10 Top Employee Shift Scheduling Software To Ease Your Roster Prep

If you’re in charge of the weekly planning of the office roster, you may have had struggles with Excel, faced last-minute absences and urgent leaves, and even put up with a couple of no-shows along the way. And as it happens, employee shift scheduling can get pretty tiresome. Unless you’re employing the help of a good employee shift scheduling software.

What are these things? How do they work? Can you get one for yourself at no cost at all? We’re covering all that and more in this round of discussions about employee scheduling software for small businesses. So, explore our list to see how you can pick one that works for your needs and make an informed choice.

1. 1. Why employee shift scheduling software is important in modern workplaces?
2. 2. Overview of the 10 Best Employee Shift Scheduling Software
3. 3. Criteria for Selecting the Best Employee Shift Scheduling Software
   1. 3.1 User-friendliness
   2. 3.2 Configurability & Scalability
   3. 3.3 Analytics
   4. 3.4 Integration Capabilities
   5. 3.5 Customer Support
   6. 3.6 Pricing
4. 4. 10 Best Employee Shift Scheduling Software
   1. 4.1 Oracle Cloud HCM
   2. 4.2 Quick Books Time
   3. 4.3 Wrike
   4. 4.4 Connecteam
   5. 4.5 Sling
   6. 4.6 Shiftboard
   7. 4.7 ZoomShift
   8. 4.8 When I Work
   9. 4.9 7Shifts
   10. 4.10 Paycor
5. 5. FAQs

1 Why employee shift scheduling software is important in modern workplaces?

With the sheer number of people at workplaces today, shift scheduling can quickly become a tedious task. In addition to that, frequent schedule changes, time-offs, medical leaves, and more could easily throw a timely lineup out of wack. But, with a good shift scheduling app, you can easily sort these out with just a couple of clicks.

Most of the best shift scheduling software suites have a graphics-heavy design and feature a complete toolkit to help manage your office timetables effectively. Some of these implements include schedule template creation, roll-call lists, drag & drop functionalities for efficient schedule management, as well as a combination of interactive buttons and links that allow for employees to contribute towards keeping a perpetually updated shift roster.

2 Overview of the 10 Best Employee Shift Scheduling Software

3 Criteria for Selecting the Best Employee Shift Scheduling Software

3.1 User-friendliness

Not only will this give you ease of operation when rushing weekly timelines for schedule publishing, you’ll also be able to speed up the process a fair bit more with a user-centric dashboard design. Plus, not everyone in your organization would be tech-savvy enough to use auto-scheduling, create templated schedules, or be able to easily locate tasks and assignment features on such software.

3.2 Configurability & Scalability

As with most software units, employee shift scheduling software can be individualized based on the needs of the companies themselves. A lot of these, even any employee shift schedule generator off the Internet, will allow you to create customizable time sheets, clock-in reports, efficiency graphs, and even interactive leave forms despite rapid personnel growth within your organization.

3.3 Analytics

Most of the best employee scheduling software should be able to offer a comprehensive analytics suite for you to crunch your HR data to make the most out of your time and staff availability.

You would be able to generate monthly payroll summaries, leave frequency, compensation paid out, and almost every other data your business would need in regard to manpower.

3.4 Integration Capabilities

A good employee shift scheduling software always supports third-party integrations. The most common one would be the ability to integrate with the internal calendar system. Most employee scheduling software for small business needs also link back to payroll systems, medical claim databases, and even to the organization's time and efficiency tracers. With a shift scheduling app center stage, you’d be able to access multiple linked functions, all with a single button.

3.5 Customer Support

For even the best shift scheduling software, having a strong customer support team is the utmost basic. With assistance at beck-and-call, you’d be able to get yourself out of scheduling failures, missing data, locked-out employees, and similar situations with just 2 minutes with any available chat agent. Of course, it would also be advisable to have multiple contact and help channels – email, dedicated phone lines, FAQ sections, video tutorial deposits, and more.

