Before I get going here on why I need you, I just wanted to take a second and thank you. SkedX has been growing leaps and bounds as of late, and I wanted to thank you, the users, for supporting us on a journey to making scheduling impossibly easy for managers, and something of enjoyment for staff. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!!!!

So like I said in the title, we need you! Our development team works tirelessly in the SkedX Labs to bring you the latest and greatest tools to help you speed up your scheduling, and now we want to know what will help you in your scheduling. Please either comment in the blog or send us an email to contactus@skedx.com and let us know what SkedX can do for you to help speed up your scheduling or different features that you would like to see added (for example, being able to easily send your schedules to your payroll provider). Let us know! What we will do is take all the emails and comments and see which ones we can make useable for everyone. Also, if there is something specific that you want made for your company, email me at Anthony@skedx.com and we will try and help you.

Thanks Again and Happy Scheduling!

Anthony

When potential employees read your ads, make sure that the ones who have the best chance of matching your needs, are the ones that feel compelled to interview with you.  This will only happen if these checkpoints are met in the job description you advertise:

• Targets the person you need for a particular job
• States what responsibilities the vacant position entails.
• Accurately describes the day to day requirements. A couple of notes here.  If you aim too high your candidates could be over-qualified for the position you have and, likewise, may have salary expectations that are too high. On the other hand, if your description is too general and you will have a flood of candidates to weed out

Before that Ad is placed make sure you’ve done these simple steps:

• Ask employees to identify their most important tasks and what qualities they feel are necessary to do the job well
• Get input from anyone who will be working for or with the new employee
• Decide what personality complements the position and the people on the team

Take all the information gathered and make sure that your Ad is designed to get the right person.  Okay.

Invite those with the stated qualifications to call and those who don’t to keep looking.

DON`T SKIP PRE-SCREENING:

The more care you take in deciding who will make it through your screening process, the more likely you will find the best available candidate.  There is much information available to help you customize this step. Develop at least 10 questions that will narrow the field roughly relating to these areas:

1. What are your career goals?
2. Why are you currently unemployed?
3. What is your ideal job?
4. What do you excel at?
5. What failures have you had?
6. How would co-workers describe you?
7. What environment do you prefer to work in?
8. What management style do you perform best for?
9. What motivates you?
10. What are your salary expectations?

DON`T IGNORE THE RED FLAGS:

Remember that this step saves costly mistakes. Pre-screening was your early warning system. There are red flags to watch out for.  You may have some of your own gathered from experience.  To save time and money down the line, here is a list to get you started:

• unexplained time gaps between jobs
• inconsistent or vague information
• job-hopping or major career jumps
• Typos and spelling errors
• Several jobs in a short space of time
• Has held all entry level positions without earning a promotion

The more care you take establishing your customized pre-screening system, the more success you will have hiring staff.

SEVEN WAYS TO BOTCH AN INTERVIEW?

You may be right on target right up until the moment a potential employee meets you face-to-face.  This is where the big mistakes happen.  Don`t be guilty of any of these

• Failure to verify, verify, verify. Although the final steps in the pre-screening process are the most crucial, they’re often botched.
• Not being properly prepared for the interview.  Assuming your experience allows you to wing it.
• Not having a set list of questions that you ask each applicant for the job,
• First reading of the resume while walking in to the conference room,
• Talking too much and listening too little with no real plan for either course of action
• Not writing down any of the interviewee’s responses. If you feel uncomfortable writing while the applicant is speaking, use a tape recorder and transcribe the responses later.
• Not prepared to do your own job which is to sell.  It`s important that candidates get a clear picture of what is great about you, your store, your staff.  That`s your interview challenge.

We have looked at what NOT to do.  Here are three final suggestions that will bring you to success.

USE THE REFERENCE CHECK. THAT`S WHAT THEY`RE FOR!

Reference checks are very commonly misused or underused. When we think we`re coming to the end of the difficult road of hiring new staff, it`s easy to rush this next step.  If you have taken detailed notes during the initial interview, you can verify any of the applicant’s numbers or claims. Although you`re hoping for a fairy tale ending, it would be very upsetting and costly to find out too late that a resume was largely fiction.

