by Crew, on January 11, 2019
Creating and managing frontline schedules is a daunting task, especially for leaders managing multiple locations, each with different team dynamics and staffing requirements. Given today’s tightened labor market and all the other job options out there, it’s crucial for employees to feel happy with their schedules and with the shift coverage process. At the same time, managers need confidence their business will be staffed optimally for the best speed of service, minimal wait times and an overall top-notch customer experience — all of which has a major impact on top-line sales.
With these considerations in mind, area leaders often tell us their lives could be made easier with a view into the general health of their staffing and scheduling. However, even organizations that use corporate scheduling systems have been missing this type of actionable insight across stores.
That’s why we’re excited to announce that we’ve updated Command Center to provide Crew Enterprise customers with greater visibility into their shift coverage data. Starting today, your schedules page in Command Center will provide details about the number of coverage requests and average time to cover shifts across all of your store locations. From there, you can drill down to see more details for specific organizations, including who requested coverage, who ultimately provided coverage, and more.
Companies can use this data to set goals against their shift coverage and track how often cover requests happen over a given amount of time. They might also have specific rules around this (e.g. team members may only ask for coverage if it’s at least 24 hours ahead of their scheduled shift), and will be able to see whether people are meeting those expectations. Finally, area managers will be able to track how responsive their store-level admins are by monitoring whether they’re closing the loop and approving shift coverage requests in a timely manner.
We believe this kind of information can deliver business results by helping leaders pinpoint and address scheduling problem areas or opportunities. For example, multi-location leaders will get early warning signs of which locations are likely under-staffed and might be at risk of reduced team productivity or a sub-par customer experience. In addition, a manager might notice a particular employee requesting shift coverage more often, a predictive indicator of low job satisfaction and possible turnover.
Our friends at Syed Restaurants tell us how much they appreciate Crew’s transparency into both positive and negative employee trends. It helps them identify people who cover lots of shifts or receive frequent positive customer feedback, which actually informs their decisions about who to move into the company’s management program.
For more details on how to view your shift coverage data in Crew, click here, and if you have questions, feel free to reach out to us at help@crewapp.com.
