The team at Roster Plus is happy to announce the launch of our time & attendance module. While we are not quite finished with it, we wanted you to have access to it as early as possible!

With our 100% web-based time clock, we are hoping to change the way workplaces around Australia capture attendance. The clock in / out screen can run on any Internet connected computer or tablet, minimising expense and maximising functionality. Upcoming shifts are pulled directly from your published rosters, and attendance records are sent to a timesheet queue for your approval. Read more about it here.

Since we don’t think it is ready for ‘prime time’ just yet, we are not going to start charging for it until we have completed our checklist (which you can track below). That’s right; you get to start using it for FREE!

So how do you get started?

If you are not an existing client, signup for a free trial today. If you have run a trial and it has expired, get in touch and we will extend it!

As always, get in touch if you have any questions or suggestions!

The Checklist

• Attendance screen for staff clock in / out via a PC
• Attendance screen for staff clock in / out via an iPad
• Shortcut URL for launch of attendance screen without manager login
• Staff manageable timesheets via staff area
• Automatic rounding of attendance records
• Attendance approval queue for managers, with error highlighting
• Staff images on profiles, and management by staff and managers
• Attendance screen for staff clock in / out via Android tablets
• Text reminder setting for staff who are late to start a shift
• Remote access setting, so your staff can clock in / out via their smart phone / staff area
• Ability to send staff approved timesheets for final approval
• Export raw time sheet data to CSV for Payroll
• Graphically compare rostered vs. actual time and cost

Unemployment may be high, but the best staff are still in short supply. Offering an efficient, flexible rostering system can be a powerful way to attract smart people to work for you, no matter what size your business. When preparing your next roster, use this checklist to save time, money and frustration:

Think through the roster without individual names.

Work out the allocation of shifts and responsibilities, then cost it according to hourly wage rates. When that’s done, add the names of suitable people for different shifts. This is ‘role rostering‘ rather than the traditional method that builds a roster around the requests of individuals and their busy social lives. Role rostering puts the business first.

Rostering requires both sides of the brain.

Left-brain people pay attention to order and accuracy, while right-brain people are more focused on creativity and feelings. Whoever does the roster should have a good eye for detail and an understanding of the personalities within an organisation. Roster errors and omissions create upsets you don’t need.

A good roster shares the best shifts.

For waiters and bar staff, some days offer better tips. For other staff, some shifts are easier, and late shifts or busy days can be hard work. Staff will handle this if the rewards and burdens are shared fairly and favouritism is avoided.

Busy shifts need the best staff.

Sometimes experienced staff or managers gravitate to an easier, day-time schedule – maybe because they write the roster! It may also be because management rewards are not connected to the performance of busy shifts eg when managers are cut out of tip sharing. All staff should know how the business works during days, nights, weekends and week days.

Flexibility is part of modern work life.

This is where online rostering has an advantage, because time-off requests and availability can be handled automatically. Business needs are a priority, but if you keep denying or forgetting requests for time off or changes, staff are likely to call in ’sick’ and eventually move elsewhere.

Costing rosters should be part of writing rosters.

Traditionally, the functions have been separate, and the bad news on wage costs is only revealed after the week is finished. Modern rostering shows wage costs as the roster is written, giving accurate forecasts and budget control.

Start the roster week on a busy day.

Typically, rosters are written Monday to Sunday, from the quietest to the busiest days. But if the week is slow and by Wednesday you decide to start trimming hours, chances are they’ll be taken from the weekend, when you need to be fully staffed to make money. By starting the roster week on a Thursday, you also overcome the ‘end of a long week’ slump. The payroll days can still match the calendar or accounting week, but rostering is about resource allocation.

Everyone needs 2 days off.

There will be times when you need someone to do double shifts, extra days or back-to-back. But regular rostering for more than 5 days per week leads to loss of performance and burnout. If you have someone insisting on constant long hours, they may have financial problems that are being put ahead of the business – avoid this shortcut even if it seems convenient.

Allow staff to check their roster without calling in.

Managers can prepare the roster from anywhere when it’s all done online. You can then notify staff by SMS or email, and allow them to accept shifts or request changes automatically. The more this can be handled without phone calls or visits, the more time you have for important work like training and marketing.

Allow staff to plan their lives.

There are legal requirements for how far in advance rosters must be displayed. More importantly, a roster that’s displayed at least four weeks in advance allows staff to plan their lives and achieve more of the ‘work-life’ balance we all aspire to. Many managers fear that a roster displayed well in advance will need endless rewriting as the weeks progress. But once you automate the time-off request and shift-change system, you’ll find that rostering doesn’t need to be an endless drama with erasers and white-out.

Some content was source with the permission of the owner from www.ProfitableHospitality.com – resources for managers and business owners who want to find and keep great staff.

There were lots of reasons we got into rostering software, by far the biggest was because most rostering software sucked. If you are looking into rostering software at the moment, keep an eye out for these 10 warning signs.

No way to try before you buy

Not being able to try before you buy is a big warning sign for the next 3 points. The ability to use a trial version or even trial the complete product is common practice in modern software. It is also an absolute necessity in a solution evaluation process.

Hidden or “Call Us” predatory pricing

If you walked into a bricks and mortar shop and nothing had a price tag you would be inclined to walk out. The same should go while you are browsing for a rostering solution.

Set-up fee’s and contracts

Unless your rostering needs are really custom, there should be no need for a set-up fee. After all, this is when a rostering software provider should be trying to win your business. Long term contracts are also a joke. I wouldn’t sign anything over a month until I was really happy with the software.

Headache to set-up and operate

Rostering can be a complex problem but the reality for most people is they are looking for an Excel replacement, and a spreadsheet is not tricky to setup. If rostering software takes several in-person training sessions, it is already too complex in our books. Everything you need to know should be found in setup videos, a easy to navigate training manual or in a couple of quick phone calls.

