If you’re creating employee schedules, you’ve probably dealt with your fair share of complaints from employees. While you can’t eliminate these problems entirely, you can head off a few before they escalate.
Here are the top ten employee scheduling complaints and how to handle them:
- “I’m not getting enough hours.” Even the biggest stores can’t afford to give every employee full-time status – but that doesn’t mean employees should be shortchanged on hours. Try to distribute hours evenly among employees by rank or seniority. For example, schedule more working hours for managers and employees with seniority than new employees or entry-level staff, if possible.
- “You’re always scheduling me during times I’m not available.”Keeping track of your employees’ availability can be especially hard if you’re making schedules with Excel or, worse, pen and paper. With employee scheduling software, however, your employees can update their availability through the system, which prevents scheduling errors. Allowing shift-swapping lets your employees work around any last-minute scheduling conflicts, too.
- “Why am I closing Thursday night and opening Friday morning? I will be exhausted.” Employees with open availability run into this problem more than those with scheduling restrictions. Unless it’s your only option, try not to schedule employees for back-to-back shifts. If it’s unavoidable, speak with the employee first to make sure it’s okay.
- “Why can’t I ever work overtime? I want time-and-a-half.” While it may be tempting to prohibit overtime, you should try to limit it rather than outright ban it. If an employee wants to work extra, try to occasionally accommodate them, but put a weekly cap on hours to avoid paying too much in overtime. This will also help you distribute hours more evenly among your employees, rather than having one person earn ample overtime while others remain under-scheduled.
- “I don’t want to work on Thanksgiving.” Getting employees to work holidays can be difficult – if you’re not giving them any incentive to come in. While paying time-and-a-half for holidays isn’t legally required, it can make you a more competitive employer and motivate your employees to work holidays. Consider offering overtime for certain holiday shifts, if the budget will allow.
- “I can’t work on Tuesday; I already made plans for that day. You should have provided our schedules sooner.” If your employees are always complaining about getting their schedules too late, you have two options: First, you can schedule further in advance. Creating employee schedules two to three weeks in advance gives your employees plenty of notice to make appointments or other plans while still ensuring you’re covering the needs of your business. Second, you can continue scheduling on short notice, as long as your employees, both current and new hires, understand that this is a business practice that won’t change.
- “There are only two of us working Sunday afternoon, but that’s our busiest time!” You can’t always predict when your store will be busy, but if there are certain times when business usually picks up, try to schedule extra staff for these shifts. Make a note on your calendar so you know to schedule a few extra employees during your busiest periods.
- “Why do I always have to work on Saturday nights? I never get to have fun on my weekends.”It’s not surprising that your employees want a social life! Unless your business has recurring schedules or your employees have limited availability, try to rotate who works on Friday and Saturday nights. Look over the previous schedule to make sure you’re not selecting the same person for two Saturday nights in a row.
- “You trained me on the cash register, but you always keep me out on the floor.”Repetitive tasks can be monotonous and hurt employee engagement. If your employees have multiple skill sets, put them to use. Keep track of your employees’ skills and switch their positions frequently, maybe even within the same shift. The more variety in a job, the less likely the employee will mentally check out.
- “I’ve been here for four hours, and I’m leaving in half an hour. Why am I just now getting my 10-minute break?” When stores get crowded, it can be hard to pull staff off the floor or to remember which employees took their breaks.
Instead of leaving it to chance, schedule employee breaks ahead of time to make sure everyone receives the breaks they’re entitled to under state labor law requirements. Scheduling in advance can also ensure that you’re evenly spacing out breaks and not benching any staff during a rush.
