The pandemic, rising inflation, and labor market volatility have disrupted traditional work life, including how companies schedule employees. I spoke with three executives from Shiftboard, a workforce scheduling solutions company, about how their technology empowers employers and employees to adapt to the new world of work.

Shiftboard caters to manufacturing, healthcare, and energy industries—industries that never hit the "pause" button, even during global crises. During the pandemic, these companies struggled to attract enough shift and hourly workers to offset high turnover and absenteeism. With this constant volatility, employees’ need for flexibility grew, and scheduling complexity increased. Platforms like Shiftboard gained recognition for easing this complexity, offering greater flexibility to workers while maintaining shift coverage to keep operations running.

Surveys show the majority of hourly workers believe scheduling significantly impacts their work-life balance and job satisfaction. Employers recognize this and see the need to become more competitive in attracting talent. It's about more than just pay - workers highly value flexibility and work-life balance.

By automating scheduling through SaaS platforms like Shiftboard, employees gain 24/7 visibility into their work schedules, can more easily communicate with managers, and have options to pick up open shifts or trade shifts with coworkers. Increasing employees' sense of job autonomy improves engagement and reduces frustration and work-life conflicts.

On the employer side, employee scheduling automation increases workforce data visibility for operations leaders, ensuring schedule compliance with safety standards, fatigue policies, and union agreements. Intelligent algorithms ease complexity from varied shift requirements, flex labor pools, and contingent workers. After implementing preference-based overtime scheduling through Shiftboard, one client experienced a 47% drop in absenteeism.

The key takeaway is to prioritize listening to your workforce and continually adapting to meet the needs of employees. Surveys can identify areas where technology can alleviate scheduling issues and enhance job satisfaction. In today's competitive landscape, embracing digital transformation of employee scheduling is no longer optional—it's essential to becoming an employer of choice.

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