Using real-time reports to manage a shift-based workforce.

Many staffing suppliers and hirers still depend on spreadsheets when making business-critical decisions over their workforce.

The shift-based workforce intrinsically moves at pace: scaling up and down to cater best to your business needs. This means information can become outdated quickly – especially where shift-based workers are involved.

JoinedUp makes it easy to get live, real-time updates on business-critical data to oversee the success and alignment of your workforce to your strategy. It can’t be matched by spreadsheets, plus it keeps workers, management and staffing suppliers all on the same page.

Automation every step of the way

Managing shift-based workforces is complicated at every stage; from recruitment to reporting. But more and more businesses are discovering how technology can eliminate hours of frustrating and time-consuming admin and cut through the confusion. By using real-time reports to manage shift-based workforces they’re bringing clarity, transparency, and control to the entire recruitment process. 

The importance of a full picture

When information is siloed it can be time-consuming, or even impossible, to transfer it between systems or use it effectively. Managing shift-based workforces with spreadsheets and emails leaves recruiters or end-hirers in the dark when it comes to workforce trends or future needs. This could leave them struggling to fill slots at the last minute or over-allocating shifts and wasting money. Labor shortfalls make it difficult to get things done and over-hiring leads to cancellations, which erodes trust with skilled workers. In contrast, full visibility of information allows workers, agencies and end-hirers to work together collaboratively and build long-term working relationships.

Dashboards and reporting

JoinedUp by Beeline has worked with top businesses and agencies like Royal Mail, Travis Perkins, Reed, Eddie Stobart and Hermes to manage their shift-based workforces via configurable dashboards and custom reporting. With JoinedUp, companies get more visibility and control over their recruitment, which results in reduced spending and increased efficiency. On average, agencies increased their productivity by 27% with JoinedUp and recruiters saved 12 hours a week by cutting tedious and unnecessary admin.

"On average, agencies increased their productivity by 27% with JoinedUp and recruiters saved 12 hours a week by cutting tedious and unnecessary admin."

JoinedUp’s dashboards and reports are completely configurable, so full shift data and recruitment trends are visible. What does this mean for an agency or end-hirer?

Let’s imagine a recruitment manager or shift supervisor for a warehouse wants to take more control of their recruitment process. They could use JoinedUp’s custom dashboards and reports to get a real-time snapshot of recruitment at any time. This is vital with shift-based workforces where labor needs fluctuate regularly. The warehouse may have a fairly stable group of permanent workers, but need regularly changing numbers of temporary workers depending on the season, weather, day of the week or time of day. Shifts in raw material availability or demand could also affect the amount of additional cover required. JoinedUp’s dashboards and reports give a live overview of the number of workers currently on shift, as well as the number of latecomers and no-shows. Managers can keep on top of any submissions, approvals and queries, and access an overview of the next 24 hours. So they’re in complete control of recruitment at all times.

The manager could also use the dashboard to visualise shift patterns instantly in clearly formatted graphs. They can compare past and future allocations or analyse recruitment for the last week, last month or a custom time period. With real-time reporting, it’s easy to identify and understand patterns and problems, so managers can plan effectively for them.

The manager may discover that the call for drivers follows a few days behind their need for packers or no-shows peak on Monday. This gives them more notice to get the right people into shifts ahead of time. So, working around holidays, sickness, or peak trade doesn’t need a last-minute scramble to fill slots with qualified candidates and quieter periods don’t result in short-notice cancellations that upset top talent. Quick and easy access to clearly laid out information allows managers to plan ahead and forecast exactly what resource they’ll need when. What’s more, managers can fully automate their KPI reporting so they can free up their teams to concentrate on what really adds value. 

They can then simply assign pre-approved workers to any upcoming shifts they need to fill. This real-time view feeds directly and immediately from workers to the hirer, and back again via the app. So no one wastes time with out-of-date spreadsheets or missed messages, reducing no-shows and double bookings. And when the manager needs to make quick changes, they can instantly reallocate jobs or reorganise shifts. Then they’ll confirm any updates via SMS or in-app messaging, so everyone’s always in sync.

JoinedUp by Beeline’s automated reporting has helped top businesses reduce spend and increase efficiency. With people costs accounting for 65-80% of business overheads, can you afford to do without real-time reports for your shift-based workforce? 

Request a demo with JoinedUp by Beeline today.