Abel Carrillo
Brian S. Cahoon
Before a worker can start the day in their workplace, he or she needs to know when to
start. The set time for which someone is meant to be working is referred to as a work schedule.
The person who has the responsibility of scheduling employees falls upon that of the business
manager. There are extraordinarily important factors that play into a schedule, so, before a work
schedule is set in stone, a business manager must have the knowledge of three things. That which
is, knowing your employees demands, demands of the store and having a strategic plan on a day
to day basis for delivering customer service make up the three necessary things a business
The first factor of a successful schedule is knowing your employees demands. This factor
revolves around acknowledging your employees have a personal life outside of the workplace.
Personal life carries a huge and unpredictable toll on scheduling because it may often collide
with an employee's casual leisure time or important family crisis (Taneja 1). To have a
successful schedule a business manager must have open communication available to employees
to express their specific needs ( Henrich 1). Communication along with the knowledge of
individual performances of employees is crucial. For instance a manager must be made of aware
more employees to the schedule in order to pick up the slack from a new employee requiring
training. Another example of maximizing resources using the work schedule would be a manager
scheduling a strong employee they are aware is capable to cover more than one position at a time
or on a given day. This scenario would only be profitable or applicable if the manager had a
business manager has to be careful not to abuse an employee with a workload too great (Lloyd
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1). Not only does it make the business lose money but also could raise alarm to other employees
of the loss of hours and money as well as the strain the employee (Taneja 1).
The second factor of building a successful schedule is knowing the demands of the
business. When approaching this a manager has to analyze the different components of the
business such as the financial, interpersonal and market demands of the business. Financially the
schedule has to be made so employees arent working more than the absolute necessary. It is
difficult to argue that the reduced hours can increase a business's outcome, but studies suggest
that it is possible. (Taneja) To better understand, one just has to think about and calculate how
much over-time costs a business. Interpersonally the schedule must more or less accomodate for
the needs of employees (Lisa 1). If an employee isnt making the money they need and
company cannot afford to meet their needs, then a business manager has to be prepared to hire a
new employee. When this happens the company doesnt make money but loses money in process
of training a new team member. To avoid this and avoid having to form a new working schedule
a manger wants to accommodate all his or hers employees to the best of their ability, but to first
and foremost put the needs of the business above all else.
The third factor of a successful schedule is to have strategic planning for delivering
customer service. This involves knowing your customer base and staff (Economy, Nelson
163). To put in perspective, it would be most profitable for manager to observe and know the
type of customers the business serves, for example two classes such as the elderly and juvenile.
If a business this was to serve those class of customers on the weekdays than a manager would
believe it best to schedule an employee who is joyful, a good listener, with respectful attitude to
best complement the customers . Where if on the weekend the business had more teenagers and
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strong spoken customers, then a manager would most likely wish to schedule an easy going,
polite employee.
needs to know every employee's availability and needs, know the demands of the business which
include the financial, interpersonal, and market needs. Finally a business manager must use
strategic planning to plan the schedule in order to maximize customer service. Without the items
just previously mentioned, a work schedule will be unsuccessful and more than likely lead to a
Works Cited
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Economy, Peter, and Bob Nelson. Managing for Dummies. 3rdrd ed., Hoboken, Wiley
Lloyd, Joan. "Alternative work schedule has to be reasonable." Receivables Report, Sept. 2012,
p. 7+. Academic OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=AONE&sw=w&u=lom_accessmich&v=2.1&id=GALE
%7CA302300241&it=r&asid=9c7c733912fe4bc96803df45c99f3399. Accessed 13 Apr.
2017
Taneja, Sonia. "Sustaining work schedules: balancing leisure and work." Academy of Strategic
Management Journal, vol. 12, no. 2, 2013, p. 113+. Academic OneFile,
go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=lom_accessmich&v=2.1&id
=GALE%7CA353105984&it=r&asid=c8fc5a3c422b48d84bf64d51618b9d1b. Accessed
2 Apr. 2017