Schedule Optimization
Can you create and evaluate thousands of possible schedules in a second—and judge whether a new schedule is better or worse than the best schedule you’ve ever produced?
If so, we’re pretty impressed—like, really impressed.
Most likely, your answer is “no.”—but with MyNextWeek, that’s exactly what you can do with virtually no effort!
At MyNextWeek, we work hard to provide an easy-to-use system that uses powerful algorithms to churn out the best possible schedule for your workplace and employees. But how does it all work?
Glad you asked.
It’s no secret that schedules can go wrong; Bob won’t be pleased to hear he’s got to work in a location further from home than his regular location tomorrow. Sometimes they can go perfectly—just ask Jane, who got all the hours she wanted, when she wanted them.
MyNextWeek calculates the pain and the pleasure of schedules, using the data managers and staff members put in to improve the choices made by the algorithms. Better yet, it does all of this automatically; if you’ve ever spent a long evening scratching your head trying to figure this all out manually, this is the tool for you.
MyNextWeek needs to know not just the minimum of hours between shifts, but also the preferred amount; eight hours could be Bob’s absolute minimum, but if the schedule can work around his preferred ten, he’ll be a lot happier with the scheduling choices.
This same focus on preference continues through to availability. While she’s available to work all day, Jane’s not strictly a morning person, so she prefers to work evening shifts over morning shifts. By accommodating automatically for this, Jane’s happiness increases too.
Managers can further tweak the system, setting individual work arrangements per employee. By setting minimum, ideal, and maximum hours scheduled per week, MyNextWeek can continue to zero in on the perfect arrangement for business and employee.
Tired of seemingly inevitable unfilled shifts causing you headaches?
MyNextWeek can help with that, too, simply by knowing more information:
- The positions and locations in which each employee can work
- The affinity of the employee for that position and location
Take Bob, for example. Although he’s a Shift Supervisor these days, for many years he was a Fork Lift Operator in the warehouse. While he’s more suited to fill Supervisor shifts, he’s also fully qualified to fill the Fork Lift Operator position at times when other employees are sick or on vacation. MyNextWeek can automatically fill that schedule for you in this case.
In the case of Jane, who works in a franchised restaurant with two locations, MyNextWeek can understand her preference for working in the nearest location and accommodate that as often as the schedule allows for.
When it comes to efficient scheduling, the devil is in the details. Getting small details like that doesn’t just improve your business’ efficiency, it also increases your employees’ morale. MyNextWeek takes something that takes humans a long time to figure out and transforms it into something that can be done in just seconds.
That’s why we created MyNextWeek—and why our customers trust us to help them schedule the smart way!
Optimize your schedule in seconds!
Scheduling Considerations
| Consideration | Optimization Goals |
|---|---|
| Employee Availability | It's better to schedule employees during the times that they Prefer Working. It's worse to schedule employees when they dislike working. Never schedule employees when they cannot work. |
| Location Affinity | It's better to schedule employees at locations where they have a higher affinity. Never schedule employees at locations where they are unable to work. |
| Position Affinity | It's better to schedule employees for positions where they have higher affinity. Never schedule employees for positions where they are unqualified. |
| Min/Max Weekly Hours | It's important that employees are working more than the minimum weekly hours, and fewer than the maximum weekly hours. |
| Preferred Hours | It's better to give employees as close as possible their preferred number of weekly hours. |
| Daily Max Hours | Never exceed the employee's daily max hours limit. |
| Minimum Shift Gap | It's important that the gap between a employee's scheduled shifts is more than the minimum number of hours between shifts. |
| Preferred Shift Gap | It's worse if the time between scheduled shifts is less than the preferred time between scheduled shifts. |
| Continuous Free Time | It's important that an employee's schedule has their prescribed amount of continuous free time (e.g. 2 days without shifts). |
| Travel Time | It's better when employees have shorter travel distances to work. |
| Unassigned Shifts | It's important that shifts have employees assigned to them. |