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Some managers are still manually creating a shift schedule each week which can take many hours. It can be very stressful and time consuming to create a shift schedule that is suited for all employees. Therefore a new kind of software has recently been developed to take care of shift creation.

The vast majority of shift planning software is web based these days which has many benefits. Firstly, employees can easily the schedule on any internet connected computer – from home for example. Previously they may have had to call their manager which is a hassle for both the manager and employee.Of course this also applies to the administrator of the system who can now also manager the schedule from any computer.

The software also has a feature for managing holiday requests.Usually the manager will set a limit on the amount of days off the staff can take. The manager can of course choose to authorize any requests made. The system automatically does not assign shifts to the employee on the time off dates that have been approved.

Employees will typically set their availability for the week so they are only given shift at hours they can work. The software follows these availability criteria only assigning shifts at hours staff have said they are free.

After the manager enters the details of shifts the system has enough information to start to create a schedule. A schedule from a past week can be used as a basis to save time for the manager. After this a schedule is generated in minutes.

In some businesses absent or late employees can be a problem. Email or text message reminders can be sent which has been found to dramatically reduce the amount of missed shifts.

Occasionally it can happen that a employee cannot make it into work leaving the reset short-staffed. To find another staff member who could take on the shift, at possible short notice, can be difficult. With a shift planner the availabilities of employees can be quickly identified and a replacement employee found within minutes.