Why use timesheet software or rota management software in your business?
Using timesheet software or rota management systems doesn’t just cut down on admin and save you time – your business also stands to benefit in a number of other ways.
- Specialist rota and timesheet software ensures your staff scheduling is always compliant with UK legislation
- Thanks to automation features, you can minimise human error and free up time to focus on your wider HR strategy
- With a reliable and flexible timesheet management system, you can offer staff benefits like hybrid or home working.
When you’ve got the right timesheet and rota software in place, you can take your staff management to the next level.
Online rota and timesheet management software
Software that’s designed to help employers draw up and manage rotas and timesheets can be a total game-changer for businesses.
In particular, cloud-based rota and timesheet software can help by:
- Reducing time spent on manual tasks and admin, e.g. updating timesheets
- Ensuring your staff scheduling is always compliant with legal requirements
- Keeping data updated instantly for all users, including managers and employees, across all devices.
Understanding your rota management needs
Maintaining a rota or setting up timesheets? Consider the following questions to help you find the right software solutions:
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Is the existing rota or schedule up to scratch?
First, complete a rough audit of your existing rota or scheduling system.
- Check it has the space and flexibility to put people on shift for the exact times you need them.
- Have staff expressed frustration with the current system, or has it been a few years since it was reviewed?
- Do you need to use “workarounds” to add people to shifts at the last minute?
- Have there been multiple instances of staff being over- or underpaid or not being provided adequate leave or breaks?
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What demand is being placed on staff time?
When you’re working out how to manage your staff’s time more effectively, consider the typical level of demand your people cope with, shift to shift.
- Are your staff always flat-out busy or overstretched?
- Are there often times when staff don’t have anything to do or too many people on a single shift?
- Can you move staff hours or duties around to deploy people more effectively?
And critically, does your current system or software allow you to make these kinds of changes easily and without compromising your legal compliance?
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What policies are in place?
Take stock of what policies around shifts, leave, absence, etc., you have in place, including:
- The number of holidays people have against the total hours they are contracted for
- How legally enforced breaks are managed and implemented
- What your approach to absence is when recording timesheets.
Either make sure you’re always mindful of your policies – or if you have software, you can make sure all your policies are being upheld automatically.
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If you already use staff scheduling software, is it good enough?
Even if you already have software in place, it’s well worth asking whether it’s working hard enough for your purposes.
- Are you still doing admin tasks manually that could be done automatically?
- Is your software keeping you compliant? Have you had complaints from staff despite having software in place?
- Is your software cloud-based, so it’s accessible from anywhere (with internet) and updates any changes for all users instantly?
- Does your software provide an employee self-service portal where staff can check their shifts, annual leave allowance, and hours worked?
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Do your staff have access to a self-service portal?
In our day-to-day lives, we expect to be able to use technology to access our information and make changes easily and in our own time.
One of the biggest perks of some cloud-based rota and timesheet software is the self-service employee portal feature.
If included, this secure employee portal can be used on the go and via any device that connects to the internet, allowing staff to access:
- A specially designed program or app to check their hours, shifts and other vital info
- Updates (e.g. shift changes) from managers which they can check and query
- A place where they can submit requests (e.g. annual leave) and have HR/management informed instantly
Featured Guide
Download Time to thrive: a guide to rotas and timesheets
Rotas and timesheets have essential functions within businesses, and finding the right software to help you keep them running smoothly can make all the difference.
Download and read our complete free guide for employers, which includes:
- Common rota and timesheet challenges
- Staff scheduling need-to-knows
- Ways to outline your scheduling needs
- Great online timesheet solutions
- An explanation of rota software.
Why use cloud-based rotas and timesheets?
Cloud-based systems provide a range of benefits compared to traditional “on-site” software, including:
- A system that “lives” online, meaning you can access it from anywhere with an internet connection
- Updates made by one user are immediately updated across the system, meaning everyone uses a reliable centralised data source
- Secured employee “self-service” portals, ensuring staff can check their hours and make requests anytime.
Integrated rota and timesheet software
To make rotas and timesheets a breeze, you ideally want software that integrates seamlessly with your existing HR system.
Rotageek provides an integrated service that:
- Links to all-in-one HR management software like IRIS Cascade
- Updates any changes made to employee info across the entire system in real time
- Provides scheduling, attendance, and leave and absence tools
- Instantly verifies HR data (e.g. annual leave allowance) and reflects this in schedule creation.
IRIS Cascade HRi
“Before we discovered IRIS Cascade, we had a payroll system but the rest of our HR processes were archaic – nothing was joined up. As HR manager, I didn’t have a system to gain an overview or tools for reporting. IRIS Cascade has given us one central place we can store all the reporting information. Data like holiday records and training history is at your fingertips. The reporting is intuitive and flexible, and I can now quickly pull out and provide the information I need. It’s a powerful tool for managers too; you can see your team in a snapshot with the reporting dashboard and it’s really visual. We’ve been very happy with adopting IRIS Cascade. It’s enabled us to become more efficient and focus on higher value HR activities. We’ve come a long way!”
Acorn Stairlifts
IRIS Cascade HRi
“I think the best test of how valuable IRIS Cascade HRi has become is to think how we would manage if it were to be taken away from us. I cannot imagine running the HR function without IRIS Cascade now, which I think is a good testament. As such, I have and will continue to recommend IRIS Cascade to others.”
Rotageek
“Rotageek has provided us with a solution that will help plan thousands of colleagues working in hundreds of locations, give our colleagues visibility and agency to plan their lives, and drives our goals in a fast-moving retail environment.”
Rotageek
“Since we’ve had Rotageek, our customer experience has improved as our best trained members are much more available.”
Rotageek
“Rotageek helped us fulfil our company’s vision – one system that makes scheduling simple for everyone, supporting us to improve everyday””
The Perfume Shop
Explore all timesheet software and rota management solutions from IRIS
Handle timesheets, rotas and much more including holidays, leave, payroll, recruitment, and training with IRIS. Our IRIS Cascade and Staffology solutions help you save time and money by bringing all your HR functionality onto a single, powerful, cloud-powered dashboard, while our partner products like Rotageek and Deputy allow you to easily manage rotas and timesheets within a standalone app.
Discover how software built on three decades of experience can help you.
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Perfect for mid-sized to enterprise-level organisations, IRIS Cascade Timesheets helps take the stress out of staff time- keeping. Recording, submitting and approving the hours worked by your workforce has never been easier.
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Get an intuitive drag and drop, cloud-based rota management and staff scheduling solution to help you improve productivity and profitability. What’s more, Rotageek is fully integratable with most HCM systems.
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Create and edit staff rotas with this clever rota mangement module for Staffology. Employees are quickly updated with any changes to their shift and able to check their rota at any time with self-service functionality.
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Whether you’re a business owner, manager or administrator, the Deputy app can help you spend less time on managing staff scheduling. Build and share work schedules, manage staff attendance and integrate timesheets with your payroll without fuss.
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