How to make an employee schedule

Employee retail scheduling can be a difficult decision. This is due in part to the fact that a store’s hours of operation may conflict with certain government requirements regarding employee scheduled breaks and additional work hours. The retail store manager must be particularly careful not to suffer a loss in overall profitability due to employee overtime.

Whatever your scheduling mode, there is a way you can use to ensure you have a system that works well when scheduling retail employees. The steps below will get you in the right direction in this regard.

FirstIf you are in a position to do so, establish fixed hours of operation. What days of the week will the business not be open? What holidays will the business be closed? Most retail operations can attract a significant amount of traffic on the weekends.

Also, depending on your business, you may need to stay open later in the week. It’s also a good idea to plan holiday sales events. If there are certain nights you want to close earlier, you’ll need to think about which nights you prefer.

in second place, within your schedule, you will need to determine staffing levels. This means that you determine the number of employees needed at certain times. Also, consider if you can get by with your part-time staff or if you need your full-time staff.

Third Make sure you fully understand government regulations before putting together an employee schedule. It is necessary before you begin to create the schedule that you are familiar with the state labor laws. These laws cover areas such as employee time off, compensation regarding overtime; age issues; and adequate working hours.

Once you have fully learned what you need to know from a government standpoint, you will be in a good position to write the schedule. To write an effective schedule that covers all areas of your retail operation, you’ll need to make sure you have enough coverage, particularly during the busiest times of the week. Also times when coverage should be addressed are during promotional sales events and the holiday sales season.

Look through your list of employees and determine which people have some type of leave. Check who is taking vacations and who may need time off during the (scheduled) time period for religious reasons. Take into account all the areas that could result in a downsizing and the (precise) time the downsizing will take place. For example, if you have students working in your store, final exams may be coming up. You may lose a good portion of your staff during this time period. It’s always a good idea to anticipate the type of employee you have working at your establishment.

Within the retail environment, you will need to have enough staff. Employees needed in the retail workplace typically include: inventory staff, salespeople, and (possibly) cashiers. Also, keep in mind that you are in a better programming position if you train staff to handle multiple tasks. Provide special incentives for staff members who report to work regularly and are rarely absent due to illness. Still, have people you can call and count on when you’re short on staff. A backup person may work part-time with the understanding that they will be called when people call and are not available for work.

Also, it’s always good to hire a diverse workforce made up of students, full-time salaried people, and mature people, that is if this works for your store. This means that if you are the type of retailer that sells youth clothing, you will probably find mostly part-timers looking for work; and your staff is more likely to be made up of younger people with an interest in trendy clothing.

If you can handle it, try to put together a schedule where your employees work a fairly regular workweek. This can be difficult to do once your business takes root. You’ll also need to make sure that each employee gets properly scheduled lunch breaks and smaller breaks of ten to fifteen minutes that don’t conflict with the other person’s break time.