Terrible or non-existent support

Many rostering software companies are extremely ‘sales heavy’ organisations and there is next to no-one who is around to help you day-to-day once the money has changed hands. Great rostering software should be simple and sell itself. Anyone who picks up the phone should be able to answer your questions. You also need to make sure there is someone there to pick up the phone!

Slow buggy software

Even if you have found what looks like the software of your dreams, it is useless if it doesn’t run quickly and without error. This is another reason it is imperative to get your hands on the software, instead of being sold on features by a sales person or in an edited video.

Not based in the cloud

The future of software is cloud based. This means no downloads, no problems if you are on a Mac or PC and accessibility from anywhere with the internet via your web browser. It also means you don’t need to worry about security, updates or backups.

No staff login area

If your staff are able to make time-off request, participate in discussions and ponder over ‘who they are working with’ from home, you are not only going to save yourself money (face it, they used to do all these things ‘on the clock’), you will make them happier.

Lack of integration

Building walls and ‘complete’ solutions is an age old trick used to trap you into a specific software application. When evaluating rostering software, always check their import / export options in-case your want to integrate with an existing process or swap systems one day. Good software providers should not be concerned.

Never updated or improved!

There are always better ways to do things, more problems to tackle and new technologies to work with. Find out what your rostering software provider has been working on and plans to roll out in the upcoming months.

Collectively managers using Roster Plus manage thousands of staff and that keeping them motivated and performing well is crucial to their success.

An important part of employee motivation are reward and recognition programs; ranging from employee of the month awards, to pay raises, bonuses or other cash or prize based incentives.

However, how effective are these programs? Or more descriptively, what REALLY motivates us at work? Recently a team of MIT researchers set out to investigate question and came up with some surprising results. Take a look!

We’re believers in a happier and engaged workforce. That’s why we’re passionate about what we do. Recently we stumbled across this great info-graphic based on a 2005 survey of US employee engagement. The graphic shows that 22% of employees in the survey were considered “actively disengaged” and estimated to cost the economy a whopping $370 billion annually! Astounding figures, and quite scary when you think about it.

As we can all recall a time we felt disengaged at work, why not make employee engagement a key focus of your start to 2011. A strategy for employee engagement is a crucial part of your success and your profitability and can go a long-way to reducing headaches such as absenteeism, staff turnover and poor morale. 

The team at Roster Plus look forward to helping our clients creating happier workforces in 2011 and welcome your call if you’d like our assistance with your rostering needs!

Found a very interesting image designed by one of Australia’s leading SMS gateways. It puts SMS and email head-to-head:

I must say, I am not surprised with the results. Our own research has shown employees are far more likely to reply to shift changes and fill-in requests when the contact method used is SMS. Worth the extra couple of cents if you ask me!

I just came across an old blog post I wrote on January 22, 2009. Originally titled ‘Brainstorming and research’, it discusses the light bulb moment I decided to build an online rostering system. Since then, almost 2 years have passed, a journey I have tried to summarise in the Company History page.

Here it is, word for word:

Most companies can be traced back to a single question asked by its founder/s. A few minutes after my girlfriend called the bar she works at, to find out when her shifts are for the next week, I asked myself: “I wonder if there is a program that helps bars notify their staff about shifts, to save them all having to call or drop in?”.

I figured this problem applied to any business with casual staff, shift workers, and even full time workers that need to be in multiple locations. I did a few Google searches and found a few web based staff scheduling apps; most were bloated with features, had shocking interfaces, or did not notify staff about upcoming shifts. It got me thinking about the core features I would be looking for if I owned, or worked for, a business that have to deal with these issues.

I came up with the following list of features:

• Super easy user interface for building rosters, accessible from work or home.
• Ability to print a nicely formatted roster.
• SMS notifications to staff at the start of each new roster period or shift.
• Simple interface for staff to login and book their days off in advance.

Looking at my list of key features, I continued to search Google for an hour or so. I found few more products but nothing met more than two out of four features I desired. By this time I was getting a bit exited about building such an application. Would there be a market? I contacted a few of my friends and colleagues on both sides of the rostering equation.

As I anticipated, businesses owners complained about the amount of time spent tracking their staffs future days off (written on little bits of paper in most cases), the amount of phone calls from staff wanting to know when and where they were working, and the time it spent building printable rosters in excel. Even a conservative estimate of spending jsut two minutes per staff per week added up to over 4 hours of extra work per month (based on 30 staff), which does not include the time spent wrestling with Excel!

Staff complained about difficulties finding out when and where they were working, the fact that they had to call or write down dates they wanted off, and how frequently these bits of paper went missing. 30 staff members spending five minutes per week on these tasks would’ve wasted another ten hours.

I figured this was enough research for such a small project to get the go-ahead, so I set out creating a more detailed list of features:

• Create rosters of any length – not every business runs on a one week roster cycle.
• Create rosters from old rosters.
• Ability to split staff into departments, and build ‘department specific’ rosters.
• Add multiple shifts to rosters, with notes.
• Let the business owner or staff indicate days off in advance.
• Notify staff about their shifts via SMS at the start of the roster period, or before the shift.
• If business owners make changes to a current roster period, the corresponding staff members are automatically notified.
• Print rosters.
• Export rosters to excel.
• Export rosters to HTML, which can then be posted on to the company website.
• Show business owners, at a glance, the total hours for each day / staff on a roster.

With the new feature list it was becoming clear that this was not such a small project, so I decided to stop writing and start drawing!

‘Not such a small project’ – What an understatement! Here are some of the original sketches:

Roster Building and Menu System