3.6 Pricing

Unless you’re on an employee scheduling software free for download, pricing also becomes a big part of deciding which employee scheduling suite to go with. Naturally, there will need to be a base budget for the software, either annually or monthly. From there, assess your needs and list down the features that meet your business needs.

4 10 Best Employee Shift Scheduling Software

4.1 Oracle Cloud HCM

Aligning your company’s HR needs with management solutions.

Best For : Mid – Large sized organizations.

Oracle Cloud Human Capital Management (HCM) is an all-encompassing software suite for human resource functions. As far for being an employee shift scheduling software, it has the capability to connect every inch of your organization – both departments and individual people – to allow for the scheduling of weekly and even monthly shift rosters quickly and easily.

What makes Oracle unique?

The best thing about the Oracle suite is that it offers a complete HR toolkit that is easily adaptable as your company scales up. From payroll, employee benefits and claims, talent acquisition, time and labor tracking, as well as robust analytics built to further allow for data crunching necessary when planning a scheduled roster. By providing a suite that links you to every department in the organization, you’d be able to monitor the recent ongoings in each area right from your employee shift scheduling software, giving you accurate, real-time data on your manpower arrangements.

Key Features :

• Manpower breakdown by location & demography.

• Links to payroll, medical claim, and attendance logging systems effortlessly.

•  AI-powered projections for leaves, absences, and possible urgent leaves.

• Encourages healthy workforce culture with automated productivity boosters.

•  30-day free trial with tutorials/guides.

Pricing :

Individual plan pricing starts from $ 15.00

Pros & Cons :

4.2 Quick Books Time

Tracking employee time effortlessly.

Best For: Small – Large sized organizations.

Intuit’s Quick Books Time is a time tracking suite that also doubles as a payroll management suite, as well as an employee shift scheduling software. With a more niche set of tools, it makes things easier to manage where employees are directly concerned – timesheets, weekly pay calculations, shift cycling, clock-in & clock-out averages, leave tracking, and more.

What makes Quick Books Time unique?

Being a more specific toolkit, Quick Books Time allows you to have employee scheduling software for small businesses, freelancers, or giant corporations with simplified interfaces and dashboards, allowing you to easily manage larger groups with lower instances of slip-ups. Set up notification system that reminds your employees of their shift schedules, as well as to clock in or out accordingly. Its geographically accurate geofencing system can give you a precise deduction of your employee locations should they be a no-show.

Key Features :

• Detailed invoicing and reporting.

•  Payroll and tax deduction features.

•  Automated time tracking, timesheet generations, and mileage/travel duration tracking.

•  Virtual accounting and bookkeeping features are available.

• A demo version is available for 30 days.

Pricing :

Individual and organizational plan pricing starts from $ 3.75

Pros & Cons :

4.3 Wrike

Manage projects and monitor employee progress.

Best For: Small – Medium sized organizations.

Wrike is great for when you need employee shift scheduling software that can keep track of cycles across various projects throughout your organization. Its combination of project management tools, as well as time tracking implements, make it simpler for you to plan out a working office roster specific to the needs of each project.

What makes Wrike unique?

With Wrike, you can view all your pending and active tasks by the department and individual teams. And while this helps you track progression of each of these internal tasks, you’ll also be able to see who is most needed on a task a well as their time availability based on cumulative projects assigned to them. This way, you’d be able to schedule shifts effectively while making sure that no project goes unattended.

Key Features :

•  User-friendly data visualization.

• Kanban boards for structured project division.

• Over 400 custom integrated tools for increased workplace efficiency.

•  Cross-team communication

• Dynamic forms feature

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 9.80

Pros & Cons :

4.4 Connecteam

Organize work functions fully on the cloud.

Best For: Small – Medium sized organizations.

