gym community

How To Choose Staff Scheduling Software

« Blog | Written by ezfacility | | (0) Comments |

There are certain tasks any employer has to manage: hiring dependable workers, handling employee benefits, organizing HR paperwork. Then there is one particular task that presents unique challenges to employers in the fitness industry: staff scheduling. If you run a health club or other kind of fitness facility, chances are you know what I’m talking about. You employ many different types of employees, and your facility is open from early morning till late night (or perhaps even 24 hours a day). With a number of part-time jobs that need to be filled, maybe you hire students who have complicated schedules you have to work around. Perhaps you need after-hours cleaners to get your facility ready for morning exercisers. And then there are your personal trainers and class instructors, whose hours vary from day to day and who may or may not take individual appointments with customers.

Whatever the particulars at your facility, no doubt juggling employee schedules presents complications. These days, most fitness facilities find that juggling next to impossible without a software solution. Or, at the very least, attempting to schedule the old-fashioned way proves to be an enormously time-consuming and endlessly shifting task. Makes sense: With front desk personnel, sales staff, class instructors, cleaners, life guards, personal trainers, child care attendants, laundry room managers, and many other types of workers, a fitness facility manager has to piece together employee schedules like a puzzle. Computers, of course, are great puzzle-solvers.

However, you can’t settle on just any software solution for the important work of scheduling. Look for products that will allow you to create an unlimited number of job classifications, first of all. Make sure the software you choose offers the option to define specific pay rates for each employee. You also will need a solution that lets you run and export detailed payroll reports in a range of formats, including xml files, csv, pdf, MHTML, excel, tiff files, and Word formats. Also key is a program that allows designated employees administrator privileges to override staff clock in/out hours (because in and out hours aren’t necessary clear-cut). And it’s important to consider a program that lets you restrict clock in/out functions to specific terminals.

What’s more, you want an employee scheduling system that will help your facility optimise trainer and instructor productivity by scheduling recurring sessions and eliminating double-bookings. Such solutions should allow you to create daily, weekly, or monthly schedules for trainers and instructors; meet individual client needs by offering pre-paid and post-billed packages; create unique trainer logins to track individual schedules and earnings; define customised commission and pay rates for each trainer; run reports detailing payroll and commission totals and other elements; and automate email and text reminders to clients and trainers about upcoming sessions.

The bottom line: Do your research before you choose a software solution that offers staff scheduling capabilities. Generic solutions might not have the capacity to handle the particular needs of businesses in the fitness industry; a better choice probably is one geared toward the industry. You spend significant resources on finding and hiring the best staff you can; be sure you piece together their work schedules in a way that will most benefit your facility.

Scheduling

3 Quick Ways To Streamline Scheduling

« Blog | Written by ezfacility | | (0) Comments |

These days, scheduling just one day in a single family’s life practically requires a PhD in metaphysical engineering. Your spouse is out of town, you have an important work meeting, you’re out of groceries, and the plumber is coming to fix your broken sink; meanwhile, one kid has to get to soccer practice, taekwondo, and a dentist appointment and the other has a dance class and a tutoring session. Figuring out how it’s all going to get done seems impossible.
No wonder running a sports facility can give you a headache. If coordinating four people’s activities in one day is complicated, what about coordinating fields, equipment, practice space, classes, and special events for hundreds of people over several months? How are you going to get it all done?
Of course, you already have systems in place for tackling this task, but can you improve those systems? Here are a few tips for streamlining:

1. Test Your Knowledge

If you use league scheduling software, make sure you know its capabilities. Sure, you know how to publish a schedule to your website (you do, right?), but can you schedule multiple divisions at once? Are you sure you’ve got the settings right so you avoid double booking? Are you accommodating team preferences? If your software doesn’t allow you to do all these things, it’s time to find a new one. If it does and you’re not sure how to do them, it’s time for a refresher course. Do some research online, or, better yet, call your software’s support line. If you don’t use scheduling software, oh boy. Unless you’re a tiny, boutique facility, offering just one sport and with only a small clientele, you probably really need some.

2. Setup Quick Group Meetings

Have weekly or daily check-in sessions with employees to make sure everyone knows what’s on tap, forestall any potential glitches, and fix any problems. Scheduling works best when all the people involved know about the schedule and have a chance to weigh in on it. You’ll be doing yourself and your facility a big favor if you create time for brief, frequent sessions to ensure all systems are go. Also! No matter how carefully you plan and check your plan (and double-check your plan), conflicts happen. Know your steps for handling conflicts; train your employees in handling them too. Remember the end goal: Keep the customers happy.

3. Make Time for Analyzing Mistakes.

Again, conflicts arise. If something has gone wrong with your scheduling despite your mastery of software, your open lines of communication, and your vigilant efforts to stay on top of things, you need to know what went wrong. It can be useful to have a flowchart of questions to help you avoid problems in the future (for example: Did I enter this team’s practice location change into the software correctly? If no, then learn how to enter changes; if yes, then did I check to make sure the change was communicated through the proper channels? If no, then…. You get the idea).
We tend to think scheduling should come easily to us, and sometimes it does. But your facility is a complex system. To maintain complex systems, small adjustments often are necessary—and they can make a big difference. Figure out what small changes you can make to simplify scheduling!