CONSIDER SKILL TESTING

The applicant may claim to have years of relevant experience, but you still can benefit from seeing the skill put into action. Consider inviting an applicant to work for a day at your business, paid, to perform the responsibilities of the job. You won`t regret the investment.

ANOTHER GREAT TIP!

It’s a good idea to have final candidates meet with their potential co-workers before the final contract is signed. Even if the tests indicate that the applicant is a perfect fit, ultimately it is the working environment that will determine the permanency of your new hire’s stay.

SUCCESS

When your new hire quickly adapts to your business, is welcomed by both staff and customers and enthusiastically wants to stay – you have found your perfect fit!!

• Are they reliable?
• Are they productive?
• Are they profitable?
• Do they engage your customers?
• Are they committed to being better every day?
• Are they happy?

 If you answered “No!” to any of these questions about your staff, it could be the reason customers are not saying “Yes!” to shopping at your store.  

1. HOW HIRING MISTAKES HAPPEN

Store managers have broad shoulders and bear the burden of responsibility for diverse challenges.  It’s easy to see how easily and unintentionally the wrong person can get placed in the wrong position at the wrong time.  Have you ever given one of these answers to a personnel issue that went bad?

• Lack of good choices to choose from.
• Did not see the character flaws until after hiring
• Yielded to the temptation to fill the position as quickly as possible
• Let personal bias overshadow staffing requirements

2.  BAD HIRING COSTS GOOD MONEY

The bottom line to not having the best staff working for you is that a lot of good money goes down the drain.  It starts with payroll costs that balloon to cover low productivity and high turnover.  You spend too much time – some studies say as much as 63% –on staff related problems.  More than half of every day is focused on a negative.  This dollar drain definitely impacts your effectiveness in improving sales and revenue. Do the math.  What is poor hiring costing you? 

3. SET UP A PERFECT CANDIDATE GPS

• You`ve got to know exactly who you`re looking for.  Set clear definitions for:
  • Specific Skills
  • Personality
  • Experience
  • Knowledge
• Review your current staff. What traits complement those of your current best staff members?

4. PRE-SCREENING BEFORE YOU PLACE A HELP WANTED AD

Pre-screen all candidates. The goal is to separate the ideal candidate for the job from the masses.

Don’t bring in anyone to interview who doesn’t meet your well-defined minimum requirements for:

• Education
• Experience
• Skills

Know Personal Characteristics Work Successfully in Your Particular Environment

• Team Player or Independent self starter
• Extrovert or Introvert
• Already well-trained
• Eager student or quick study

5. TAKE YOUR TIME

If you’ve just lost a highly skilled and experienced employee, you may feel you can`t afford to wait two, three or four weeks for that ideal applicant.  Unless you have a formal training program and the time, money, and employees to wait for an inexperienced hiree to come up to speed, it’s better to hold out as long as possible for a qualified individual. Remember that you ultimately are responsible for your hiring decision.

That`s it for the first 4 steps in finding the perfect fit between your retail store and your prospective employee.  In Hiring the Perfect Retail Employee Part 2 we will look at “All the Right Pieces!”

Customer service starts with the way you treat your staff.

• Whatever style you decide to use to keep them in-line may be the one they decide to use on customers who are standing in line.
• You don’t just lose employees when staff is unhappy at work, you lose customers.
• Ideally you want new employees and new customers beating down your door because of the great things they’ve heard about your store, your staff and your products.

You’ve got so much to do and now you’ve got to be a warm fuzzy cheerleader.  Before you reject the idea outright, take a look at the jobs that are easier, the problems that are solved, and the money made and saved by having happy employees.

