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Employee scheduling software

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Employee scheduling software automates the process of creating and maintaining a schedule. Automating the scheduling of employees increased productivity and made many secretarial and manual scheduling positions obsolete. Such software will usually track vacation time, sick time, compensation time, and alert when there are conflicts. [1] As scheduling data is accumulated over time, it may be extracted for payroll or to analyze past activity. Although employee scheduling software may or may not make optimization decisions, it does manage and coordinate the tasks. [2][3]

Today’s employee scheduling software often includes mobile applications. Mobile scheduling further increased scheduling productivity and eliminated inefficient scheduling steps.[4]

This software may be a part of an ERP package or other human resource management system. [5][6][7]

Complexity

A theoretical underpinning of an employee scheduling problem can be represented as the Nurse scheduling problem, which is NP-hard. The theoretical complexity of the problem is a significant factor in the development of various software solutions. This is because systems must take into account many different forms of schedules that could be worked, and allocate employees to the correct schedule.[citation needed]

Features

Although employee scheduling software won't necessarily improve business practices by itself, it does automate typically tedious business administration. Some packages calculate factors such as approved employee requests, hours of availability, business hours, business needs, shift trades, etc. and automatically create a work schedule that fits as many constraints as possible and manage the task of automation and data collection. By providing management with large amounts of data, this software can assist management in making decisions. Some typical features are listed below:

  • Gantt chart
  • Reduce unproductive workforce due to over scheduling[8]
  • Use weather forecasts to predict staffing needs[8]
  • Allow employees to swap shifts.
  • Templates to roll out shift plans over medium term
  • Conflict management, e.g. blocking double bookings[citation needed]
  • Interface to payroll and/or management accounting software [9]
  • Ability to easily identify unassigned shifts.[9]
  • Ability to create reports for invoicing and payroll.[9]
  • Automatic availability and capacity checking.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ Pattie, Maes (2000). "Agents that Reduce Work and Information Overload" (PDF). MIT Media Laboratory.
  2. ^ Ernst, A. T; Jiang, H; Krishnamoorthy, M; Sier, D (2004-02-16). "Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models". European Journal of Operational Research. Timetabling and Rostering. 153 (1): 3–27. doi:10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00095-X.
  3. ^ Glover, Fred; McMillan, Claude; Glover, Randy (1984-02-01). "A heuristic programming approach to the employee scheduling problem and some thoughts on "managerial robots"". Journal of Operations Management. 4 (2): 113–128. doi:10.1016/0272-6963(84)90027-5.
  4. ^ Ernst, A. T; Jiang, H; Krishnamoorthy, M; Sier, D (2004-02-16). "Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models". European Journal of Operational Research. Timetabling and Rostering. 153 (1): 3–27. doi:10.1016/S0377-2217(03)00095-X.
  5. ^ IDC. "Mobile Technology: Transforming Workforce Management". July 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ^ Aberdeen Group. "Workforce Scheduling 2011: Automation Drives Accuracy, Efficiency and Business Outcomes". April 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  7. ^ Nucleus Research. "Research Note: Mobile Technology Meets the Frontline Workforce". April 2011. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  8. ^ a b Steven Greenhouse (October 27, 2012). "A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift". The New York Times. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
  9. ^ a b c Disselkamp, Lisa. Workforce Asset Management Book of Knowledge. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 9781118420508.
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