Archive for May, 2010

So… When Can You Work?

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Many of our clients have employees who are working multiple jobs. Juggling two different schedules, with your worker as the liaison, can be frustrating for all parties involved. Volunteer and non-profit groups often face a similar dilemma. While two weeks down the road a volunteer’s schedule is a white canvas waiting for shifts to be etched in, prior obligations and unaccounted for circumstances inevitably leave schedulers scrambling to fill shifts.

Scheduling shouldn't be a stunt...

Scheduling shouldn't be a stunt...

Plan ahead by utilizing Shiftboard’s Availability tool. Users (or their managers) can choose certain days of the week, at certain hours, and then specify busy or available. For random, spur of the moment events, you can select Specific Availability, and choose which days you will be available or unavailable. If you want to be really stringent, you can default your site so that members’ unaccounted availability times will be considered busy, thereby excluding them from being scheduled except for those times they have actually entered as available.

Constantly updating a calendar to accommodate ever changing priorities and schedules can be a real headache. So take a scheduler’s aspirin, use Availability, and give your workers an incentive to think more than a few days down the proverbial calendar road. Rest easy schedulers – those you see, are those available.

- Alison

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Welcome to the Workforce, Class of 2010!

Thursday, May 27th, 2010

It’s that time of year again, finals are wrapping up, credits are satisfied, and voilà! You’re officially a college graduate.  Three short years ago graduating from college was one of the most exciting things that could have happened to a person…but then came Fall (literally) of 2008, and it all went downhill from there.   As a graduate of the 2009 class myself, I’ve been there and I know how it feels.   It’s frustrating.  According to a recent USA Today article, there are currently 5 job applicants out there for every 1 open position.  On top of that, only 44% of those employers plan on hiring new college grads.  It’s not only tough for fresh-out-of-school coeds, even workforce veterans have found themselves at odds with the struggling economy.  Its not an ideal situation for most, but there’s got to be a silver lining in this big, fat, ugly rain cloud…

Graduationg

So now what?  You start picking up whichever jobs you can.  That may mean working one, two, or three part time jobs, juggling a part time gig with a full time job, internships, volunteering, a combination of any one of these…it’s exhausting to think about, but with the right combination of organization, skill, and drive I truly believe that it’s still possible to move forward and get ahead, even if it seems like you are fighting against the gods to do so.   This is where the beauty of a program like Shiftboard comes in.  I know that I must have been a pill for previous employers, working 2 different jobs with varying schedules while also volunteering once a week.  Sounds like a scheduling nightmare.  But I was always willing to pick up shifts if I could, switch with another employee if I could, and about every month I would need to change my availability all together.   But the trick is that although people are busier than ever, they are also more willing than ever to pick up extra shifts.  Because of their complex availabilities it makes sense to let them look at what’s available and decide for themselves which shifts will work.  It saves managers time (“oh…so you aren’t available this Tuesday?”) and avoid the possibility of having to get that shift covered last minute or being faced with a no show.    “Why do I even bother writing a schedule? People end up switching and trading shifts until they get the schedule they want anyways.”  It’s true. They will.   So while Shiftboard can still be used in the traditional manager-tells-me-when-to-work-end-of-story way, it’s also nice to have the option of allowing for a bit more flexibility and input on the employee’s end without having to circle around phone calls, availability forms, etc.  If you’re working with a lot of young, mobile workers, why not try a combination of both? Strict yet flexible?

The class of 2010 has a lot to be proud of, they have worked just as hard, probably harder, than any other class.   So hats off to you class of 2010!  You did it!  And now let the job spree begin…

-Nahid

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Clawing Back Management Time

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Brief PowerPoint presentation illustrates the value of online scheduling in today’s busy world:

Download (PPT, 300.5KB)

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Let the Festivities Begin!