Connecteam was designed with the remote workforce in mind – seamless communication via any device at any time of the day. Championing task management, employee scheduling and timeliness, training, communication, as well as overall organization health and safety, you’d be able to monitor happenings throughout your business to be able to effectively draw up shift timetables.

What makes Connecteam unique?

It offers specialized solution plans for multiple needs within a business – HR, communication, and operations. With a tailored toolkit for each pricing plan, users will be able to segment their manpower based on task priority, while having the flexibility of operating from anywhere. Its employee shift scheduling software integrates use templated, customizable forms and has a GPS-accurate time and location tracking system to help you keep an eye on projects as they proceed in real time.

Key Features :

•  Employee management and assessment.

•  Automatic cloud backup for all data.

• Complete task management suite.

•  Real-time analytics with simplified reporting.

•  Remote & mobile accessible

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 29.00

Pros & Cons :

4.5 Sling

Manage every employee with ease.

Best For: Small – Large sized organizations.

Sling is considered one of the best shift scheduling software out there – its dedicated design makes employee tracking, claims, and leave management processes easier by a huge fraction. The specificity o this suite also allows for teams to interact across task entries, as well as through a main organization newsfeed to keep updated with the latest company announcements.

What makes Sling unique?

The compartmentalized functions with Sling allow you to dive deep into employee needs and management for top-quality workplace output. It puts manpower management at the forefront to not only help you disperse your available workforce across shifts but also to keep costs low. It also acts as an employee information database, storing personal, technical, banking, and claims information right on the cloud. Plus, it also has a spotlighted feature where you’d be able to monitor employee breaks progression and tackle burnout before it even happens.

Key Features :

• Employee online time clock.

•  Task & Break reminders.

•   Seamless team communication channels across multiple locations.

•   Internal newsfeeds for memos and announcements.

•   Instant support contact points.

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 1.70/per user

Pros & Cons :

4.6 Shiftboard

Schedule shifts for your business right down to the hour.

Best For: Small – Medium sized organizations.

First introduced in 2002, Shiftboard has been in the same league as employee shift scheduling software, gradually improving processes and functions to allow businesses to manage their workforce effectively, no matter how intricate their needs. It offers a unique time-tracking system and a Kanban system for shift swapping.

What makes Shiftboard unique?

Designed to do more for manpower management in smaller to medium organizational builds, Shiftboard takes every stride available to ease shift scheduling, confirmation, amendment, and swapping – all in real-time. Aside from time tracking, the suite also carries robust workforce recruitment tools as well as internal communication channels to ensure that employees on shift are always updated, wherever they may be.

Key Features :

• In-depth invoice and report generation.

•  Dedicated suite to deal with management overhaul.

• Employee morale and fatigue management

• Adaptive scheduling and workforce overseeing automation

•  Union compliance monitoring.

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 45.00

Pros & Cons :

4.7 ZoomShift

Manage all hourly team schedules from a single point.

Best For: Small – Medium sized organizations.

ZoomShift does exactly what its name suggests – focusing completely on open organizational tasks as well as the available manpower to carry out those pending items at any given time. You will be able to track attendance, calendar entries, time-off instances, task discussion boards, and shift distributions for the week, all from a single view.

What makes ZoomShift unique?

As a suite dedicated to hourly tracking of employee activities, ZoomShift offers both effortless shift scheduling and swapping tools to allow you to manage weekly rosters within minutes. Employees can also request for time off or mark their absences directly on the schedule via a proprietary employee portal, further cutting down HR workload. Alongside time tracking, you’ll have access to payroll management and overtime salary calculation to simplify final payments based on semi-automated timesheet management.

Key Features :

• Mobile access via ZoomShift application.

• Shift schedule and change notifications in-app and via email.

•  GPS-powered real-time employee tracing.

•  Seamless integration with third-party applications and HR solutions.

•  14-day trial on all pricing plans.

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 2.00

Pros & Cons :

4.8 When I Work

Drill down scheduling to the very last detail.

Best For: Small – Large sized organizations.

