Automatic staff scheduling: 7 ways to let planning software do the work

1. Standard schedule: a fully filled roster with one click

With an online staff planning tool, you can create one or more standard schedules. These are rolled out week by week. In such a standard schedule, you indicate which shifts need to be filled regularly and who should be scheduled for them. If a permanent employee is sick or on vacation, or if a shift is filled flexibly, you can see at a glance which shifts are still open.

2. Predict the required staffing capacity

With online staff planning software, you can easily create forecasts based on historical data and weather forecasts. By using our smart integrations, you can pull data from your other systems into DISH Staff Planner. With all this valuable data, you can accurately predict the required staffing capacity and ensure optimal coverage. As soon as you schedule someone, DISH Staff Planner calculates personnel costs based on their hourly wage. This lets you immediately see whether you stay within budget.

3. Participatory scheduling: employees in control

Self-scheduling is rapidly gaining popularity. It saves a lot of time for the scheduler because employees take on (part of) the responsibility themselves. It also increases employee engagement. They have more influence over the schedule and can better see the bigger picture. In addition, they can better manage their work-life balance, which leads to less absenteeism.

Thanks to the staff planning app, you can give employees influence over their schedule in various ways. For example, they can indicate when they want to work and when they don’t. Or you can give them the option to respond to open shifts and swap shifts themselves. You can also provide them with insight into their leave balance, overtime, and allowances through the app. As an employer, you decide to what extent you implement self-scheduling.

4. Automatically track hours and send everything to your payroll administration with one click

Thanks to online staff planning software, worked hours are automatically recorded. This can be done via our app or with NOA, our smart clocking system. With a personal card (such as an OV-chipkaart or debit card), employees can clock in and out quickly. Overtime, allowances, and leave hours are automatically calculated and processed. This way, you collect all the data you need for payroll administration in one place. And with our smart integrations, you can send it to your payroll software with one click.

In addition, you automatically receive an alert if you are not complying with legislation, such as the Working Hours Act. DISH Staff Planner also automatically takes CAO rules into account. You can even select different CAO rules per employee. This helps you avoid mistakes and, consequently, fines or other problems.

5. Automate everything related to leave

In DISH Staff Planner, everything related to leave is automated. Your employees can request leave themselves via the app. If you approve the leave request, it is automatically processed in the schedule. The shifts the employee was scheduled for during the leave period become open, so you can immediately see which gaps arise in the staffing plan. The leave balance is also updated automatically. In an automatically generated report, you can see at a glance who has requested leave and when.

6. Automatic insight into useful planning information

During scheduling, you have quick access to valuable information. For example, you can see your expected revenue, budget, the weather, and information that you pull into DISH Staff Planner from your other systems. You also have information about your staff right at your fingertips, such as availability, certifications, and overtime balances. This allows you to effortlessly create the most optimal schedule.

7. AI-based staff planning

Artificial intelligence is making significant progress, and this is translating into automated scheduling. We are increasingly receiving questions about this, but for many organizations it is still a step too far. First, you need to ensure that you are collecting the right data. We are currently developing this step. More on this later.