Shiftboard

Vorteile

This is the only scheduling software I’ve found that lets employees opt into a shift instead of filling out their availability every week. I work in a catering business so we don’t have consistent work for our servers. They all have school or other jobs to work around their schedule with us. Some of them only work with us twice a month so asking them to keep an updated calendar of their availability is unrealistic. This software lets me post all the shifts and have servers sign up for the ones they want. It’s very helpful. Shiftboard does also have the ability to let staff fill in availability and have management work off that, however.

I also appreciate that I can include notes about the shift and addresses for when we do offsites. The software also lets me divide servers into teams so that they see only the shifts they are eligible for.

Nachteile

It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing site and takes a while to adjust to the layout, but once you get used to it, it’s fine.

The biggest issues I find is that you can’t export your sign up lists. When I have 40 events in a month, I’d like to print out a list of who signed up for what and work from there, but I have to go shift by shift, typing the results in an Excel sheet instead. Also, there isn’t a way to track who did what change in the system. When I’ve had issues in the past that may have been from a software glitch, they can’t give me an answer as to who changed what and when.

Vorteile

I love how the product is able to track certifications. The trade board function has saves me a lot of time and energy. The document function and linking of certification to profile type has also saves time and paper.
I really like that I can now create a schedule and not publish it until I am finished. Schedules we create are often in motion until publication. I like that staff are no longer receiving messages until the schedule is completed.

Nachteile

To send a message to team members I can either send to 1 or broadcast to all. It would be nice if there was the ability do a check box of multiple members to whom the message could be sent. That way those who we know are neither available or in need of the information will get the message.

Vorteile

Producing rotas/schedules for 500+ staff members across multiple teams is no easy challenge. Especially with complex rules and specifications for each of those teams, so the fact that shiftboard even comes close to achieving these results is impressive.

The software is simple and easy to use, particularly for the end users who'll probably appreciate this more than the management who need to implement it.

Has been running for around 5 years now with no significant issues in that time, so again really impressive.

Nachteile

The reporting can be a little clunky and that's really the only thing that lets this down. Having said that, support staff are very receptive and willing to work with you to produce something bespoke, but feel like this is the one area that could be improved upon to make this truly fantastic.

Vorteile

It has eliminated many other systems and brought them into one place. It can handle the customization that we need as we operate a less-than-normal staffing system (some seasonal staff, some permanent; some overlapping shifts, some week-long programs, etc.).

The team at Shiftboard has been very responsive to our requests and needs, which is very important.

Given time, I'm optimistic that its reporting abilities will be very useful for anticipating and hiring for future needs. Coming from a world of dozens of complex, non-communicating spreadsheets, it's great to have everything in one place!

Nachteile

It has a steep learning curve, so be prepared to practice, experiment, and be trained.

They also have not yet implemented shift-linking, so my week-long programs all staffed by the same person can't be treated as one connected system. This means that bulk changes are difficult if we've noticed an issue, and it means that the initial shift setup is quite time consuming.

I wish that the month-long view could be customized to give me more of the information I want, or that we could view data for a 2-week stretch. It's hard to get a birds-eye view of our programming with the systems they have in place.

I'll add that we're relatively new to Shiftboard, and working out the kinks is a part of the process.

Vorteile

Shiftboard is a feature-heavy scheduling tool that, in the right hands, can streamline scheduling and staffing processes immensely for managers. Feature highlights include:
- Bulk adding tools allow managers to work with large groups of staff at once if need be
- Flexible reporting tools that allow you to easily manipulate data (their reports are the feature I miss most)
- Customer service team is receptive to changes and helpful in troubleshooting issues
- Shift swapping and empty shift features allows staff to easily manage their own schedules

Nachteile

My biggest complaint about Shiftboard when it was our primary scheduling software was that it felt clunky and dated.
- Price point is a good bit higher than competing systems
- Steep learning curve for new users - easy to be overwhelmed by features and a crowded dashboard
- Can be slow and/or cumbersome to accomplish repetitive tasks.
- Interface is dated and looks like it's out of the mid-2000s