When I Work is an exceptional employee shift scheduling software that allows users to specify every aspect of a task as well as details on the person the job is assigned to. Aside from being a worker roster generator, the software also facilitates online training processes, webinars, and live streams to better equip your workers in case they need to cover a shift with a fresh, new task description.

What makes When I Work unique?

It’s no wonder that When I Work is touted as one of the best shift scheduling software, what with its meticulous shift scheduling – right down to the hour and complete with employee positions tasked. It even offers automatic scheduling and billable hours, with internal budgeting and forecasting features, to better manage your manpower and wage payouts. The suite is also equipped with both in-app alerts as well as direct SMS notifications to employees, ensuring that task allocations are better communicated among the team.

Key Features :

•  Drilled-down, by-hour scheduling.

• Changes & shift swaps are communicated in real-time.

• In-schedule search and filters.

• Gapless integration with third-party management calendars and payout solutions.

•  14-day free trial on business-individualized suite.

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 2.50/per user

Pros & Cons :

4.9 7Shifts

Organize employee rosters while saving cost.

Best For: Small – Medium sized organizations.

7Shifts is an employee shift schedule generator designed with the restaurant industry in mind. Seamless hourly trackers, wage calculators, and integration to your POS system will give you insight to employee efficiency based on sales figures against manpower spending. It even makes an effort to provide solutions from the onboarding of your employee right to the retention level.

What makes 7Shifts unique?

This shift scheduling app makes it easier to onboard new employees as well as submit government-required forms and tax details. It also has a one-click payroll setup for newbies without the usual hassle, plus an individualized onboarding document storage for each of your new team members. 7Shifts lets you organize training and webinars as well as quickly fit your employees into a simplified and streamlined schedule – complete with tip management features.

Key Features :

• Mobile shift management via the 7Shifts application.

• Management level logbook and duty period notes.

• Effortless in-team communication.

•  Labor compliance checks on all level employees.

• 14-day trial on all plan types.

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 29.99

Pros & Cons :

4.10 Paycor

Improve productivity with every shift.

Best For: Small – Large sized organizations.

Paycor is another shift scheduling app that allows you to customize your roster planning features by size, tasks, and industry – giving you full freedom to choose a toolkit that’s perfect for your business. Manage continuous shift iterations, track leave, and other benefits, and keep employees engaged every step of the way.

What makes Paycor unique?

Paycor provides solutions right from the get-go – applicant and candidate management, scheduling, and tracking. It even creates unique employee profiles with complete personal and tax documentation on your worker – right down to a background screening report. Keep track of your available staff, and open tasks, and manage weekly HR spend, plus bonuses and tips, right from a single screen.

Key Features :

• Built-in talent acquisition and background checks.

• Simplified tax forms and personnel details submissions.

• Multi-location employee tracking.

•  In-app team communication alerts and chatrooms.

•  30-day free trial on a business-customized suite for you.

Pricing :

Free & paid pricing starts from $ 99.99

Pros & Cons :

The Queensland University of Technology bid goodbye to endless email threads and lost sick leave applications!

5 FAQs

• How do I create an employee shift schedule in Excel?

With Excel, you will have to manually enter employee, task, and timing details the first time around. For the following schedules, you can go ahead and copy a previous schedule to simply change the shift details. However, this method can be unfeasible as your company grows.

• Why is employee scheduling important?

Shift and labor scheduling is essential for both efficient completion of organization-related tasks as well as cutting down unnecessary spending on manpower.

•  Is there a free employee scheduling app?

There are loads of employee scheduling software free of charge on the Internet – Asana, Homebase, Wrike, and more. Additionally, you can use online schedule generators to create ad hoc rosters.

• What is 4 shift work schedule?

A 4-shift schedule involves a 12-hour work cycle 2-4 days in a row with compensating leaves and off days. For example, an employee working 4 days continuously will be entitled to 2-4 days off in the following cycle, depending on the needs of the business.