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Shiftboard at SIFFWith the official start of summer just a few weeks away, the unofficial summer kickoff has arrived with Memorial Day around the corner and the start of festival season.  Here at Shiftboard we are lucky to work with some of the best festivals around the world to schedule thousands of volunteers.  The 36th annual Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) got under way on May 20th, with a spectacular opening night and Seattle’s best and brightest in attendance.  Almost 5,000 volunteers have signed up to work on SIFF’s Shiftboard website, and the pay off will be well worth it as the festival continues to grow successfully from year to year.  As far as scheduling software goes, Shiftboard has proven to be as diverse in its uses as its users.  From the San Francisco International Jewish Film Festival, to the Devon County Fair in Pennsylvania,   to the FIFA International Fan Fest in Sydney, Australia.  We have a lot going on here at Shiftboard, and I look forward to posting more events as they happen!

-Nahid

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Social Networking for a Good Cause

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Social networking has truly become a part of our everyday life.  Shiftboard, for example, acts not only as scheduling software, but as a means of social networking as well.   If you want to work for a certain cause simply go to their Shiftboard site and register.  Then there are the usual suspects.  Need a job? Post it on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkdIn, Buzz, RSS feed, etc.   You’re bound to get some sort of reply.  Need a good deal? A date?  Good beer?  Same story.  But the more social networking grows and gains popularity, so do the number of ways to use it.

Two of the best uses of social networking that I’ve come across aid in the effort to take control of the situation along the Louisiana Coast as a result of a massive oil spill in late April.  The Louisiana Bucket Brigade recently launched an Oil Spill Crises Map.   The map lets Gulf Coast residents log in and report any damage they see, from oil slicks to fishermen who no longer have jobs.  In my opinion this will be one of the best ways to gauge just how badly the BP oil spill in the Gulf will affect those actually surrounded by it.  The site has only been up for a few days, but it will be interesting to see how it will shape up in the coming weeks.

Check it out at: http://oilspill.labucketbrigade.org/.

Here at Shiftboard we’ve launched a mobile scheduling app and have been hard at work with our friends at Barokas PR on an iPhone case study, piquing my curiosity into the world of apps.  To my surprise I found yet another amazing opportunity for Gulf Coast residents to get involved with the cleanup effort.  On May 12th The Clean Wildlife Project was launched.  It’s an iPhone app that people can use to snap photos of oiled wildlife, and have it sent directly to CleanWildlife.org.  Although these efforts can’t reverse the damage, they’ll help pinpoint and asses just how bad the damage really is as people just like you and me really see it.

So tonight, as you’re scrolling through status updates, recent Tweets, or freshly posted photos, take a look at either of these recent efforts.  You might learn something new,  gain a different perspective, or even contribute to the effort yourself.

-Nahid

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Send Text Messages with your Scheduling Software

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Wouldn’t it be nice if once a schedule was made, cosmic forces would conveniently align and you wouldn’t have to change it, for whatever reason? Dream on schedulers, dream on. If you’re scheduling college students, your schedule is beholden to the professor, who on a whim, decides to throw in an extra essay. If you’re working outdoor events, crowds can be dampened by inclement weather — or buoyed by the summer rays.  Being able to communicate quickly to specific groups is paramount to making sure the correct workers show up, and that they show up prepared for the task.

Updates to our SMS/TXT feature make it easier than ever to communicate schedule changes to your workers.  Until recently workers had to add their SMS/TXT email address to Shiftboard.  This caused quite a bit of confusion, as most users don’t know they have an SMS/TXT email address, let alone what theirs actually is.  We did our research and now track each provider and their SMS/TXT email address.  Users (or their managers) simply select the correct service provider (Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, etc.) and enter the cell number.

The number of text messages being sent through Shiftboard has exploded thanks to this recent update. Thousands of workers are staying connected 24/7 via text messaging.  Users always control which messages they wish to receive and can make updates to their preferences at anytime.  Text messaging is just one additional way Shiftboard makes online scheduling and communication an excellent match for many different types of organizations. To find an organization similar to yours, check out our Case Studies.

- Alison

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