Managing Employee Scheduling and Time off Requests for Your Dog Daycare

Your employees are the heart and soul of your business. They're also the face that people are going to remember when they think about your business. Managing employee scheduling and time off can be a challenge for any business, but it is especially important for dog daycare facilities. Keeping a well-staffed and organized schedule is essential to ensuring the safety and comfort of both the dogs and the employees. If your employee schedule is thrown together at random, you're going to have issues with too many people working on certain days and not enough working on other days. Having a functioning schedule will make your life much easier, so don't waste any more time. Here are some tips on how to manage employee scheduling and time off requests at your dog daycare or boarding facility.

Determine Your Staffing Needs

The first step in managing employee scheduling is determining your staffing needs. This includes the number of employees you will need to cover your busiest times and the number of employees you need to keep the daycare fully staffed. This will help you determine your budget for employee salaries and benefits. When you first start your dog daycare, your staffing needs are going to be little if anything. You might need someone to help out in the morning when you're doing check-in, but then, when it's just a matter of watching the dogs and waiting for their owners to arrive, you can be on your own. However, once your business grows, you're going to need to have someone at the front desk for the entire day, another person watching the pets in the back and perhaps a third that is doing cleaning and general upkeep.

Create a Schedule Template

Once you have determined your staffing needs, create a schedule template that will help you plan out your employee schedule. This template should include the hours your daycare is open, the number of employees you will need for each shift, and any time off requests you have received. To make your life easier, it's normally better to schedule out an entire month at a time, instead of trying to schedule each week individually. If you decide to schedule weekly, you're going to be spending a lot of time each week getting the schedule ready for the following week. If, on the other hand, you do monthly scheduling, you'll have to sit down for a few hours once a month, but then you'll be done with scheduling for the entire month. Employees also appreciate monthly schedules because it gives them the chance to plan out their life better. They know when they have to work weeks ahead of time, so they can plan their vacations, appointments, etc around their schedule.

Use Scheduling Software

To make your life easier, consider using scheduling software. There are many affordable scheduling software options available that allow you to create schedules, approve time off requests, and track employee hours. DoggieDashboard is business management software for pet businesses. It offers some basic employee scheduling functionality that might work out for smaller businesses. If you're a larger business with more than five employees, you're probably going to need to use specialized employee scheduling software.

Establish Clear Time Off Policies

Establish clear time off policies for your employees, including paid time off, sick leave, and personal days. Make sure these policies are communicated to your employees, and that they understand the process for requesting time off. These policies should all be discussed in depth in your employee handbook. You DO have an employee handbook, right? If you don't, get on it. Write a page for each of these policies so that all of your new hires know exactly how the system works for asking off. The last thing you want to deal with is employees calling in left and right.

Encourage Open Communication

Encourage open communication between employees and management. This includes giving employees the opportunity to provide feedback on their schedules and allowing them to request changes. If your employees are scared to give feedback, you're doing something wrong. You want your employees to feel safe when they have an idea about how the business can run better. Make it a point to ask your employees for feedback at least a few times a year, so they can see that their opinion is valued.

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