TOP TEN REASONS FOR TREATING STAFF LIKE CUSTOMERS

1. Happy employees are enthusiastic on and off the job. They promote even when they’re not working. Money can’t buy the good will that this generates.
2. People make emotional connections.  It’s fun to shop where you feel the service is great, the attitude is friendly and the morale is high.
3. Passionate customers are a direct result of passionate employees.
4. When enthusiasm becomes contagious, feedback is great and will often inspire creative brand promotions, theme events and customer (and staff) recognition days.
5. When problems rear their ugly heads, a happy sales team will all contribute to the solution. Unhappy employees are at best uninvolved at worst could add negatively to the situation.
6. If you can manage your team in a way that inspires confidence, they will pass on the good feelings to customers.  The focus moves from clock watching to creative and innovative customer service.
7. Training is a key component of the way you treat your staff.  No one wants to underperform.  In many cases this can be positively affected by training in daily routines and processes required to meet store goals and branding strategies.
8. Teaching your staff to be your best ambassadors is time well spent.  Make sure they can spot the ideal customer, tell the company story and make connections that build foundations for long term relationships.
9. Praise and positive feedback are two of the best things you can give to your employees.  Once they know what is expected and that they will be recognized for doing well, they will extend themselves to take care of customers. 
10. Provide monetary rewards for staff that go above and beyond in meeting the goals of the store. Encourage staff to take ownership for the effectiveness of the business.  Ask them, “If you where the owner what would you do?”  Whether it’s cash or store discounts or some other financial reward, it is always a good thing when employees have a vested interest in improving the bottom line.

 Ten easy to manage steps.  Happy staff.  Happy customers.

Since no one in the office wanted to pull the trigger on this one we are reaching out to our present and future Skedx users and blog readers to help us decide. In all honesty we could have just stuck with “blog” but that’s just too boring.

Within the team we have chosen three names that we really like for our Blog;  The Thumbtack Chronicles, Skedaddle, and  SkedCast. We’d like to hear which one you like best.

Not to put pressure on you but with great power comes great responsibility, choose wisely.

Looking forward to your response!

Enjoy,

Mendel – The Intern

#1- BE ECONOMICAL:

GOAL: Recognizing that payroll is one of the largest operating expenses, the key is remaining profitable while finding a balance between labour costs and scheduling enough employees to handle sales. Overstaffing costs money.  Understaffing loses potential sales.

REQUIRED INFORMATION: You will need the current payroll budget as provided by regional or district managers or corporate office. It is also helpful to have statistics from the previous year (or years) to see how busy the store was at particular seasons. Request or do your own analysis on the busiest times during your store’s operating hours. Calculate the average sales volume for identified periods. Valuable information can be pulled from Industry standards for your business and stores of comparable size. As your calculations and yearly history are recorded you can determine whether you are above or below this benchmark. Of course, you need detailed information on your employees, their level of training and other factors that impact store operations.

SIMPLE STEPS:

• Plan the cost effective use of your workforce based on sales by hour or by day
• Adjust your workforce based on daily or weekly sales reports\
• Schedule just enough people to keep running during slow times.
• Have a second shift come in just before a rush and stay just beyond the rush and a third shift come for the evening and store closing.
• Overlapping shifts offer relief during the busiest times of the day, allowing for employee breaks or and accommodating employees who must be late.
• Set your labour cost budget for each hour.  Calculate this as a percentage of sales or use your industry standard as a benchmark, for example, 10% of sales for retail stores.
• As sales increase, increase your payroll budget, not the percentage.
• Establish a payroll budget and staffing requirements.

#2- BE EFFICIENT

GOAL: Get the most workable scheduling system in place and then stick with it. The amount of time a manager spends on scheduling can expand exponentially as more and more variables are accommodated.

REQUIRED INFORMATION: Pull together everything pertinent regarding your employees and their duties. Have job descriptions for cashiers, sales and stock personnel.  Define all jobs that are expected as part of the smooth operation of the retail location. Define those who will be full time, part time or do more than one job. Have sales reports by hour on hand as well as information to review daily, monthly and yearly sales.  Estimates and forecasting will be built on this information. Traditionally, weekend and nights are usually busier than weekdays. You will also want to consider holidays and school vacations and any other differences in the routine of your store.

