It’s never easy on the other end either, HR managers have to keep track of not only the new forms, but past resumes, notes, and references, to name a few key pieces.

Many Shiftboard users don’t realize that they can actually input and store all of this information in their Shiftboard site.  Yes, Shiftboard is useful for the obvious reasons-online scheduling-but there are many other workforce management benefits to using the software.  Users are able to upload their resume’s upon registration to your organization that can be stored and viewed in their user profile.  Emergency contact information as well as basic personal information is also stored within Shiftboard, and can be exported into an Excel report at the click of a button.

Shiftboard clients can customize information fields that need to be kept with each employee’s profile–from experience levels and certifications to T-shirt sizes and their favorite bar.  Probably the best part of all of this is that as long as you have an internet connection you will always have access to this information in a secure spot–you will be able to control who sees it, who can change, and it will always be password protected.

If you have any questions about how to access the features mentioned above give us a call at 1-800-746-7531 or shoot us an email by clicking Contact above.

–Nahid

One of the biggest headaches in trying to create financial labor forecasts is the constant cross referencing-adding up hours, typos, no shows, actual vs. scheduled, etc…

With Shiftboard’s financial forecasting tools you will be able to run a report of your employee’s scheduled hours and see just how close (or far) from your budget you fall.  Having this capacity to run this report directly from the data that you will be using will greatly reduce not only errors, but headaches and time spent creating a labor forecast as well.

Individuals can be assigned a pay code with an associated amount, or an overriding pay rate. When you run reports Shiftboard will calculate the overall labor cost based on hours and the associated wage.  For shifts that haven’t been filled yet, Shiftboard allows you to make a prediction on what your labor expenditures will be. By assigning default pay rates/codes to your teams, you can run reports to help determine how much you will be distributing to your workers – even if you don’t know which workers will be filling those shifts. Staffing companies can benefit from this as well—if you work with contractors whose wages vary site to site, leave your worker’s financials blank and Shiftboard will use the team’s default wage to come up with their forecasted labor.

2006 FIFA Fan Fest in Munich

In less than 24 hours one of the worlds most anticipated sporting events will kick off in Johannesburg, South Africa- the 2010 World Cup.  While the U.S. has been notoriously lacking in the international soccer (futbol anyone?) spirit,  the increased popularity of MLS teams around the country is sure to trickle down into this year’s World Cup hype.  Regardless of the turnout here in the U.S. one thing is for sure: the rest of the world is ready to party.  For the 2006 World Cup games the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA- actually a french acronym hence the the difference) began to host official public viewing venues.  The venues were in 12 different cities around Germany, and the turnout was huge-18 million people showed up to the events over the course of the games, six times as many people that watched the games from inside the 12 stadiums.  For the 2010 games FIFA is doing it even bigger with the International FIFA Fan Fest-events will take place in six major cities around the world: Berlin, Paris, Rio De Janeiro, Mexico City, Rome, and Sydney-where Fan Fest coordinators used Shiftboard to schedule over 1,000 volunteers.

Attendance is expected to be even higher than in 2006.  Fan Fest is now a way for people to travel to the spirit of the games, especially since it is often near impossible to snag a coveted ticket to a World Cup match, and often priced well out of many people’s means to even travel to the host  city.   This years FIFA Fan Fest in Sydney will have the capacity to hold 30,000 people, and is expected to reach capacity on all match days.

-Nahid

Shiftboard does not operate on a one way street. Our clients provide us a wealth of intellectual power and perspective to improve our product. We provide schedulers with a service, they use it and respond, and we incorporate their feedback.  Recently we received enough input regarding a certain feature that we escalated it on the development list. When assigning a shift, you can now assign it to multiple individuals in the same step. Clicking ‘Pick Multiple’ will give you a list of workers who can take the shift. Simply toggle multiple members and click “assign”. Don’t worry, the options to individually assign, bulk assign, auto assign, check availability and enforce seniority still exist.

Our developers are sharp, but our clients’ insight is invaluable. Please keep us in the loop. Share your ideas and suggestions, we are all ears and your thoughts are heard.

- Alison

Recognizing that Shiftboard is not the only calendaring system our clients use, we have rolled out an iCal integration feature. Now with any iCal compatible calendaring, such as Google Calendar or Outlook, you can synchronize your Shiftboard schedule to your other calendars. By selecting to Publish iCal/Google Outlook, your Shiftboard schedule and any changes you make will syndicate with the other iCal compatible systems associated with your account’s email. When you make a change in your Shiftboard calendar, you will also see that change in your Google Calendar.

We live in a rapidly evolving and fickle world. With the help of Shiftboard, you can now diversify and weave together your calendaring, making you a more adaptable agent in a sea of change.

- Alison

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

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

Download (PPT, 300.5KB)

-Nahid

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 12^th 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