Small Business Work Schedule

How to create a Small Business Work Schedule? How to organize a work schedule for SME's? Are you looking for a professional Small Business Work Schedule?

Having happy employees is critical for the success of a business. Fair and flexible work scheduling is therefore important to accomplish this. A work schedule needs to work for the employer, as well as the employee. This SME Work Schedule template can help you find inspiration and motivation. This Small Business Work Schedule covers the most important topics that you are looking for and will help you to structure and communicate in a professional manner with those involved.

One study of retail employers found that when managers more closely considered employees’ scheduling needs, stores had 22.9 percent lower turnover and 6.6 percent greater retention.

Employers rely on their employees to keep their businesses running. That’s why they work to recruit and retain the best possible staff—workers who will not only fulfill their duties but be ready each day to push the business to the next level. However, workers can only show those strengths when they have quality jobs, which include (among other features) stable, predictable, and flexible schedules. Too often, lower-wage workers receive their weekly schedules just days before their shifts, have erratic schedules that change from week to week, get sent home from work early without compensation, or receive too few hours. These types of scheduling practices wreak havoc on workers’ lives; they disrupt child care arrangements, make budgeting impossible, and prevent workers from securing muchneeded second jobs or taking classes to improve their employment prospects. And volatile scheduling is not just bad for workers; it’s bad for business, too. Employers who adopt fair scheduling practices find they have lower turnover, higher morale, and healthier, more productive workers. They also find that improved scheduling practices are easy to implement and generate cost savings.
Fair scheduling practices are good for the bottom line
When hourly workers have workplace flexibility,productivity increases and absenteeism decreases. In a survey of lower-wage, hourly workers with access to workplace flexibility and their managers, 80 percent of workers and 79 percent of managers reported increased team productivity and effectiveness. Additionally, percent of workers and 74 percent of managers reported reduced absenteeism.
Accommodating employees’ scheduling needs significantly reduces turnover. One study of retail employers found that when managers more closely considered employees’ scheduling needs, stores had 22.9 percent lower turnover and 6.6 percent greater retention.
A review of numerous studies of the impact of turnover found that for workers earning less than $50,000 annually, the cost of turnover is 20 percent of salary.
Flexibility promotes employee engagement and reduces operation costs. In a study of one large retailer, managers reported that hourly workers with schedule flexibility were more engaged on the job, leading to lower turnover and reduced operating costs.
Stable, predictable schedules have unexpected benefits for businesses
Productivity, retention, and reduced costs are important metrics for all businesses.
While some benefits of fair scheduling practices (such as manager well-being, employee health, and retaining workers in whom a business has invested training) don’t immediately show up in a traditional business case, they ultimately boost the bottom line.
Reduced turnover is a jumping-off point for other employer best practices. Employers know that training is important, but training a constantly changing workforce is expensive and ineffective. With lower turnover, employers can reap the benefits of their investment: employees that are more productive and less error prone.
Turnover is a major problem, especially in lower-wage industries; for example, median turnover rates for part-time workers in the retail industry reached nearly 75 percent.
Fair scheduling practices are good for managers, too. Managers facing pressure to “stay within hours” (allocate shifts within a set limit of total hours in order to save on labor costs) must grapple with very complex schedules, which can lead to management overload and burnout.
Better schedules result in healthier workers; healthier workers are best for business. The negative health effects of unstable, unpredictable, inflexible, and nonstandard schedules are well documented, ranging from obesity to cognitive declines to sleep problems.
When workers have better schedules, their health improves, allowing them to put their best foot forward at work.

Fair Scheduling Practices are Feasible for Businesses
Staffing needs are much more Stable than many assume.
While some employers claim that fluctuating demand makes constant schedule changes necessary, one study found that 80 percent of store hours remain stable week after week. With that much consistency in staffing needs, managers should easily be able to provide stable, predictable schedules to workers.
Cross training is an effective strategy for enabling scheduling stability. When business slows in some establishments, managers send their workers home for the day—often without pay.
But many companies find that training their employees in a variety of areas allows them to keep their workers busy and productive during slow times at their usual posts. This also allows workers to finish their shifts and collect the pay on which they are relying.
Successful employers offer advance notice of schedules and access to minimum hours without sacrificing profitability.
Retail giant Costco gives workers three weeks’ advance notice of their work schedules while still managing to exceed expectations for profitability. Cooperative Homecare Associates, a home care staffing agency, guarantees many workers access to at least 30 hours of work per week without hurting business.
Public policy solutions are needed While some high road employers are already implementing fair scheduling practices, many workers still face volatile schedules that hurt them and their families. And with less money in workers’ pockets and businesses hampered by high turnover and low morale, volatile schedules are also bad for the economy. That is why it’s critical to craft public policies that set minimum standards for scheduling practices. The Schedules that Work Act, which has been introduced in Congress, would go a long way toward addressing workers’ struggles and incentivizing fair practices that also help employers. Along with this federal bill, state and local initiatives are currently being considered.

For workers in all companies with 15 or more employees, the bill would:
Enable workers to request schedule changes without fear of retaliation. Employers must accommodate certain workers (those who have caregiving responsibilities or serious illnesses, are enrolled in school or job training, or hold a second part-time job) unless they have bona fide business reasons for not doing so.
For workers in the retail, restaurant, and janitorial sectors, the bill would:
Enable workers to have more predictable schedules. The bill requires employers to provide workers with at least two weeks’ notice of their schedules.
Inform workers in writing of their expected minimum hours and job schedule. The bill requires employers to inform employees on or before their first day of work of their expected schedule and hours. If the schedule and minimum hours will change, the employer is required to notify the employee at least two weeks before the new schedule comes into effect.
Compensate workers when they are sent home from work early. The bill requires employers to provide workers with “reporting pay”—regular rate of pay for four hours or the total length of the workers’ shift if the shift is less than four hours—if they are sent home from work early.
Compensate workers for schedule changes, on-call shifts, and split shifts. The bill requires employers to provide workers with one hour of “predictability pay” at their usual rate when the employer changes the schedule less than 24 hours prior to a scheduled shift; when the worker is scheduled for an “on-call” or “call-in” shift but is not called in; and when the worker is scheduled for a split shift (a shift interrupted by a non-working period that is not a meal break)

A review of numerous studies of the impact of turnover found that for workers earning less than 50,000 annually, the cost of turnover is 20 percent of salary. Flexibility promotes employee engagement and reduces operation costs. In a study of one large retailer, managers reported that hourly workers with schedule flexibility were more engaged on the job, leading to lower turnover and reduced operating costs. Washington, Job Schedules that Work for Businesses predictable schedules have unexpected benefits for businesses Productivity, retention, and reduced costs are important metrics for all businesses. Job Schedules that Work for Businesses Fair Scheduling Practices are Feasible for Businesses  Staffing needs are much more stable than many assume.

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