Top 9 Staff Scheduling Software Tools in 2020

As a business owner, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done – from payroll to providing the best customer service to engaging employees to checking inventory and the list just goes on. And let’s not forget about the never-ending pile of timetables, schedules, availability calendars, and employee requests – that’s right, we’re talking about staff scheduling.

Business owners and managers alike know that staff scheduling is an important aspect of the daily grind. Managers feel pressure mounting when there isn’t an effective scheduling process. And employee morale takes a hit when a schedule that serves their skills and needs just doesn’t exist.

Among the many roles of a manager in a business, one of the most important is scheduling the staff. After all, you can’t complete work without any workers. It’s vital that you put thought into the scheduling process and treat your staff professionally. – Small Business Chron

Take control over the time and hours you do have with a staff scheduling software that works for you. It’s time to ditch pen and paper, after all, it’s the 21st century and there are a number of staff scheduling software options that are perfect for your business.

By using an automatic scheduling tool, you can reduce the time spent on creating employee shift schedules by 80% and cut your labor spending by 3%.

Worry not, we rolled up our sleeves and hit the books. After all, finding the right software should be a breeze, and shouldn’t take up all your valuable time. That’s we scoured the web, read countless articles, and spoke to a handful of experts – all so we could present you with 9 staff scheduling software options that are sure to make a positive impact on your scheduling.

The way we chose the top 9 staff scheduling software tools is based on the following:

• Price.

This is a no-brainer that requires little explanation. Some staff scheduling software is free or is available at low cost, however, the right fit is one that aligns with your company size and goals. So take your time before thinking that price is the only factor!

• Ease of use.

You and your employees need staff scheduling software that is incredibly easy to use. If training is long and the software is just too complicated to use, no one will be motivated to actually use it. And that’s the last thing you want. Why spend money on a software solution if no one uses it? Exactly. 

• Tax and labor compliance.

Make sure the software complies with state and local labor laws, such as overtime and sick leave.

Fees, fines, and penalties could be the outcome of not complying with state and local labor laws. Investing in workforce management technology that incorporates all state and local labor regulations — as well as federal labor laws — can help you comply with all labor laws across your operation. – Kronos

The last thing you want is to pay fees and penalties because your software wasn’t up to date with the latest state and local labor laws.

• Messaging.

Through the software, it should be simple to communicate with your employees. See if it offers an in-app chat and push notifications. This way, you can send shift change notifications, reminders, and even provide work instructions in a single click.

• Reporting.

Easily provides reports from hours worked to overtime to absences to labor costs.

• Engage in every shift.

Employees should be able to easily add notes, pictures, videos, attachments, etc. to every shift if needed.

• “Manage” the status of shifts.

Through a calendar view, you can easily see the status of each employee’s shifts. Did the employee reject or approve the shift? Are they running late? Are they clocked in and working to complete the shift? However, not all staff scheduling software is made equal so this feature may not be available across the board.

• All in one.

In 2020, the new feature that most software companies are rushing to develop is allowing for an all in one experience. They recognize that managers and employees want to get everything done from one place and not to jump from software to software. We can see this unique feature in a handful of software tools, and after playing with this, we believe 100% that this is a must-have for your business!

In the last few months, after deciding which criteria were important for staff scheduling software, we also played around with each software and asked for real feedback from employees and managers. Our list of nine tools is the best of the best, find the one that suits your business and experience a positive change to your day to day.

The top 9 staff scheduling software tools in 2020:

Connecteam

Ideal for businesses with deskless employees, small businesses and Enterprise.

By far the easiest staff scheduling software, Connecteam easily and quickly allows you to schedule shifts and dispatch jobs. Create single, multiple or team shifts, or just upload a bulk using an excel file. With calendar view, drag & drop options, and copying last week’s shifts, you save valuable time.

Connecteam tags an employee’s GPS location when they clock in and clock out. And you can customize status updates for employees to check-in at the job location, so they check-in, reject or complete their shift. Connecteam also allows for shift attachments so employees can add photos, videos, notes, etc. Plus, Connecteam has an in-app chat and employee directory so it’s easier than ever for employees to contact you if needed and vice-versa.

Price: Starts at $29/month for up to 200 users.

Connecteam offers a free plan as well so you can take full advantage of its scheduling features and everything else that’s naturally included like communication, engagement with surveys, digital workflows and more. 

Google Sheets

Ideal for small companies or freelancers.