SIMPLE STEPS:

• Define the needs of your store regarding staff.
• Set your labour cost budget for each hour. Calculate this as a percentage of sales or use your industry standard as a benchmark, for example, 10% of sales for retail (according to Census).
• Schedule employees for each hour based on your hourly labour cost budget.
• Adjust your staffing based on weekly sales reports by hour
• Juggle employee availability
• Allow your employees to give you information about their schedule.
• Try to accommodate employees who want to work more hours some weeks.
• Utilize on-call employees to help fill in shift gaps. Inform them that they will be given an hour’s notice to come in.
• On-call employees are also useful if someone calls in sick.
• Identify trustworthy and experienced personnel for key jobs such as opening and closing
• Balance employee skills sets with each shifts’ needs
• Identify convenient times to provide break and meal periods for staff members who are required to receive breaks
• Monitor and forecast labour expenses
• Add extra staffing during peak sales periods
• Make seasonal adjustments by referring to last year’s sales to find peak times and peak sales days.
• Post the schedule with lots of lead time, preferably two weeks to a month in advance, but at least one week ahead.  Posting late causes problems with employees and creates higher turnover and reduces employee retention – reducing overall profits.
• Give employees a chance to review the schedule and be sure they can work the times you have scheduled them for.
• Make sure that staff is aware that if there is a conflict you are willing to work with them.

#3-  BE EFFECTIVE:

GOAL: The bottom line is that you want to optimize staffing in order to satisfy customers and get the best return on your investment in personnel.

REQUIRED INFORMATION: The best foundation for employee scheduling is thorough knowledge of the retail sector you are working in.   Of course, detailed job descriptions and accurate performance evaluations will provide for informed decision making. Don’t overlook any legal implications that affect employees (age, hours, minimum wage etc.).

SIMPLE STEPS:

• Ensure that you have coverage needed during busy periods without overspending your payroll
• Communicate scheduling requirements clear
• Try to keep the same schedule each week so that employees can get into a routine.
• Let it be known that if they cannot cover their shift that they should not only come to you but see if they can get someone to cover for them
• Reduce turnover and improve employee retention
• Create motivation to retain your best employees and keep their passion working for the business
• Try to create a good rapport with your employees. This will cut down on the amount of scheduling changes you will have to make.

As noted previously, when it comes to retail employee scheduling, there is no single answer that fits everyone. Scheduling is a dynamic activity that will test many areas of your managerial ability. Having said that, if you can be economical, efficient and effective in carrying out this critical job, you will no doubt meet the needs of the retail store, while satisfying the needs of employees.  Just take it one simple step at a time!

THE SIX INCREDIBLE ADVANTAGES:

1. AVAILABLE
   Because of the continuously advancing technology of today’s business place, there are many online scheduling products available to consumers.  Off the shelf or custom designed, the choice is yours. Keeping track of your employees regardless of the size of your company, your workforce or your location is easy.  Countless variables relating to shift management, overlapping projects or calendar events can be accounted for and managed in a safe and secure manner.
2. USABLE
   A great advantage of online scheduling is the ease of communicating which is a huge saving over other methods.  Everything you need is at your fingertips and can be completed, reviewed, corrected and revised very quickly. Everyone involved can follow the posted schedule online. Updates are instantaneous.  Everyone is accurately informed.
3. ACCESSIBLE
   At all levels, anyone concerned can access the schedule from any computer with an internet browser. This twenty-four hour, seven days a week touch-point means that everyone knows the work schedule and how to double check timing, location and other pertinent data. Modern society is gradually evolving into accessing “the cloud” and shifting away from appointment books and organizers. No excuses. No mistakes.
4. MANAGEABLE
   Online management is easy, simple and painless. Complicated schedules can be produced quickly and with most products, there is no software to maintain. Feedback is instantaneous.  Corrections are not taken up with time-consuming phone calls, emails or face-to-face updates. The right information at the right time. Hassles and unnecessary frustrations are reduced or even eliminated. The potential is also there to have scheduling software integrated with other software such as payroll and incentive programs.
5. AFFORDABLE
   Cost savings ranks high, when setting priorities for rating an online scheduling program.  In addition to the previously mentioned savings in time for scheduling managers there are also financial benefits when your workforce is not understaffed or overstaffed.  Proper scheduling means that all your resources are being used effectively on budget and on time.
6. FLEXIBLE
   Flexibility is a huge benefit of online scheduling.  Regardless of the many usual or unexpected variables that come up, changes can be made quickly from any location, for any department or position or shift. Online scheduling works for both large or small businesses with single or multiple locations. No more tedious and expensive employee time spent trying to solve seemingly impossible problems. With the right online scheduling software, it is possible to keep updating and revising the scheduling programs according to customized requirements. Have you got “The Six Incredibles” working for you?

