Three ways a digital rota system can support your store   

How do you manage your store's rota?

A good retail schedule helps ensure you have the right number of staff in the right place at the right time.  

However, while rotas ensure your store can operate and offer staff direction, they can also bring quite a bit of admin.  

Fear not! Through the use of clever technology, rotas can be made simple.

Here are three ways a digital rota system can support effective staff schedules.

1) Providing staff better accessibility

Many stores rely on old-school methods like spreadsheets, pen & paper or even just verbal agreements to manage their rota.

This can get messy fast! Keeping everyone on the same page becomes a constant challenge, especially in hectic environments.

Software can help. 

A digital rota platform ensures staff can access rotas whether they are at home, on the go, in the staff room, etc.

Via the digital system, staff can access and share rotas in a consistent and timely way, from any device with an internet connection, helping: 

• Keep staff engaged, supporting better retention 
• Easily communicate rotas  
• Make employees feel fairly treated, avoiding late notice of shift changes 

More content: How the retail sector can tackle high staff turnover

Click here

2) Offering self-service

Without the right tools, requesting shift changes can quickly become a complicated and frustrating process for everyone involved.

Staff usually have to rely on phone calls, messaging or in-person conversations to request changes, often leading to miscommunication or delays.

On the other hand, managers find themselves stuck in the middle, wasting valuable time coordinating swaps or tracking down approvals.

We advise you to seek a rota system that allows staff to easily request shift changes, enabling you to adjust the schedule. 

Features such as employee self-service help alleviate a number of burdens.

With self-service, staff can request changes on their end via a handy mobile app without needing to rely on managers to coordinate everything.

For managers, this means no more time-consuming back-and-forth as requests can be approved or denied within the system with just a few clicks.

3) Locating scheduling gaps

Spotting scheduling gaps can often be a frustrating and manual process without the right tools.

Those without a digital rota system rely on printed schedules, last-minute calls or piecing together notes to figure out who’s missing and when.

A digital rota system completely revolutionises this, providing a real-time overview of the schedule and highlighting any unfilled shifts or conflicts.

You'll be able to see gaps at a glance and quickly take action, whether that’s sending out notifications to available staff or reallocating resources.

Tackling the biggest HR challenges in retail

Hopefully, the above showcases the benefits of a digital rota system! If you're looking to upgrade to a digital rota system, check out our handy offering here.

If you're looking for further assistance with improving the people processes in your store, look no further.

We recently published a guide that tackles the three biggest HR challenges in retail, which you can download below.

FREE Guide: How to overcome the retail sector's three greatest HR challenges

Download here

Additionally, we also advise you have your HR processes cemented with good software.

Modern cloud HR software helps you manage records of all staff, handle compliance and track absences – the building blocks to an effective rota.