Managers are busy people. Not only do they have to organize their own time, but they’re responsible for much of their employees’ time, too. The bigger the team, the more difficult it is for them to juggle everything. Coordinating their team’s schedules is a time-consuming administration task that doesn’t need to take as long as it often does. When the HR software that managers use has integrated scheduling, they have more time to spend improving their employees’ work lives and developing their own careers. Managers and their employees can both benefit from using a HR software’s scheduling features. The biggest benefit for managers comes when both they and their team are calendar synced. It allows for everything from paid time off (PTO) to be managed more efficiently, to a more streamlined interview scheduling process.
More efficient PTO management
Make it easier for managers to approve paid time off – let them do it from their calendars. They already spend much of their time organizing their day in their calendar. Why not give them the chance to organize even more of their day from the same place? Employees can submit their time off requests from within their calendar, then their line manager can approve it from within their own calendar. This means that they can see what deadlines are coming up, and compare it against other employees’ time off, too. Everything can be done from the same place, making everyone’s lives easier. Alternatively, it can all be done from within the HR software that they use. This still means that employees and managers aren’t flitting between multiple applications to find the information that they need, as all of their up-to-date appointment information can be stored in the software that they use on a daily basis. Keeping everything in one place makes everyone’s lives easier. It stops any confusion, avoids any double-bookings, and means employees don’t need to learn how to use multiple pieces of software. This is a much better way for new employees to be onboarded and means that there isn’t such a steep learning curve for them to follow.
Faster meeting organization
Meetings are an important part of a manager’s day, but coordinating them can be complicated. Take away one of the more tedious admin tasks from managers by allowing them to organize everything at the same time. When managers, their employees, rooms, and the equipment around them are calendar connected, this is exactly what they can do. It means that there’s no chance of the room or equipment they need being double-booked and causing delays. Meetings are also guaranteed to be booked for a time when everyone and everything required is free. Meetings of all shapes and sizes can be organized in this way, from one-on-ones to larger, team-wide meetings. Only rooms large enough to fit the required number of attendees will be offered, ensuring that a large team meeting isn’t scheduled for a room that’s barely big enough for three people. Organizing a meeting in this way can save managers – who typically spend 23 hours or more in meetings every week – hours of time. They then have more time to focus on their team and on their own careers.
Calendar invites for external meeting participants
Sometimes meetings need to be organized with service providers or other external participants. It can be tedious to send them all the information they need and be certain that the event has been added to their calendar. Smart Invites allow managers to send calendar invites to external meeting participants. These trackable calendar invites ensure that invitees have RSVPed. It also gives them all the required information that they need in one place. Unlike with an email, this information is available offline, meaning that even if they find themselves somewhere with a poor phone or WiFi signal, they can still find what they need.
Control over working hours
Managers can set their availability with Availability Rules. This means that they can choose when they want to be available for meetings and when they would like to set time for things like lunch breaks or deep work. It gives them more control over their schedules while ensuring that they’re still around to help their employees.
Their team can also benefit from this feature. The team could agree on set hours when people are available for meetings, and hours when they have quiet time to focus on their tasks. This helps everyone to concentrate and helps to build routines that get people into the right mindset to concentrate. Perhaps they could block out one day every week where no meetings are allowed to be scheduled, and they only focus on personal tasks. Or they only have meetings in the mornings or afternoons. Depending on the size of the team will depend on how easy or difficult this is, but setting working hours using Availability Rules means that it’s much easier to stick to these agreed availability hours. To book meetings with their colleagues, employees can use the Availability Viewer. This shows them the most recent schedule of the manager or colleague that they want to meet with. The easier it is for employees to book meetings with their managers the more likely they are to do so should any issues arise. This means that the problem can get dealt with sooner and isn’t just saved for one-on-ones or team meetings, or not dealt with at all.
Faster interview scheduling
In fast-growing companies, interviews are crucial to building teams. Scheduling them is a time-consuming process that can be difficult to coordinate, particularly if several people or steps are involved in the interview process. Interview scheduling facilities mean that managers and recruitment coordinators don’t waste time finding days and times that work for everyone. Candidates can choose a time that suits them based on the interviewer’s – or interviewers’ – real-time availability. Not only does this create a better candidate experience, but it also requires minimal work on the interviewers’ part – once their calendar is connected to the software, their scheduling work is done. It’s quick and easy for them to set up, and it can save them hours for every role that they hire for. Even complicated, multi-part interview sequences don't have to be a headache to organize. They can all be coordinated using intelligent sequencing that even lets recruiters choose between a fixed or flexible order for each step of the interview process. When all of this has been organized, candidates can be sent a booking link to allow them to choose an interview time that suits them. This provides a better candidate experience and frees up hiring managers' time to focus on other aspects of the hiring process.
Conclusion
Removing the scheduling burden that managers face means that they have more time to help their employees and more time to build their team. They also have more time to develop their own careers. Everything from meeting organization to time management can benefit from managers and their teams embracing better scheduling software. To find out more about adding scheduling to your HR software, get in touch today.