Although sometimes necessary in order to meet the needs of the business, overtime is something that is best avoided whenever possible. In the US, the number of workers eligible for overtime, already a big part of a budget for industries from retail to food to manufacturing and beyond, was expanded by 1.3 million last year, adding salaried workers who make below $35.500 per year. 

To comply with the overtime law, business owners, of course, are required to pay at least time plus one-half of the regular rate of pay if employees work more than 40 hours in a given week. Luckily, there’s Scheduling +, a cloud-based payroll and work scheduling software designed to help you prevent unnecessary overtime. Here are just a few examples of how Scheduling+ helps you eliminate OT. 

Overtime Alerts

Our user-friendly interface certainly makes it easier to track the number of hours worked, but so does setting up an overtime alert. Configure an alert to be sent to your cell phone or desktop system when an employee approaches overtime or a preset number of hours. This helps ensure that you’re in the know when it comes to unplanned overtime so you can react and make the appropriate scheduling changes. 

Easily Create The Schedule 

Calling out, switching shifts, and having to schedule an employee at the last minute to cover a shift is a frequent cause of overtime. However, with Scheduling+, employees see the full schedule every week and the scheduling manager is automatically blocked from scheduling certain employees who are not available on certain days, leading workers to call out a lot less frequently. What’s more, managers can easily approve or reject time-off requests right in the app. 

Increase Productivity With Improved Communication

Communicating employee schedules and detailed job tasks saves time and lets your employees plan for what’s ahead. With clear direction on what needs to be done, the job will get done faster and with fewer questions. Scheduling + can help you improve employee communication by allowing you to email or text schedules directly to employees. You’ll never have to worry about scheduling an employee for back-to-back shifts as the color-coded interface makes it easy to get a clear picture of which employees are scheduled and when they worked last.   

The employee Timeclock App also, quite literally, saves you time. With employees able to clock in and out right from their phones, or requiring them to do so in a neutral location such as a break room, you’ll see how the all-too-common practice of time theft—via padding hours on timesheets or buddy clock-ins—decreases, saving your payroll budget for having to cover additional, unworked hours every week. 

Add Time and Task Management

Scheduling the right people at the right time is key to reducing overtime, but so is effective time and task management. With Scheduling+ you get scheduling, payroll, time clock, and task management features all rolled into one simple cloud-based app. With in-app task management, employees and managers see every outstanding and completed task. With everyone in the clear about how much needs to get done per shift, there should be less miscommunication, which can lead to unfinished tasks and a request for extra hours. 

Learn More About Scheduling +

Are you interested in learning more about how Scheduling + can help your business stay under your labor budget and reduce overtime? Check out this case study from a Scheduling+ client and then contact a member of our team for a live demonstration or to start your free trial today.