How to Use an Excel Spreadsheet for Scheduling Employee Shifts
A way to simplify the problem of getting your employees to work according to a schedule and not due to their own whims and fancies is to use an Excel spreadsheet. The method may take some getting used to, but you will soon be able to recognize how the spreadsheet will work to make it easier to schedule employee shifts in your office.
To begin with, one of the first things that must be looked at when employee shift scheduling comes into play is how far ahead of the actual production day you are in your business. All businesses today are using different work habits to get through the busy season of summer. Unfortunately, most work rules these days are based on the current market conditions, so that is where you begin the calculations.
Once you have this figured out, you will need to look at the type of work that you do and how many people will be involved. You will want to choose the spreadsheet model that you will use that is compatible with your types of work to ensure that it will accommodate the amount of work that you are planning to have done during the summer months.
You will then need to look at your current work environment to see if there is a large enough area where your shift can be located. You can also look at your windows and floor plans to see if there is enough room in your workplace for your new computerized work area. As a matter of fact, you will probably want to consider all of these factors before choosing the Excel spreadsheet for scheduling employee shifts.
If you are working on a floor plan that is longer than 30 feet, or if there is a lot of open space, you will want to consider having a huge area that is devoted to your schedule. If the area has windows in it, you will probably want to keep this area free from any clutter to maximize your productivity while maintaining some privacy for your workers.
You will also want to look at the size of the room that you have allotted to your schedule for each employee and work group to make sure that the number of people that you have assigned to one work group does not exceed what is available for each worker. A little extra foot or inch of space will save you time in the long run because it will allow you to assign workers to work groups at the time when they are more productive.
One other thing that you will want to take into consideration is the placement of any equipment that you have within the work space, such as the power strip, monitor, or any other devices that are used to work from home. This is important because if you place these devices in the back of the work space, you will need to consider where they will be placed on the floor so that it will maximize the use of the space that you have to work with.
One of the other things that you will want to consider is where the employees can access the work area from. If you have employees that can easily move from one work area to another to get their work done, this can help make the work more efficient and will give you more people to schedule.
Also, you will want to consider the width of the work space so that it is able to accommodate any tools or devices that you have that you want to use to help organize the work. For example, if you have audio visual equipment that is used for your scheduling, it will be necessary to make sure that it can fit into the work space.
When you are ready to start using an Excel spreadsheet for scheduling employee shifts, you will need to make sure that you create a blank document. From this point, you will want to start by entering the number of employees that you have assigned to each work group and the work load that each of them will have to meet during the summer.
Once you have that information entered into the spreadsheet, you will then need to add in the days that your summer breaks will be during the work hours, the dates of the days that you will need to be on vacation, and the dates that you will need to be on the road when you get back to work. So, now you know what it will take to schedule your shifts. LOOK ALSO : excel spreadsheet for project management