Google’s free cloud spreadsheet software makes employee scheduling quite simple. The pre-fixed rows and columns offer organized options so you can set each individual employee in their own column within one spreadsheet. Or have one spreadsheet per employee and simply divide up their columns by days of the week.

With its sharing feature, you can quickly share the spreadsheets with employees via email. Plus, it has an automatic-saving, cloud feature so you don’t have to worry about losing all the data.

Price: Free.

 

When I Work

Ideal for small companies, non-profit, and multi-site businesses.

When I Work is a great option for employee scheduling software for businesses with less than 75 employees. They have a free version that doesn’t limit you to one company location but it doesn’t let you schedule weeks into the future. However, it does have scheduling features like GPS locations and job instructions.

Its pricing ranges from free to $2.25 per employee, per month, which is based on the exact features that you want. Time and attendance tracking can also be added for an additional $1.50 per employee, per month. It does also have an enterprise version with volume discounts.

Price: Starts at $2.25/user/month.

 

Google Calendar

Ideal for small companies or freelancers.

Google Calendar is a cloud creation of Google. However, it is designed to be a calendar so you can view everything in a day, four-day, week, month, year, or schedule format. Easily add events and reminders into a calendar and add notifications so employees don’t miss a shift.

Create employee shift calendars and share with everyone so they can view the shared work schedule calendar from their own personal calendar.

Price: Free.

 

Homebase

Ideal for brick and mortar businesses.

Homebase has a number of features, like scheduling, timesheets, time clocks, and messaging, but it also has special recruiting software that can post to online job boards. Homebase can also sync data from many payroll and POS companies.

Use Homebase for free for just one location and unlimited employees. Or choose from three plans that each has limited features: Essentials at $19.95 a month for unlimited users per location, Plus at $49.95 a month for unlimited users per location, or Enterprise at $99.95 a month for unlimited users per location. Homebase has a free 14-day trial.

Price: Starts at $19.95/unlimited users/per location/month.

 

Ximble

Ideal for small businesses.

Ximple has an easy scheduling feature and it’s simple to implement repeat schedule templates. Aside from a time-tracking tool, it also includes a staff management feature that can help track time-off requests and employee availability.

Ximble also offers AI so you can use historical data to assign the right staff to any shift. Ximble has three pricing plans: Core which costs $1 per user per month, Advanced costs $2 per user per month, and Enterprise has custom pricing.

Price: Starts at $1/user/month.

 

Humanity

Ideal for small companies like a coffee shop or those on an hourly salary.

Humanity is pretty easy to use and their apps make it simple to edit and check schedules straight from your phone. It is easy to manage schedules, all employee availabilities, employee shift trades, and day-off requests.

Humanity is known for its customer support team. In terms of pricing, this staff scheduling software has a Starter plan, which costs $2 per user per month, and a Classic plan, which costs $3 per user per month, both include a $60 minimum. You can trial Humanity for free for 30 days.

Price: Starts at $2/user/month.

 

TSheets

Ideal for service businesses.

As far as staff scheduling goes, TSheets offers similar scheduling and time-tracking software as other software tools do. Its mobile app sends your employees updates about their upcoming shifts and shift changes, then it sends you a notification if an employee is late or forgot to clock in.

However, the system is a little complicated and does need a lot of implementation. In any case, two main features are worthy of mention: GPS Time Tracker that maps employee locations from when they clock-in to when they clock-out. And the second feature allows employees to attach photos to timesheets.

TSheets has two paid plans: Both cost $4 per user per month, plus there is an additional base fee depending on how many users you need. Start a free 14-day trial now.

Price: Starts at $4/user/month.

 

Deputy

Ideal for small companies and multi-location businesses.

Here’s the thing, you really need to know IT & software if you are going to use Deputy. And they know it. That’s why they ask for all your pen and paper timesheets and scheduling in advance so they can customize the software for you and then you can begin onboarding.

Deputy is a scheduling and time management software that overall is well-rounded and time-efficient. Additionally, it easily integrates with other business systems; it integrates with more than 35 payroll, POS, and accounting programs. Use Deputy to forecast sales traffic and schedule shifts automatically.

Deputy has a few pricing plans: $2 per user per month for its Scheduling Only plan and either $3 or $4 per user per month for the Premium plan, which depends if you pay monthly or annually.

Price: Starts at $2/user/month.

Find the best staff scheduling software for your company

With the right staff scheduling software, you’ll save valuable time and money! And let’s not forget how much happier your employees will be with a schedule that genuinely works for them. Go through the nine software solutions we highlight above and choose the one that fits your company best.

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