Thank you for tapping in to, “Employee Scheduling Software – Now That’s Incredible! “

I just wanted to share some exciting news. SkedX is moving from our office at 1071 King St. W. to a new office in the Toronto Star building located at 1 Yonge St. This building is located right in front of Lake Ontario with great views of the city and the lake. We will keep you up to date with the move.

Cheers,

Anthony

The primary reason why an online scheduling format is the best scheduling format available is due to the fact that employees and managers can see their schedule at all times from anywhere in the world. So, no matter what time of day you make an update to the schedule of your employees, your workforce can access information about their schedule at anytime from anywhere.

This instantaneous access to employee schedules often makes the process of communicating with employees much easier to do as well. If employees realize that there is a discrepancy within their schedule, they can easily inform their managers about their problem. If a manager discovers that there is not enough labor available for a specific period of time, they can communicate with their workforce about the situation.

Since everyone has access to all of this information about a workforce’s schedule at all times, all situations that arise can be worked out fairly easily. Also, if an employee does not have time to check their schedule while they are at work, they can easily log onto a website to find information about the current schedule setup. This easy access saves managers and employees a lot of hassle when it comes to working out scheduling issues.

Some employee schedule makers are particularly useful, because they can assist managers in the process of creating a schedule too. Whether a manager is having difficulty defining the amount of employees that are necessary for a specific period of time, or they are having trouble defining the amount of hours their workforce should work for, an employee scheduling program can assist managers with the task of creating a properly aligned schedule.

Some managers may find this feature to be particularly useful, because this feature takes into consideration seasonal patterns that are easy to forget. Whether it be a specific holiday, or changes in the availability of a workforce, a program can take all of these factors into consideration in order to create an accurate workforce schedule. These programs can also inform managers about any periods of time that do not have a sufficient amount of employees scheduled to work too.

Also, these online programs are often very flexible as well. Whether some employees need time off, or other employees wish to work more hours, these programs can take all of these factors into consideration in order to create an accurate and effective workforce schedule. These programs can also make recommendations for each unique situation that arises as well.
So, if you simply need a program that can make the process of creating work force schedules easier, or you are simply looking for a way to make your workforce more effective overall, workforce scheduling software may be the solution you have been looking for. When your business has this type of program at its disposal, not only will managers of your company be able to make more effective managerial decisions, but your company’s workforce will also be able to keep up to date with any changes that take place within their unique schedules as well.

Make the scheduling of your human resources efficient and a breeze by using employee schedule software that enables you to communicate work schedules to all of your employees. Online employee scheduling can help optimize work schedules. Online interface of workforce scheduling software allows employees to communicate instantly with their co-workers, seriously decreasing the risk of schedule conflicts.

If you are wondering what I spent $30,000 dollars on what I’m referring to is my undergraduate degree which is currently sitting framed nicely somewhere in my room collecting dust bunnies. Since I haven’t bought any property let alone own my own car this is by far my biggest investment to date. In hindsight, I could have thought of a ton of other ways to spend that money but those ‘things’ would not have benefited me later on in my life.

 I originally went into university blind as a bat, no direction what so ever, but I knew I needed something more than high school if I wanted to have a decent career. I was not one of those outliers who knew how to succeed without some sort of guidance so university was where I was headed. After four year, I could honestly say I still did not have a single clue what I wanted to do, but I did learn a great deal about people, life and culture in addition to that I knew it opened doors.

A job wasn’t waiting for me after I received my degree which seems to be the case with a lot of people but the degree did definitely helped when I was applying for job against someone who didn’t have one. I eventually found a job at a local marketing company conducting market research. The job grew on me to say the least because I ended up applying to a post-grad program a year later specializing in International Marketing which helped me land an internship at Skedx.

I’m not saying university or college is for everyone but from my experience it certainly opened few opportunities.

Enjoy,

Mendel – The Intern