Scheduling products have a graphical interface that allow for a high degree of personalization. You’ll have a dashboard and interactive calendar where you will create your schedules. Color code employees, shifts, workgroups, job functions or locations.

Start by pulling employees into shifts on the calendar. Move the cursor to extend or decrease the time of a shift. Once you’ve set the schedule for a week or pay period, you can create a template for your master schedule. Then you can copy it forward from week to week. It may need some tweaking, but you’ll have the basic framework in place and won’t ever have to start from scratch. You can make as many templates as you need.  For example, most healthcare schedulers have a template for each department, location, or job role.