should the work schedule be set?
In many countries, the timeline set for giving the rota to employees is known to be dictated by law. There are different laws across different countries ruling the setting of work schedules or employee rota. Many predictive laws state that the employees should be given the schedules with any required changes, at least 14 days before the beginning of the first shift. In some cases, this can be as much as 21 days. Before you go ahead, it’s best to research and find out the applicable laws of where you live and see how it may affect your scheduling.
Wrapping it up
Planning rotas for the staff is no easy job, and managers must consider a lot of things when deciding upon when and where they will be needing their staff. As a good employer, try to send your staff their rotas within a week of their shifts. With this, you will be able to handle requests better and deal with the necessary changes, reducing the likelihood of your staff showing up late or having to miss their shifts. We assure you that your employees will be thankful to you for this and will ensure their satisfaction as well.
