A work schedule is more than a Google Calendar. Here's how to make one to get the best visibility into who's doing what weekly, monthly, yearly.
Work scheduling is an important step in almost every manager's routine. And the more people you have on your team, the more oversight and visibility you need over individual and group schedules. Unless you're a memory savant, it would be impossible to remember how every single project schedule intersects with anyone's time.
Having a work schedule, you know which resources are assigned to what projects, who is available, and whether you have the resource capacity to take on more work.
These benefits are, however, just the tip of the iceberg since well-planned, realistic schedules improve company-wide planning, efficiency, and productivity. Done right, these benefits can also culminate in quantifiable results.
The question, however, is: how do you make a work schedule? This guide gives you a 5-step blueprint to creating a draft that’s free from scheduling conflicts. Read on to learn how.
Work schedules offer a bucketload of benefits — from improving organizational productivity to increasing employee engagement. Here are five reasons why you should be creating an employee work schedule:
With a work schedule in place, managers can quickly review what an employee is working on and if they’re available to take on more. In turn, it facilitates efficient work planning. Clear schedules help teams coordinate across departments, ensuring that all resources are aligned and tasks are not duplicated, which enhances overall teamwork and collaboration.
A well-planned work schedule makes sure the right projects, tasks, and objectives are prioritized. It also ensures deadlines are met without delay — all of which boosts efficiency and time management. When everyone knows what they need to do and when it needs to be done, the organization operates like a well-oiled machine, leading to higher productivity and better outcomes.
Realistic work schedules are based on employee availability and capacity. In doing so, they ensure employees are optimally utilized, not overloaded with work. This prevents burnout and ensures that all team members are contributing evenly, which promotes a healthier, more sustainable work environment.
Related: How to Get Workload Distribution Right in Your Team
Project scheduling gives employees and managers an idea of what to expect. Plus, they tell companies whether they’ve the capacity to take on more work, further contributing to efficient planning. By reducing schedule conflicts, companies can minimize misunderstandings and reduce the stress that comes from last-minute changes or overlapping responsibilities.
Last but not the least, work schedules assign work based on an employee’s unique skill set. The result is staff is assigned work they’re well equipped to do, leading to improved engagement at work. And since scheduling promotes healthy work-life balance, it helps reduce employee turnover as motivation goes up.
Further reading: 12 Work Schedules Every Manager Should Understand
Making a work schedule takes quite some upfront work — mainly as it relates to gathering information on employee availability, skill set, and compliance laws.
If you have an up-to-date skills inventory though with access to employee availability in one place, making a work schedule will become a breeze. So if you already haven’t, consider making a skills inventory first or create one as part of step 2 in this step-by-step guide.
With that, let’s jump into creating an organized schedule:
All work schedules start with an in-depth look at your organization’s workforce requirements. If you’ve been investing in staff planning, this should be fairly simple to do.
Either way, answer the following to determine your workforce requirements:
Next, analyze workload patterns. Studying your historical data should help you understand changes in seasonal demands.
At the same time, dig into operational or technological constraints your organization may be facing. This is essential to factor in maintenance schedule and equipment availability (for organizations outside the tech industry).
And finally, before moving on to the next step, review legal and contractual obligations. Find out what labor laws you need to follow. This ensures the work schedule you draft takes break time and optimal working hours into account.
In this step, curate information on employee availability, skillset, critical projects/deadlines or priority goals, and anticipated project timelines. Let’s break this down:
There is nothing better than having this information in one place. If you don’t, now is the time to get started since it’ll help you create accurate work schedules now and then.
Make sure your workforce availability is granular. That is: it covers details about when an individual is due an off and how many hours they work in a work week based on their contract.
A skills inventory shows you each employee’s skillset, interests, and areas for improvement. In Runn, you can see these alongside employee availability for a full overview of available talent. This way, you can make skills-aligned work schedules that don’t clash with employees’ time off.
Whether it’s a project-specific work schedule or a company-wide schedule, you need to assess what projects are a high priority for the business. This ensures you make a schedule that meets these priorities without derailing the rest of the projects in your pipeline.
These are your historical project trends showing how long it typically takes to complete different types of projects. Again, go as deep as you can to find how long specific milestones take to reach, the resources you need to hit them, and the constraints you usually encounter.
All this information, in turn, will help you create a realistic work schedule that is as close to accurate as possible and compliant with labor laws. As you keep project timelines real, you also boost employee satisfaction while optimally using your workforce.
Related: Explaining Workstreams in Project Management
You’ll need a resource scheduling tool to effectively plan ahead and create your work schedule then share it with the right stakeholders (including assigning projects).
Now, you can always do the same in a spreadsheet, but a robust software centralizes all information so it's easily accessible and auto-updates — boosting your productivity and reducing the margin for error.
A resource scheduling tool, in particular, helps you:
Most of all, the software helps you not just create the schedule but also update it as needed.
Still doubtful about whether you need an employee scheduling tool? Go through this buyer’s guide to determine the need and learn how to convince the C-suite to invest in it when you’re ready yourself.
If you’ve already tried spreadsheets and noticed how they lack when it comes to centralizing and automating data plus collaborating with your team members, here’s what to look for in the software:
And to make it easy for you, here’s a shortlist of the best resource scheduling tools.
This step is where you collate all the information you’ve gathered in your resource scheduling software to start building out the schedule.
Make sure you have details of employee availability and labor laws open too. Simultaneously review your skills inventory.
Then, begin building out a schedule that lists projects due and upcoming projects. Besides each project, start breaking down milestones and needed roles. Then go into your skills inventory to identify best-fit people for projects — adding employee names and cross-checking if they’re available during the timeframe you’re charting for the project.
For each project, work out realistic timelines per project phase or milestone. You can do this by looking at project historical data that answers how long it typically takes to complete a specific type of project.
With dates, times, and employee names in place, most of the legwork is done. All that’s left to do is to include breaks and rest periods alongside some buffer time. You’ll need the former to stay compliant and the latter to save yourself from schedule clashes and overlapping project timelines.
In the final step, review your schedule draft for conflicts. Check for:
Once done, verify all projects have key roles filled in and critical tasks have the right-fit personnel assigned.
Lastly, go ahead and review employee availability one more time. Create a contingency plan where you specify who will replace whom in case of emergencies or unforeseen personal commitments.
When done, share it with your team or key stakeholders for feedback. Revise as needed (if you’re using a resource scheduling tool, updating the schedule will be fairly effortless).
Related: Connect the Dots with Project Master Schedules
Remember: first drafts and first attempts at work schedules don’t always give you the perfect schedule that is free from common scheduling errors. However, reiterating, revising, and regularly leveraging historical data to make your schedules always delivers dividends.
Some parting advice, though, is to create a coverage plan for peak periods. This involves planning who will supplement which staff and for how long to meet work requirements during high-demand times.
Looking to specifically create a hybrid work schedule? Here’s your step-by-step guide.
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