How do you test new workforce scheduling ideas?

1 Identify your goals

The first step is to identify what you want to achieve with your new workforce scheduling idea. Do you want to reduce costs, improve service quality, increase flexibility, or boost employee engagement? Depending on your goals, you'll need to define the relevant metrics and indicators that will help you measure the impact of your changes. For example, if you want to reduce costs, you might look at labor expenses, overtime hours, or utilization rates. If you want to improve service quality, you might look at customer satisfaction, retention, or loyalty.

2 Choose a method

The second step is to choose a method for testing your new workforce scheduling idea. Depending on the complexity and scope of your changes, you may opt for simulation, pilot, or experiment. Simulation is a fast and low-risk way to test various scenarios and assumptions, however it may not capture all real-world factors and feedback. On the other hand, pilot is a more realistic and reliable way to test the feasibility and effectiveness of your changes, but it may require more time and resources, and it may affect the performance and morale of the participants. Lastly, experiment is a more rigorous and scientific way to test the causality and impact of your changes; however, it may require more ethical and legal considerations, and it may create unwanted variations and biases.

3 Collect and analyze data

The third step is to collect and analyze data from your chosen method. Depending on the type and source of data, you may need to use different tools and techniques to gather, store, process, and visualize it. For instance, surveys are a great way to collect feedback and opinions from your employees or customers. You can use online platforms such as Google Forms or SurveyMonkey to create and distribute surveys, as well as analyze the responses. Reports can be used to collect facts and figures from your workforce management system, such as attendance, performance, or compliance. Software applications like Excel or Tableau can be used to create and export reports, as well as analyze the data. Finally, dashboards are a great way to collect and display key metrics and indicators from your workforce management system. Power BI or Qlik can be used to create and customize dashboards, while also monitoring the data.

4 Evaluate and refine

The fourth and final step is to evaluate and refine your new workforce scheduling idea, based on the data you collected and analyzed. You need to compare the results of your new idea with your current or alternative one, and with your predefined goals and metrics. You need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your new idea, and the opportunities and threats for its implementation. You need to decide whether to adopt, modify, or discard your new idea, and how to communicate and execute your decision. You also need to plan for any follow-up actions, such as training, feedback, or support, that may be required for a successful transition.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?