Before you use an on-call scheduling template to manage your time, you should know precisely what it is and how it works. Then, customize, communicate, and plan your employees’ schedules for 24/7/365 coverage.
Especially if your business requires after-hours support, an effective on-call schedule can minimize overtime work and maximize your profits. By scheduling your employees based on their needs, you will ensure that your company’s on-call hours are covered at all times with a happy team. And you’ll reduce the need to hire backup support when your employees are working overtime.
This article will dive into on-call scheduling, on-call scheduling templates, and how these templates work. Finally, we will end with alittle about our services and how we support on-call scheduling with cutting-edge technology at Call Experts.
What is On-Call Scheduling?
While on-call scheduling may sound easy enough, it can be complex. The goal is to create a schedule that allows you to work with your team without hassle. A good on-call schedule will include a timeline for scheduling, time off requests, alerts and notifications, exportable calendars, and basic rules for managing the schedule.
On-call scheduling is the practice of defining a schedule that covers 24/7/365 coverage. This means that employees are scheduled to work all day hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays.
On-call scheduling is an essential aspect of business operations. You should create an effective and efficient one for your employees and customers. In an ideal world, employees would be scheduled for shifts between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. But in reality, most businesses have customer service needs around the clock, so on-call scheduling is often necessary to ensure adequate coverage.
There are several reasons why companies might use on-call scheduling:
- To accommodate employees who have childcare or other responsibilities during traditional work hours
- To provide coverage during high-traffic times, such as during a holiday or sales event
- When there is a lack of staff due to turnover or illness, which can happen at any time of year
An on-call schedule will ensure you can quickly and efficiently respond to incidents. It will also ensure that your employees aren’t overloaded and sacrificing productivity.
The University of Massachusetts estimates job stress costs $300 billion annually in lost productivity, absenteeism, and legal and insurance costs. The problem is not only bad for your business, but it also affects your employees’ well-being. The best on-call schedule will minimize employee stress while increasing service reliability. It will also help you avoid underworking your employees. This lets you keep your staff happy and focused on the core business tasks.
What Is An On-Call Scheduling Template?
An On-Call Scheduling Template is the calendar, documentation, and rules for your company’s on-call practice. It should be informed and updated weekly or monthly. An on-call scheduling template can help you create and standardize your employees’ schedules. In addition, a good template will include basic rules for on-call scheduling, time-off requests, and alerts/notifications.
On-call scheduling templates are intended to help you establish a consistent on-call process that meets the needs of both companies and employees. They also help companies ensure that their enterprise-wide on-call response policy meets legal requirements.
An effective template is timely, consistent, and specific. The template should be reviewed and updated frequently. Each employee should have the same access to information about their on-call responsibilities. The template should include detailed instructions for each type of alert (e.g., phone call, pager) and for each time zone where an employee might receive an alert during off-hours.
The on-call schedule template can be customized based on your team’s needs. For example, you may want to include information like:
- Which days are available for each employee?
- What time of day works best for them?
- How many hours do they typically work per day?
- How often should they expect to be called in?
There are many advantages to using an on-call scheduling template. First, it will keep track of your employees’ time records, so you’ll know who is taking on-call shifts more often and who is frequently late. Second, an on-call template will ensure that everyone is on-call and available when needed.
On-call scheduling templates can save you money, reduce overtime, help you communicate your schedule to employees, and maintain work-life balance. Not to mention, on-call scheduling will improve your customer satisfaction by providing that your service is reliable and accessible.
How Does An On-Call Scheduling Template Work?
Transparency is an essential part of an effective on-call schedule. Being transparent is vital for your business, and giving your team access to information helps it run smoothly. This is especially important when it comes to communication. For example, keep all your team members informed about schedule changes or shifts.
A good on-call schedule should not only minimize downtime but also ensure that you have enough staff members to respond to customer concerns. In addition, the right on-call schedule will not overwork employees and have backup protocols and shifts assigned.
On-call scheduling can be helpful in several industries. First, it is beneficial for teams that provide continuous service. These include healthcare providers, IT professionals responsible for business uptime, and HVAC, plumbing, electric, gas, and utility field technicians.
Using software to manage your on-call schedule can ensure that it runs smoothly and is not a time-consuming chore. It also automates the delivery and notifications of incidents and provides contact information for employees.
The software and templates allow businesses to be more efficient by providing employees with access to relevant information at all times. For example, employees who don’t have access to their work email or laptop can receive notifications about incidents through text messages or phone calls. This allows them to respond quickly if needed.
One-Size-Fits-All Approach to On-Call Scheduling
The most common form of on-call scheduling is a weekly rotation. This schedule is a time-based compensation model, meaning that the on-call worker is paid for their work hours. This model tends to be more flexible for businesses than for large organizations.
Another critical step in creating an effective on-call schedule is creating a rotation of on-call employees that fits all employees’ needs. This rotation should consider common challenges organizations face, such as team size and call volume. This way, your on-call schedule will fit your organization’s needs.
