If you’ve just bought employee scheduling software, you may be reviewing the steps to get started. The company you bought the software from may have told you that the first steps to starting your shift schedule include defining your shifts, defining explanations and coverage targets for those shifts, and then adding your employee names and information about them, such as the contact information, position, unique skills, and the number of hours they wish to work. But, before you can even start the set-up process, you need to decide how many schedule files you want to set up. There are two main approaches you could take: you could have one, master schedule file for the entire organization, or you could have separate, individual schedules for each department or unit within the organization.

The Group schedule is a beneficial staff schedule that lets you gather employees into 99 different groups in a convenient one- to seven-day format. This is a great way to view schedules by shift, department, location or any other type of multi-divisional report - all in a single view.

Firing employees can be stressful and risky. When terminating employees, you risk possible lawsuits, as well as adding stress to your existing workforce. One way to avoid both of these situations is to have a progressive discipline policy in place. This policy should be clearly written and communicated to your personnel. It’s common to include a progressive discipline policy in an employee handbook. It’s also important for this policy, and any other company policies, to be enforced consistently and fairly among your entire staff.

An easy way to manage employee files is to store them in a human resource information system (HRIS). Some of the HR documents you’ll want to keep include those you’ve used during the hiring process, such as the job application and/or resume, an offer letter, a job description, and an employee handbook.