Workforce management, filling shifts with casual staff and saving time and cost is critical to most businesses. On any given day there will be a story in the news about the rise of the casual labour economy. For, many it is a fantastic opportunity to pursue a work-life balance, and for some, it is the reality of the new world at work.
Irrespective of your reasons for being a casual employee or employing casuals, the fact remains that it can be an administrative and logistical nightmare. Many casual employees have more than one employer and most employers will have at least several casual employees. Large employers may have hundreds, if not thousands (consider our national retail chains).
People in management and leadership positions starting from Team Leaders all the way to Executive Management struggle to know their employee’s real-time availability to take on shifts. The impact of not identifying your available staff in moments can result in being under-resourced, missing deadlines or not meeting required service levels.
In some instances, this can be critical, consider the healthcare sector and staff patient ratios. When your staff can’t be found and secured for shifts, it invariably costs the business money and loss of reputation.
Likewise, as a casual employee, it is near impossible keeping everyone that needs to know your availability updated in real-time. This disconnect results in missing out on opportunities to work, feeling disengaged from your employer (and colleagues) and overall frustration. There is nothing worse than learning that you missed out to agency staff.
Whilst there are great workforce scheduling tools in the market, they all fail in one or more critical areas. Colleago has been designed to fill the void, and complement, rather than replace well-entrenched workforce planning tools. The critical areas where most existing systems tend to fail are:
Accessibility – Often only selected management or administrative staff have access to the organisation’s workforce management software. For organisations that operate outside of standard business hours, this is is a huge issue. More often, it is the staff at the coal face, that look after teams or functions, who need access to a quick, secure and easy to use shift booking solution, anywhere and anytime.
Licenses – Most software providers still have license agreements that limit the number of administrators (seats) you have unless you are prepared to pay through the nose. Some solutions have less than transparent fee structures based on users, staff numbers, shifts filled, texts sent etc.
Their promise – They try to solve every workforce problem by offering all manner of functionality making the software difficult to implement and use, limiting it to trained administrators only. Often they do none of it well.
Implementation – They require substantial investment in time, money (or both) to implement them, plus there they often need a change management program, training, all sorts of bespoke customisation and data management.
Mobility – They are often not mobile. You need to provide workstations, computer access and so on. This can be difficult in hospitality and retail.
Difficult – They are clunky to use so people opt out.
No Cross functionality – They only tell you what your staff is doing in your organisation. They cannot accommodate the new world at work where many people have multiple employers and job types.
Colleago is different.
Accessibility – You decide which staff can create shift request and invite colleagues to take on shifts. You can give shift creation access to every one of your staff entered in Colleago if you want. You can change this whenever you want, without cost. It takes 2 seconds.
Licenses – You select a plan that accommodates the number of people you wish to have using Colleago. Company size, the number of sites, the frequency of use don’t change a thing. Our plans are 100% transparent and cost effective. We even advertise costs on our website. There are no surprises.
Our Promise – Colleago does one thing perfectly. It allows people in your organisation to share their availability, request, and accept shifts when they need to be back-filled. Colleago won’t replace your existing workforce scheduling system, payroll systems, finance system, or anything else that you use to run your business. Actually, this is not true, Colleago will take away the need to use spreadsheets, telephone directories, whiteboards, carriers pigeons and whatever else you use to determine which of your staff are available when you need them.
Getting started – It cannot be any easier. The sign-up process and entering your job types takes between 10 and 60 minutes for most organisations. If you don’t have time, we’ll do it for you at no cost. We are about simplifying the workplace.
Mobility – Colleago works on any internet enabled device, be it a computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone.
Difficult – We like to say that if you can navigate your way around common social media sites, you can use Colleago. Try it, and tell us if we are wrong.
Cross Functionality – If your employee works across multiple employers (or business units, sites etc) and those companies/business units are using Colleago, the employee enjoys full cross functionality. They only update their availability once and all their employers can ask them to take on shifts when they are available. Employers don’t know if others exist, they can’t see each other. Privacy and security are at our core.
If you are struggling to manage the availability of your casual staff and realise that it is costing your business money, or if it is difficult, stressful and letting you and your organisation down then try Colleago. You will not be disappointed. You will improve efficiency and save costs. Your staff will thank you and importantly, it costs them nothing.