Ensure that your employees aren’t working back-to-back shifts. Ideally, each employee should have at least three days between on-call shifts. This way, they can rest between shifts and avoid burnout. In addition, you should consider the capabilities of each team member.
Experiment with different amounts of notice to find the best solution for your organization. For example, one-hour before call-out is acceptable for some companies, while the two-week notice is recommended for others. Companies should also provide an app to workers to view their shifts and swap or drop shifts as needed—secure messaging tools to protect customer and employee data.
The on-call schedule should be easy to access so enterprise stakeholders can quickly contact team members. It should also allow for seamless communication during an incident.
Employee Preferences
Building your on-call schedule around your employees’ skills and abilities is critical to ensuring optimal efficiency. Consider company culture, unique customer requests, and preferred working hours when creating your schedule.
An employee’s preferences can significantly affect how their shifts are scheduled. For example, some employees may have medical reasons not to work certain hours, while others may work better at different times. It’s also essential to take into account sick days and vacations. Then, you can plan a schedule that works with everyone’s preferences.
While on-call scheduling might seem like a great idea, it can be difficult for employees and interfere with their work-life balance. In the long run, it can hurt employee morale and turnover. It’s also challenging to manage and implement properly. Use software that helps you make the right decisions more manageable.
In addition to collecting shift preferences from your employees, you should keep a master calendar of each employee’s availability. This way, managers can check whether there are any significant gaps in employee availability.
A transparent calendar will also help them make good scheduling decisions. In addition, they’ll have a better idea of which employees are more flexible than others.
If you’re not a professional at creating and updating employee schedules, consider using Call Experts’ scheduling software that allows you to use an on-call scheduling template. These templates can help you make a schedule in seconds.
Once you’ve selected a template, you can set the template for your employees. It will find available employees and automatically schedule them, working around their time off and availability.
Mobile On-Call Scheduling Options
Many software products available on the market can help you manage on-call scheduling, but they all have their benefits and drawbacks.
Here are four things to consider when choosing an on-call scheduling tool:
- Make sure it’s accessible on mobile phones and web browsers
- Choose a tool that’s easy to use and understand
- Look for a solution with flexible settings that can adapt to your workflow
- Don’t forget about scalability!
Mobile on-call scheduling tools are essential for any company that needs to provide 24/7 support. These tools allow you to keep track of your employees’ schedules and ensure they’re available when they need to be. They also make it easy for your employees to communicate with each other so they know when it’s time to take a call.
On-call scheduling tools help you to get the most out of your team’s time by making sure that everyone has an opportunity to sleep and work during their off hours.
An Award-Winning On-Call Scheduling Template
If you’re managing a team of people who work on-call or are on-call, you know how difficult it can be to keep everyone organized and on the same page.
Call Expert’s on-call scheduling tools are the easiest to manage your on-call schedule. Set up your employees’ schedules in one place and let our solutions do all the heavy lifting for you.
The web and mobile on-call scheduling platform allow you to:
- Create, edit and delete on-call shifts
- View a list of all your upcoming and past scheduled shifts (including time off)
- Set up notifications to remind you of upcoming shifts
- Manage your availability (i.e., tell us when you’re available to work)
Our simple interface lets you quickly set up your schedule and see how many people are available for every shift. When someone’s schedule changes, click a button in our dashboard, and we’ll update your entire schedule for you. The app helps you create shifts for your team and assign them to specific members. You can also set up shifts for different days of the week, weekends and holidays.
Manage your entire team in one place, including their current status, availability, and upcoming shifts. With a few clicks, you can also send messages to each member individually or all members at once.
You’ll receive notifications about changes in team status, upcoming shifts, and more. You can also configure custom alerts by type of event, time or date range, or any other criteria based on your needs.
Our on-call scheduling solutions help you track who’s on call at any time and improve communication between team members.
Conclusion
An on-call schedule template allows your business to respond to increasing customer demand by ensuring that you have enough staff. The best on-call schedules will also ensure that your employees are not overworked and maximize profits. In addition, an award-winning on-call schedule template will give employees advance notice of their plans to respond to customer requests.
A successful on-call schedule is critical for many reasons. An inefficient schedule can reduce focus, productivity, and even employee churn. It can also harm the company and its customers. Customers may not receive the help they need if employees are unprepared, and insufficient response can leave the company open to negligence claims. The best on-call scheduling template should be flexible and accommodate employees’ preferences.
Ensure that the on-call schedule is easily accessible for the entire team. It should also make communication easy for your team during an incident. Finally, it’s essential to consider ways to improve on-call management continually. This way, you can enhance your on-call schedule and identify any issues affecting your company.
Remember that on-call schedules do not have to be set in stone and should be reviewed periodically to ensure they are still working effectively. While building an on-call schedule around an employee’s skills and abilities is essential, it is also critical to distribute the workload evenly among team members.
